Rogue Sunflowers in the early morning with bees: three moments in time

Sunflowers in the early morning with bees by Wayne Stratz #1

 In the Garden of Nutmeg Designs, what I call Rogue Sunflowers have been arriving in masses each year. A few live to feed the bees, most are culled. A new variety is arising here in Lansdale.

Sunflowers in the early morning with bees by Wayne Stratz #2

Sunflowers in the early morning with bees by Wayne Stratz #3

Making the best of the present moment

Strawflowers in one of my horticulture gardens

Photographs are a moment in time, but there are times when I feel my camera and my skills have failed that moment. In the past these photographs would be deleted, but now I play.

My toy is an app called Aviary. I often use it on even my best images to adjust the sharpness or brightness. But a less than favored photograph can be transformed into a new take on that moment in time. Just as my mind (at its best) can seek joy and hope in a failed moment, Aviary can do the same with a not to be deleted moment.

 

 

July in my Lansdale garden

Day Lily with coneflowers in the garden of Nutmeg Designs

Back yard sunflower in the garden of Nutmeg Designs

The Honda Fit in the garden of Nutmeg Designs

Anise Hyssop in the garden of Nutmeg Designs

See five more July images on our nutmeg blog

 

My Black Magic Petunia requires no words

 

Scenes from the June Garden

Lemon Thyme in the garden of nutmeg designs

Bee enjoying lavender in the garden of nutmeg designs

See five more June garden images here

Creeping Back to a Well Kept Garden

Creeping thyme overhanging white wall

Summer school has arrived and though I enjoyed the three week break, the garden took advantage of the time to run in its own direction. Weeds. Dead blooms. Plants in need of support.

So it is a good thing that I asked for more horticulture time this summer and that the temps have stayed low enough to get some gardening in at the school. But back to back to back horticulture classes following a pre-school day weeding session, had me a bit tired out. Each class brought a set of fresh legs while mine grew less fresh. When it was over I drank some water and walked up the hill to some creeping thyme.

I'm not sure why but of all the blooms encountered the last two days, these small flowers asked the most for my attention. Saint Ignatius would say God was conversing with me when those blooms caught my eye so deeply. The desire to respond to a garden in need of attention is a much greater call that I find difficult to ignore. It gets me to the school early to rid the flower garden of weeds and helps me to keep going as those fresh legs enter into my classroom.

Wordless Wednesday ~> Candy-striped Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea )

Candy-striped Leafhopper, Red-banded Leafhopper, Red-and-blue Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Horticulture Update: 5.13.14 Spring Blooms

Daffodil Bud exuding yellow

Azalea Blooms

Redbud blooming on tree planted by a student

 

One of my favorite tulips

 

Blue bells never fail to surprise me as the plants arise from under a Dogwood surrounded by azaleas

 

 

The 12 Days of Christmas Shout Outs: Dahlias for day eleven

Searching Dahlia at my Flickr page brought forth many a photo, this is a sampling.

 

 

Beauty in the garden 2 ~> placing perennials

Our garden has witnessed my care on 27 of the last 33 days. It has been transformed, but as talked about in part 1, transformations take perseverance. I have pulled many more weeds, but I have taken the next step and have placed 30 perennials into the ground. I wanted some fall color in the front yard so this aster has been placed there. I am not much for garden design. I do know to plant tall things behind short things. But what I do is pick up a plant. Read the info on the tag. Find a place. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Things will die. Things will thrive. The garden will unfold. It will provide beauty.

The sunflowers are looking rather dead, but not completely and goldfinches have been around so these will stick around and provide comfort to the birds and my spirit this winter.

The dahlia,that returns each year, needed to be raised up from the ground upon which it had toppled. Blooms were broken off. This bud bloomed inside our kitchen. Pale in color but not beauty.

The first batch of perremnials came by way of Bowman's Hill over by New Hope. A place I had desired to see for decades and their fall plant sale got us there. This is how they looked on our porch.

So it was time to have my photo taken. New glasses, a transformed garden, a weeded patio/walkway. Now to keep those perennials alive. Who knows, with luck they will join this rosemary as plants that have thrived.

 

Beauty in the Garden 1 - removing the weeds

I have gardened eight straight days and 16 of the last 18. Much of that time was spent removing weeds. Mostly from the backyard and from the dreaded brick patio and path leading to the garage. I am not done, but I enjoy weeding. Being on my hands and knees removing what I don't desire. The truth is, I will never be done. Gardening is about perseverance. Any of the world's great gardens, would not be so great without perseverance.

In the spring of 2008, I was coming off my best year of gardening. 2007 was a year of persevering. What happened? This and that. A new hobby turning into a new business turning into a true passion for glass.

But I like to weed. To be close to the garden. To watch bees being fed. To sit on the porch and take a break. To say hello to my two closest neighbors an to many more who walk past my house.

There are times I have wondered why I removed all the grass. The answer is beauty. This week my commute to work has started by being greeted by goldfinches feasting upon coneflower seeds in my front yard.

 

Bee Balming ~ making the circuit in the garden of Nutmeg Designs

No need for words ~ Seven Blooms from the garden of our two studio row

 

Streaks ~ doing what I want to do, in this case cleaning up the herb garden

Mosaic Woman found an app called streaks. Simple thing. Enter an activity. Choose how often you want to perform it. At the end of each day, check off what was accomplished. Gardening was not the first activity in my list (that was blog commenting, a forgotten habit) but I am glad I made the decision to place it there.

The backyard had reached embarrassment stage. I made it four straight days before visiting family, excessive heat, a need to prepare to teach today, and a thunderstorm kept me away from the garden yesterday. But I got a new streak going today and the perennial herb garden is happy indeed.

Does anyone use yarrow as an herb? I am curious.

 

My Garden drives A Hard Bargain

My garden has told me to back off with any camera, unless I have come to take care of it. So there I was coming home from DC to plenty of new blooms, but it told me to stay away. A painful thumb was my excuse (though it didn't seem to keep me out of the studio).

Today I went out. So it seems best to do it this way. Garden for a bit, grab the iPad take several photos of one plant, sit on the porch. garden, photo, garden...

These photos were taken before vacation. Spiderwort greeted you, below is Yarrow, Begonia, Echinacea, and the annual Rose with Buddha moment.