The Vegetable Garden

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A journey through the making of my garden.
March 2012 in Devon has been totally amazing weather-wise this year, so I have been up with the lark or very often the Greater Spotted Woodpecker tapping away outside my bedroom window. I left the vegetable garden alone last year as I had no time - busy with jewellery making. I am pretty well stocked up with jewellery for galleries now and can afford to put all my time and effort into the hard work that my little patch of ground is demanding of me now for a while at least. This is the task ahead! Part of it at least.

A thick layer of grass and heavy duty weeds waiting to be removed.

So, enter with me through my partly completed garden gate which takes you from flower garden into vegetable garden. I can promise you that all will look divine eventually, just like one of those wonderful gardening photos that we love to remind ourselves nowadays with on Pinterest! 

April - and almost finished. Needs another coat of paint and one more rail, then planting can begin. I will put in a path as well as it gets very slippery here. probably crazy paving or herringbone brick if I can find some old red bricks.

 I've transplanted, very carefully the roses that I thought would make a good veil of privacy between me and my neighbour as they were not thriving. They have been given every opportunity to get a move on now. I have added two more to help it all along. No use having a bare arch way into the vegetable garden.

March - well - what can I say?!! I need to make a new gate that looks rather more like a gate that belongs to a vegetable garden. Making it accessible would also help. I do love taking on challenges like these. Good job really.

The work of skimming off the surface begins. The canes are measuring and marking out the size and centre of the plot.

Room for one new Blackcurrant bush and a few late fruiting Raspberries  on the left as I prepare to dig number one potato bed. We don't really eat many potatoes but I am hoping that they will help to open up the soil and then perhaps I will be able to barter them later on. I could start to look at where I might build a potato clamp. They are such a good idea.

March - Red Onions and Shallots inter-sown with a first sowing of mixed Radishes and Spring Onions. Protected in a fashion by wire - inquisitive chickens and wandering pigeons! This is a good idea, seems so obvious now that I look at it but it never occurred to me. Courtesy of the good life blog.

No deep beds but I am going to try to contain the soil for a while at least with a wooden edging using timber from an abandoned five barred gate that has been left to rot on a roadside verge, entwined with brambles and nettles. I thought that I would rescue the timber at least and reuse it. I like the slightly ram-shackled look! Slightly? Just beyond is a round bed of wonderfully scented, tall, white Lillies with a valiant Tree Peony in the centre. I really thought the Peony had no chance of survival at the end of last year but it looks really happy now. I do like to see things rallying round and making a comeback! It's often best to leave well alone and let them grow in their own time, whilst keeping a protective eye on them.

March - slow development of plots. I have two potato beds now and still more to plant out but need to dig more beds! I think I will put them around the little pond as this will help to break down the soil and leave my imagination free to design plots for more interesting vegetables, most of which are growing from seed in my shed. It has windows all round so is very useful until I have a greenhouse.

March - Tadpoles have been brought on in this trifle dish since I was a child. These are a few baby frogs that have been donated to my garden pond project by Hill House Nursery at Landscove, not far away. The parent frogs were very impressive and quite elegant with white throats and underbellies - I was impressed anyway! After a bit more research I have to say that I could well have been a little too impressed by what is in fact the simply the changing colours of the mating male frogs. Very good looking all the same!

An altogether magnificent specimen all the same, courtesy of the cabinet of curiosities

March - I seem to have a quasi-magical relationship with our local re-cycling centre, in as much as whenever I decide I need something for the garden and/or the cottage etc, I give the idea a little extra thought, make a wish and go into town and there it is! This morning I was thinking 'pond liner' and there it was. Here it is waiting for a lease of life in a new home where it will play host the my hoards of beautiful tadpoles who when grown will devour all manner of garden pests and predators.

The slow process of digging it in begins. The earth is pretty much clay here and full of dock roots, buttercups and couch grass, oh yes and lots of nettles. I think it is pretty much common sense when it comes to putting one of these things in. I will never be able to get all the rampant weeds out but as I want the surrounding area to be a haven for wildlife I am not too concerned. I will try to remove them as I go along.

