Playing in the River

Week two of my art course. This week we found ourselves in Ness woods drawing bits of nature and playing in the river. It sounds like fun, and it was, especially the water bit. 

Goldsworthy

We partnered up and were given a piece of paper with some images from naturalist artist Andy Goldsworthy and then told to go and create something ourselves from what was lying around. The other two teams did land sculptures, one of a fox made from a dead tree stump (it did look like a fox too) and the other team made a floating hoop made from ivy and fishing line. My partner and I opted for the water and made a large circle from the river stones and then a smaller one on the inside. We called it “Going with the Flow” as we thought that didn’t sound pretentious at all.

I realised our piece fell into three art categories. Firstly we drew what we had done, next we made a piece of disposable art (the next heavy rain will see to that) that will catch people’s attention as they walk the dogs and also we made something that wouldn’t have looked out of place as a permanent feature in a garden. It didn’t have to be in the water either; a feature such as this could be filled with herbs or perennials.

Comparisons

Linking art with garden design is even more apparent with the classroom assignment. We have been asked to research and write about the Paris based 19^th century Impressionist Art Movement, which include masters such as Monet and Renoir. Their style of painting was more fluid and painters enjoyed getting out and about experiencing real life situations such as people going about their working day or industrial scenes as well as landscapes as opposed to working from pictures in studios. 

Communal parks were becoming popular for the middle and working classes and this is where a lot of the artists hung out. So the landscapers were instrumental in creating the artists backdrops for their work. Monet himself drew a Japanese bridge hundreds of times, which was actually created in his own garden for convenience. There was a garden designer behind installing that and planting the lilies in the pond too.

Impressionist art, like garden design isn’t linear. The ideas and paintings came from every direction; Turner and Constable were seemingly painting impressionist art some 50 years before the Paris movement and before the phrase was coined and this is just one of millions of examples going all the way back to cave paintings. 

The Impressionist artists were influenced by their surroundings and they were products of their environment (such as the coffee shops in Paris where the Impressionist met up) by travel and each other. 

Like landscape designers, the impressionist artists shocked the world by their radical designs and use of bold colours and apparently unfinished pieces. As new paints were being created and put into tubes for convenience as artists liked to paint outside, so the botanists were travelling the world looking for new plants to brighten up our gardens. Initially they would have been for the upper classes, but eventually filtered down to the folks on the street. This was shocking in its day that these rare and wonderful plants could get into the hands of the working classes Impressionists like to use brash bold strokes to reflect movement and unlike their predecessors who painted smooth, detailed images of religious stories, the Impressionists painted people bathing and doing everyday things like hanging up the washing (Laundry, Berthe Morisot 1875) Shocking stuff indeed.

Clubs

The structure of groups of individuals getting together and creating new ideas is something else that is open to all of us. I’m sure most of us are part of a group of some sort. Even in our own gardening clubs we can come up with some pretty radical new ideas. They may not become a movement that will influence the world, but they are important in the grand scale of things never the less. 

Minimilist

My influence presently comes from some of the Impressionists who, as they got older, simplified their paintings by not putting in anything that wasn’t needed. A figure could be reduced to one brushstroke and a sky could be made with just a few flashes of grey and blue paint. So in my quest for gardening excellence I’m planning to design a complete garden and just put one solitary plant in it. 

That should shock the gardening world.

First Week

It’s back to college this week. I had such a good time last year in my art portfolio evening class that I decided to sign up for a part time Art Diploma course at the Tech in Derry. Its one day a week, which should give me plenty of time to do all of the other things I do in the remaining six days.  I’m not sure what the ‘other things’ are besides gardening, but I’m sure I’ll fit them in.

Art History

The first thing we will be doing every week is looking at art history. There are a lot of well-known artists, although when I was asked who my main influences were I couldn’t think of anyone, not one artist. I have a lot to learn. I could reel off a list of ten great garden designers, but they didn’t count although they are great artists in their own right.

There are similarities to artists that work with canvas and those that work with a spade I think. One big difference that I see is when I design a garden I am thinking what it’s going to look like in 1, 5, or even 10 years’ time, drawing seems a bit more static although the use of colour is important in both. I’m going to enjoy comparing my gardening knowledge with the new art history class.

