garden
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Monday, July 28th, 2008
A new heart shape in nature to add to the series today.
Special effects
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
The whorl pattern of Sunflower seeds on this large seed-head has a hypnotic effect. (You neeeeed to purchase my Artwork!)
Two more interesting garden pics: tendrils of a cucumber vine reaching out like hands, grasping dead sunflower leaves…and the outer petals of a sunflower bud.
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
After two weeks away, one of the first things I did was inspect the garden, most curious about the cucumbers, because it’s the first year they’ve survived this far into the season. There I was at midnight, feeling around in the dark, and found a cucumber that had grown from 1/2 inch long to 8″L X 3″ wide during that short time. I expected to find a virtual Jack And The Bean Stalk situation this morning, but all the other cukes are average-sized. The heart-shaped cookie cutters I placed around some veggies in order to shape them have fallen off, so will have to try again; now able to monitor the progress of growth.
Pumpkin leaves and blossom
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
The first of the pumpkin blossoms are opening; they open early in the morning and close fairly quickly. This morning a bee was struggling inside a flower that had collapsed before it finished gathering pollen. When the flower wilts, the sticky soft petals bond together, and the bee would never have escaped had I not investigated where the frantic-sounding buzzing was coming from. I didn’t think a tender flower could be so strong!
Jewels in the garden
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
By Natural Design
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Canna Lily leaves.
New Roots Garden Sculpture
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
…a new addition to the Roots Garden Sculptures, from a dead thyme plant.
Yard work: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
The Good: all the little unexpected surprises, like this toad that I never would have seen if it had not popped out of the hole at the exact moment I happened to be looking there. The clay container with a hole in the center is designed to coil and contain garden hose, but being used as a plant pot. Good: The beautiful orange flowering plant is called a Sun Star.
The Bad: having no choice about mowing the lawn on a 98*F day, and keeping edges formally trimmed because the neighbors have it that way. Also Bad: Fire ants that bite before you know you’re standing on a nest with bare feet…but Good: Fire ants keep the tough Texas soil aerated. The Ugly: me with ant-bite blisters, mowing and edging the lawn on a 98*F day.
Green Thumb
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Green Thumb – photography, May 7th: A volunteer Sunflower, must be from last year’s seed, sprouted about 2 weeks ago, is already 5 feet tall with very large leaves.
Red Sunflower, photography – May 22nd: the plant is already 97 inches high, almost to the eavestrough today – that’s over 8 ft., and growing a few more inches every day. I cut off quite a few of the large lower leaves and some secondary flowers to enable the energy to go toward developing the main flower and seeds, which I definitely want to collect. There are still 19 long-stemmed secondary flowers unfolding and 8 more blooms stemming from the secondary flowers. May 26: With more secondary blooms unfolding every day, the plant is now over 9 ft. high.
June 14th: The main flower seed-head was removed. Only a few seeds may be mature enough to reproduce another plant because most of the energy has gone into secondary buds, then as those mature, smaller third and even fourth successive buds are still unfolding.
Magnolia blossom
Monday, May 19th, 2008
Magnolia trees require so much energy to bloom, when they do the older leaves die and drop to the ground, temporarily leaving a rather shabby-looking tree and leaves on everyone else’s yard too. Above: a honey bee checks out the other side of a flower, and next: a flower in transition.
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