The pond is intended to be bang in the centre of the vegetable garden. I will plant out my Courgettes around the edges and pop in some Borage and Nasturtiums on the left side of it and probably Strawberries on the right.

Level-ish! Stage one of leveling the earth around the pond at least. It has been quite hard work but I have done it over a few days with plenty of stops for green tea and pondering. The sods need to be broken down to a finer tilth now.

Tilth achieved, watered and covered up for a day or two to allow time for it all to settle a little. I know that I should really allow longer for this stage but the Tadpoles are growing rapidly and I long to give them their freedom.

The pond water looks pretty murky. It is, I have to say, mainly tap water. We have had one night of rain which will help and I have tossed in a lot of the clay as it is quite deep. I have also sown a mixture of grass seeds now, the kind that are suitable for allowing wildflowers to live amongst. I've sown some wild flower seeds separately in trays and will dib them in later. I will also make another sowing in a couple of weeks with more of the grass mix plus some wild flower seeds too. I know I am being a bit over enthusiastic and sowing earlier than is recommended but I am taking a chance with the good weather. If we get a frost and all the seeds wither, then I will simply re-sow. I have covered them up as an experiment as I feel that they need a little protection from the really hot sun that we're having this week. Plus little birds and larger chickens that are roaming around.

April - It's a pity, in a way that the pond is so small but it was really onlt intended to be a home for the frogs that will eat the slugs etc and numerous other water creatures still to arrive. The wild grass and flower seeds are beginning to show signs of life, albeit very faintly, little hazes of green here and there.

March - the work begins on the Strawberry bed. Needs lots of rotted horse muck dug in and then to be left to settle down but there is not that much time left before planting out so fingers crossed.

April - and the pond now has a Marsh Marigold and all the tadpoles are swimming around it quite happily. The lower bed is for the Strawberries, whilst all around the lower edge of the pond, I  will put in a few extra potatoes. I have sown wild grasses and wild flowers directly around the pond which will be very beautiful later on in the year. The paths are going to be simply soil for now to which I will add some chipped bark later on. Work in progress and likely to change direction at any time, as usual. I am not really a 'plan' person.

April 11th - working on till the last rays of sunshine slip down behind the Oak tree in the meadow behind. I call it a meadow when I am feeling bucolic and a field when I have to dig it! But either way, this is the perfect time to sit with a drink and survey the days work and glance around at all the work yet to do. A time to feel a little bit satisfied and content. I am, however really looking forward to the time when my gardening is more maintenance.

The task is to turn this weedy expanse into something like the photo below. I will cut off the thick grass before I skim it and stack the turf to make a cold frame, then I can get some of the plants in the studio/shed potted on and hardened off at last.

March - Added together there will be enough room for my long awaited Asparagus bed. Definitely not more potatoes! Maybe more Strawberries - time will tell.

March - Bit by bit, doing a little every day, I hope to make this pile resemble a more attractive pile. Composting comes later when I have built some bins.

April - One of my hens was badly attacked by a dog the other day but lives on valiantly after a couple of days at the vets. She is stitched up and slowly convalescing in the cottage. She used to be number one hen and top of the pecking order. I have since taken possession of two more, one of whom is very small and bedraggled. As it is now spring and our little lane is visited by walkers with dogs, who should be on leads or at least trained to heel my ladies will have to forgo their free range rights it seems. So I have to make them a run of sorts. It was intended to be in the vegetable garden but for now it will have to be in the flower garden. There is a patch which doesn't get a lot of sunshine, where I was going to build my wood store but it will now be their little run. I am aware that we have had a visiting fox trying to dig under their chicken house so I am going to dig a trench around the run to bury the wire netting in. I think the fence needs a coat of paint. I have tins of off white masonary paint which I always seem to find at the re-cycling centre for next to nothing. So far I've used it to paint the studio/shed so it will help to pull this side of the garden together. 

Painted and cuttings of a variegated grass popped in along the edge. Nails banged in to hold the wire netting. All done to prevent the incredible Mr. Fox from slaughtering the chickens. I have been forced to tackle this part of the garden,which is probably a very good thing as it was not really inspiring me and would have suddenly become a horrible eyesore as the spring moved into summer. It is an area tht stays shady for most of the day and could be nice for the hens if the weather becomes really hot. Long term I have very ambitious plans for an adjacent pergola and large pond.