Lost the Plot                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                      I am enjoying the freedom to be creative. Our first project is to create a hat, the more flamboyant the better. Now you would think that I would link up gardening with this but I thought I’d try something a bit different. I have been obsessed with lamps and lampshades recently ( I think it’s something to do with the nights closing in and getting ready to hibernate) so it seemed obvious that I would take old bits and bobs in the garage like plastic pipes, cable ties, old buttons and turn them into a lampshade hat. I think it works well, it’s an oversized 1940’s German design with a real working light bulb in it (torch). It isn’t that practical though as the base is made from plasterboard so it’s a bit sore on the neck. I see a garden ornament coming when it’s finished.

It’s not all bizarre fun, frolics and goings on though. Next week we are heading out to Ness woods to draw, paint and take photos. It should be right up my street…my two biggest interests combined and no plasterboard in sight. Add a flask of tea to the mix and I am in heaven.

Bargain of the Week

I got a fantastic end of season bargain today. I got three 3metre rolls of heather screening reduced from 90 euro to 10 euro. I had to have them even though it was a total impulse buy and I had no idea where I was going to put them. I walked out of the shop extremely happy. 

As soon as I got home and a quick scan around the garden I realised that there were loads of places I could put a screen up. There’s always something to cover up and the priority for me is the oil tank. I did manage to obscure the view of it from the kitchen window this summer by carefully planted climbing bean plants, but they won’t be there in winter.  

Where to put it

I put one full piece of the screen around the oil tank and then tied it straight onto the plastic securing the top with a few heavy pots. It looks like a small haystack and although it won’t last more than a year or two it’ll do for now. The cabin veranda (sounds posh but it’s the stickie-out bit of the shed) overlooked the tank as well so that’s improved to view nicely. As the lengths are 3 metres high I cut the second one in half and that has gone along the neighbour’s fence which is giving us a bit more privacy. I am still deciding where to put the third screen, but I’m sure it won’t be long until it’s found a home.

Its best tenner I have spent in a long time!

Gunge

There’s been a bit of a knock on effect after setting up the shed, sorry, cabin. I’m not talking about the culmination of youth sitting on the veranda playing music on their iphones, it’s more about the thick gungy algae that’s taking over the lawn.  Setting up the cabin meant that I needed to do a lot of walking around holding a cup of tea and looking at the levels for the base. This has resulted in me compacting the ground quite considerably. 

Gunge

The ground was pretty sparse on the grass front because I was working where the large trampoline was originally, and that cut off most of the light for the grass to grow. The two factors of sparseness and walking has allowed the alga to take hold at a startling rate. There doesn’t seem to be an area free of it for 5 square metres. I tentatively scraped some of the gunge off to see what was underneath and even though we have had a lot of rain the ground was dry. It reminds me of the flat green mat that used to form on my plant pots when I watered them with tap water. This means the alga is absorbing the water and draining off what it doesn’t need so the grass won’t compete with it. It’s all very clever.  

I do have a plan though. I have scraped the area to allow water to get in and then I have aerated the ground with a garden fork, this should at least allow the ground to both get wet and drain more freely which will be a start to eradicate the problem and promoting grass growth. As usual I don’t want to use chemicals as this doesn’t really sort out the underlying issues, they would just be a quick temporary fix. 

We’ll see if it works. 

Modification

One more reason for the algae spread is the fact that my cabin guttering downpipes are running straight onto the grass. I have a plan to rectify this too. I am thinking about modifying the flow direction extending the pipes so it runs 5 yards into the rear door of the polytunnel. This’ll give me a chance to fill up big water barrels and the excess can water the plants instead of lawn algae. I can alter the flow depending on conditions as I wouldn’t want things too wet in the winter. It might be a good idea for me to get a proper water storage system with a filter so we can channel it into the house. It’s amazing just how much water we can collect even with just a light shower.

Saving Seeds

I’ve been looking at what vegetable seeds I can save this year. I let a couple of beetroot go to seed at the start of the seasonand they are so slow at maturing I don’t know if it’s worth all of the room they are taking up. The broad beans on the other hand have produced an amazing crop of dark brown pods full of dried bean in next to no time. I thought I had only left a few pods on the plants but pulling them up this week revealed about 50 pods, with more than enough beans to get a good crop next year. They are one of the earliest crops to go in and can be started in October for an early show.

