The Garden

This time of year it's hard to know if I'm a painting gardener or a gardening painter.  I love both!  I try to get out into the garden in the morning when the temperature is bearable and paint in the afternoon when it's too hot and humid here in Georgia.  The lettuces, radishes and snow peas are already eaten and bush beans, fordhooks and okra are sprouting in their place.  The tomatoes will soon be out of the tops of their cages...this year I put wire canopy-type bridges between several to give them more support.  We got our first handfull of cherry tomatoes today although our granddaughter has picked a few earlier ones from the bush.  We are still harvesting cabbages, kale and spring onions.  A few cowhorn peppers are almost ready... too hot for me but my son likes them.  I have the first wave of yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers blooming with more sprouting.  We also have several hills of canteloupe and seedless watermelons already in bloom.  New additions to the garden this year are stevia, an herb whose leaves can be used to sweeten iced tea, and sunchokes, the tuberous part of a member of the sunflower family that can be cooked like potatoes or sliced raw like water chestnuts.  Sweet potatoes are filling in their patch and the bell peppers have finally started bushing up.  It seems they always start out slow but produce up until Christmas some years.
It's been a terrific spring for our fruit trees, too. Pears, apples, plums, figs, and peaches all have ample young fruit.  We even found a wild paw-paw growing and are anxious to see how it does.
So much for the garden report.  It will have to do since I can't show you what I'm painting right now .. it's a secret for my upcoming show.