garden flowers Archives

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Barb — 5 Comments

Early Spring Flowers – Nature Study and Art Project

Our Pansy Study and Early Spring Flowers Challenge

What a splendid time to be out in the garden! Our neighborhood is coming alive with spring blossoms and the birds are flocking to our feeders in record numbers. We have an abundance of house finches this year and they vary in color from light pink to purple to almost orange. Amazing display of creation!

The early spring bulbs are all up and many are blooming. The daffodils and the grape hyacinth are blazing with color. The forsythia is starting to blossom and the lavender has new flowers for our bees to buzz in. The tulips and iris are all up but just showing lots of green leaves so far.

We arranged dozens of flowers in the house and our kitchen table is so cheerful and happy. I got out all my vases and dusted them off for the season. I seem to collect pretty vases and I love it even more when they don’t match exactly. Even my hubby had a smile on his face when he spied the colorful flowers on the table.

So our pansy study consisted mostly of admiring them and recreating them in artwork since we have studied them closely in the past. Mr. B and I had pansy art time on a rainy afternoon. There really is no better way to make yourself examine a subject better than to apply your attention to an art project. Slowing down to discover the shapes, form, and patterns makes a big impression.

Mr. B always chooses to work with markers if given the choice but I am still working on feeling comfortable with acrylics. I think these pansy creations are going to be framed and hung in my bathroom vanity area. I have a small collection of floral artwork done by children there already so it will be a perfect fit.

I played around with the acrylics and a small canvas panel I had from Michaels. I tried not to take myself too seriously and just have fun. Art therapy….even for moms.

So now we are officially finished with the More Nature Study Book 2 – Winter 2012 challenges and we will be going over a few of the suggested Charlotte Mason Exam Questions that are included in the ebook. The thing about Charlotte Mason style questions is that they ask the child to tell back in some way what they know about a topic and never to find out what they don’t know. I do not grade these assignments and look at them as a way for Mr. B to review what we learned and enjoy a little more time together discussing things that are fresh in our minds. I recommend you give it a try if you have the More Nature Study ebook and see how it goes.

Don’t forget to send me your Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival entries directly since the carnival website is not working.
harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

As a reminder, we will be starting the new More Nature Study Book 3 – Spring Splendor series on March 23, 2012. Just in time for the first days of spring! I look forward to another season of nature study with all of you.

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Barb — Leave a comment

OHC More Nature Study Book 2 – Pansy

More Nature Study Book #2
Flower Study – Pansy

Inside Preparation Work:

Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 555-558 (Lesson 152). Pansies are a flower children love and once you point out the “face” in the flower they will never forget this lesson. Highlight information as you read the narrative so that you can acquaint your child with the details of this pretty flower.
See if you can find some pansies at your local garden center to purchase and bring home for observations this week as part of your nature study time.
Watch these videos for good information on growing pansies: Learning About Pansies. Planting Pansies.
Advanced preparation: Read the Wikipedia article on pansies.

Outdoor Hour Time:

If you were able to purchase some pansies, use your outdoor time to plant them in your garden or in a container. Follow the directions that come with your pansy for proper placement in the garden.
Observe your pansy using the suggestions in Lesson 152. For younger students you should complete suggestion #1. For older students you can add as many of the other ideas as you have time.
If you do not have a pansy to observe, spend your outdoor time looking at any spring flowers you have available. See this past challenge for observation ideas: Early Spring Flowers: Tulips, Daffodils, and Crocus.

Follow-Up Activity:

The pansy is a wonderful flower to watercolor in your nature journal. Get out the paints and let your children give it a try. You can use watercolor paper cut to the right size to fit in your journal or notebook if you don’t want to watercolor directly onto the journal paper.
Sketch your pansy, write a description of your pansy just like a scientist would do in a journal, and then use your words to make a pansy poem. You can copy your poem to fresh paper and decorate it for your nature journal. Ebook users: Complete the notebook page included in the ebook and/or the coloring page.
Advanced follow-up: Use the questions from Lesson 152 to summarize your pansy observations (Ebook users: notebook page provided).

