[ Lost in the Landscape ]

in the garden

I’ve been work­ing on print­ing some of my Yel­low­stone pho­tographs. While I wait for the scan­ner to scan and the printer to do its thing it’s a per­fect oppor­tu­nity to step out­side and snap some ran­dom pic­tures of what’s going on in the garden.

The first Chero­kee Pur­ple tomato, grown from seed saved from farmer’s mar­ket toma­toes last year: I’ve been watch­ing it turn color for a week now, and I thought it was finally time to pick it. It’s smaller than most of the other fruits on the plant, but I’m guess­ing it’ll be pretty tasty…

Peru­vian daf­fodil (Hymeno­cal­lis fes­talis): John’s sis­ter sent down a lit­tle pack­age of presents the last time she vis­ited over ten years ago. A bulb of this plant was in that pack­age. That one bulb has mul­ti­plied all over the place, some in places where we put it, oth­ers in places where soil with the some bulb off­sets was moved to. And some are even com­ing in places–like the lawn–where it prob­a­bly have only arrived via seed.

This plant clearly has a life wish. No prob­lem. We like it. It’s happy with lit­tle or heavy water­ing, dap­pled shade to full sun. And it smells great.

A moth that died in the arms of Drosera dichotoma ‘Giant,’ a car­niv­o­rous sun­dew in the bog gar­den: When I first put out some car­ni­vores I was think­ing, “Ooh cool! Bug-eating plants!” Now that I’m start­ing to see all the carnage–this moth, plenty of gnats, and a beau­ti­ful orange dragonfly–I’m start­ing to worry about my ethics. I’m a veg­e­tar­ian, so why can’t the plants be too? Still, I guess it’s some sort of karmic pay­back: I eat veg­gies, so some of my veg­gies eat meat.

The flow­er­ing stem of another car­ni­vore, Drosera x ‘Marston Dragon.’ Droseras have a rep­u­ta­tion for reseed­ing like weeds. No weeds spot­ted so far, but it’s early yet in the season…

This sad lit­tle lupine is the descen­dant of a pack­age of seeds that were given out at a wed­ding we went to on the Olympic Penin­sula in Wash­ing­ton State. There was a bare spot in the yard, so the pack­age got emp­tied into it. But there was a rea­son the spot was bare: The area got almost no water and even weeds had a hard time get­ting a hold. The lupines never have attained much size–this one is less than four inches tall–but enough keep com­ing back to remind us of that misty sum­mer day.

And oh yeah, here are a cou­ple of the images I’m print­ing up. The first one: Undine Falls, Yel­low­stone National Park. The sec­ond: Tower Falls View­point, Yel­low­stone National park.

July 27 2008 | Categories: my garden | Tags: carnivorous plants • Cherokee Purple tomato • Drosera dichotoma • Drosera Marston Dragon • Hymenocallis festalis • in bloom • lupines • Peruvian daffodil • Tower Falls • Undine Falls • Yellowstone National Park | 2 Comments »