Gardening will Make you Happy(er)

Yesterday an article showed up on my facebook feed that caught my attention and I just have to share it. They have discovered microbes in soil that are antidepressant. That's right, playing in the dirt is actually good for your mental health.

Here is the link to the article: How Dirt Makes You Happy.

So get out there and play in the dirt!

Arboretum Evening

Last week some friends and I went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to wander around. It has been a long time since I've been to the Arboretum, so it was nice to get back there. They had some impressive annual containers and displays this year. (I didn't get the names of the plants I took pictures of on this trip.)

Apparently this year's theme was to arrange everything by color.

The current featured artwork displayed throughout the Arboretum was a series of glass flowers. I love how the artwork was placed to complement the real flowers surrounding it. The light sparkling through the glass added a neat element to the gardens, too.

Somehow, I like the monochromatic nature of this planting.

We also visited the Japanese garden. This is the Tea House with a pagoda and water bowl on the left side.

This is an awesome, old Redbud (Cercis canadensis). The two trunks are going in every direction like over-sized Bonsai; I wonder if they were trained to do that?

No Japanese garden would be complete without a koi pond. Do you see the glass koi?

I really enjoyed my visit to the Arboretum. It was a nice change from my everyday routine. I need to get back here in the fall. There is a huge witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) that I want to see in bloom.

a Turtle by any other name is still as neat

I was visiting my in-laws today and happened to look at a wildlife calendar they have on their fridge. Oh neat, a green sea turtle. I like sea turtles. The caption said the scientific name for the turtle was Chelonia mydas.

hi

Wait, Chelonia? The scientific name for turtle is Chelonia? Gee, that sure is an awful lot like....

...Chelone!

Chelone lyonii

Now it makes perfect sense why the scientific name for Turtlehead is Chelone! I love it when these kinds of connections are made!

  

Incidentally, I have always mixed up the scientific names for Turtlehead (Chelone) and Spider Flower (Chleome). I don't know why. Probably the same reason why I always read "uniformed" as "uninformed," and for years thought that Morden Sunrise Rose was Modern Sunrise Rose.

But now I'll always remember the right name because I learned the name for turtle!

Como Zoo Conservatory

Meet my new partner in crime, William! (born September 2013)

                 

                         

The two of us had the opportunity to visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in March. It was great to be around all the greenery after a long, cold Minnesota winter, and introduce William to the wonder of plants. He wasn't too interested in the plants, but he got really excited about the big kitties (lions, tigers, and cougars, oh my!) that we saw later.

Below are pictures from the Fern Room. I've tried to get the names of a few of them, but it's been a while since I took the pictures so I can't remember which name matches up with which fern. If you know I've given one the wrong name, please let me know! (If you want to see pictures from the last time I was at the Fern Room, click here.)

wall of Staghorn Fern
Platycerium ziesenhenne

Dwarf Tree Fern
Blechnum brasiliense

Woolly Tree Fern
Dicksonia fibrosa

Japanese Birdnest Fern
Asplenium antiquum

No trip to the Conservatory would be complete without visiting the Sunken Garden. Below are pictures of their Winter Flower Show. (For pictures of the Winter Flower Show from my last trip here, click here.

Fall Revisited

Remember how I said I'd have a new post soon? Over a month ago? Life sure has this nasty habit of getting in the way, doesn't it?

Now that that's out of the way, let's go back in time and enjoy some autumn containers. These are on either side of our porch steps.

I used a mixture of live, natural, and artificial materials. The things that are alive are the little mums (Chrysanthemum sp.) and the ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea). The naturals are the dried Annabelle hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescans 'Annabelle') blooms, dried ostrich fern spore-bearing fronds (Matteuccia struthiopteris), green-dyed twine balls, and dried lotus pods affixed to a bendy wire. The artificial materials are the glittery feather ball and fern fronds, crabapple branches, and green orbs.

The ornamental cabbage was amazing. The purple grew brighter as the temperatures got cooler, and even withstood a few frosts. I know not everyone likes cabbage or kale, but when precious few plants (read: no plants) are blooming in October and November, I think it is a definite must for a Minnesota autumn display.

While sorting through the pictures to use in this post, I discovered a spring project: paint those containers! They are a Styrofoam/resin composite so they are nice and light (when not loaded with plants and wet soil) and have been outside for about four years. But why everything except the rim faded, I have no idea.

Fixed!

So after I went into my Picasa album and deleted a bunch of unnecessary folders and photo multiples, I'm down to using a mere 19.05% of my allotted memory! Woohoo! Expect a new post full of (smaller resolution) photos soon!

So much for that idea

Well, I was going to share some photos with you now that I have finally broken free of my blogospheric black hole, but apparently I am "currently using 100% of [my] 1 GB quota for photos" according to the Google-Picasa-Blogger Triumvirate. And I'm too cheap to buy more memory.