Wire in place and dug in. Russian Vine attached to wire and fence poles painted. Though this chicken run is not in the vegetable garden exactly, I may make a wire tunnel to let them come into it from here.

Change of plan! The hen pen is going in the vegetable garden after all. It is the best place. It is raining and hailing today but there are gaps of sunshine and birdsong when I can get out in the garden and do some work. I am not experienced in doing any of this kind of work which is why it all looks so amateurish - I am an amateur after all!

I rather naively  thought that this job would be done a lot quicker than it is proving so that I could get on with preparing land for planting. But the hens must be restrained from scratching too much at the plants so here is their long awaited new quarters. Today is wire netting, staples and banged thumbs!

 Need more tree stakes!

I am painting tree stakes with masonary paint to create some definition and emphasize height. Digging out trench all round to bury wire netting.

Recycled sections of old five barred gate that was rotting in the hedge now providing me with a way of keeping the posts fairly equally divided and vertical. Wire netting going up a lot more easily now that I am using plastic ties toact as an extra pair of hands. In fact they can remain as they are brilliant and very strong.

Netting secured and soil covering buried wire netting. Crazy paving going down over it to ensure extra deterrent to Mr Fox. Will probably grow roses up the posts in time, interspersed until established with runner beans/sweet peas.

Emmy is meant to be one of the main beneficiaries of this hen pen after her attack by a rampant spaniel last month and on her first day back with the others all seemed to be going well until I discovered this morning that all of her beautiful newly grown feathers had been pecked and pulled out by the said others. I feel very protective. She is now back in my studio awaiting regrowth. If I knew the culprit I would pack her off to a new home. It's pretty hard on Emmy who has always been top of the pecking order regardless of having only one eye!

Photos - Nice - Cote d'Azur

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The Promenade des Anglais was paid for by the wealthy English Aristocracy who spent their winters here from 1860 onwards, when the first railway came to these parts. Since then, people have traveled by train to find the sun, especially in winter.

I love the Côte d'Azur in early Spring. Who could resist the incredible transparent turquoise and inky indigo Mediterranean that greets you all the way along the Promenade? Certainly not me! It gently crashes against the beach making soft foamy waves. 

No wonder people just sit and stare, rest a while and contemplate life's conundrums.

Miles and miles of strolling at any time of the day or night. Walking the dog, cycling, roller-skating or jogging. It is alive and vibrant all day long, you can watch the world go by or join in the adventure.

 Or wander off into the old town - Le Vieux and make your way through ancient streets, where the houses are painted with the colours of the earth - raw sienna, ochres, oxide and viridian. This is where the sunlight catches hold of both the beautiful and the mundane in passing, bringing life and a certain joie de vivre to everything in it's path.

      If you are out very early and I do mean early, 6am would be the best time, then you can see, feel, smell and experience the hustle and bustle of the Flower Market on the Cours Saleya, people busily setting up their stalls with their produce from miles and miles around, with every possible variety of flower, olive, cheese, soap imaginable to choose from.

The owners of this olive stall had everyone coming over to taste, to laugh and to buy. Such a wonderful selection of olives and sun dried tomatoes and such friendly, happy people, make shopping a true delight, a long way from the rather miserable affair it can be.

Breakfast, coffee or lunch can be taken amidst the flowers. The French really know how to enjoy their food. 

We English have a lot to learn. The French take their time, some even still honour the siesta. I have learned to slow down when I've been wandering and exploring in France and it's a skill I've kept with me. 

I love nothing better than to sit and watch the world go by at a roadside café. The you can slowly meander in and out of the shadows into pools of sunlight and shade, never quite knowing what might be found around the next corner. 

Always remember look up and discover the history carved in stone which is often missed. For example - this phoenix, bird of rebirth and recurring mythology, which never dies but is consumed by fire, only to rises again from the ashes. A mother who plucks her breast to give her life blood to her young. Powerful symbolism indeed.

The phoenix shares her position with the more humble pigeon, though in many ways, just as inspiring. Where would France be without her pigeons? Faithful messengers during the Franco-Prussian war as well as during the Second World War. 

