7/21/10

Garden glimpses

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I was once subtly criticized for using too many close-ups on my blog. I suppose it's a fair criticism (I like to see the big picture too), but the truth is I get the most pleasure from my garden in the random glimpse. It's hard to share that in a long shot.

Cold today! I don't think it'll get any warmer than it is right now at 1 o'clock--55 deg F. I took advantage of the cold to plant out some German chamomile seedlings I started two months ago in a 4" pot (Matricaria recutita). I'm not sure what to expect from them this year. Or even if they'll make it to next year.

I grew the Lilium pardilinum in the first picture from seed. That's the only plant I kept from a flat I sowed in 2006. That's its first flower.

I'm thinking about buying another yellow-black-pink cordyline at my neighborhood nursery for half-off. It would go in another pot at the bottom of the stairs where the two of them would function like a gate. It would be funny/"wrong" to do that, but I would enjoy it.

I used the wacky, twisty iron stakes to make the leeks upright. It's funny (sad) how long it took me to figure that out. The leaning leeks were a problem. The underutilized wacky, twisty iron stakes stuck in the ground two feet away were another problem. It took me a few weeks to figure it out.

My neighbor's pink Lavatera's two houses down began to bloom a couple weeks ago. I don't recall having seen it before... It's the best "borrowed view" my garden has ever had.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Lovely photos... and I'm grinning in empathy about the "duh" moment on those stakes. I have plenty of those lightbulbs going off in my head while I'm out in the garden.

You know, I get the same kind of criticism for doing too many closeups. I think that with small urban gardens like yours and mine, it's the focal points/micro shots/individual plants and combinations that are the big attractions, though--not the overall picture. I mean, the reason I put in such fun detail is so that I'm distracted and I DON'T see my neighbors' faces looming above my fence as they cook out on the ginormous deck they built. Or the endless web of wiring that meets in the southeast corner of my lot on a pole. Or the southern neighbor's endless, endless weeds. Or the exercise bike from the 70s that takes up a prominent place in the picture window of the house behind mine. Or... or... or... :)

Phillip Oliver said...

The photos are fabulous, close-ups or not. I wish it were 55 degrees here instead of nearing 100. I'm reading for fall already.

Les said...

If I saw these photos somewhere else, I might conclude that they were taken in Costa Rica or some other tropical locale. 55? We have been flirting with 100 for about two weeks now, with little rain, area gardeners and farmers are not happy.

Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck, it all looks wonderful, tropical even, yet 55 seems funny (odd). Two phormiums in containers as a gate sounds perfect. I like both the macros and longer shots, to put it into context. :-)
Frances

Layanee said...

Who is the critic? It is your blog after all and while I like the long shots, the beauty is in the details such as these photos. 55 just sounds wrong for July. Is that normal?