This week in my Gardens with critters

SHARING MY GARDEN CHORES and DOCUMENTING GROWTH AND BLOOMS

A View

The week started Sunday on my "think tank" going around and around and around at least 6 hours. 

Zinnias

 I love Zinnias!

The cool thing is how fast they germinate. 

I over seeded this window box with the idea of transplanting some to the yard beds. 

Purple Wandering Jew

 Eventually I will move these rooted cuttings to a bed. I want to give them a good start first. 

They also do well in hanging baskets.

Blooms

Squash

 I promise!

I promise I will not show every bloom and seedling. 

I promise.

Pickles

But look at those pickle blooms about to go up the trellis. 

Garden Critters!

Add caption

 Imagine my surprise, shock and utter disbelief when I went out early Monday morning and discovered this!

rolly pollies aka pill bugs aka sow bugs 

What to do?

Well, I started going out each morning by 6:30 and collecting them in a cup with bamboo tongs and then transporting them to the compost bin.

I figured they might as well go to work for me since they mainly diet on decomposing things.

Here's the thing, I unknowingly created a fairy size ecosystem where during the day the pill bugs stay behind the white rocks that I placed around the tree and at night they come out to dine on my fairy moss. 

 This is what it looks like today. 

I gave up.

And then went to the garden and discovered a hole on a bigger scale.

No doubt made by an armadillo. 

Just a larger version of a pill bug. 

Don't you think?

 A Rose Garden Dream

on my "when I retire" list

three new roses in the first section

before in the second section

after

 I added a 4th rose and transplanted scarlet morning glories from the garden to the trellis. 

after

 A Bed in Progress

ready to seed

seed packets
How can you pass up 20¢ and 50¢ seed packets.
I'm a seed hoarder.

♥

No 88

Face No 88

She is in row 3. 

I decided that I should go ahead stay in the area of larger faces.

It seems the closer I get to 100, the slower I am. 

But that is mostly because I am spending a lot of time outside.

I come in a sweaty mess and too pooped to paint. 

I know you can do the math...

but 100 - 88 = 12!

♥

No 86 fits on 87's cheek

Face No 87

 Face No 87 is in row two.

Which means she is the largest face so far.

She is 3.75" x 5.75".

Huge!

The truth is, I got real comfortable painting tiny faces. 

I also felt myself dreading rows one and two.

Last week I had to just do it. 

She is under Face No 87

 This is what happened.

I sketched.

I painted.

I wiped.

I recognized that I DID NOT want to be at the easel. 

So, I went outside and did some digging in the dirt. 

Soul feed.

Faces

I think it was Sunday that I started again.

Here I show you the difference in row two and the dime-zone.

No 86 fits on 87's cheek. 

I love them both!

♥

This week in my gardens

SHARING MY GARDEN CHORES and DOCUMENTING GROWTH AND BLOOMS

egg plants germinated

dill germinated

cucumber blooming

my galvanized bucket collection is growing

buckets

compost bin doubled in size this week

new potting shelf behind the greenhouse

old bucket used for potting shelf legs

added Mexican Heather to upper patio garden

squash blooms about to happen

cherry tomatoes blooming

fig crop

pepper blooms

wildflower at the end of the garden
kitty in the background

transplanting moss

the fairy house moss garden

landscaping around the base of the tree

ajuga transplanted

Fairy Garden

Just a reminder about the dime-zone

Face No 85

 My thinking on her horizontal position was:

Klimt did it and

the horizontalness of that little rectangle. 

Face No 86

A corner in the dime-zone

In case you forgot what the dime-zone means. 

Here is a dime showing the faces can be covered by a dime. 

I have had blog viewer questions about this One Hundred Faces project.

So first I'll show the board in the early stages.

I am working on a 12" x 36" piece of wood that I prepped with paint.
After I glued the text paper in the format,
I added a layer of light texture and then used a Golden fluid (not sure why I did that but I did). 

Each face is painted directly on the board.

My format was inspired by a Hundertwasser piece.
From the beginning, I wanted a random theme.
random sizes

random faces

moving around on the board in a random way which is the reason I numbered the pieces.

♥

14 to go!!!!!

Face 83, 84 and more

 Face No 83

Face No 83

Don't you think she looks like a teacher you had?

Face No 83 in the Dime-zone of One Hundred Faces

Face No 84

Face No 84

The beginning of 84

Laying in paint sketch

Finished No 84

 You would think after 84 faces, 
I might manage to get the right eye in the right place. 
I just noticed in the paint sketch, it looks pretty good. 
So, what happened?

The board in review 

16 more to go!

Evil Sister

Face No 82

Sweet????
I think not!!!

Sketches for No 82

But look.

On the left.

I did a sketch form the chair-zone.

I think you might agree, she looks sweet.

Then, my sketch on the board.

Not sweet. 

Evil doll.......

I ventured into row 3 for this one which means she is about 3" x 4.25".

And I spent way too much time on her.

I don't know if I was trying to make her sweet or the fact that she is the largest one so far made me keep at it. 

♥