February 8, 2012 by Born To Organize

Garden Wanderings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It’s fun traversing the garden with my camera in hand. The lens helps me see things in a different light, though I’m not always able to capture it. Beautiful, golden grasses grow at the edge of our garden, but I’ve never been able to record and share their beauty as they move in the wind, offset by the vivid blue sky. The grasses remind me of a film from my childhood of “amber waves of grain.”

In reality, not everything in the garden is as beautiful as amber waves of grain. This month I’ve decided to capture the good (flowering vines), the bad (frost damage) and the ugly (pine sap) of my recent garden wanderings. Here goes:

Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer' (Purple Vine Lilac)

Wrapping Around the Trellis

Daphne Odora

Frost-damaged Ferns

Pine Sap Clings to the Cat Netting

November 28, 2011 by Born To Organize

Flowering Wonders

The packet of wildflower seeds we planted late spring, continue to produce a few blooms. We scattered some of the seeds in the side yard with the sunflowers and the dwarf lemon and they bloomed for months. We still have cosmos flowering in the large pot outside our sliding-glass bedroom door.

Cosmos

To keep that color going throughout our moderate winter, I plant cyclamen each year. They were one of my mom’s favorites, and always remind me of her. A friend gave me a red cyclamen for Valentine’s Day one year, and it bloomed for a month on my coffee table. When the plant seemed to fail, I moved it outside, but it continued to “decline.” Little did I know then that this plant is a tuber. It was simply going into its dormant stage. We have some planted outside near our laundry room and they make me smile each year when they re-emerge.

Cyclamen

September 17, 2011 by Born To Organize

Garden Log: September 17, 2011

Yesterday was all about garden clean-up. It felt great! Tidying the beds and pruning the shrubs appeals to my organizing side.

Here’s what I did:

I removed the seed heads from the sunflower stalks and set aside three of them
Late-season Wildflowers

for the squirrels.
I stripped the remaining leaves from the stalks, and placed them in the side yard to dry. We’ll use them in our “haunted house” on Halloween.
I cut a handful of wildflowers and put them in a vase.
I pruned the dinosaur topiary in the children’s garden.
I continued my search-and-destroy mission for the invasive plant taking hold in the side yard.
Finally, I pruned the Hardenbergia and Jasmin. That job was long past due.

Dinosaur Topiary

I love this time of year when the days shorten, the air crackles and the leaves, even in sunny California, start to turn. The squirrels are busier, the geese are settling in at the neighboring schools and the light winds knock down the end-of-summer smog. Good riddance to that.

Although it’s no longer “PC” to light a wood-burning fireplace, I must confess to my weakness for that smell. Our fireplace is long gone, but I lift my nose to the wind and catch a drift from the neighborhood hold-outs.

It’s sweater weather. Time to get the broccoli seeds in the ground. What’s happening in your garden?

Gourmet Squirrel Food: Only The Best For Our Friends

September 6, 2011 by Born To Organize

Cats Among the Plants

Without further ado…

Life Among the Ferns

“I tawt I taw a puddy tat…” ~ Tweety (Looney Tunes)

Kitty Hammock

This better be important...I was napping.

“Nature abhors a vacuum, but not as much as cats do.” ~ Lee Entrekin

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“Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, “I’ll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?” ~ Bette Midler

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“Meow is like aloha – it can mean anything.” ~ Hank Ketchum

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“There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.” ~ Author Unknown

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Slinky Takes a Walk on the Wild Side

Just Visiting

July 26, 2011 by Born To Organize

Bagby Garden: How Does Your Garden Grow?

We lucked out with two weeks in the Bagby Garden this summer. We harvested a few summer squashes but the berries weren’t quite ripe for picking. The greatest treasures, however, always lie in the unexpected: a lizard panting in the sun, bees among the petals of a flower and that earthy, damp smell after an uncommon summer rain.

Bee in the Borage

Latin name: Borago officinalis

Lounging Lizard

This little critter is probably a Western Side-blotched lizard, abundant in the warm, western areas of California.

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” -Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press, 1949.

All Out Artichokes

Green Thumb Gardener

June 16, 2011 by Born To Organize

A Crack in the Fence

Fine arts photographer, Paul Hood recently posted these stunning photos on Facebook entitled “Ten Minutes in the Backyard.”

I love taking photos in my own garden, but only dream of approaching the artistry of his work. With Paul’s permission, for your viewing pleasure:

Secret Garden

Lace

Blooms

Crack in the Fence

Fig Tree

May 29, 2011 by Born To Organize

This Bud’s For…

The Buds Have It

If I finish that thought, I’m afraid I’ll be sued. It happened years ago to a florist who received a cease and desist order for using “This Bud’s For You” as the name of a flower shop. I never developed a taste for “Bud’s” or suds of the drinking variety, but I do love the buds in my garden.

According to Wikipedia, “In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately.”

I love their embryonic nature. I’m in my fifties and I still marvel at the wonders of a seed, a bud, a flower and a fruit, that perfectly orchestrated cycle of plant life. But it’s the bud that holds the promise of tomorrow; new beginnings, fresh starts.

This undeveloped, embryonic shoot is for you!