Monday, August 24, 2015

Reusing. . . .

It's important to reuse and recycle things in the garden.

I love yogurt and the empty containers go way better in the garden/nursery than they do in the trash can. I use the short blade of my pocket knife to pare some small holes around the base of the container for drainage being careful not to make the holes too large and to live my fingers intact.

So now I've got a new, larger home for this newly rooted Stapelia gigantea.





Sunday, August 9, 2015

We were gone for a while . . .

but we’re back now. Kathy and I got married the last weekend of June then went on a three and a half week long road trip through the Western United States and Western Canada. We had a great time, saw a lot of great scenery, went to a couple of gardens, took a car-ferry cruise through the Inside Passage of British Columbia, saw wildlife, went to a wedding in Whitefish, Montana (more wildlife), Glacier National Part, Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and ended up driving about 4,600 miles in all. What an amazing experience and what a great way to spend the better part of a month alone with my most beautiful bride. I am lucky!

Let me share some photos I took in Butchart Gardens outside of the incredibly beautiful city of Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The garden was formerly a limestone quarry and once the limestone was exhausted the beginnings of a garden were created and opened to the public in 1921.

Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Here’s a link with some history of Butchart Gardens:

And here’s a link to my photos of Butchart Gardens on my Flickr page:

Enjoy!

We also went to the Japanese Garden in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Once I go through those photos I’ll upload them to Flickr and share the link with you here too. I will say that the Japanese Garden in Lethbridge is an amazing small garden along the shore of a local, neighborhood lake. It really is a beautiful setting.

Every time I go on a trip like this one I end up buying books. This time I got two books. One is called Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains by George W. Scotter & Halle Flygare. It’s a really nice softcover book with loads of color plates and descriptions of plants Kathy and I saw all across north-central British Columbia, in Jasper and Banff National Parks in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Through Montana and Idaho. I bought this book in a little gift shop in Glacier National Park, right where we boarded the Red Bus for an amazing day on the Road to the Sun on up to Logan Pass in glacier.


Red Bus in Glacier National Park, Montana

The Red Busses were built by White in the 1930s and revamped and modernized by the Ford Motor Company a few years back. They put new engines and drivetrains in them bringing them up to date and a lot safer. If you ever have the opportunity, spend the fifty bucks and take the Red Bus tour in Glacier National Park.

Here is a link to my photos of glacier National Park, Montana



Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

The second book I bought is called “Rocky Mountain States Wild Berries & Fruits” by Teresa Marrone. It’s a beautiful guide full of great color photographs and on the page opposite from the photos are great descriptions of growth habits, some basic leaf, flower and fruit morphology and bloom and fruit season all separated by fruit color. I got this book at an amazing little gift shop at the Craters of the Moon National Monument north of Twin Falls, Idaho.

There are loads of other great books on these subjects.

When I get through the remainder of my photos of Glacier National Park and the Photos Craters of the Moon and post them to my Flickr page and share them with you here. 

Thanks for lookin’!

Ron