From My Sketchbook: Drawing Inspiration from the Greenhouse

Trips to the greenhouse are a pick-me-up during the winter months when everything is dormant and gray outside, but they also provide inspiration for my drawing, illustration and surface pattern design projects.

Here are a few color palettes I’m working with these days using tiny plants on display at the local greenhouse.
tiny plants color palettesSince I can’t bring all of them home on every visit, I try to bring home pictures to use for reference for new illustrations in my sketchbook.

sketchbook tiny fernssketchbook tiny plantssketchbook tiny plantsMy plan next is to draw these sketches digitally and turn them into a new collection of surface patterns! So fun!

Terri

 

September Garden Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a garden update. Due to the heat and drought we had this past summer, there hasn’t been much excitement in our gardens.

The Japanese beetles have been devouring two of our four rose bushes, so it’s nice to see a little left over for us to enjoy.

Patches of grass died, which is fine because we’ve decided to do a little landscaping in those areas with fresh mulch and more ornamental grasses.

The baskets we have hanging on our fence gates continue to do well, which makes me happy.

Our dying birch tree continues to grow more fungus and expand this little fairy environment.

We did some major trimming on a blue spruce tree and our juniper shrubs, leaving us with a big pile to take to the community compost dump. My husband insisted the pile would fit in his trunk.

I think I held my breath the entire way; I was so worried that tarp was going to explode and spill branches all over the road. Luckily, we made it!

While trimming the juniper shrubs, I found this wild marigold blooming. What a wonderful surprise.

After all that yardwork and a lot of homework on my part, one of the last things we had time for over the weekend was a bike ride on one of my favorite trails. I love biking through the woods. Next weekend, I hope we have time to do a little hiking too.

Hope you enjoyed a nice weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Greenhouse Field Trip

My mom works part-time at a wholesale greenhouse, and she gave us a tour last weekend.

It was amazing to see so many beautiful plants in these huge buildings.

They have three levels of plants growing, from these huge tables to two levels hanging above.

I loved seeing all the beautiful flowers in full bloom.

Here are a couple of my favorites, including these elegant red hydrangeas,

and these cool blue hydrangeas.

I love any variety of daisies.

How about a carpet of purple flowers.

My mom treated us with this cool moss in a rock planter.

By way of contrast, here’s the scene we woke up to this morning, April 20!

If Spring would ever start up again around here, our outdoor gardens might have a chance to continue coming back to life.