photography – Page 2 – Andrea's Gardening Blog

Apr 17: garden status — blooming trees, salvia, and tulips

April 17, 2022Posted in springTagged butterfly gardening, flower beds, gardening, photography, statusLeave a comment

The grass is greening, more perennials are starting to push up leaves, and the dogwood, redbud, and first tulips and salvias are blooming.

Joe Pye, pineapple sage, and orange milkweed emerging

Apr 6: rhodies and the beginnings of redbud and dogwood blooms

April 6, 2022April 10, 2022Posted in springTagged flowers, garden, photographyLeave a comment

March 6: Garden cleanup; lots of things emerging

March 6, 2022Posted in WinterTagged butterfly gardening, gardening, photographyLeave a comment

I want to believe the warm weather is here to stay, though I know from the forecast that it’s not. Still, it was warm here this weekend, and I took full advantage of it to get the garden cleaned up. I pruned roses, cut back ornamental grasses, raked leaves out of flower beds, moved lavenders, transplanted hydrangea, and kicked poor performers to the curb.

As I worked, I smelled fresh mint in the mint patch. I listened to birds chirp and leaves rustle in a warm breeze. I was surprised by the first forsythia blossom. When I pulled away dead debris and raked out leaves that have insulated the ground these last 5 months, I found leaves emerging underneath – sedum, tulips, columbine, goldenrod.

May 2: buds and early bloomers

May 2, 2021May 2, 2021Posted in springTagged butterfly gardening, flowers, gardening, photographyLeave a comment

The oak tree suddenly has leaves, and the salvia are blooming. The blossoms of tulips, dogwoods, and redbud begin to fade, but the yarrow, dwarf lilac, roses, rue, and scabiosa all have flower buds. The orlaya came back and its buds are opening, too. I see the beginnings of flower buds on a few echinacea, and a nepetas’ blue blossoms sprinkle the air above their silvery green leaves.

I put in a passionflower today, along with 3 blanket flowers and 2 scarlet and orange milkweeds. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the passionflower. I hope it will last.

The summer bloomers are putting out leaves, and the back bed is starting to fill in

Apr 18: redbuds and dogwoods in bloom

April 19, 2021April 18, 2021Posted in Photography, springTagged flowers, garden, gardening, photography3 Comments

I went for a walk around the neighborhood today. Pink and magenta redbuds contrast with the chartreuses of fresh leaves. The earth is lush and coming back to life.

Garden at the UU church around the corner

Redbud blossoms at the site of a missing branch

This is the greenest the grass will be all year

Apr 12: Emergence

April 12, 2021April 12, 2021Posted in springTagged flowers, garden, gardening, photographyLeave a comment

The grass is the lush, vibrant green that only appears in spring. Pears and cherries and magnolias bloom all over town. Tulips pop in bright colors in the landscaping of public places: medians, libraries, the aquatic center.

In our garden, the redbud is covered in fuchsia buds and the dogwood flowers bloom green before they brighten to white. The leaves of perennials begin to emerge from beneath the fresh mulch. The blades of ornamental grasses come in tender and emerald green. The forsythia and daffodils are done in our garden — I cut back the forsythia this weekend — but violets and periwinkles blossom at the top of the hill. The salvia forms buds that should open in a few weeks. Besides the trees, the primary flowers right now are the ones in our flower baskets; that will change soon though.

Back bed with perennials starting to fill in

Aug 18: lazy day in the butterfly garden

August 18, 2019Posted in summerTagged butterflies, butterfly gardening, hummingbirds, photography2 Comments

After working in the garden all day in the heat yesterday, today I’ve spent most of the day laying in the hammock or sitting in one of my three garden-viewing perches, admiring the filled-in beds, photographing butterflies (and a hummingbird!), and watching monarchs and swallowtails lay eggs on the milkweed and rue. It’s a pretty awesome way to spend a Sunday.

swallowtail laying eggs on rue_0097 — Swallowtail laying eggs on rue

sedum and echinacea_2061 — Echinacea and sedum are pretty together

joe pye rue sedum_2060 — Joe Pye weed, rue, and sedum (and a swallowtail caterpillar on the rue in the bottom left 🙂 )

mexican sunflwoer_0089 — Mexican sunflower

painted lady wings spread_0050 — Painted Lady on butterfly bush

hummingbird_0078 — Hummingbird! I heard its wings thrum while I was trying to photograph a monarch on the zinnias (see lower right corner). This is the first time I’ve ever come close to photographing a hummingbird.

I saw a buckeye butterfly yesterday too, but I didn’t have my camera so I wasn’t able to photograph it. Buckeyes are gorgeous. I’m going to go back out again now with my book and see what else comes to the garden.

