DRIFTING INTO FALL, THE GARDEN SHINES

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Fall, Fall Flowers, Flowers, Growing, Harvest, Photography, Vegetable garden

Tags

beans, cabbage, comice pears, dahlias, fall, garden spiders, harvest, honeybees, matricaria, savoy cabbage, squash, tomatoes, verbena bonariensis

Mystery dahlia, but quite lovely

AS SEPTEMBER GENTLY NUDGES US INTO A FALL state of mind, there are lovely moments nearly everyday. The colors of late summer and early fall flowers are rich and vibrant. Tomato harvest is peaking. Cabbages are just this side of splitting. Pears need picking almost daily. Cactus are blooming! Winter squash are ripening and bees and spiders are busy, busy, busy.

I’ll let the garden speak for itself.

BIG mystery squash. Came from the zucchini packet!

I think this is a banana squash. The seed came from the zucchini packet!

Bartlett and Comice pears

30 year old (maybe older) mammillaria pringlei.

Berkely Tie-dye

Is this a beautiful blossom? Bean blossoms are often hidden by the leaves

Is this a beautiful blossom? Bean blossoms are seldom seen as they are often hidden by the leaves.

These are EVERYWHERE.

As are these (on the tiny flowers of sedum ‘Autumn Joy’)…

and partaking of nectar from caryopteris ‘Dark Knight’

Bees drinking at the birdbath. We have a beekeeper in our neighborhood–hooray!

and drinking at the birdbath. We have a beekeeper in our neighborhood–hooray!

Savoy cabbage

Matricaria. They look so cheerful and like sunny side-up eggs. They self-sow.

Matricaria (also known as feverfew); they look so cheerful and like sunnyside-up eggs. They self-sow freely.

Many plants in my ornamental and vegetable gardens are volunteers, like this verbena bonariensis whose seeds came from compost. Volunteer flowers in the vegetable garden enliven the scenery and invite lots of pollinators and predators alike.

Many plants in my ornamental and vegetable gardens are volunteers, like this verbena bonariensis whose seeds likely came from compost added to the garden. I like to leave volunteer flowers in the vegetable garden to enliven the scenery and invite lots of pollinators and predators alike.

NATURE LOVES A CURVE

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Flowers, Foliage, Food, Fun in the Garden, Growing, Inspriation, Nature

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bean stalk, chicory flower, curves, Gardening, garlic, garlic scapes, nature, petals, plants, poppies, seedpod, shapes

The sinuous curl of a garlic scape

The roll of pollen laden stamens in a chicory flower

The twist of a bean stalk seeking support

The twist of a bean stalk reaching for the sky

The recurving petals of lilium citronella

The soft wave of a poppy’s petal and oval of a honeybee’s body. The roundness of a seedpod and its spoked top

The rolling, cradle of leaves that surround and protect a cauliflower

RAIN, RAIN, HOW DO WE LOVE THEE?

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Flowers, Inspriation, Musings, Rain, Weather, Winter flowers

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blogging, clematis, Early tulips, hamamelis, pear & apple trees, rain, winter, winter flowers, winter gloom

TODAY A BIG RAIN STORM IS MOVING IN after some pretty fair days. But no complaints considering the weather everywhere east of here. We even managed to get some general maintenance and weeding done over the past week or so.

Witchhazel, Hamamelis x intermedia

SOMETIMES WE NEED A BREAK from our routines. I needed a break from this blog. Keeping up on a regular basis was becoming a drag and I no longer felt that inner voice to be engaging. So I gave it and myself a rest. The busyness of the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed like a good excuse to ignore the beast. I spent time painting and creating; baking with my granddaughter, hanging out with family; having dinner with neighbors and generally enjoying the hustle and warmth of the holidays. After the holidays were over it was time to take a break from the monotony of long, gray, days here in the Pacific Northwest by spending 14 days in Death Valley National Park. And now with winter flowers popping and some early spring ones too, I’m back to feeling like I still have some thoughts and pictures worth sharing.

A lovely winter blooming clematis on a clear day

This clematis cirrhosa blooms continuously from November to March when little else relieves winter gloom.

Nothing lightens the spirit like the first crocus on a sunny winter day.

A red blooming hamamelis in the warm glow of a setting sun.

The earliest tulip has just pushed up over the past week

Silhouette of pear and apple trees at sunset. Hooray! The sun is now setting closer to 6:00 p.m.

SOME WINTER SUNSHINE

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Cameras, Desert, Flowers, Travel, Winter

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clematis, crocus, Death Valley, hamamelis, hellebores, railroad locomotive, sunshine, Travel, winter cyclamen, winter flowers

Hiking above Texas Spring campground, Death Valley

WE TOOK A BREAK IN JANUARY IN SEARCH OF SUNSHINE and warmth. It’s hard to believe it has been more than two months since the last post! And now I’ve gotten out of the blogging habit. So time to do some catching up. We spent a total of eleven days in Death Valley over two visits, and explored some old and new territory in Arizona and California. We took ten great hikes in 30 days and plenty of short walks too. So much to see and explore…

Los Banos Reservoir walk

I’m not used to thinking of my phone as a camera, but on this trip I tried to use it as well as the point and shoot. Mixed results with the phone camera; this photo was taken at Los Banos Creek Reservoir St. Park (California) turned out pretty well. This was our first time here and we were the first visitors of the year!

Front of Death Valley railroad locomotive

I had forgotten to bring the regular camera when we walked through the Death Valley museum so used the opportunity to take some ‘arty’ photos with the phone.

Big logging wagon wheels

I managed to take more than 700! photos in 32 days and still have a lot of culling to do. Will post more later.

WHILE WE WERE AWAY the winter blooming clematis that we planted in 2010 began blooming in earnest. Masses of blooms and still blooming!

Clematis cirrohsa

Everywhere around the garden the drive to spring is in full swing.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane"

A yellow variety of hamamelis x intermedia

WINTER’S SENTINELS. I like to think of crocus this way. A bridge between winter and spring. Some are sunny and cheerful, others taller and stately and in a range of colors.

Giant crocus–purple 'Pickwick' with white 'Peter Pan'.

These giant crocus are quite tall at four-five inches tall. Good multipliers, not too vigorous.

HELLEBORES! These cheerful, nodding flowers also show up in many color variations. White, pink, pale yellow, maroon, green, and nearly black. They tend to be free hybridizers so offspring can be a surprise.

An unnamed, lovely pale yellow specimen

Pink ones from Grandma T's garden

Another dark pink/red variation.

We have lots of sun over the last few days, so I’ve tried to take advantage of the naturally backlit petals.

Dried seedheads of eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmot's Ghost".

Even the dried seedheads of long ago bloomed perennials have interest through the winter garden season.

Lichens on ribes sanguineum.

Even the bare branches and trunks of shrubs and trees can be beautiful with the icy, glaucous color of these fluffy lichens and spots of mustard colored ones too with counterpoints of swelling buds of this native flowering red currant.

And to end this sunny day post parade are winter blooming cyclamen. I never tire of their dainty disposition.