"Flowers whisper 'Beauty!' to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall."
– Dr. SunWolf
12/8/16:
A local bookstore has re-opened in a new location, after being closed for a year. It's great to once again be able to browse there during my lunch hour away from work. They have a gardening section; I'm starting with Dried Flowers for All Seasons by Jan and Michael Gertley, and am finding it intriguing so far. I'll plant some of the suggested perennials that I don't already have, such as delphiniums and dahlias. Then I'll experiment with simpler preserving techniques, for eventually creating my own versions of elegant arrangements and wreaths.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Hydrangea soaking up the rain.
An idea-inspiring read.
Fuchsia, spiderweb, raindrops.
Thinking ahead to 2017, I had the idea of starting a newsletter related to this blog and my @GreenWiseGarden Twitter account, where I've acquired over 1000 followers as of this week. (Surprised at how quickly that happened. I've reached other gardening enthusiasts as I'd hoped, and apparently there are also a lot of people who simply love flower photography.) So with a newsletter, I could share a link to each of these blog posts, and curated selections of other content: useful resources, recommended reads, photo galleries, garden craft ideas.
Regarding other planning for the coming year, I guess it's time to cut back rosebushes and plant bulbs for spring blooms. It's been rainy and cold this week, but I should be able to get in a few hours of gardening on Saturday. I should also assess which plants are pretty much done for the season and which others can be encouraged to grow over the winter. Pink fuchsias, yellow daisies and red geraniums look to be the mainstay of my garden's color in December. I'll cut these back a bit to encourage further blooms.
Indoors, I've planted a new row of seedlings on the kitchen windowsill. There's fennel, mint, cilantro, morning glories, and unidentified seeds (likely from flowers in my yard a few years ago). I hope that a high percentage of these will germinate. I'll transplant any that do well to the warmer areas of my outdoor garden in a couple months.
It's been a while since I revised the map of What's Growing Where, and I've learned more about the species on my 2015 Plant List. I'll add information and a few entries for 2016. As one of those geeky people who actually enjoys creating charts and working with documentation, I'm looking forward to spending time on updating this part of my ongoing gardening project.
