making garden journals

Garden Journal Challenges

Dear Liza,

I like keeping garden journals. They let me keep track of what happens in the garden and when it happens, so I can learn from each year and get better year by year.

But I also like to make them creative, so I’ve used a different format every year. This year I am re-using a movie list book. It has nice roomy format which I really like.

However, re-using a book means I need to do something in each page to cover, obscure, or otherwise change the illustration that is there, unless I find a page with movies about plants.

This page came close. It was a watercolor from the movie “Amelie”, where the garden gnome goes on some adventures. I wanted to keep the gnome.

I cut some junkmail paper to cover the non-gnome parts, gave it a blurry garden-y paint job, and glued it down. The inside of a security envelope got some darker paint, and I had the basis for a decent page. I gave the gnome himself a little more yellow, since his blue didn’t go with my yellow-ish green.

I found a few nice greens in a handout from our Portland Art Museum, and cut leaves and stems. Not bad, but flat and boring. Auntie Bridgett brought some darker greens from her collage box. Better.

And finally, I cut flowers from some pink and blue paper from the same museum handout. Now the gnome looks right at home in his garden, and in my garden journal.

Creating and solving these artistic challenges everyday makes my brain so happy!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Garden Update, May 2024

Dear Liza,

It seems like this time, our warm weather is here to stay. Summer has begun, and I’m here for it!

I added twelve more lettuces to my plot, since we have already started harvesting leaves off the first ones I put in last month. My lettuce plot is near a big camellia bush and in shade until noon, so it is protected from too much sun as well as any heavy summer showers that come by.

Our dahlias, Laverne and Shirley, are growing strong and chubby.

I put the tomato cages around them because they grow REALLY tall and won’t be able to support themselves. Here is a picture from LAST September.

I have some extra space for flowers this year, since I’m growing fewer tomatoes. Black Eyed Susans are a favorite of local bees. I sprinkled some seeds in with the irises and lavender.

Once I was home and got the mud off my hands, I decorated some pages in this years’ garden journal. I will tell you about them when they are done.

Love,

Grandma Judy

This Year’s Garden Journal

Dear Liza,

Since there is a garden, there must be a garden journal. For a few years, I made mine from scratch, delighting in learning a new process. Last year, I re-used a found day planner. This year, I looked in the box of books that we are giving away.

I found a book I bought years ago, called “Film Listography,” by Lisa Nola and Jon Stich. I enjoyed it very much, but I haven’t touched the book in about ten years, so I was ready to re-use it. To start the transformation of the cover, I laid down a leafy page from a magazine, then dabbed on some acrylic paint.

This softened the colors so they would be a background for the words. I love how they look all summery together! (And the bugs add a teensy creep factor).

For the back cover, a page from the PAM magazine and a holiday napkin from Ruthie Inman go together for a proper autumnal ending to the book. I used a technique Ruthie taught me to get a nice soft edge on the napkin image. It’s just a little water and a gentle tug.

It still looked a bit empty, so I hunted up a gardening quote I like and gave it the “ransom note” treatment. I added few more flowers and a bit of paint. You think maybe it’s too much?

But I made it for me, and I like it!

Inside the journal, there will be some decisions everyday about how to manipulate the interesting images that are already in the book and include my own news and art. I can’t show you much of the unaltered art, because of the “no use without written permission” rule.

I am really looking forward to a garden-filled, artsy summer.

Love,

Grandma Judy