Outsider Art - Martin Sanchez

I am a huge fan of outsider art, I saw my first large installment in the Caribean on vacation. It was beautiful completely constructed of seashells, shards of mirror and white stucco. The artist had created benches, low walls and scupltures for her garden. We stumbled upon it while wandering off the beaten path - it was gorgeous.
Artist Martin Sanchez and his beautiful daughter Stephanie outside their restaurant that resides across the street from Martin's chapel.

Folk artist Martin Sanchez has transformed nearly an entire city block in Riverside, California into a chapel built from found materials, curiosities, and oddities. The photo above is a view of the exterior of the chapel, with beer and soda bottles serving as walls. The interior of the sanctuary illuminates the chapel with color from the bottles in the walls.

Some of the border walls surrounding various scupltures outside of the chapel feature some interesting materials like the Barbie doll and Gremlin toy.

Fresco featuring the sky, clouds the Holy Mother and cherubs floating overhead.

Restaurant-owner and folk artist Martin Sanchez has created an urban oasis, a garden of Eden, hidden behind shrubs, trees and a wrought-iron fence inside Martin’s Tio’s Tacos restaurant on Mission Inn Avenue in Riverside, California.

Another conglomeration sculpture by Martin at his restaurant with broken shards of statuary and figurines.

Relatively undiscovered, Mr. Sanchez has been working on his creation for almost 10 years. Patrons of the restaurant can walk underneath cooling streams of water flowing from a fountain garden made of broken pieces of clay and old pipes, discarded bicycles, dolls and other items.

One of the many mini shrines located inside the chapel featuring garage sale finds and imagery decoupaged on the window sill.

There is topiary wire filled with Barbie dolls, perfume bottles and pipe elbows. There’s an incredible path through an archway lined in tubing pumping water, creating an obstacle course of water, where one can walk without getting wet.

Sanchez came to the United States in 1984. He struggled at first, selling oranges in East Los Angeles, working in factories and making extra money by selling tacos. He became a legal resident during the 1986 federal amnesty.
In 1992, Sanchez quit factory work and persuaded the owner of a Mexican seafood restaurant to let him sell tacos out of a corner of the establishment. Eventually, he raised enough money to buy the place.
Now, he lives in the house next door with his wife, Concepcion Sanchez, 38, and three daughters: Stephanie, 16, Kimberly, 12, and Maiten, 1.

Chris Oldham - Spray Paint Mural

What a great way to comaflauge a metal storage shed that houses the lawn mower and gardening tools! Chris Oldham uses spray paint to create bold and vibrant murals for area businesses around the city and in this case his friends shabby metal storage shed at their home.

Chris has faux painted large murals on the side of brick buildings from the early 1900s that look like they are the original advertisement that has weathered over 100 years.

He also paints vintage windows with graphic images for children's bedrooms like frogs, turtles, deer, snails, etc.

The owner of the shed was so enthused about painting the shed that Chris talked her into doing a side of her own. With a little help this is the beginnings of an animal menagerie mural she has started on her shed.

A Little Bit of Spring

Dogwood Blossom from my tree.

It's rumored by our local meterologists that we will receive snowfall tomorrow - up to six inches of snow in Kansas. The tulips are in bloom, the jonquils, crocus, grape hyacinth, daffodils, narcissis......sigh.

We have been having balmy days at times in the 70's and everyone has Spring Fever. We are so ready to be in our gardens digging in the dirt planting our seedlings. So full of hope for the upcoming growing season where we will harvest our wonderful flowers in a few months time.
Molly and Angus love to sit at this window in the living room where they keep watch over the garden. From this vantage point they can see all the "goings on" in the garden. The birds, bees and butterflies are welcome, but the dreaded chipmunk and squirrel are NOT ALLOWED. Angus and Molly race for the door to be released into the garden to chase away all four legged visitors. However, they make such a racket going down the stairs into the garden that any critters that were there have a big head start.
This is my tiny vegetable garden in the city that is located in my backyard. I plant herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, green peppers, sunflowers, and green beans. We harvest lots of tomatoes in the Summer and my very favorite tomato of all is the Sungold cherry tomato. Molly loves them as well and will delicately grasp one in her teeth and gently pull it from the vine, run into the yard, lie down and munch away. She just loves them.
Herbs gone wild in the garden - basil, oregano, chives, and thyme. The euchinaca or coneflowers are there for color and honey bees.
This little spot is tucked away by my potting table and I fill it with low growers like alyssium, sedum, iris, lady's mantle, forget me nots, and petunias. I also plant morning glories to grow up the trellis and a lovely tea rose.
This is my potting table in the garden my hubby made me from a repurposed cast iron sink with a functioning faucet. I love it. The sink was in a house that we renovated and was going to be thrown away - Oh No, don't throw that away, I can use that! How many times has by hubby heard me say that? Countless....
Another section of the flower garden for the tall growers like cleome. Molly is always in search of chippies (chipmunks) when she is in the garden. She is certain that they are hiding everywhere underneath the flowers. They are fat little things as they feed on the bird seed that I fill the feeders with year around.

I love my various little gardens that I fill with flowers, herbs, and - well, anything I like. I have a lounger that I sit in at the end of the day under a flowering plum tree with a glass of wine listening to the bees hum, and watch the butterflies flutter from blossom to blossom. It's my favorite end to a day.

I can endure the upcoming snow flurry knowing that in only a few short months I will be in the garden enjoying another lovely sunset.

Planting Potatoes at the Farm

Here's my little buddy, Angus, my Rat Terrier mix.  Angus loves gardening season.  He is my little garden shadow following me around, napping nearby, watching with interest as I dig and bury things in the soil.   When you think about it, gardening is something a dog would totally get - digging and burying.

