Sunday 27 February 2011

GARDENING BY THE ENGLISH ARTIST - MORE TIPS FOR FEBRUARY - ARTISTS LOOK AWAY NOW!

ENGLISH GARDENS ARE GETTING READY FOR THE BIG PUSH!

Sunny in late February.

FIVE THINGS - I must try and do them soon.  Oh dear, made a hash of the bulleted list thing following this, have not used it before and it has gone all wrong!

Bargain crocus - cheap buy!


  • Prune any fruit trees, particularly apple.  Prune off the dead stuff, and any branches that rub against each other.  I have a couple of small apple trees - easy to prune.  But one huge tree on my allotment which I cannot manage to keep under control.  It defeats me!
  • The apple tree was there when I started renting my allotment plot and has just got more and more vigorous.  Its a real pain.

  • Cut back the plants in the garden which have lots of old dead stuff on them from last year.  This is an easier job, thank goodness, but still a bore when you would rather be getting on with your painting.  All you need is a pair of strong scissors, or maybe if you want to look professional, some secateurs.  Plants I need to cut back are the red hot pokers (kniphofia)  which have lots of dead leaves at the base of the clump, a kind of dismal skirt, which the slugs and snails love to hide in.  I usually end up pulling these dead leaves away by hand, makes a nice noise too so you feel you have mastered nature for once.
  •  
  • The salad seeds should be sown now, and luckily I have some sheltered space in the greenhouse. I mean the early salad you might want to pick as very little leaves.   I should put the seeds into trays, which I should have washed out last autumn but I usually don't have time.  I have used unwashed seed trays most years and things seem to come up OK, but not always!  If you don't keep them clean, you might get a fungal disease in the seedlings, called 'damping off',  I believe.
  • Trim off the old flowering stems on the lavender bushes.  I have gone overboard on lavenders because here soil is very sandy.  Lots of things I try to grow die, but lavenders thrive.
Lavenders await trimming

Dead leaves and teasels
Favourite pot, broken by frost
  • Make a start on getting rid of all the dead leaves.  I get a lot in the front garden from the trees nearby and this year (as usual) I did not get round to raking them up and putting in bags to rot - like you are supposed to do.  I should do this in December  but am too busy then.  Anyway, I thought to myself that they are a good space for the all little wildlife things to hide in during the cold weather -  you are supposed to think about the little wildlife things nowadays, aren't you?  I get lots of wildlife - some of it a real pain - particularly the foxes, squirrels, pigeons, not to mention mice, slugs, snails and, once, rats in the compost!More about them later.
  •  
I will add another thing, some of the pots you might have left outside might have broken in the frost, like mine did.  Curse yourself for not being better organised and put them inside (but where?) next autumn.





Now back to the painting!


 

Saturday 19 February 2011

GARDENING IN ENGLAND - TIPS FOR FEBRUARY - ARTISTS PLEASE SYMPATHISE!

How to be a gardener, as well as an artist, and not flip!  Here is a picture (below) of my strawberry bed which I have to cover with sticks, in a futile effort to keep of the neighbourhood cats - they love it!



Its the time of year again, February, when here in South of England the gardens are burgeoning!
I am continually faced with the problem of working on my oil paintings while also keeping my garden and my allotment - well, I wont say 'under control' because they never are, but at least not too chaotic.

You might have the same problem?

ARE YOU TOO TRYING TO DO TOO MANY THINGS AT ONCE?

Do you have a job and have to commute? Do you work from home perhaps?  I include in the 'job' category, looking after a family or -  eek!  - trying to cope with a new baby!

So anyway, if you are very busy, you might think it would be good to get away from the pressures and potter about in a garden.  Not possible!  You might get away, but it is far from a serene experience.

Don't believe what you read.  Gardening is not therapeutic or restful, or rewarding.  It is pure hard slog, very complex and confusing and - at any rate here in the UK, it is in the 'lap of the Gods', as they say, because the weather always defeats your efforts.  For instance today its raining, tomorrow its raining and probably the next day, and the day after that.  In Scotland its snowing!

How do you cope?

Here I will let you into a secret - first, and most important,  you must be an optimist.

Second - you must have a bit of spare cash - dosh - moolah - say it how you will.

Third - you will have to adjust to the fact that your friends, family, mum, kids, the cat - will not help you in the slightest.  Its all up to you.

In January, just gone, the weather was pretty dreary so you had a good excuse  not to do anything except make mental good resolutions about sorting out the seed collection,  and looking out of the window at the rain/sleet/snow.


WHAT TO DO IN FEBRUARY?  DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

In February,  oh dear!  You might decide you have to think about doing something.  


My grotty garden in February, above

The journals and newspapers are full of beautifully illustrated ideas about spring planting, and how to renovate your lawn  - I suggest you ignore all bright ideas like these.  I am sure those photographs were taken at the peak of the growing season by a top photographer, of a garden which has a staff of 15.  Ignore the photos!

What to do now? Royal Horticultural Society tells you what you should be doing, do you can feel guilty not doing it!

