Garden Oasis

This blog is dedicated to my love for gardening.

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Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, Part VI

March 2017

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“What I’d love to see is more artists and musicians and novelists – and whoever – trying to help us to imagine what the Resurrection and the New Creation would look like without collapsing into sentimentality and schmultzy pictures, etc.” —N.T. Wright on Nomad podcast, March 2017

_ “I got out. The light and coolness that drenched me were like those of summer morning, early morning a minute or two before the sunrise, only that there was a certain difference. I had the sense of being in a larger space, perhaps even a larger sort of space, than I had ever known before: as if the sky were further off and the extent of the green plain wider than they could be on this little ball of earth. I had got ‘out’ in some sense which made the Solar System itself seem an indoor affair. It gave me a feeling of freedom, but also of exposure, possibly of danger, which continued to accompany me through all that followed. It is the impossibility of communicating that feeling, or even of inducing you to remember it as I proceed, which makes me despair of conveying the real quality of what I saw and heard… Moved by a sudden thought, I bent down and tried to pluck a daisy which was growing at my feet. The stalk wouldn’t break. I tried to twist it, but it wouldn’t twist. I tugged till the sweat stood out on my forehead and I had lost most of the skin off my hands. The little flower was hard, not like wood or even like iron, but like diamond. There was a leaf – a young tender beechleaf, lying in the grass beside it. I tried to pick the leaf up: my heart almost cracked with the effort, and I believe I did just raise it. But I had to let it go at once; it was heavier than a sack of coal. As I stood, recovering my breath with great gasps and looking down at the daisy, I noticed that I could see the grass not only between my feet but through them. I also was a phantom. Who will give me words to express the terror of that discovery? ‘Golly!’ thought I. ‘I’m in for it this time.’” —C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 1945

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Magnolia

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It’s admirable they are at least giving the flies a fighting chance. 

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Magnolia

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I can't wait for the smell of these this spring!

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Sometimes, I think I’m going crazy.

In the middle of winter, I will be doing some quiet activity in my room and I SWEAR that I heard cicadas. In Michigan, winter nights are close to freezing, so there are definitely no Cicadas buzzing about in the trees.

I always wanted to catch one. In some places where they Cicada is densely populated, they will be congregating in a capturable area like the base of a tree or on some bushes. However, Cicadas in my backyard are dwelling high in the trees. Now I’m not talking about the emerging nymphs that just recently ended their 17-year slumber underground. I find plenty of those gardening or while they’re searching for a place to shed their skin. I’m talking about the full blown alien looking creatures that seem to have the loudest stridulation of the summer. 

Here’s one that just emerged. It didn’t travel too far from its burrow to transform into the wicked looking adult it would be.

Neotibicen linnei  aka Linne’s Cicada

This little guy was the only one I was able to catch. It had an impaired right wing. I set it away from danger, and I’m guessing he flew off eventually.

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While I’m on the topic of creepy crawlies, this is a female, Garden Orb Weaver.

One day, while walking through my row of corn I came eye to eye with this massive, but beautiful spider. I never really paid much attention to the very large orb-like webs in the perfect corners of my back yard or garage, until this day. I took these pictures and got online trying to figure out what kind of huge spider this is living in my corn, also, should I worry about getting bit accidentally and then lose a hand or foot.

I didn’t have to worry and you don’t either. These spiders are practically harmless. Anything will bite if it has too. While this spider is venomous, its venom isn’t very strong, certainly not enough to kill a human, but a bug, definitely. Here’s the Orb Weaver enjoying a meal. I observed this spider each day I ventured out into my vegetable garden after I discovered its location, careful not to disturb its web and corn stalk. She eventually moved onto another part of the garden.

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Trap or Die.

The Venus Flytrap is a carnivorous plant native to boggy, swampy warm areas. Since this plant lived in poor, nutrient soil, it evolved to use insects as its source for nutrients to survive. The lobes of the Venus Flytrap are laced with hairs that can be triggered when something, an insect or bug lands on them. This plant can tell the difference between rain and fly, so it knows when to shut its doors. So when a creepy crawly triggers the trap’s hairs, it's curtains, lights out! The lobes of the plant fuse shut creating a stomach to release an enzyme that digests the insect. Days later the lobe opens again to repeat the process.

Here’s my Venus Flytrap with the shadow of a fly on the inside.

This is the Venus Flytrap’s new home, a 10″ pot with Sphagnum Moss soaked completely in rain water.

Here’s my Venus Flytrap with the remains of its meal. Only the exoskeleton of the bug survives.

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And it was in this moment that I knew that the Oregano was here to take over, it was only just a matter of Thyme.

But omg seriously, look at the Thyme!

I didn’t start this 2013 season with much in the herb box. The Oregano and Thyme survived the winter, above ground, in the box, as well as the chives. This was my first year planting Chamomile (close left corner hugging the aloe’s pot). And boy, do I miss walking out into the garden and smelling this Chamomile plant, absolutely amazing. Later on, in the summer I relocated the aloe vera, and Agnes (my dog) made a nice little treat out of it. I also relocated the lemon balm (middle) to a front yard flower bed where it flourished. The venus flytrap (front center) hung out in the herb box for the stretch of the summer.

