GreenWise Gardening 2017
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.”
– Henry David Thoreau
5/8/17:
We are having mostly sunny, warm days, and my garden is growing happily. The peppers in particular are looking much stronger than they were a week or two ago. My little tomato plants have now grown tall enough that I've given them bamboo stakes to lean upon. I have only 6 plants this year. Four were purchased, and two grown from last season’s seeds (I think these are Cherokee Purple and not Beefsteak, but too early to tell.) I’ve decided to devote more of my large pots to peppers instead of tomatoes this year, but hope there will be enough of a harvest to add tomatoes to many salads and make salsa.
The blackberry bushes have started to bloom. I lost a bit of fruit to birds last summer, although I don’t really mind sharing the berries with them. Lately there have been large crows in the pine trees around the property. They make loud “quork!” noises and seem to curiously watch me and the cats when we’re out by the patio furniture. Smaller birds are less frequent visitors, now that some species such as warblers have returned to their warm-season range. But there are still a few tiny chickadees and titmice at our birdfeeder, while the larger towhees and scrub jays are common year-round.
I’m seeing bees and butterflies more often these days. They especially like to land on the jasmine, bottlebrush and fuchsias. One of these days I will manage to take photos of these insects and perhaps even the birds stopping by my yard. I’ve enjoyed other people's garden wildlife photography on Twitter and Instagram: noteworthy accounts are Mary Chaloner, Megan Lowe, L-jay Nature, Blooms for Bees, Miss Katy 07, Jardens and Gardens, and BloominBin.
The blackberry bushes have started to bloom. I lost a bit of fruit to birds last summer, although I don’t really mind sharing the berries with them. Lately there have been large crows in the pine trees around the property. They make loud “quork!” noises and seem to curiously watch me and the cats when we’re out by the patio furniture. Smaller birds are less frequent visitors, now that some species such as warblers have returned to their warm-season range. But there are still a few tiny chickadees and titmice at our birdfeeder, while the larger towhees and scrub jays are common year-round.
I’m seeing bees and butterflies more often these days. They especially like to land on the jasmine, bottlebrush and fuchsias. One of these days I will manage to take photos of these insects and perhaps even the birds stopping by my yard. I’ve enjoyed other people's garden wildlife photography on Twitter and Instagram: noteworthy accounts are Mary Chaloner, Megan Lowe, L-jay Nature, Blooms for Bees, Miss Katy 07, Jardens and Gardens, and BloominBin.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
One of our jasmine varieties.
Laurel blooms?
Lemon tree buds.
Also coming into bloom at the moment are my lemon tree, and a bush near the back patio that has fragrant clusters of buttery yellow flowers. It’s grown there since before I moved here, and is very low maintenance, requiring little water or pruning. Maybe a variety of laurel?
It has now been two years that I’ve been “showing up” to publish this garden blog! Here's the first entry, from back when I called it Ghetto Gardening 2015.
I am proud of myself for managing to update regularly, continuing to come up with something to say and providing at least three photos with each post. I think my writing has improved a bit, and some of my iPhone camera shots are turning out really well. I’ve learned tons about plants, and have become a better gardener, but there will always be topics to research (such as identifying the flowering bush), discoveries to make and experiments to try. So, having reached this milestone in my Passion Project, I’ll continue blogging every week, while considering what else could be next for GreenWise Gardening.
It has now been two years that I’ve been “showing up” to publish this garden blog! Here's the first entry, from back when I called it Ghetto Gardening 2015.
I am proud of myself for managing to update regularly, continuing to come up with something to say and providing at least three photos with each post. I think my writing has improved a bit, and some of my iPhone camera shots are turning out really well. I’ve learned tons about plants, and have become a better gardener, but there will always be topics to research (such as identifying the flowering bush), discoveries to make and experiments to try. So, having reached this milestone in my Passion Project, I’ll continue blogging every week, while considering what else could be next for GreenWise Gardening.