A run of beautiful weather at the end of the week meant outdoor jobs. Laundry got out drying on the line, and B started work on building a new concrete step, and, of course, tending the garden originally created by my parents - my architect father who built and maintained the structure of the garden, and my creative, educator mother who planned and planted and weeded and nurtured it. I can sit and stare at plants for hours, working out how they grow and develop and start their cycle all over again. B and I did a lot of weeding and separating plants which had grown up through their neighbours and in the process I always find mysterious weird things, some are pictured above, which I am sure inform my drawings unconsciously.
I also potted up some cuttings and repotted some house plants including a cactus I had given my mum in 2006. It was so tiny and perfect in its lava-like form I think she believed it to be a decorative ornament because she never watered it, although she had green fingers and was a gifted gardener. Consequently the plant seemed to remain dormant and didn't put on any new growth in eleven years. I began to water it regularly about 4 years ago and I was astonished by how it took off, and now it has quadrupled in size. After all those years of neglect followed by sudden vigorous growth I thought it was probably time to pot it on, and oh boy did it need it! Its tap root was like a parsnip, massively strong, and all the roots had grown through the plastic pot holes and transformed into a sponge-like, flat mass. I cut the old pot away and trimmed up the roots except for the parsnip, which had thrust itself through a drainage hole and grown all around it in a big bulge. All I could do was snip into the collar of plastic to loosen it and hope the plant will push it off in time. I didn't think to take a photo but I'm sure somehow it will find a way into my work, it was kind of scary-horror.
I also potted up some cuttings and repotted some house plants including a cactus I had given my mum in 2006. It was so tiny and perfect in its lava-like form I think she believed it to be a decorative ornament because she never watered it, although she had green fingers and was a gifted gardener. Consequently the plant seemed to remain dormant and didn't put on any new growth in eleven years. I began to water it regularly about 4 years ago and I was astonished by how it took off, and now it has quadrupled in size. After all those years of neglect followed by sudden vigorous growth I thought it was probably time to pot it on, and oh boy did it need it! Its tap root was like a parsnip, massively strong, and all the roots had grown through the plastic pot holes and transformed into a sponge-like, flat mass. I cut the old pot away and trimmed up the roots except for the parsnip, which had thrust itself through a drainage hole and grown all around it in a big bulge. All I could do was snip into the collar of plastic to loosen it and hope the plant will push it off in time. I didn't think to take a photo but I'm sure somehow it will find a way into my work, it was kind of scary-horror.
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