Make sure to sketch your flower and label its parts. You may find these two pages helpful: Pansy Flowers and Standard Flower. You can also press a pansy and then include it in your nature journal. You can see my short video tutorial: How To Make a Flower Press for ideas.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Barb — Leave a comment

Late Blooming Sunflowers – First Day of Autumn Beauty

My Prairie Sunflowers are now blooming…took all summer but they are now showing their very cheery faces. I am sort of glad they waited so long to bloom because all the other sunflowers are done and in the compost.

How would you like a great link to a some coloring book pages?
Celebrate Wildflowers

Apparently, flowers have a “biological clock”. I have been fascinated with this idea all summer and I think it makes for an interesting read: How To Make A Flower Clock. On that note, my Four O’Clocks are just about ready to bloom. I have been nursing them along all summer and I think they finally are getting some flower buds…need to watch for the bloom time.

We still have an abundance of insects in our late summer/early autumn garden. In fact, they are even more active from what I have observed. These bees were loving the trumpet vines…sharing at times with the hummingbirds. Make your own Bee Observations (free printable from HomeschoolShare.Com – Click the Bee Lapbook and then print Observation Cards and Pocket).

Our zinnias are such great performers and are relatively maintenance free except for cutting the flowers and enjoying them in a vase on your kitchen table. 🙂

We have enjoyed our container dahlias this year…seeds from Rene’s Garden. I found this paper craft for dahlias…so very pretty and fun. Then again, I may just pull out the watercolors later and made an entry in my journal.

We are working on cleaning up the garden … lots of trimming, raking, pruning, harvesting, picking, and composting going on here. Garden update next week.

Have a wonderful first day of autumn.

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

Sunflower Summer: Squeezing Out the Goodness

This is most definitely the summer of the sunflower. We have had full bloom for so long now and the last of the varieties has started to bloom.

The Lemon Sunflowers are just radiant and the bees are happy to have a new snack spot. We have been cutting them and bringing them inside to enjoy on the kitchen table.

The colorful sunflowers are amazing to look at up close. The seeds are so dark black and the petals look as if someone painted them on with watercolors…deep brown and burgandy.

Sometimes I go through a phase where I am all about words….writing, talking, sharing. Then there are times when it seems like things are just in pictures….colors, images, impressions. I think I am in one of those times right now and I just take hundreds of photos, am attracted to video, and need to make sketches and watercolors of everything I see. There just is not enough time to capture it all…..I know I will cycle around again and be ready to write more about my thoughts. My brain is certainly thinking all the time and there are many things I would like to share but in the meantime you will forgive my lack of writing and just enjoy my images instead.

I will be full of images soon…..one last hike at Yosemite coming up this weekend with a friend, a girl’s weekend. One last real month in the colors and liveliness of the summer garden. There are stacks of books waiting to be organized and enjoyed as we prepare for our homeschool year but they will wait until the last drop of summer is squeezed out of the season.

Enjoy your August day!

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Front Yard Remodel Update July 2011

Front Yard March 28, 2011

Front Yard July 20, 2011

Wow! Can you believe how much the plants have grown and filled in the space? It is amazing to see a garden come alive….from your ideas, to paper, to real life.

I love gardening.

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Barb — 4 Comments

Sunflower Garden – July Newsletter Grid Study

Our Sunflower Garden July 17, 2011

Sunflowers are the theme of our garden this year….as anticipated. We planted our seeds on May 10th and they started blooming on July 16th. That is a long time to wait but so worth the time and effort! Now with the July Newsletter focus on sunflowers using the Nature Study Grid and notebooking page, we are slowing down to do some careful observations. This is also made easy by the fact that we are participating in the Great Sunflower Project and counting bees.

Here are the first of our blooms.

Sunflower with lots of pollen!

This is actually not one of the seeds that we planted but it popped up under the birdfeeder. They are a perfect complement to our little backyard feeder garden.

From Renee’s Garden Seeds – Royal Flush. I love the watercolor like colors in this bloom.

Here is another one from Renee’s Garden – Chocolate Cherry. Amazing color in the garden!

I think this is the third seed from Renee’s Garden – Van Gogh.

We found this spider crawling on a big sunflower last week…..he sure blends in.

Here is another image from the volunteer sunflowers around the birdfeeder. If you look carefully, you can see that these are actually two different kinds of sunflowers.

