Garden Plans

This is a recent magazine piece. I love working on garden plans in the middle of winter. It reminds me that spring will come!

An Album of Gardens

I've posted an album of Garden Maps that I've done over the years here. (The fun thing is, I've usually worked on them in the depths of winter, when the most I can do is dream about my own garden. At least drawing them is an enjoyable substitute.)

Can You Say, Garden Time?

This is the finished garden map that I was (ironically) working on back in January. (With the help of my trusty assistant.)

Here we are March 18th in Connecticut, AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO HIT 70° FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS! (Sorry, I had to shout!)

Garden, here I come!

Monday Map: A Garden. And Rain

I'm losing my memory. Have I posted this map already? If so it was long enough ago that no one will remember, I suppose.

If we don't get sun around here soon my entire garden is going to rot. Rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. *Sigh.*

Monday Map: Garden Madness

'Tis the season for prepping the garden beds. The husband has cleared and tilled and put up most of what will be a very-big-deer-fence for our "Victory Garden." I finally started my seed flats. It's been a late spring around here, and we want to be ready to plant once the weather turns around for good. Perhaps come August I'll hold a blog vegetable give-away, with any luck!

Monday Map: Big Garden Plans

This was a piece for Woman's Day Gardening & Deck Design. I always pick up good ideas for my own garden while doing these.

This year we're ditching the containers and putting in a real vegetable garden. The hubby has cleared out a swath of land, and let's just say he's quite ambitious: it's a 30 x 40' plot. My back hurts already. (I wish I was kidding...) Who knows if we'll get the entire area planted the first season. Our soil is heavy clay and full of rocks and will need a lot of amending. Not to mention a deer fence. We've been argu... discussing how tall the fence should be. Hubby says 6 feet. No way, says I. At least 8-12. He forgets we have Deer-On-Steroids around here.

Next we have to decide whether to call it our Victory Garden, or our Michelle Garden. (If I can look that stylish while digging, Michelle's got my vote.)

Monday Map: Garden Plan

I love how the quality of light changes at this time of year. It has a warm feeling, even though the early morning thermometer reads 20 degrees. There's hope... spring is coming...

Monday Map: I'd Rather Be Gardening

Oh! Such cruel irony! Working on a garden map in the middle of winter!

Monday Map: Garden in the Round

I have a wicked case of poison ivy on my leg from last weekend's gardening marathon. Sometimes it sneaks up on you a few days later and then you realize... uh oh.

But then I pull out my Poison Ivy Secret Weapon.

My hairdryer.

Yep-- that's right.

Point the hairdryer at the rash (without burning your skin, of course.) At first it will feel hot and tingly and you'll think you can't stand it, and then it will begin to feel that strange kind of good, like when you scratch. Do this for a few minutes and then slather the area with aloe. You will have hours of relief... really!

From what I understand, the heat from the dryer releases the histamines in the rash. That's the nasty part that makes it itch so badly. Doing this every day will also help dry it out quicker. Then you can spend your time pondering what purpose poison ivy has on this earth.

Monday Map: Garden Envy

It's easy to slip into garden envy when looking at photos of perfect, overabundant flowers and vegetables in glossy magazines.

Where are the deer? Where is the black spot? The aphids? And where are the bloated, aggressive SUVs that try to run you down when weeding near the road, despite the orange traffic cones you haul from spot to spot for their sense of false protection (all the while despairing of your "a gorgeous garden will slow them down" theory)??

So, is the garden always greener on the other side? Ah ha! Maybe not... perhaps it's Photoshop...

Monday Map: Yearning to Dig

This is the time of year I yearn to be back out in the garden. I miss digging and planting and watering and that feeling of tearing a weed clean from the soil knowing I've gotten every bit of root.

Outside my studio window I can see the remnants of plants that I should have cleaned up in the fall. By then I was too tired. But now I'm re-energizing, for yet another season.

Have you noticed how the quality of late-afternoon light starts to change toward the end of January? Spring is coming!

Art and Life Intersecting

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to spend time working in the garden-- digging, weeding, planting-- and getting completely covered with dirt and exhausted. Then taking a nice cold shower at the end of the day and admiring how everything looks. I love to garden.

This is a garden plan I did recently for Woman's Day Gardening & Deck Design. It is just plain fun to do these, since I get ideas for my own garden, and I get to create art around a subject that I love. (Plus, I learn new plant names-- which I am usually brilliant about forgetting.)