All I need is plants!

Like he promised, Christopher finished the arbor, gate and fence project for my kitchen garden yesterday. It's just what I wanted. If anyone is looking for a great woodworker or needs some remodeling work, let me know and I'll pass on his
contact information. I gave him a picture of an arbor I liked
and he surpassed my expectations. The craftsmanship is so much better than my example. It is really sturdy with routed edges, wood plugs to cover screws, the arbor integrated with
the fence posts, and he did it so quickly. All the wood is cedar, so there is no bad pressure-treated chemicals leaching into my garden. When
it all weathers to a nice cedar gray. it'll look even better. I feel like
Bunny Williams!

This week I'll transplant some of my perennial herbs from my 577 Foundation garden to this one and finish the brick edging around the beds. I will also go to Select Stone this week, my favorite rock store, for stepping stones to link the brick walk and the kitchen garden.

In October, the garlic cloves will get planted. With my wonderful
bounty of Ohio native garlic this year, I've saved a few bulbs to perpetuate the garlic at both gardens for next year. (Thanks Vicki, the 577 horticulturalist, who provided me with the original garlic bulb.) Can't wait until next spring when I add some large pots on the gravel areas for root vegetables and other ornamental plants. I hope Vicki offers another $10 autumn garden class this fall. She gave out so many great flower bulbs as well. Anyone interested?

In my next post, I hoping Tim will have some new photos of my recent pottery including some that are wood-fired. He's currently busy shooting caskets, yes, empty ones.

That's Jerry scoping out the perimeter.

View from the kitchen door with Tim's giant tomato plants in the foreground

Moving right along

Phase I

This past Friday Christopher and brother Jason came over and installed the fence around my kitchen garden (or shall I be pretentious and call it a parterre garden or a potager?). So far it's coming out  just as I envisioned it. Tim is documenting the progress. The first photo shows Phase I which Glass City Landscape put in.

Phase II

Above, Phase II shows the fence installed (the mesh fencing still needs to be trimmed to the top rail). Christopher is now working at home on Phase III which is the arbor and gate. They are being adapted from a photo of an arbor I found. I am so glad I decided to go ahead with this project, I can't wait until next year when the beds will be green. Ben & Jerry couldn't wait to put their mark in the garden, hence the bricks in the opening to block them.

Clif Boutelle called me the other day and wanted help on a brochure for the Wood County Library levy campaign. I can't do it because I don't have the software anymore. Nice to have an excuse. He would have had way too much copy nobody would read and the piece would look terrible. I referred him to others.  :-)

Kitchen garden project continues

I'm getting excited about the kitchen garden that I have designed and others have done the labor so far. Today Christopher (by the way, he is doing the job) came by to go over the fence and arbor plans a second time. I gave him a piece of pottery. Maybe that's what I need to start doing more. Come over, get a pot. Anyways, he and his brother will be starting Friday. Maybe Tim will photograph before and after photos.
In all our house projects, it's nice to look back and see that progress was made.

I just got this book called The Ornamental Kitchen Garden. It's right up my alley, very pretty gardens, aesthetic and functional.

Spent the last few hours framing some prints. Now I need to get back to work making new images. I have several sketches so perhaps now that it might be cooling off some (wishful thinking), I'll have some work completed in September.

On Sunday Tim & I went to the Toledo Museum to see the Toledo Area Artists show and the Psychedelic 60s Poster exhibit. The area artists show was only small works in the very sad, graphic arts galleries with very few stand-out works. The 60s show in the Canaday brought back memories. The posters were mostly silk-screen posters with a lot of handwritten type. I used to doodle just like them…a graphic designer before I knew what a designer was. A lot of Fillmore East and West posters, black lights and all, and concerts that were even better than Woodstock.

Bought a really nice vase by Mark Nafziger at Collector's Corner. A pretty stoneware piece with fish on it. Like I need another piece of pottery.

Still making salsa…

The long hot summer

This has been the hottest, muggiest summer since I have been retired. Now that we're into August, I long for those cool, breezy nights where we can sleep with open windows. Fortunately, last fall we installed a really quiet, multi-stage, energy-saving a/c unit and out of necessity, it has kicked on every day for months now.

Despite the weather, I am still going to the pottery barn at 577 where there is only fans and days when the 2000-degree-plus kilns are on and heating up the place. This pottery thing is truly an obsession. I am doing or thinking about it all the time. I surround myself with pottery books and online potters' sites where I am inspired by others, and ponder what directions I want to take next. All in pursuit of a personal style and professional quality. Currently I am doing a series of sfgraffito pots. This a form of decorating the surface of a piece by painting the surface with an engobe (a colorant for clay) and refining it by scratching off and refining the design similar to making a scratchboard drawing. An example of one I made last year is shown here. In the pieces I am currently making, I am trying colored interiors and keeping the background a little cleaner. If I'm successful, I'll post those.

This afternoon I made a fresh tomato salsa with the tomatoes and garlic I grew organically at my 577 garden. It came out great using plum tomatoes, a key to a salsa that isn't too watery. Next year, I need to remember to include a jalapeño pepper plant in the garden. I was so pleased with my garlic crop this year. Check out the size of those bulbs. I hope to double the harvest next year with a fall planting at 577 and some at home in my new kitchen garden.

Just over a week ago, the landscapers came and cut in my garden, complete with gravel paths and metal edging. It was so nice to have them do everything including the removal and haul away of the sod, add organic compost into the soil, all done in a day. I can't imagine how grueling and lengthy it would have been if I had to do it all. Phase II includes the fencing and a cedar arbor. I am hoping that Christopher Jones will be able to do the job.

Need to get back to my printmaking. Been selling enough to get a little exposure and incentive to continue producing. Got word today that the Carruth Studio wants 3 more prints for their showroom.

My journal starts today…

It's been 36 months since I retired from BGSU, 30 months since I returned to printmaking and 26 months since I began making pottery. Never a day goes by that I haven't cherished my time not working and never a regret that I didn't stay longer than minimum 30 years. I decided today would be a good day to start recording just what keeps me going, what inspires me and how I measure my successes and failures now that I am my own boss.