Another bee favorite in our yard is the coneflower. They are rather tall this year and always full of buzzing bees. Coneflowers are on the list of bee attractive plants that you can use as part of the Great Sunflower Project this summer.

How about that bee? He is in our bee balm and loving it. I decided this is a plant that I need to add to more of my flower garden next year.

We have been busy learning some new things and making lots of detailed observations using all of our sunflowers. How about your family? Have you done your July Newsletter sunflower study? I look forward to seeing your entries in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on July 12, 2011May 1, 2023 by Barb — 6 Comments

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly – Our July Newsletter Insect Study

Swallowtail at Yosemite National Park 2006

Since we just studied and observed our honeybees, we decided to learn more about another common backyard insect that we see all the time in our butterfly garden….the Western tiger swallowtail. There are some amazing images on this webpage. There is also quite a bit of information on Enchanted Learning.

We often see swallowtails on our butterfly bushes.

This rather large butterfly is a frequent visitor to our backyard habitat. One afternoon this past week I watched as two swallowtails dipped and swirled around the garden. They are so pretty but they don’t stay put very long at all.

We pulled out the Handbook of Nature Study and read the section on Black swallowtail butterflies to get sort of an overview of this insect. (Lesson 70) Here is a little excerpt:

“This graceful butterfly is a very good friend to the flowers, being a most efficient pollen-carrier. It haunts the gardens and sips nectar from all the blossom cups held out for its refreshment; and it is found throughout almost all parts of the United States. The grace of its appearance is much enhanced by the “swallowtails,” two projections from the hind margins of the hind wings.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 301

We got out our insect field guide and found out some more interesting facts:
Its caterpillars feed on alder, poplar, willow.
Habitat: Mixed and deciduous forests, open ares, even in urban areas.
Wingspan 3 1/2″ to 4 3/8″
Yellow wings, single “tail”

This Saturday, July 16th, is the day that the Great Sunflower Project is requesting that we observe our bees. Read more about how you can participate HERE. I look forward to hearing about your bees as part of the July Newsletter challenge. You can also observe your sunflowers at the same time!

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

Day Lilies – Abundance of Beauty

We have collected quite a few different varieties of day lilies over the year and right now they are blooming like crazy. Thanks to a day lily farm not too far from our house we have access to so many different colors, shapes, and sizes of lilies to choose from. We try to add one new variety each year and keeping track of the names has been a big job.

I thought perhaps taking a photo and keeping a record of the names would be a better way than relying on my memory. I have lost my paper with my whole list so I have only given the names for the flowers I am sure of in this post.

Dark Pink and Orange

Light Pink and slightly fragrant = American Original

Yellow and shaped like a spider = Shenandoah

Maroon and yellow = Rain Dance

Yellow and Purple

Red and yellow shaped like a spider = Stoplight

I guess I have become sort of a “collector” of flowers. I love walking around my garden each week and seeing which flowers are blooming. Some of the day lilies will bloom later in the summer, some even into autumn. We tried to pick particular varieties so we would continually have blooms to enjoy.

I love this plant and it is super easy to grow. They multiple fairly fast and you can divide the plants and fill in spaces as you like. My dad and I have started sharing day lilies and that is a great way to build up your beds.

This is also a perfect flower to learn your plant parts. Check out Garden Flowers-Flower Parts: Challenge #13 and Garden Flowers-Pollen: Challenge #18.

“All the names should be taught gradually by constant unemphasized use on the part of the teacher; and if the child does not learn the names naturally then do not make him do it unnaturally.”Handbook of Nature Study, page 456

Enjoy your garden this week!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Barb — 8 Comments

Growing An Artist Garden Takes Patience – Weekly Update

It looks like it is almost time! As I tour my garden this week I notice that all the blooming plants have buds just waiting to burst out in color. This is the first of our sunflowers….sprouted up under the birdfeeder all on its own. What joy to find this waiting for me this morning! Promises of more are all over the garden and I will soon be using THIS tutorial to make some oil pastel artwork. I am thinking of inviting some friends over to join me and to spend an afternoon creating sunflower art.

The Bee Balm has filled an area in the butterfly garden and can see this going on a canvas as well. Wait until you see it in full bloom! The reds and the fluffiness remind me of butterfly’s wings.

