May 2011 Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Contest

Gardening Gone Wild is running another "Picture This" photo contest this month, focusing on the macro world and light. Last month's contest was about "the importance of seeing and understanding light in your photography." This month's is about applying any lessons learned doing last month's assignment to the world of close-up pictures.

I started out looking through months of macro pictures, trying to find one that applied. I only actually started using the macro setting on my point-and-shoot camera last summer, so I didn't have that many good pictures to work with. Also, here in the Pacific Northwest, with our cloudy, rainy weather, the sun is so seldom seen, it's hard to get dramatic lighting. Fortunately, last week the sun came out, just in time. So I decided to set my camera on macro and see how many new ones I could create.

Japanese maple leaves with the sun behind them. 

Hairy poppy buds with dew on them.

Ladybug on peony foliage

 

I took a break from the camera to put together some annual pots, and when I turned one of my pots right-side up, I found a ginormous slug (well, as big as my index finger). Out came my camera yet again.

I found some interesting shadows and lunar textures on my ornamental rhubarb leaves.

Peek-a-boo.

 

The unfurling ferns made for some interesting close-ups.

I love the way the fronds are interlaced.

 

It wasn't until I came back in and loaded the pictures onto the computer that I realized I had taken these pictures of a Sempervivum  that was positively glowing in the afternoon sun.

 

Someone taking a walk had dropped these rhododendron flowers onto the river rocks at the front of our house.

 

Aha! I bet I can get some great pictures of the water in my stream!

Bubbles and moss clinging to the rocks.

Froth!

A sheet of water, frozen by the lens.

Fast-moving bubbles, with many reflections of the seldom-seen Pacific Northwest sun.

What is clinging to this rock in serried rows? Is it marks on the rock? No, I'm pretty sure it's lots of tiny tadpoles, facing into the stream. They've made shadows on the surface of the rock, as well as on the adjacent rock.

This is the one.

Promises, Promises!

Today we are having the first of a promised string of sunny and mostly sunny days, from now until Saturday. I sure hope the forecast is accurate. So far it is holding true, it's taking its sweet time warming up, but we have bright blue skies and sun.

I took a look around the garden to see what might be flowering by the end of it. Maybe by the time Fertilizer Friday rolls around, some of my plants will actually be flowering.

My dark-leaved Weigela (I don't remember the cultivar and I'm too lazy to look it up) is covered with the buds. This is just one branch.

 

Camassia should be opening soon too!

My Pacific Coast iris has buds too. See that thicker part of the blade? (Sorry it's out of focus). There's a flower in there. There are at least 6 or 7 of these.

 

This isn't a flower bud, it's a seed pod on my Erythronium oregonum. I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if I can save the seeds. I'll have to sow them right away, I'm pretty sure most spring ephemerals need to be sowed immediately after they ripen.

I've never grown poppies before. Most of them are still tightly budded. But this one has been slowly opening just a tiny bit wider each day. I just know it's going to be beautiful! It looks like there is an entire pink silk Victorian ball gown in there struggling to get out!

Our Spring has been delayed for so long, something's gotta give! I think it's going to be all my flowers. They're going to explode!

The Sun Came Out On Mother's Day....

Just long enough for me to take a turn around the garden and take some pictures of the few flowers that are blooming, and lots of flowers about to bloom. If it ever warms up just a little. I was out there on Friday, and while I wasn't working on the flower beds (I was planting tomatoes in pots), it seemed like there were lots of things budding up today that weren't there as recently as two days ago.

The lowest flowers on the stalks of Fringecups are open.

This big healthy clump should make lots of babies next year.

Looks like last year's self-sowed noticeably.

Tiarella is starting to flower.

Candytuft, planted last year from seed, has been trying to flower for at least a month, maybe two.

 

Dicentra 'Gold Heart' has filled out its flowers.

The native Dicentra formosa as well.

My native Delphinium, bought at one of the many Spring plant sales, has turned blue overnight, it seems.

Only a few days ago, the shooting star had only one flower open.

There are lots of plants in bud, just waiting for a little more sun and warmth.

Camassia

Centaurea montana

Prairie smoke

Variegated Jacob's Ladder

Black Elderberry

Variegated Solomon's Seal

Columbine

C'mon Sun!

My Weekend -- Another Plant Sale, And Planted My Tomatoes

On Sunday, I went to another plant sale -- The Florabundance Plant Sale for the Arboretum Foundation. What an awesome sale. There were more vendors there than I've seen at any other sale I've been to this Spring. I found a couple of things on my want list, as well as a few others that struck my fancy.

Clockwise -- two western maidenhair ferns, two Sedum spathulifolium 'Carnea', Sedum makinoi 'Ogon', three pots of Cornus canadensis, and Garrya issaquahensis (a shrub)

Clockwise -- Cimicifuga ramosa 'Brunette', Filipendula ulmaria 'Aurea', Geum rivale, two Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum'

I am planning to put the Cimicifuga, Filipendula and Athyrium together as a companion planting in one bed, in semi-shade. I think all the intersting foliage will look together. I've been looking for western maidenhair fern for a while now, all I can find at the nursery is Himalayan maidenhair. They are going into the shady part of the mostly native bed. I'm not sure where the two types of sedum will go, but I want to plant them together, another nice foliage contrast. I'll probably grow the shrub start on for a while in its pot, and then plant it in the Fall, so it can have lots of our Fall rains to help it establish. The Cornus canadensis is going into the back of the waterfall, planted amongst the sword ferns, native ginger, and fringecups. I'm not sure where the Geum is going, but I just loved its delicate dancing flowers.

The weather on Sunday, May 1, was just wonderful -- warm and sunny. After the sale, I planted my indeterminate tomatoes into the raised bed with the hoophouse over it. I cut circles about a foot wide out of the red plastic mulch, and dug way down. Took a lot of the lower branches off each one, so I could plant them deep, to encourage roots along the buried stem. I had read on the blog Grow Better Veggies, about putting a lot of amendments into the hole, so I thought I would try that, in hopes of actually getting some ripe, healthy tomatoes this year. The only thing on their list that I couldn't get my hands on was the fish heads, but I gave them each a drink of diluted fish emulsion once they were planted. Everything else I found on Amazon, I can never find this kind of stuff at the local nursery.

Into each hole, I put a handful of worm castings, a few tablespoons of bone meal, a pinch of mycorrhizae, and a couple of tablespoons of ground eggshells mixed with aspirin. (I've been saving my eggshells for a while). I  have some organic Dr. Earth fertilizer, but I forgot to put that in, so I'm going to give them a couple of days and then give them some fertilizer. Or I might just give them some kelp. Or maybe both.

In other news, my Rodgersia and my Astilboides tabularis have finally shown up!

 Rodgersia, looking very dirty

Astilboides

It was a very satisfying weekend!