#17

The past month has had its ups and downs (or peaks and pits as I have heard others say) so I thought this full moon would be a good time to look at what was/ is really great and what isn’t so much.

• Larkspur abundance! I have grown Larkspur once before and they were a third of the size of the plants I have grown this year. I’ve been picking them every day, hanging some to dry in the wardrobe and using them fresh wherever I can.

• Getting our roof over the stairwell fixed so it is now completely watertight. We have had our fair share of water-related disasters and experiences over the past 11 years, including leaks, blocked drains, broken sewer pipes, burst pipes, flooding, you name it. Knowing the roof is fixed is a relief… but our bank account will be empty once we get the invoice.

• Sweet Peas, Tomatoes, Chillies and Strawberries are coming along nicely. The Strawberries are ripening up and I should be able to start picking them any day now. I’ve really enjoyed getting into a rhythm with harvesting and watering the garden in the evenings which is a nice end to the day.

• I got to spend a couple of days and nights at home by myself last weekend which resulted in lots of productive art and garden time. Taking a break from caretaking/parenting for a couple of days felt really good in terms of figuring out what I am doing.

• During the rain we had, Slugs absolutely decimated 60% of my summer flower seedlings. The remaining seedlings are for my Mum so I need to sow a bunch ASAP. I hope I can get these into the garden in a timely fashion. I’m going to sow lilac Zinderella Zinnias, Ammi, Statice, Sunflowers plus some Cottage Garden mix in pots.

• Ducks then destroyed another bunch of seedlings which survived the slugs and have been causing chaos - trampling plants and pooping all over the deck. One duck even got a yellow sticky fly trap/tag thingy stuck to its chest. It managed to pull it off eventually! I’m going to have to rethink my netting and barrier situation.

• I sprained my shoulder at Karate 3 weeks ago which took a couple of weeks to start feeling more normal. It disrupted my routine and made me feel a bit all over the place. It’s much better now thanks to a couple of visits to the osteo and some stretching and rest.

I’ve been playing around with flower arrangements for friends, and am currently thinking about what I am going to do with all my flowers over the summer. I’d like to have a little stand-out front with some jar posies for sale for locals but not 100% on that - there’s still a bunch of thinking to do.

I’ve also started working on a long-term idea that encompasses printmaking, design, riso and flowers but again a lot to sort out. The biggest issue is financing it. I will share more as I start to figure things out.

I felt pretty good about how my moon gardening had been going, but now I’m all out of whack with dates and have misplaced my moon calendar wheel. I know it is here somewhere in my messy studio!

Over the next couple of weeks I will be:

• Continuing to harvest Spring flowers and maintain the cutting garden. Things are crazy out there right now with the sheer amount of blooms!

• Spraying my dahlias with my homemade aphid spray, as I have seen a couple appear recently. Since I don’t use insecticides in my flower garden, I mix up a natural aphid treatment made from 2 tablespoons of oil (olive, rice bran, neem, whatever), 2 teaspoons of dishwashing liquid (biodegradable, as natural as possible. I use Eco store for this) and 500ml of water.

  In the evening, spray the undersides of all the leaves and where the leaves meet the stems. Since it is a natural treatment, it needs to be repeated every 3 to 5 days until you don’t see any aphids.

• Ripping tape of cardboard boxes to continue creating paths around the beds and covering the cardboard with mulch and/or bark - whatever I can get for free / not much money.

• When Last Quarter arrives a week after the full moon, I’ll be pruning my pittosporum and chopping a bunch of branches off of trees out the back.

I'd love to say that I was onto it and had prints up in my shop and all that but I don’t! I have done some more teapot prints on some lovely Fabriano paper, which I’ll put up this week.

I’ve been playing around with collage, doodling and slowly working on a new drawing for a linocut. I have also really felt like drawing more scenery such as little sheds or studios in gardens. This one below is inspired by whimsical, messy cottage gardens.

One day I will be organised and get some new printing done, but I’m kind of just doing it for fun anyway :) So slowly does it as per usual. Have a lovely week!

Rach xo