Whopper

The coriander plants will self seed quickly and I predict will be a bit of a weed in the tunnel next year like the tomatoes were this. I am letting some spinach go to seed too. I thought I would leave one courgette to go to seed as well and I am allowing it to grow to its full potential. It’s getting massive, pity I didn’t enter it in the ‘Biggest Marrow’ competition (should there be one) as it looks like a small Zeppelin airship. I’ve never really gone for the largest vegetable prizes; I leave that for the people who plant carrots down drainpipes to get 8 foot roots. This marrow has given me a taste for biggering though and I am even pumping it full of fertilizer to get it as big as I can before the end of the season. 

We won’t be eating it as it’s the one I am saving for the seeds. It’s the most fun I’ve had this month, sad but true.

Me Obsessive?

It’s been brought to my attention that I have an obsessive personality. Of course, like most things I hear about myself I dismiss it straight away. After a bit of thought (an obsessively large amount as it turns out) I have to agree. I never thought it about myself but I do tend to obsess about one thing and then go onto another. It doesn’t have to be anything large either, I can obsess about putting the rubbish out, making a cup of tea or totally designing a new garden, it doesn’t matter. What has made me realise this after so many years? The log cabin I have been rebuilding, that’s what. 

Obsessive

I neglected all of my other duties around work and home and could think of nothing apart from the rebuild in the last three weeks. If I did try to fit things in between running to the DIY shops and drawing out plans for fixed seating, it was usually after midnight and done very quickly. But you know what? I loved every minute, even the bits where I wanted to burst into tears were in some way enjoyable. I’ve only just realised this because most of the work has now finished and because I have nothing at the moment to obsess about I am looking for more and more to do such as paving around the outside walls.  I have finished most of the detail work, the gate has gone in to keep the dogs out, I have varnished the outside as well as the floor so what next? If I don’t find something to redirect my obsessive trait then the cabin (I’m not calling it a shed anymore) is going to get decorated with thousands of fairy lights for Christmas, which should keep my busy for a while.

Ripening Fruit

We never managed to get any raspberries again this year. One reason is that a load of them had to go to make way for the cabin; the other is that the dog weeds them up. I’m quite sure she does it to help as it usually happens when I am weeding in the borders myself. All I can hear is the sound of twigs snapping as she systematically works her way through the row, tail wagging and full of joy. How can I stop her from doing that? I can’t she enjoys it too much; it just means that I have to buy raspberries from the shop.  

Shop bought fruit seems to last a bit longer that fruit from the garden. We have a lot of plums this year and if you don’t eat them within a day of picking them you are chasing fruit flies out of the house as they rot.  There is a way to deter mould from fruit and it enlists the use of cider vinegar. Not the first choice out of the cupboard but bear with me. 

Mould spores are all around us in the billions. If they are present in large enough quantities, they become visible and can ruin the fruit. Berries already have a covering of invisible mould spores on them and given the right conditions, these can kick into life fast. However, there’s a simple way to deal with this in the form of our trusty friend Apple Cider Vinegar. Vinegar is antifungal, antibacterial and also has great properties as a cleaning agent.

Using Vinegar to Stop Mould

Add a cup of vinegar to a bowl of water (around 1 part vinegar to 1 parts water) and leave them for several minutes, perhaps swirling them around gently a little. You’ll probably find the water changes colour a little as the diluted vinegar lifts dirt, mould and thing living in your berries. Leave for a couple of minutes, then drain and rinse. After rinsing, any vinegar taste should be gone but I would just do a few first to check. Then store your berries in the fridge.

You should now find that your berries last at least a week rather than just a couple of days.

This method should work for all kinds of fruit and veg, try it on the blackberries if you are picking them this month. I like the idea so much that I’m going to be washing EVERYTHING in cider vinegar before eating. 

Note: I have just been told by my family that washing everything in vinegar demonstrates an obsessive personality and should be avoided. I’ll stick to raspberries.