Garden and Flowers: Andrew 23 06 06

Listening to music on cans and waiting to get tired enough to sleep. Two hours last night, you would think tonight would be easy!

Andrew

Very nice captures, you certainly have a great variety in your yard. I hope you manage a good night's sleep tonight.

I hope you slept well this night, Andrew. I worry about your constant sleep deprivation. Do you have trouble getting to sleep, or is it waking too soon. I have the getting to sleep problem, and have had that all my life.

I like these flowers. I don't know what most of them are, and you don't tell. Except, I am suspicious of that yellow iris. Did you do something untoward to get that blue in there? That ain't natural and I don't think I trust somebody who distorts reality. That's why I never turn my back on myself.

Well, it's half past two and I've gone to bed twice and couldn't get to sleep. I'm going to try again now, before I make anymore vapid comments. Rich

Lovely flowers Andrew.
I've been very lax on photography of late.
Hope you get some sleep.

Thanks Dicky.

About six hours sleep last night and that is likely a high for the past week. But I do not feel tired this morning so that is good!

Andrew

Thanks Rich.

It was about 3:30 when I felt like I could go to sleep and went to bed. I have given up going to bed when I don't feel tired. If I do, I just end up getting up.

I read your reply in the other thread about the music. I looked for a recording by other artists of send in the clowns and thought perhaps Ian and Silvia did one. I have a four cd set of their complete Vanguard recordings but nothing there. Steven Stills, he went on to make some good music as a single artist after the break up with Crosby and Nash.

As to the flowers: clematis, upright peony, columbine (poor image but a double variety), dogwood (non native variety), the yellow iris, columbine (a single variety), poppy of some sort, front garden by the porch with rhodos and yellow irises currently in bloom, very large white iris (the slightest wind and down it goes, it has to be staked to stay upright), back gardens with upright peonies barely visible, large double upright peony. Not sure about the upright peonies but they may be oriental varieties. We bought 18 clumps many years ago from grower about an hour from our home that grew varieties that he propagated. He said we had purchased enough to start our own business.

As to the yellow iris, yes, the blue happened in processing as a result of bringing out the yellows and darkening the greens. I think that resulted in the blue tinge in the white areas of the iris. Example below, different image of the same flower. The second image is not quite out of camera as some vignette has been applied and it is cropped but nothing else was done.

Andrew

Very lovely garden, Andrew ... rivals the Botanical Garden! ... good photography also that makes great presentations ogf the flowers in that garden ...

WhyNot

Jim, thanks.

I got about six hours last night so coupled with the two the night before, one night's sleep over two days. Strangely though I do not feel tired.

Andrew

Thanks WN.

I wish we had their crew of volunteers to help with it! If we did we could enlarge what we have and add more plants without killing ourselves in the process! We have started a period of drought here now. No idea how long it will last but there is no rain in the immediate forecast and anything further away than that is not reliable. The leaves are falling from trees now in an attempt to conserve water. The good news for me is that I will not have to mow for a while. The bad news is that we have a low flow well and the gardens will require watering. The hydrangeas are not yet out and they wilt easily. They are out in the wooded area in front so they get watered by carrying buckets out to them in a trailer behind the tractor. If I had been smart I would have had a burried water line installed three decades ago.

Andrew

Thanks for the flower names, Andrew. I think I like the iris better with the blue in it. 🤪 If you want to hear "Send In The Clowns" sung with powerful emotion, try Judi Dench (more than one version for Dame Judi) or Carol Burnett. They're both on youtube singing that tear-jerker. Rich

You have a beautiful garden.Must take a lot of work. If I had a garden I'd stick to berries and fruit trees and have a meadow instead of a lawn and enjoy my neighbours flowers. They are work free.😀

Thanks Charlotte.

We tried berries, blueberries. They did not survive. We tried raspberries but they also did not survive. The soil we have is clay on top and many species do not do well in it. We had plum and apples that died. We planted another apple, it is still alive. Peach tree died. Two pear trees and they have survived, one Bartlett, one Anjou. The sweet cherry we planted died but the sour cherry is alive and well. Fruit trees are not work free Charlotte! They need to be pruned constantly and some need to be sprayed at least three times before and during the fruit growing season. They are too much work for me and I gave up on them. We get mega loads of sour cherries but the birds eat almost all of them, even before they turn ripe. We have a sweet cherry tree that is doing well but again the birds eat all the fruit. Wild grapes but they are too small to be much of a treat. We could plant different grapes but I have no idea how much work they are. My wife has a vegetable garden out back. Again, from my point of view, more work than is justified. By the time you buy the plants, water them daily (or twice daily in our climate), and look after the weeds you might just as well go to the grocery store and buy the stuff. Our growing season is short and for certain plants you really need to have a greenhouse to start them in so that the vegetables will mature before the season comes crashing to an end.

Now the meadow idea sounds great! No work at all! We did that on the back hill. Guess what, succession and it is now a growing forest after 35 years of neglect. So, the meadow likely needs to be cut down a couple of times per year or it will not stay a meadow!

If we could go back in time we would have fewer and smaller gardens to cut down on the work. Life in the country on property is generally quiet and restful when you are lounging about though. We are not in a hurry to move. On a different note though, there is smoke and haze in the air here now from all the wildfires across Canada from the west coast to the far east coast. Hundreds of fires burning out of control. A recent news cast said there had already been ten times the area destroyed this year than all of last year. There are no fires burning anywhere close to where we live (hundreds of miles away) but the smoke is here and bad in some places. A good time to stay indoors!

Andrew

We also have stiff clay ground, but I guess at some point lighter earth has been spread out on top. We have rhubarbs and black currant and we've had raspberries and they grow fine. And two apple trees. If it was my decision we would have a lot more edible stuff! That would also be more typical of the time the house was built (1925), which I think is a reason in itself. When I grew up it was still common to grow a lot of things. I remember we had a large raspberry spot and a potato land. And gooseberries and strawberries. Gradually most of that went away and was replaced by lawns. But the fruit trees remained. Apples, pears, different kind of plumbs, cherries.

A meadow is great. It's beautiful and it actually is a bit of nature, which a lawn is not. Good for birds and bees and other insects. I'd cut just a spot for table and chairs. Yeah, you need to use a scythe - or borrow a couple of sheep. 😀

When I had my allotment, that I got to keep only one year, just enough to dig it up and get rid of the weeds, it was hell though. Clay, clay, clay. So hard to dig. Old sea bottom here.