Amateur in the garden.......

Trying to create a flower bed.


Ok, this was my first pathetic attempt, a Delphinium( I think ) surrounded by some geraniums, petunias and lobelias.
So I had a look at some chelsea flower show winners and started again.



Well it wont be going to Chelsea, but a much better effort.
Maybe a Little crowded to the back but I do want to leave space for some dwarf cosmo that I'm growing ( slowly ) from seed, and I'll dot in a few poppies as well when they're big enough to fight their corner!




I transplanted stuff from around the garden and unfortunately the fennel and the anemones went into shock! I gave them bucket loads of water which I'm hoping will revive them, not drown them. It's such a big learning curve, this gardening lark. I hope with my learn as you go method, that I don't have too many fatalities!
So if anybody out there has any helpful hints , I'd love to hear for you.

Blogosphere

Illustration Friday Night
Totally digital, of course.

The elusive kingfisher

Fortune

illustration friday


Good Fortune smiled on me and gave me a fleeting glimpse of electric blue as a kingfisher flashed down the river disappearing into the dense foliage. An apparition that made my heart sing.
My illustration started out as a watercolor that I then digitaly enhanced in photoshop.

Gardening, growing Lupins

This is my second year of gardening and I'm loving it. I've a few lupin plants that I bought last yr, hurray for perennials, I've sown their seeds and low and behold, beautiful babies. Now I understand why they call it a nursery. Just look at that sweet seedling, its like a little hand.




Unfortunately I've discovered that they don't flower in their first year. A bit disappointing but there you go that's gardening for you. Luckily I took cuttings from the mother ship(see below) and so have a few slightly more mature guys, pre-teens maybe, coming on. I've no idea if they'll flower this year or not.




This is the result I'm hoping for, beautiful.



I can't remember if I had blue ones, I definitely had pink and yellow ones.


There are some interesting botanical facts to be found
here
for example
John Parkinson attributed wonderful virtues to the plant.

Many women, he says 'doe use the meale of Lupines mingled with the gall of a goate and some juyce of Lemons to make into a forme of a soft ointment.' He says that the burning of Lupin seeds drives away gnats.

Arum Lily

illustration friday
This weeks topic is "green"

Which came first........

I've joined
Illustration Friday night
They are a much edgier crew than the original IF, no cuties allowed. This is my first post and the topic is "the crux". I've been told I'm being too cryptic, am I?

Illustration Friday "Snap"

This is my interpretation of "snap", I love photo booth snaps, not of myself though.I really enjoyed the film
Amelie
In which the main character collects all the photo booth snaps that people discard and sticks them in an album. It's a quirky movie, well worth a watch.