This is especially frustrating since I had a good idea for the next few posts all thought out and I am actually motivated to put them together, unlike the last three or four months of blogging drought.

So, I am going to figure out what to do now. I know a good number of my photos are high resolution/pixel count which I'm sure is what's taking up the space. Is there a way to go back and reduce the resolution? But, man, that would take a long time: figuring out which of the multiple photos I used in every post, making a lower resolution copy of every one of those photos on my hard drive, going through every post and switching out every photo...ugh.

I am also entertaining the possibility of changing to a different blog host, with some kind of link to the posts here on Blogger. Since this thought is something that just came to me while typing, it will require some more research.

Do any of you have any suggestions about what to do? Is it possible/realistic to reduce existing photo resolution? What other blogging sites would you suggest I check out?

I never thought I would use 1 GB of memory so quickly. :(

Cheep Bird Seed

Pun totally intended!

About a week ago a small flock of goldfinches descended on our yard. They're such cute little birds and their chatter is so cheerful.

Now, the most common seed that people put in feeders to attract goldfinches is thistle seed. We don't have any thistle in a feeder for them, so how did we end up with so many goldfinches?

Simple: goldfinches also love Echinacea and Rudbeckia.

They have been feasting on the Echinacea seed heads on the hill, and the Rudbeckia seed heads in the little garden outside the kitchen.

I was able to get some photos of the goldfinches on the Rudbeckia while standing at the kitchen window. They just seemed to pose for me!

Eat your fill, little finches!

Surprise Visitor

This afternoon the Peregrine Falcon flew in for a quick visit.

He came by earlier this year (at least, I guess it was the same one) but none of us has our cameras handy. And even on this occasion it appeared that falcons are camera shy. After I got this photo he jumped to a branch that was obscured by larger branches.

He hung around for only a minute or two, but I expect the songbirds will avoid our yard for a few days.

No Messing Around

Sometime in the middle of July a small web was discovered in our crabapple tree.

But this kind of web is not made by a spider. Let's take a closer look.

Webworms! Ew! I don't know how they found our tree. This is the first time I've seen them on our property, and let me tell you, they are most unwelcome guests.

There are three options for ridding your tree of webworms:

#1. If it is a small web on a branch that can be easily reached, soak a cotton ball in nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol. Put the cotton ball in a plastic bag, slide the bag over the branch with the webworms and tie the end around the branch. The fumes will kill the webworms in a few minutes.

#2. If there are a large number of webs throughout the tree, call your local certified arborist to properly treat the tree with an insecticide.

Thankfully, the web on our crabapple was just a small web on a very easily-accessible branch. I was preparing to do Option #1, but my husband decided to bring out the heavy artillery, aka Option #3:

Cut off the branch and KILL THEM WITH FIRE!

Which is more dramatic, complete and - quite frankly - much more fun.

GBBD - August 2012

It's a Late Summer Garden Blogger Bloom Day, and just when I think there isn't much going on in my garden I am surprised at what I find.

The White Diamonds Hydrangea are turning dusty rose.

The White Diamonds plant that was accidentally cut back too far last fall actually bloomed nicely, albeit a little later than its friends. Most of its flowers are also turning pink, with a few late-bloomers.

Speaking of late-bloomers, the White Dome Hydrangea has a handful of new flowers.

The Balloon Flower (Platycodon) is still chugging away.

The Nepeta (catmint) is blooming for the second time... or is this the third? It's so hard to keep track.

Of course the Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) has never stopped blooming all summer. It's kind of floppy in this picture because it rained last night.

The Paprika Yarrow has some surprise late flowers. I just wish the color lasted longer.

The Echinacea still have flowers, but they're at their fading point and are starting to look ratty. But I leave the flowers so that they self-seed on the hill.

The plant that has the biggest and best flower show right now are the Tall Garden Phlox.

Phlox paniculata 'David'

Phlox paniculata unknown

Our small patch of Black-eye Susan (Rudbeckia) is also in full bloom. There is just something so cheery about them. The patch is slowly extending, but we should really transplant a few to other parts of the garden and spread the cheer.

The Autumn Joy Sedum is just starting to show peeks of color. They should be in full bloom in a few weeks!

The Hardy Chrysanthemum is blooming, but nothing too spectacular yet. Maybe next month...

The annuals are still go go going. Here is Bat Face Mexican Heather (Cuphea). Isn't that a great name?!

The July Heat Wave finally broke and we've been enjoying lovely humidity-free temperatures in the high 70s F (21*C). The Pansies also appreciate the cooler temps and are blooming again. (That's Amethyst Mist Heuchera in the background).

Yay! I posted my flower pics closer to Garden Blogger Bloom Day this time! Here's hoping for a repeat next month! :)