One Definition of Irony

Irony is working on garden map illustrations in this bitter cold weather. Good news: it's supposed to warm up to the 40's this weekend.

I must have a word with my assistant. She's shedding on the watercolors.

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.)