Landscape scenes

Taking photos of individual blooms is easy. You look through the view finder, check the surroundings and shoot.

If I wanted this photo of the hardy Geranium 'Nimbus' and the Coreopsis 'Zagreb' to be perfect, I would have had to take a little pair of scissors first and clip the dead heads off the Coreopsis. Still, it only took a moment for me to set this photo up and take it.

Stepping back a little further, you can focus on a small planting area. Still, not too difficult although there's more to look at inside your frame. Taking this photo out near the street I had to crouch down slightly so you didn't see the blacktop just at the top of the photo. Of course, there's also photo shop to help you crop out some things.

The more plant material (subject) you mix into the photo, the more difficult it seems to be to get a pleasing shot. Yesterday I tried to shoot a few landscape shots in the garden. This spot looked lovely but the camera wasn't as kind as I had hoped (or was it the photographer?).

I like the way this one came out with the misty air showing. Again, if I wanted this to be better I would have pulled my car out of the driveway (can you see it?). There wasn't any sense though in doing this because there's also a big black garbage dumpster in the driveway but hopefully I hid it well with the plant material.

Of course landscape shots wouldn't be complete without one that includes my little bicycle. Now you can see it with the charming basket that Bonnie found for me.

The back bed around the pool is such a riot of color that I can't make myself leave that area. It should be at peak for another week or two. The main focus of this bed is daylilies, if I had the luxury of redesigning it now I'd add some more mid and late summer blooms so it continued to put on a show for the whole summer. I have very few early spring blooming plants here as I really want it to shine during swimming season.

Here's one of the views from the top of the pool patio looking down. Hmm, I wonder why there's only one single Liatris stalk there, must let that baby increase! The Platycodon (balloon flowers) have been wonderful this season, today I'll try to remember to deadhead these a bit. It only takes a few minutes and keeps them blooming for so much longer.

Hope you liked my landscape shots.
Melanie

Vacation Time!

We are just about packed up and ready to go on our wonderful vacation to Germany. As a final blog, I thought I'd show you a few images shot in the past few days.

Up top is Calie the wonder-doodle who has once again captured a hapless chipmunk in the see-saw. As you can see she is quite determined to give it the ride of it's life as she makes first one side and then the other go up and down.

The Hydrangeas are just beginning to bloom and I expect when we return in just over two weeks that we'll find an abundance of these amazing flowers waiting for us.

One of my all time favorite flowers is blooming now. This Stachys monieri has been in my garden for so many years I don't remember when it first arrived. It's very similar to the named variety 'Humelo' that has become popular around here but this one is a wonderful pale pink.

The daylily show has just begun and hopefully I'll still catch the last act when we come home. 'Radiation Biohazard' here is indistructable even with lots of rain storms coming through.

Hemerocallis 'Flight of Angels' is another show stopper, so cool and serene that I just had to stop and drool for a few minutes.

'Smoke Scream' on the other hand has a loud brassy call but you still have to stop and admire it's beauty!

One final look at Calie. While she's sipping water from the pool I'll be sipping some of the world's best beer and wine. A dog's life might be grand but I'd rather be me right now.

Expect me back some time the third week of July and I promise, I'll have lots and lots of photos! Many of my relatives that we are visiting are gardening fanatics like me and I just can't wait to see what they are growing and share it with all of you.

Bye,
Melanie