My Garden Sketchbook and Journal Firstly, you must know... I’m no horticulturalist Im not a botanist.... I'm just a girl who is on a mission to get some order in my garden! I have high hopes and all the nessesary tools. I want to be able to grow all the fabulous specimens for my drawing and eating pleasure. I am setting myself some lofty goals which I’m going to share with you along the way. So... The artist in me, first, had to make a pretty garden planner for recording what I do in my Garden, and when. I thought I would also share this with you too! (I will put a free download for my August 2018 Garden Planner at the end of this post.) I have pasted this into a simple note book and painted my illustration. Gardening by the moon cycle, "Moonplanting", is a tool I want to use this season, so i have placed the full moon and new moon. Working by this each month I hope to find a good rhythm in my Gardening routine, block out tasks and get a beautiful garden.
Last month I began preparing all my garden beds, digging in the leaf mulch from autumn, compost from the bottom of my compost bin, chook poop form their house each time I freshened their bedding. I collected seaweed from the beach and ash from our outdoor fire which all went in. Then went in a huge sack of horse poop from our neighbours stables... The last big dig over was handfulls of Lime whew! Thats a lot of digging!! With all that done, I've let it rest. Another job is sprouting potatoes. Apparently, this takes a month. I've laid my seed potatoes in box, in a dry dark area in my basement. They will be ready to plant in September, which will hopefully give us fresh potatoes to dig up in time for Christmas... We are going to find out together. August chores with the Rhythm of the Moon Last seasons Seed Collection 1st - 7th August. Harvest and Prune. Not a good time for planting. 8th & 9th August. Sow & Plant Root crops. 10th -14th August. Prepare beds for planting phase. Add Mulch and compost. 15th - 23rd August Planting all above ground crops. 24th - 28th August. Weeding and mulching. 29th - 31st August Sow and Plant root crops. I'm going to decide what to plant and Sow. The beds are ready! Bring on Planting Day! Click the Download here to get your printable August 2018 Garden Planner 
Pretty Botanical IllustrationsThis is one of my passions and one of the reasons I want to grow a luscious garden... so I can fill my sketch books with luscious botanical illustrations. A few years ago I was inspired by an amazing Artist and Teacher, Margaret- Mary Farr, the joy of observational nature painting and drawing. I got the bug, I practiced (and continue to practice) everyday. There is a sence of peace I feel while Im looking deeply into a flower or studying a leaf pattern. My daily ritual is to go for a jog around our block and find something new to bring home to study. Slowly I am learning. Slowly I am getting better. A monthly addition to my Garden Journal? This will be a treat to look back on in a years time!   The link below will take you to a New Zealand site which has the Moon Calendar available for download Happy garden planning X Joni
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