Leaf of the Day: Vegetable Plot Sketches

I love vegetable gardens, probably more than flower gardens. I like the neat rows of things which start off well ordered and then become disordered and unruly...just like life really. I like the different shapes of the leaves of new seedlings and the various stages of growth. I like big terracotta forcing pots and big leafy veg, tendrils twining up supports, white labels and twiggy pea sticks. I like espaliers and cloches, earthed up potatoes, asparagus ridges, feathery carrot tops and sprawling cucumbers and all the paraphernalia which goes along with the effort to produce something edible. Sometimes, I know, the rewards are small but the doing of it has been a joy.

The little vegetable garden at Leu Gardens changes frequently with the seasons. Sometimes it is neat and all new and sometimes overblown and gone to seed. There have been some wonderful new-to-me things such as the beautiful red okra which I have yet to get around to drawing and the odd Jicama, Indian Corn, Black Eyed Peas and of course some old favourites.
There is a small "tool shed" with a rather nice grasshopper wind vane, a veranda and a rocking chair, where you can sit and watch things grow. I made a couple of sketches the other day.


There is not too much there at the moment so I did have to add a few extra leaves here and there to the watercolour sketch, but the row of onions half in and half out of the sun caught my eye.



Tomorrow a cauliflower...
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Veg Garden Sketch