Flowers for the end of summer
Flowers for the end of summer
As I’m stretching myself as an artist, I’m noticing that I'm every bit as particular as my flowers.
Hello friends, as summer 2024 in the northern hemisphere dances to completion, my thoughts are with the flowers, and how the ones growing in my yard have inspired me this year. I am finding new ways to paint them too, which is fun for me!
Read on for my latest article.
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Love, Kris
The flowers teach me how to simply be.
Every flower in my garden has its own space and style.
I learn this by tending to them, watering and picking off the bad bugs, giving them good compost and fish emulsion and other things they like, and figuring out where they prefer to be in the garden. It’s interesting how a plant that doesn’t like being in one area will absolutely love being 5 feet away in another. I think we’re all a bit like that.
As the days grow shorter and the light shifts and changes in parts of my yard, flowers that want more sunshine stretch their way towards the lessening sunlight.
The cosmos out front are now intertwining themselves a bit with the citronella plant, because it’s right where the sun is shining. Happily, the cosmos and a lot of the rest of this year’s garden are in garden pots, so I can move them into the sunlight a bit more. I’ve spent the last two years experimenting with the sunlight in this new garden. By next year we’ll have above ground garden boxes in several spots in the yard, and I now have a pretty good idea of what to plant, where.
The flowers I’ve planted have let me know what works for them, and also what doesn’t.
Now I know where the pollinator garden is going, also the herb garden. Some things can stay in pots, like the fennel. Hey, my fennel plant this year became a host for monarch caterpillars, and at least one of them made its cocoon on this plant and now there is one more monarch butterfly in the world! I want to have a lot more host plants in my garden next year, and make my yard a super friendly place for all of the beneficial creatures that live around here.
I’m noticing the similarities between growing my garden outside and working in my painting studio inside.
As I’m stretching myself as an artist, I’m noticing that I am particular too, just like my flowers. The big lesson I’ve taken from this is that while I’ll respect the flowers’ needs and try to give them what they want to grow into the best versions of themselves they can be, I’ve sometimes not done that for myself.
Part of this is that flowers aren’t overthinking anything. They don’t appear worried that another flower will outshine them, they don’t look like they’re feeling insecure in the least. When it’s their season, they do their thing, grow and glow, creating new life and color and food and magic.
Such good lessons for us humans from the flowers!
Each flower in a field isn't worried that the other flowers will soak up all the sun, leaving them with none.
Each one trusts that there is enough to go around, and that there is no need to compete for sun or rain or bees. Each does the job it came here to do, which is to be a flower.
Inspiration for stopping to smell the flowers
This great playlist I found on Spotify!
Beautiful books about plants
I love Maia Toll’s books, and own this one. It’s beautifully illustrated inside, and filled with useful information and Maia’s fun writing. Visit Maia Toll’s website.
Ernst Haeckel created numerous books filled with incredibly detailed illustrations of plants and animals. His botanical illustrations are always an inspiration. His books and prints of his work are widely available.
I hope you have a wonderful week, and thanks so much for showing up today!
Love, Kris