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Meager Beginnings

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No matter how many vegetables I bought, no matter how many flowers I bought, I always wanted more. It was funding issues that drove me to grow from seed. I started my seedling outdoors once it had gotten warm enough.

I mixed it up, used whatever cells I had left over from previous years plants trays and cell inserts. This two-celled insert was nice for starting seedlings, lots of room for root growth after transplanting. This is the Calendula Hearts seeds emerging.

Calendula before the transplant.

As you can see, I just separated each seedling and spread them out on a tray.

And now they've been tucked away nicely with some space.

Calendula after a few days of rain.

This is the Calendula after another transplant into 3″ pots, this is usually the last transplant before they go into the ground.

Here’s the Coleus Rainbow Mix, some days after the seedling emerged.

This is the Coleus after some rain and a transplant. I would let this go a little longer in the cells before putting into the ground.

Here, the Gazania Sunshine Mix emerges.

After a little rain...

This is the Gazania in the ground about 2.5 months after seedling emerged. Some are getting ready to bloom.

Marigold and Calendula are the some of the easiest and toughest seedlings you could grow. Here are some marigold seedlings well their emergence and some rain.

Here are the Salad Bowl and Giant Ceasar seedlings well after their emergence. Lettuces are also fast, easy extremely rewarding produce to grow in your garden.

Here’s a beautiful shot of some corn seedlings.

These are the Evening Sun Sunflower before a transplant.

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Moving On...

Project 2013

After fully taking over the reins of the gardening slay (ah... see what I did there ^_^)  this was the year I was going to kick my gardening up a notch. But first, venturing out into the crisp fertile air of April to find the remains of my first breakout gardening year was what I had to do. And I found their decomposition genuinely intriguing.

This was probably a Hungarian Wax Pepper. This was the first year I paid close attention to the effects that old man winter had on my crops. At one point this pepper was most likely frozen solid. It thawed and held a sac of decomposing juices that still smelled like a pepper! I just thought how fascinating this pepper was, still attached to its plant, translucent in the spring sun.

I am unsure as to what this used to be, but I thought that this moss looked pretty cool.

This old Okra picture is my favorite, love the sepia filter on this.

Thyme will always go on...

Oregano says, “I’ll never die”.

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Story Time: The Dragonfly

Before gardening, I was deep into my dreams. I still am today. Writing them down every day soon after waking up, interpreting my dreams, weaving multiple dreams that I had in a single night into one big story/revelation, and even writing them as poems. The elements of my dreams ran so fluently with reality. Reality- I started to get into photography, lightly after The New Life back in May. I had a reoccurring dream, of taking a picture of some creature, or part of nature that was stunning. Sometimes I would be traveling and stumble across something fascinating, beautiful or rare and snap a picture. There were other times where the dreams and reality aligned. I would be performing a task so regularly and simple in my dream and then I would come across an enigma, something spectacular, run in my house to grab my camera and then return to the scene to capture the best picture ever. There were times I would wake up from these dreams and pray for the miracle that the photo would be on my camera. Until one day, in waking life, middle of the growing season I was out in my garden tending to the tomatoes, and this stunning red velvety dragonfly lands on one of the tomato support baskets. I rise slowly and then make a run to the house, I began to laugh at myself running through the house to fetch my camera. I’ve done this a thousand times, is the beautiful creature ever there? Well, it was today. I returned to the tomato basket and lo and behold the velvet dragonfly lay right before me sights. I took a couple of photos and worked around the resting insect. It was Saturday, August 14, 2010, that my dream had come true, LITERALLY. I believe it was after this incident that I began to kick my photography hobby up a notch. I got a sorta professional SLR camera and haven’t looked back since. I learned that my dreams aren’t just going to sit around and wait for me. I need to be prepared for them. 

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Garden Progression. This picture was taken in July of 2012. So many Collard Greens...

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I think this picture speaks for itself. Summer highs. Unfortunately, this plant turned out to be male, but it did make for some great foliage throughout the garden.

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This was my first-year herb box. My dad had crafted this standing box for me, above ground back in 2012, it still stands today. Thyme, Basil, Garlic Chives, and Regular Chives (back, left to right). Hot Oregano, Oregano, Moss Curled Parsley, Italian Flat Leaf Parsley (front, left to right). I used a mixture of peat moss and compost for the soil. The chives are still going strong today in the same corner (I’m thinking about removing it and splitting the plant up to put in various areas of the garden.)

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Plectranthus Scutellarioides AKA Coleus AKA My First Plant Love

I can’t remember the first time I laid eyes on this beautiful, distinctive and colorful plant that was not known for its flower, but for it’s very vivid and contrasting color patterns. No Coleus is the same. I first bought my first coleus plant from a local, and super awesome nursery. I was so shocked at how beautiful the plant had grown over the summer season I called the nursery the year after looking for the precious “Kiwi Fern” variety. Unfortunately, I was not able to find it again after my discovery of the fern. Throughout the years I have grown many different varieties and this foliage gets a lot of attention on my front porch in pots.