This cool grey May morning finds me enjoying my coffee and Steemit in my new project with a view.

So new is my project that the white stain might be a bit damp on those railings.

As has become my new habit, I have decided to take Sundays as the day to reflect on my weeks activities that are not just art related. Though this garden project certainly is approached the way I do my paintings: with layers and study and on the spot changes.

Readers may recall my ongoing project which was in this state 2 weeks ago

And prior to that had just been a blank wall on our old house, Toad Hall. I didn't snap a shot before this fence went up, but despite it's old appearence (it is old that fence) I had freshly moved it to this location as part of this project. I wanted to make my veg garden smaller and to make a terrace and pergola.

And here was the beginning of my laying out the decking for the little porch.

As the weeks have been passing, I have been giving over part of each day to continue on with my project.

My goal was to sit under the pergola with the porch done and the raised garden beds at least in and partially planted by Memorial Day weekend. That is the official start of the Summer season in this area of coastal New England. I am happy to say that I succeeded.

After I had finished the main porch and errected the pergola I laid gravel and put in the garden beds around that. I also added the garden beds to the little fence 8 x 20 foot veg garden. Next, I knew I needed a spot for these two teak deck chairs, or chaise longue.

These are wonderful old chairs and are a favourite thing to sit upon and enjoy the sea view in the Summer.

The problem is they are VERY heavy and we'd have to move them each time we mowed, which was annoying. I knew they needed pride of place in this project, so I placed them and then built this small stone wall.

As I have decided to use gravel for this area around the new little porch, it is a puzzle to consider how to end the gravel into the lawn. A sane person (with more man power) would have dug down and made the gravel meet up even with the lawn. Yet, even in that case, you still get gravel in the grass and I want to avoid that as much as possible.
My plan, then, was to build two more beds out of the wood I have been using for the other beds around this ever growing terrace, to end the section and also to hold more plants.

I am plant crazy and any new place to make a little garden bed is fine with me.

I really do approach such garden projects as I do paintings. I will try out something (like a sketch) and then adjust as needed.

That is what I did here. I laid down a piece of slate I wanted to use as the entrance stone and then measured and found a size I could make two equal beds and did just that.
The result was this:

The daylilies planted in the new beds were also moved from dismantling my original very large veg garden which has been feeding this project with extra wood, supplies and plants.

Now the main pathway of gravel from the doors onto the porch needed a way to end in the lawn.

I tried various configurations of slate and such. I just didn't like it. I even left if for a day and worked on planting beds and putting up my little portable green house. Giving a project a day or two to rest, garden or painting project, really helps me.

Sometimes you need to ruminate on a piece of art for few days, whether that art is garden or painting.

When I do this I like to finish another smaller task (or make another little sketch) and it will help to let the best come out of the piece or project I am letting marinade. That is exactly what I did with this. And it was the next day, having my morning coffee, that I thought, "Of course, two more equal sized beds! Which you can see here:

The digging between these two beds is me realizing again I need a good way to terminate the gravel and beds from the lawn, but still have a nice entrance to the terrace. I dug up that space and turned the sod upside down into the new beds. Sod breaking down, grass side down, makes wonderful rich compost, so I will simply add more soil on top of that and have a good planting bed.

The choice for pathway here was stones from our beach.

I'm not 100% happy with the result and might add another layer of cement/beach shell/small stone mosaic, but for now it is good. It's a good layer of beach stone set with mortar.

Now all of this has been happening over a series of weeks. And yesterday was my day to paint, and not canvas, but the pergola I had built.

Actually, it's opaque stain, which is better with our constant salty wind; paint chips quite easily here.
So, whilst @winstonalden was mowing (here he is doing the long walk that leads to my Summer studio) I was staining and planting up some of the posts.

I have been waiting for two days of sun together to get to staining the pergola. I have plants to place at each post as the idea is for it to be covered in vines to create shade and interest. I have an old grape vine I dug up from our little cottage on the Cape and moved here the other day and it is now in place.

And I bought a lovely new honeysuckle to put up one post and that is now in the ground on another post.

And the third post has a clematis in, which is already in bloom. This is a good variety that will bloom from now until the first frost. It is said to be a good doer and fast grower, so we shall see as the Summer progresses.

I know my little mermaid statue looks a treat amongst the blooms and will probably make an appearance in some form in one of my paintings.

The fourth post is for a self pollinating hardy kiwi vine, which I have not bought yet, but is on the to-do list.

And, here we have the entire project in it's current state. Still not 100% done, but certainly enough to enjoy it.

The fun bits are what's left: the planting! The two beds at the very front were going to have box balls, but I decided to go with arborvitae as they are a bit tougher with the sea air. I will keep these trimmed in crisp ball form and then plant lavender all around them. I just like the idea of such strict structure surrounded by the blousy billowing fronds of scented lavendar. And lavender grows so well here as it loves hot dry well drained soil and we have that in spades.

Most of the plantings in pots and about will be those you'd find in a Mediterranean garden, as it is hot dry sun here most of the Summer. I will have my roses though and that is a deep herbaceous border behind the chaise longue, that will also have some roses for structure. I'm using roses as a sort of support system for some plants this year to see if they can substitute staking. We shall see,

Gardening, like Life and Art, is an experiment and one I plan to have as much fun with as possible.

I hope all are enjoying this holiday weekend. Take a moment to go outdoors and enjoy a view, even if you are in a city find a park or a museum to look at lovely landscapes. It seems as Summer approaches (for those of us in this hemisphere anyway) that plants and verdant vistas should play in our lives in some form.

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The fruits of my labour on a #sublimesunday: Relaxing on my terrace project.