2008 Year in review (Part 1)

The obligatory (and hopefully entertaining) look back …

January

Not much happening in the garden, so it was a good time to think about ordering seeds and plants (unfortunately, they’re more than 5 cents a pack these days, unlike these old packs) and sharing stories about the great bowling ball accident of 2003.

castor bean seed packet

While there were no blooms (or scans), there was surprisingly much to photograph on a very warm January garden bloogers bloom day.

The ridge in January

February

February is for forcing
.

forced bulbs

And time to fiddle around with PhotoShopping that month’s bloom day scans and chase away the merry blues with Manu Chao.

bloom day scan feb

Had a sunset picture grace a CD cover.

Read and reviewed Tulipomania. Added my two cents (and a ton of pictures) to the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop – Color in the Garden edition.

March

I love March, if only for its excitement. There are the forced bulbs in flower

forced bulbs

The first of the spring ephemerals

crocuses

Then back to winter, hell and high water.

Fred and bottle tree

By Easter, plenty of signs that spring is on it’s way …

Iris

Then more snow. There’s a reason they’re called snowdrops, you know.
snowy snowdrops

April

Speaking of snowdrops, April brought the open house at snowdrop collector Hitch Lyman’s garden.

snowdrop

And the spring ephemeral peak at my place. Crocus …

ephemerals

Puschkinia.

scilla i think

Hyper-spring also brings scilla …

scilla siberica

… and erythronium.

trout lily

And by the end of the month, a bazillion daffodils, these at Nina Bassuk and Peter Trowbridge’s annual open house.

daffs

May

Spring continues full bore. Purple primrose …

mertensia

Thalia daffs

angelic daffs

Sakuraso primrose

Sakuraso primrose

…an iris from Marcia’s garden

marcia's garden

… and many more in this bloom day scan.

may scan with hard light effect

In the world of art, Quilter Lisa Ellis used one of my canna images for this work of art …

canna quilt

… Cornell students built this Turfwork! project

Turfwork! from the air. Photo by Peter Cadieux

… and Durand Van Doran built this fabulous floral gate — roots and all — in Minns Garden outside the building where I work.

Minn's garden gate

And we are reminded that there’s nothing new under the sun.

June

Some theme posts in June, because there’s so much to cover you’ve got to do some lumping. One on openings

openings

,,, another on chartreusey stuff …

chartreusey

… too many blooms on bloom day to fit onto one scan …

june scan

… actual bloom day pictures to go with the scans …

goatsbeard (Aruncus)

East Digitalistan

not digitalistan

… and decent images of aruncus (finally!) …

aruncus

summer songs


Mussolini was a-shavin’ whistlin’ tarantella,
Stalin was keeping eye on barbeque.
When their fish line bell started to jingle,
Mussolini caught a-nothin’, Stalin caught two.

On the art front, Cornell graduation turf art

cals sod sculpture

I tried to push back on the bland reporting on leaf casts in the garden media, and reported on the infamous Memorial Day jello contest.

As we head into the second half of the year, these alliums in Minns Garden outside the building where I work are all ready for 4th of July fireworks.

painted alliums

Part 2 starts here …

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Frost-edged (Lotsa pix)

We had our first hard frost last night. (28F on the porch thermometer.) That makes for a busy morning with the camera before and shortly after sunrise.

Asian pear in the veggie garden.
2008 frost

Bottle tree and phlomis seedheads.
2008 frost

Curly willow.
2008 frost

Filipendula leaves.
2008 frost

Filipendula seedhead.
2008 frost

Grasses.
2008 frost

Joe pie weed.
2008 frost

Unknown tree in the nursery bed.
2008 frost

Molinia and Joe-pie weed.
2008 frost

Monarda seedhead.
2008 frost

Monkshood.
2008 frost

Pitcher plant
2008 frost

Ornamental grass.
2008 frost

Dwarf filipendula and heuchera. Lotsa shake. (It was still pretty dark out.) But kinda cool.
2008 frost

Veggie garden. (Rye cover crops, mulched garlic.)
2008 frost

Viburnum.
2008 frost

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Weekend pix

A couple of fare-to-middlin’ frosts. It’s starting to feel like fall, what with moving pots to shelter and bulb- and garlic planting.

Water garden in morning sun with mist rising off beaver pond.
weekend pix - frost

The (mostly) grass border along the north edge of the veggie garden.
weekend pix - frost

Wish I remembered the cultivar on this grass.
weekend pix - frost

Frosted phlomis seedheads.
weekend pix - frost

Frost on dahlia.
weekend pix - frost

My favorite mixed container this year. Looks better now that I pulled it out of the weeds.
weekend pix - frost

And the obligatory ridge at sunrise.
weekend pix - frost

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