Here is my sunflower box….it is bursting with tall healthy plants and since I mixed the seed varieties it will be interesting to see the color palette once it starts to show its blooms.

The zinnias are going to be amazing soon! I love zinnias and we will fill up vase after vase of them to put on the kitchen table. This year we will capture them with paints too!

Daisies are a new addition to our flower garden. I have visions of a whole box filled with them as the years go by….just like in Pride and Prejudice where Jane and Elizabeth are out in the garden cutting baskets of flowers. I can dream can’t I?

Coneflowers at last! This the first real flower blooming but there are about a hundred ready to bloom. I will cut some for vases and use some in a still life just as soon as I get my self motivated.

Our trumpet vines are blooming around the edges and the hummingbirds have moved from the feeders to the flowers….they must taste good because there are a number of birds that stop by each day to buzz in and out of the blossoms. It is so fascinating to watch as they hover over the vines and sip the nectar.

Couldn’t resist including an image of the Three Sisters Garden in the early morning light…delightful. Pretty soon I will not be able to walk between the rows because the plants are growing so much. I will keep you posted on the progress of the section of the garden….right now the most striking part of the garden is the HUGE leaves on the pumpkins.

There you have our garden update for the week….mostly about the Artist Garden and my plans for using the plants and flowers as subjects for my artwork. Soon…..stay tuned.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Barb — 4 Comments

Planning a Garden and Watching it Grow

So as I walked through my garden this week I realized that having a garden is like watching an awakening of a new life. When we plant a seed, we know in our head that it will produce a particular kind of plant. After a period of time we know that it will grow into a flower or veggie. But have you stopped lately to consider just why it does that? That life comes from somewhere…it is not mere mechanics. I choose to give all the glory to the Master Gardener in heaven. Here are some of His creations that have come to life in my yard.

Sometimes I choose a plant because of its color, sometimes its fragrance, and sometimes its texture. My new Sage has it all…another bee loving plant in our remodeled frontyard. I love this plant and I hope it continues to grow right where it is in the middle of my walk-way plantings.

This plant is Mr. A’s favorite and he asked if we could add it to the front yard when we were planning the new beds. This Red Hot Poker is a favorite of the hummingbirds. I actually thought it was dead this past winter because it didn’t look at all like it had any life left in it but here it is….glorious. You can see my English Lavender in the background as it is bursting with blossoms and bees.

Our grapes coming along strong. In fact, we had to cut them back already because they were overwhelming the corner of the garden where we sit in their shade. We have a couple varieties planted but I am pretty sure these are the Thompson seedless…good eating grapes.

Sunflowers by the dozens are all starting to form in our bee garden. Wake up sunflowers!

Tomatoes are green but hold the promise of being sweet juicy morsels soon.

Pumpkins in the Three Sisters Garden are growing by the minute. We had a few days of hot hot weather and they loved it. I am thrilled they are looking so great!

We have coneflowers that are almost taller than I am this year.I think the buds are almost as pretty as the flowers but the bees are waiting on the real thing.

Our pole beans are holding on tight and climbing towards the summer sky. I swear I put the poles in and the next day they were already half way up….I need to do a time lapse. My morning glories are doing the same thing out in the other garden.

The Butterfly bush is going to be in full bloom soon. We planted three new bushes this year and I love the graceful way they grow. I am not a tidy gardener so it is fine with me that they sort of grow as they wish. My garden this year is by far the most free-flowing of all gardens. I decided it is more fun not to try to control everything.

One last hydrangea image….especially for my hydrangea loving friend Tricia.

Hope you enjoyed your stroll through our gardens this week. We had two inches of rain last night so I am glad that I got out and took the photos a few days ago. We never get that much rain in June so it continues to be an unusual year here in Northern California.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Category: garden flowers

Early Spring Flowers – Nature Study and Art Project

OHC More Nature Study Book 2 – Pansy

Late Blooming Sunflowers – First Day of Autumn Beauty

Sunflower Summer: Squeezing Out the Goodness

Front Yard Remodel Update July 2011

Sunflower Garden – July Newsletter Grid Study

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly – Our July Newsletter Insect Study

Day Lilies – Abundance of Beauty

Growing An Artist Garden Takes Patience – Weekly Update

Planning a Garden and Watching it Grow

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