One of the effects of the Nazi occupation of the world's most civilised city was reported in a letter published in 1942 in The Nation. 'All the pigeons of Paris are dead. Some have been eaten, which is natural, but most of them have been condemned to death because they carry messages. When Paris was under siege during the Franco-Prussian war, pigeons carried 95,000 private messages. The very last pigeon to complete its return to Paris was captured in November 1870 by the Prussians and was presented to Prince Frederick Charles. He sent it home to his mother who placed it in The Royal Pigeon Cote. Two years later tired of its exile, it escaped and flew back to Paris.

Walking on I passed a little theatre just as the sun quickly moved out from the cover of clouds to shine for a brief moment through the theatre gates, casting the images of Comedy and Tragedy from the Golden Age of Athens.A little reminder of Plato's Cave, still as relevant today as in our shared past.

 This fish will not be to every body's taste, served in a dish made from its own body but the colours are magically iridescent and one to remember for painting and making jewellery later on. I like to use touches of iridescent medium in my work. Or use it on silver foil and silver leaf - each giving a different and subtle shift in the qualities of light and colour. This fish skin has it all.  To be continued -

 

Papier Mâché Workshops

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Learn how to make papier-mâché bowls etc - hilary@hilarybravo.com for details.

A few examples of my jewellery.

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I've been making and selling for over twenty years - my jewellery is collected and has been for sale in many galleries over this time including The Guggenheim in New York. 

I probably paint on most days and when not painting I'm making jewellery taking photographs walking beach-combing and generally exploring and writing. 

Now it's on Etsy! Colour is my main focus as well as discovering new places and rediscovering the familiar.  I love teaching and passing on the interesting and inspiring things I learn in life and through my work.

I travel and draw, paint, make notes, take lots of photographs and bring back sketch and notebooks overflowing with more discoveries to work on, some of which I later develop into paintings, often abstract, from images that hold the key colours and associated ideas of the places I've found. 

The I research into the places I've been to, paint, write and make my jewellery, which is often made from fragments of my paintings. I use a variety of mediums - acrylic inks and paints, gouache, watercolour, pencils, waxes, oil pastels, chalk pastels,gold, silver and copper leaf, metal foils and powders, raw pigments, marble dust, Japanese, tissue, tracing papers and interesting commercially produced papers, old archive paper, Italian sweet wrappers, metro tickets, photocopies of found objects. The list goes on.

Some I make into papier-mâché jewellery and some into silver anodised jewellery.  Coated in clear, hard resin, they all have sterling silver findings - earring hooks and pendant bails.  Each one comes with a description of the original inspiration behind it and what it has come to. I use a combination of papier-mâché/mixed media/resin.

When I am home, I am busy making a new cottage garden and building my shed/studio. The garden will supply endless inspiration for paintings and provide a haven for wildlife and gentle friends.

The studio will provide a peaceful place for me to work, surrounded by birdsong and weather.  And to run workshops from once again. 

How to make a simple papier-mâché bowl

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Collect together the following items

Terracotta flower pot - This is only intended to give support to the bowl whilst it is being constructed. The size of the pot will depend on how large you want your bowl to be. Terracotta is good as it gives weight and helps to keep the process stable. Initially, work on a small bowl to practice - small flowerpot/small balloon.

A few round balloons - extra in case some burst!

String + masking tape

Box of tissue/roll of loo paper - it absorbs lots of glue + is good for the first layers - though not essential - most papers will do.

Newsprint - tissue paper, brown wrapping paper or newspaper will also be fine.

Thick paper = card is good too.

2 bowls + sieve + white glue + brush + blender.

The colour of the balloon I am working on changes throughout these sequences as balloons do deflate! It's a simple matter to remove it and blow up another inside your partly made bowl. Really!

First step - secure your balloon.

This makes an extra sticky base to add the next layer to - but is not an essential step. You can paint glue directly onto the balloons surface or onto the paper. There are no rules!
I soak the paper - newsprint, brown paper, tissue etc and then let it drip to almost dry. This makes the paper almost like fabric - flexible and easier to manipulate, tear and paste.