MY THREE TIPS FOR FEBRUARY GARDENS (REMEMBER, KEEP IT SIMPLE)

TIP 1

Tip 1, you can make a trip to your local garden centre, if you have one, and see if they are selling off any plants at 50% off.  I bought three nice roses this year, in large pots, for £3 each.  Thus saving money, although of course I didn't really. 
I also bought five raspberry canes,  Glen Clova, for just a couple of pounds.  Fruit bushes are also reduced in the garden centre.

In addition, at the beginning of February my local garden centre sells vegetable and flower seeds at half price.  They might be last year's stock but don't let that worry you.  You need to save every penny in this game.

The next job for you, if you have built up a collection of seeds from previous years, get them out of their boxes and check them over.

I keep all seeds in plastic boxes and in a small freezer.  I did in fact buy a small freezer partly to store seeds - mad or what?
 

TIP 2

Here is Tip 2.  Each packet of seeds has its packing date and 'use by' date in small letters on the back.  I write the date of packing, in felt tip on the front.  Then in theory I chuck out the old ones when I do the sorting.  Its easier to read the date on the front of the packet than the back, especially when you are in the midst of deciding what to sow.

Don't be a sucker though, (like me), just firmly sort and throw away.  I hardly ever do this because I have found that tomato seeds, for example, seem to keep fertility for years.  I guess the vigour is impaired a little but REMEMBER - YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE PENNIES IN THIS GAME.

February Fill Dyke is the expression here in England, and because of the rain filling the dykes, the ground is too soggy to dig.  However, the weeds and grasses are growing like billy-oh and soon you will not be able to resist the thrill of weeding, and therefore giving the impression that - yes - you are in control!
A allotment garden (or as it is now called, a 'leisure garden' - what a laugh) from happier days last summer before we lost the World Cup football games in South Africa.  It's not my allotment garden, as mine never looks that well-kept.


TIP 3

Oh, and Tip 3, if you want to try growing potatoes now is the time to buy seed potatoes, as they are called.  These are usually much cheaper if you can joint your local allotment society, and buy them there.  If you are lucky enough to be able to make a trip to your local allotment, you should find that the allotment holders (as they are called) have a society which bands together and makes orders in bulk for seed potatoes, as well as fertiliser, compost, and strange odds and ends like liners for hanging baskets.

I belong to two allotment societies, as well as having my own allotment.  I have over-bought the seed potatoes, of course, as I usually do.  At present they are ornamenting the floor of one of the rooms in the house, in plastic trays.  Its difficult not to trip over them and they will be there until it is much warmer.  Easter time is the traditional time to plant them.

Monday 14 February 2011

MIKE TINDALL AT TWICKENHAM, RUGBY - ENGLAND V ITALY

RBS SIX NATIONS RUGBY AT TWICKENHAM ON 12 FEBRUARY, 2011 - ENGLAND 59 - ITALY 13

I am painting a new oil painting of the game at Twickenham, which is in my 'Legs' series of sports paintings.  Since I was not lucky enough to attend at Twickenham (or rich enough!), I am using as a source, a section from a photo inThe Sunday Times, credited to Clive Gee/PA.

The article which features the photograph in The Sunday Times is by Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent.
The England captain is Mike Tindall, and he is the one with the ball.

The first sketch for the painting, which I have have started in poster colours, is here:



I will be working on an oil painting after deciding on the composition and hope to put more about the painting on this blog as it progresses.

Monday 7 February 2011

RABBIT'S GUIDE TO HENLEY ROYAL REGATTA

DRESS CODE AT THE REGATTA ON THE THAMES AT HENLEY 

I came across Rabbit's Guide to Henley Royal Regatta - and it is very amusing in content as well as title - when looking up the dress code for the Regatta.

In my earlier post called

PRETTY GIRLS IN RED SHOES AT HENLEY REGATTA - a January blog entry -

I stated that ladies must wear skirts on the knee, not above.  This is confirmed in Rabbit's Guide and it is well worth a read - it will make you smile!

Rabbit's Guide

GUARDS BAND PLAYS AT WINDSOR GREAT PARK POLO - IRISH GUARDS

FAMOUS BAND - BEARSKINS AND SCARLET TUNICS,  AT WINDSOR GUARDS POLO CLUB

I have turned out some photos taken in 2006 at the Cartier Gold Cup polo, in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.  The photos are on a CD, because in those days I had no digital camera.
I am planning a new painting, hopefully using these old images and a sketch.

The marching band of the Irish Guards, resplendent in scarlet tunics and bearskins, are in some of the photos.
I think they are the Irish Guards, because from the website (link below), regarding Guards uniforms:

The Official Website of the British Monarchy

I read that the Irish Guards have a blue plume on the bearskin worn on the right side.

CARTIER GOLD CUB IN 2006 - TEAMS DUBAI AND BRONCOS

I remember  exciting polo between the finalists,  Dubai and Broncos, and watching the cup being presented by HRH Queen Elizabeth.

Here is the first rought sketch for my idea