Harmonious (herbal)Blends

As you probably have gathered, I am a lover of all things garden. Not only do I love to plant living things in the soil and watch them grow, but I love to then photograph, paint, draw and otherwise make art from my garden. My series “Of the Woods” is all about the exuberant plant life in which I am surrounded. It’s actually not only exuberant in the woods, but in the pastures, the yard, and the gardens. So this life is literally overflowing on my canvases.

This week I planted an herb garden in what was formerly an overgrown and neglected planter that came with the place. I made these sweet little wooden markers with a Sharpie and some cast-offs from the wood pile, so as not to forget what’s what. I accidentally made an extra one for thyme, so for a minute had extra thyme on my hands!

What good is an herb garden, you ask?
Let me put it this way: Already I don’t know what I did without it. An herb garden is beautiful as well as practical. Some of its myriad uses are:
Spearmint tea
mojitos Totally worth it for this alone!
herbal flea and tick spray for cats
seasonings for spaghetti sauce

Just think. When God put Adam and Eve on earth, He put them in a garden. Theirs was not a fast paced, “I want it and I want it now" culture like we have nowadays. Or what has been referred to as the Fast Food culture. Life in the garden takes time, and it takes work to get the fruit. That’s the godly design of life. Time and work.
I planted radishes and cilantro in early April, from seed. I left the seed bag at the end of the row of cilantro as a marker, and eventually, after sufficient rain and sunshine and time, there was this explosion of cilantro in the bag:

Life is designed to be exuberant and abundant, even for the forgotten little seeds that were left in the bag! By now, the cilantro I actually planted is enough to make salsa, which is very exciting around our house.

Know what else is exciting around here? The upcoming Garden Art Workshop!

Here’s a few pages from last year’s Garden Journal:

Want to be a part of it? Register here:
Garden Art Journal workshop
Come on over on Saturday, June 15th, from 2-4!

By then I should have fresh salsa, cool mojitos, and plenty of garden life for us to paint and draw!

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The Art Dept

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