Repeat by adding more layers of glue and paper and allow to dry. How many layer you add really depends on the size of the balloon your working on. The bigger the balloon and therefore the bowl - the more layers. I add about 4- 5 layers when using this method. The pulp adds most of the strength to the bowl when dry.

In this method I am ripping up watercolour paper into small pieces to put in a blender to make papier mache pulp. Any paper will do.

I add warm water to help soften the paper and then whizz it all up until there are no lumps and sieve it, gently pressing about 80% of the water out. I try to avoid squeezing and making lumps!

Then I add the glue. I'm using white glue. In the U.K we call it P.V.A glue - in the U.S.A it's generally called Elmers glue. I have other recipes on my blog using flour and water paste. I do like using flour and water paste as it makes the work much more brittle. P.V.A glue brings in a little flexibility to the work which can be an advantage. The amount of glue you add depends on the amount and type of paper you are using. It's all a matter of experimentation really.

Mix it all up and then leave it on one side to absorb for a few minutes.

Add pulp in small amounts - working from top to bottom - gently pressing and smoothing out. It helps to work with wet hands - have a small bowl of water by you to dip fingers in. If the pulp should start to slip down the sides of the bowl as you are working with it, simply stop and leave it to dry and then continue later, filling in the gaps. It all works out in the end!

I have used the inner cardboard disc of an old masking tape roll to make an indentation into the top of the soft pulp which I then filled with glue and pressed the disc into. This will make the foot of the bowl.

When it is dry - pop the ballon. Notice yet another coloured balloon! Remove balloon by popping it.

Trim away excess to make your bowl the height you want it to be.

I am gently ripping away some more dried pulp as I want to create a deckle edge.

I am making traditional gesso with rabbit skin glue, ground chalk (whiting) and water. It is made in a double boiler as it is a gentle process. You can use acrylic gesso. 

Recipes for traditional gesso and homemade alternative gesso can be found by clicking the links.

Painting on coats of warm traditional gesso. Leave to dry between coats. If you build up many coats of gesso you can burnish it to a smooth finish and/or scratch surface decoration into it. I have just painted the inner part of the bowl with gesso and will add silver leaf. I want to create an aged patina to the silver so when the whole bowl is finished I will let it spent a couple of days in a cardboard box with a couple of hard boiled eggs. The result, although temporarily rather smelly is well worth it!

I am always looking for inspiration. This is a discarded piece of lead flashing in an old bucket but once edited in photoshop looks like this -

And gives me the idea for a starting point for developing the outer surface of the bowl with fragments of gold, copper and silver leaf, acrylic inks - F.W and Pearlescent, iridescent tinting medium and gesso. - Will post as soon as it's done!

I have painted the outer surface of the bowl with acrylic gesso and added silver and copper leaf by 2 steps - 

First of all I painted the inside of the bowl with some Acrylic Gold Size and quickly painted random areas of the outside of the bowl with it too, using an old brush. It only takes a few minutes to go tacky and then I added the silver leaf by gently pressing it against the tacky surface. I brushed away any excess with a soft, dry brush (saving any little flakes for future projects) and then repeated the process on the inner part of the bowl to ensure it was pretty well all covered with silver leaf. 

N.B. - Acrylic Gold Size is not generally used on top of traditional gesso as it tends to form a skin which peels off. I have been using it this way for years and just work with it and if bits peel away, then I simply re-apply the size and some more silver leaf. This is because I will eventually be polishing it with beeswax or Renaissance wax polish and it will be fine. If you are using acrylic gesso there will be no little anomalies. I rather like the serendipity of anomalies as it usually leads to new discoveries.

I then repeated the process adding gold leaf.

 Next I added 

Source: cornelissen.com via Hilary on Pinterest

and allow to dry.

 Then I added very loose layers of thick white acrylic paint and leave to dry.

The next photos will show the addition of coloured acrylic paint and then a mixture of flakes of dyed metal leaf  - 

Source: cornelissen.com via Hilary on Pinterest

 and a final polishing to complete the tutorial.

I have used a couple of different gesso methods in this tutorial but you can choose which one you use. The links to products and suppliers are merely suggestions, not directions. There are many suppliers and producers all doing similar things.