We had the most lovely day for planting, it was sunny and warm - the perfect day.  It was also Dan's birthday and the first year he has planted potatoes on his birthday.  It is a little risky to plant potatoes before mid March, but the day was too beautiful not to be outside gardening.

Early Spring planting is limited to white and red potatoes, red onions, radish, carrots, and beets.  We plant the non fussy crops at the farm and the more high maintenance crops in the city where we spend most of our time so that we can watch over them like lettuce, spinach, peas and broccoli.

We also planted four grapevines, adding them to the arbor and planning for a second arbor on the next visit.  We will also be transplanting black raspberries this Spring and planting more fruit trees.

The existing fruit trees are in poor condition.  They have borers and haven't been pruned in years.  I gave them a severe pruning, opening up the middle of the trees and lopping off cross branches and vertical branches.  I will sacrifice fruit production this year for better yields next year.  

We picked rock again, the freeze and thaw of Winter heaves the rocks to the surface of the soil and picking rock is part of the garden preparation process each year.  We filled 12 five gallon buckets with rock which I am using for a rock garden.  

After all that work , Molly, my Jack Russell, is ready for a break - stretching out in the warm and soft soil - I think it's time for a little nap.  

Life with dogs or cats - what a blessing.  Except when Molly drops her ball on the seeds you are planting so that you will have to pick it up and toss it out of the way - again and again.  She doesn't care how much you fuss at her or yell at her to knock it off.  She just wags her tail and waits for the ball to be tossed away.

Sweet Angus, he is the sweetest dog EVER.  He loves everyone, especially other bubber hounds.  He knows no strangers and is always eager to make new friends.  He's the calmer of the two, more friendly than Molly and a brilliant little dog.  He is so easy to train - I highly recommend Rat and Fox Terriers.  They are great pets.  I always caution against, Jack Russells like Molly - they are a hand full, willful, and tenacious - they require a firm hand and loads of exercise.  Otherwise, they will destroy your house and garden.

Red onion sets for the garden - my favorite.  I use them alot in cooking adding them to salads, chili, cheese steaks, italian dishes and they are especially good on cheeseburgers.  Is it lunchtime?

The little white shed in the background is my future chicken house.  We will rennovate it this Spring it needs a new roof, paint, new windows, door, etc.  We are considering adding a red roof in honor of Dan's grandparents who had white buildings and red roofs when he was growing up.  

We love organic brown eggs and purchase them from local suppliers when available.  The shells are thick and the yolks the brightest orange - they taste buttery - delicious.  I am so anxious to have a ready supply of eggs and pest control in the garden.  Chickens are great at keeping the garden free of bugs.

Seed potatoes ready to be quartered leaving several eyes per wedge.  We planted the three varieties of potatoes this year and will have loads of potatoes to share with family and friends.

It was a glorious day, spent in the sunshine with a gentle breeze, birds singing, tiny frogs creaking and cows mooing in the distance.  I wish you could have been there with me...

Garden District - New Orleans, Louisiana

On a recent trip to New Orleans, I enjoyed lovely weather in the 60's - the locals were complaining about how unseasonaly cool it was for this time of year.  I thought it was divine as it was 19 degrees in Kansas City while I was gone.
Camillias were in bloom in shades of white, pink, and red - one of my very favorite flowers that unfortunately we cannot grow here in the Midwest due to our cold Winters.  Some of the camillias were over 6 feet tall and covered in blossoms.

Azaelas, roses, lantana, honeysuckle, alyssium, camillias - yummy.
Trees in bloom -  it was our April in the Midwest in January down South.  It was so nice to see new Spring blooms in the middle of Winter.   

The architecture and metal work on the fencing and gates were spectacular - craftsmanship you rarely have the pleasure to see today.   I have always been fascinated with ironwork and have entertained the thoughts of a blacksmithing class.  
Gas lanterns were in flame everywhere.....so charming and romantic.
Hedges, iron fences, white pickets, gas lanterns, sago palms, french style windows and shutters and blooms, blooms, blooms everywhere.
A variegated camillia in red and marbled with white.  A wonderful specimen 8 feet tall and loaded with blossoms.  What a treat!
You can't go wrong with a pure white blossom - you should see them at night - they glow.
So inviting, the homes were majestic.  Wealthy southerners moved to the Garden District from the French Quarter in the 1800's - long ago and built beautiful southern mansions for us Midwesterners to walk past and enjoy.  

I had alot of fun in the Garden District, after my stroll I found the Garden District Needlecraft Shop - the girls were so friendly and wonderful.  I purchased the most wonderful yarn for knitted socks.  

Gazebo Project

This is our latest gazebo project that we built for a client in Shawnee, Kansas.  We built the gazebo complete with ceiling fan inside for a nice breeze during the warmer months of the year.  We built this gazebo of vinyl overlay over treated lumber so that the gazebo is maintenance free - no painting!
The site had to be graded, a new sidewalk was added to join the gazebo with the existing garden storage shed.  We added a handicap ramp to the garden shed for the occupant who need the shed and gazebo to be accessible.

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Isn't this a lovely entrance door to the gazebo?
The floor is very special in octagon shape in gray that matches the ceiling of the gazebo.  With screening the gazebo will be a bug free place to relax in the evenings.
A vaulted octagonal shaped ceiling to match the floor of the gazebo with a ceiling fan and light kit.
We built the fence and gate behind the gazebo for added privacy and added the mulch free of cost to the owner.  She loved it and we were so happy knowing that she would be enjoying her new gazebo in her beloved garden.

If you are interested in adding a gazebo or garden element - call our shoppe for more information.