Nature: Observation, Drawing and Painting

Tiger Swallowtail - watercolor by Maya

My daughter came back from wildlife study camp today - with beautiful watercolors of butterflies she had caught and studied.  At first, she thought of making a booklet of the butterflies, but tomorrow she tells me she is going to make a mobile.

I'll post more pictures when her project is done.  It reminds of the beauty of taking time to slow down, to study and draw in the summer.

Also see the blog piece "Keen Observation" from the Junior Master Gardener's website contributor David Cain on observation and nature/plant journaling.  Maybe like you, I will be inspired, to make time and to get out some paper, the paint box and sharpen my pencils, and put the camera away for a day or two - and get outside and observe and draw!

Strawberry Fields Forever....Mulch, Observe and Journal

After a few weeks, the strawberries are growing in both beds and so are the weeds!  I note that in the bed that gets more sun - both weeds and strawberry plants are growing larger than in the shadier bed.

Already there are a few berries forming...

I notice a couple of half-ripe strawberries have been half-eaten by roly-poly's.  I decide to weed and then mulch the earth gaps between the strawberries: perhaps this will help keep down the weeds and keep the strawberry fruit off the earth so that they are less eaten by roly-poly's.  The bird netting is working to keep off the birds! 

"Do the strawberries need straw?"  I post the question to Master Gardeners and get plenty of responses: Some people advise straw in the fall, and then raking back the straw in the spring.  But now is the spring...
A colleague gives me a third of a bale of straw for free!
Another person recommends newspaper - it's cheap and works!
I decide to try - one bed with straw mulching...

and the other one with newspaper mulching.

Observe your own strawberry beds.  What's happening?
Here's some journal entries about strawberries from Arlington Traditional School students.  I'm observing and blogging..  



Next: let's harvest and look at the strawberries in more detail