Aug 17: cleaning out spent flowers

August 17, 2019August 18, 2019Posted in Photography, summerTagged butterflies, butterfly gardening, gardening, photography1 Comment

It’s been hot and dry here for weeks. Since I put in mostly natives and drought-tolerant plants, I haven’t watered. That’s been fine for a lot of the flowers out in the garden, but not all of them. The New England asters didn’t make it, and the black-eyed Susans started browning before their time. Now I know.

front bed by stairs_0073 — Big brown blob of dead asters in front of the switchgrass

I went straight out into the garden this morning to get to work before the sun got too high. It took about four hours to snip the brown flowers off the indigo salvia, black-eyed Susans, white coneflowers, roses, butterfly bush, zinnias, shasta daisies, and echinacea. I stopped a lot to take pictures of butterflies.

painted lady butterfly weed_0007 — Painted Lady on Miss Ruby butterfly bush

monarch instagram_2049 — Monarch on zinnia

swallowtail zinnia_0018 — Swallowtail on zinnia

blanketflower_0023 — Blanketflower (*Gaillardia*)

back bed before ripping out marigolds_0030 — Back bed before I ripped out the marigolds

I decided I hated the tall marigolds I planted from seed, so I ripped those out. Which meant, of course, that I had to replace them. One of my favorite things to watch in the garden is goldfinches bobbing on Echinacea cones in the fall, so I bought more Echinacea to replace the marigolds. I waited until the sun was low in the evening to put them in the ground to hopefully minimize the stress of planting them. I’ll need to remember to water them a lot over the next few days since there is still no rain in the forecast. The ground was rock and dust when I dug in. There was no moisture anywhere.

new echniacea_0033 — New Echinacea plants (*Echinacea p*. *‘Magnus’*)

echinacea and wind dancer grass_0036 — Echinacea and wind dancer grass (*Eragrostis elliottii ‘Wind Dancer’*)

Now I want to move a bunch of stuff around, but I know I need to wait. I don’t want to kill everything moving it around in this heat. Plus, the caterpillars are on their way, and I don’t want to mess up their ability to eat and pupate.

July 27: flower beds in bloom, big butterflies arrive

July 28, 2019Posted in Photography, summerTagged butterflies, butterfly gardening, garden, photography1 Comment

I’m not seeing a lot of caterpillars (zero, actually), but the big swallowtails and the monarchs are finally here. I see hummingbirds every day, as well, though I’m never able to photograph them.

tiger swallowtail on butterfly bush_0059 — Tiger swallowtail on Miss Ruby butterfly bush

tiger swallowtail on zinnia_0081 — Tiger swallowtail on zinnia

monarch w antennae_0053 — Monarch on milkweed

The wildflowers are finally hitting their stride. The blue forget-me-nots, pink cleome, and yellow calendula came up from seeds dropped last year by their predecessors.

cleome and forget me not_0007 — Volunteer cleome (spider plant) and forget-me-nots

wildflower bed_0055 — I like the way this little wildflower bed is turning out

I wanted to get some pictures of the full beds rather than just closeups, too, so that in winter and spring when I can’t remember what it all looked like, I’ll have something to remember the garden by.

Reading under the dogwood tree

Front butterfly bed

Front prairie bed

back bed and hammock_0047 — Back butterfly / hummingbird bed from top of hill

back left and middle beds_0095 — Back beds from deck, where I eat lunch or drink cocktails and watch the garden

back wildflower bed full view_0094 — The remainder of the back butterfly and hummingbird garden

July 6: Garden in Photos

July 6, 2019Posted in Photography, summerTagged butterfly gardening, flowers, gardening, photographyLeave a comment

I haven’t seen any caterpillars or big butterflies in a few days (or weeks?). The flowers are pretty though.

shasta daisy with water droplets_0112 — Morning shastas

yellow zinnia_0120 — Yellow zinnia and forget-me-nots

cleome_0100 — Volunteer cleome and echinacea

orange sombrero coneflower_0024 — New Sombrero Adobe Orange Coneflower

hammock with me in it — Butterfly watch from the hammock

flight of the bumblebee_0033 — Flight of the bumblebee 🐝

joe pye_0019 — The Joe Pye weed is blushing

mexican feather grass_0143 — I love this Mexican feather grass so much

russian sage blue sky_0040 — My little prairie

echinacea_0101 — Echinacea is starting to come into bloom

back beds_0169 — Lots going on out back; still needs to fill in

front bed 5pm_0014 — Late afternoon out front

June 9: Garden in photos

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019Posted in springTagged butterfly gardening, gardening, photography1 Comment

I saw a hummingbird in the garden today, the first of the season. It’s been raining for days. We got 2.5 inches Friday, then another half inch yesterday. During a break in the rain today, I saw a great spangled fritillary flitting around and drinking from all the purple flowers: the dwarf agastache, scabiosa, and lollipop vervain. It was my first chance in a few days to get out in the garden, so I took my camera with me.