Carrollton Yard – January 2024 (1)

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The temperature was in the 70s…in January! But the plants in my parents’ Carrollton yard were still in winter state. As I walked around the yard, I found myself thinking about whether this would be the last time to photograph the plants. I latched onto the fruitless mulberry trees – thinking at first that I would look closely at the joints of the small stems to the big branches…but then I noticed all the places where larger limbs had been cut over the years with the wound healing in various ways. Somehow, they reminded me of elephant eyes.

There were at least 8 mulberries when my parents bought the house 33 years ago. They were large trees but got larger over the years. One was the “climbing tree” for grandchild in the first decade they lived in the house. Now the trees are nearing the end of their lives; 3 have been cut down before they could fall – their trunks hollowed out with decay; their larger limbs were cut and were burned in the fireplace in recent years. A red oak, sweet gum, and pecan are getting big enough to take over the shading of the garden as the mulberries succumb.

Yaupon hollies were already growing on both corners of the front of the house 33 years ago and have been kept trimmed as ornamentals. There were still plenty of berries…I wondered when the birds would discover them!

A few nandina bushes remain. The berries are pretty…but toxic to birds.

The canna leaves from last summer were golden spotlighted by the sun…I noted the green of some bulbs coming up through the debris already. One of my sisters is determined to clean out the old leaves….have the beds in good shape for the next owner of the house.

More about the Carrollton yard tomorrow…

Snowy Day on our Patio

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The birds were very active at our feeders recently with the temperature in the single digits (Fahrenheit) and the wind blowing up to 16 miles per hour! Multiple perches were in use much of the time. The house finches were the most numerous but there were sparrows (white-crowned) and a woodpecker (hairy?) and a female Northern Cardinal too. It was quite a feeding frenzy!

I was taking pictures through an office window with a screen so the pictures have a softened focus. Sometimes birds were still enough for portraits (female finch, male woodpecker, white crowned sparrow, cardinal).

I attempted a picture of sparrow through vegetation….and liked the artsy veil that the automatic focus produced with the challenge.

Of course, there were other items catching snow around our patio – the chiminea, the holly trees, the gnarled vine to the side of the stairs to the deck, a paver near the almost covered lambs ear, fall leaves in the bottom of the wagon. I stepped outside to take these pictures….and all the birds flew away!

The birds returned within minutes of my exit from the patio back to the warmth of my office.

First Snow of the Winter

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I was home for a bit of snow last week; I don’t know that it was the first of the season overall…but it was the first for me! It started by covering the deck and railing…the cover of the gas grill.

I was hopefully that it would cover the tennis court so I could try out walking a pattern there…but it didn’t stick to the court since the temperatures before the snow had been significantly warmer. I’ll have to wait for another snow event. I used my camera zoom to photograph snow caught in the holly branches.

I celebrated being home for the snow!

Plant of the Month – Holly

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Holly is full of color this time of year – the waxy green leaves and red berries. At first, I thought I would feature it as the December plant of the month – but the birds might eat all the berries by then; so here it is in November.

The berries are an early winter treat and go rapidly once they have enough frosts to make them more palatable (although sometimes they start to ferment too resulting in tipsy birds)!

We have three holly trees in our yard and my daughter has two. Hers are older and had a lot more berries this year than our trees did…so the picture is one of her trees.

Daughter’s Yard

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My daughter’s house was built in the 1950s and has some very large mature trees. Even the plants that are not of that vintage, are robust. By the fall – the summer growth has often become overwhelming, so I offer to help with the grand cleanup before winter. On the day we chose – it was cloudy…warm rather than hot. The yard had been mowed the previous day so we could focus on other everything else rather than leaves. It was a good day for the project.

I noticed the holly berries on her two trees had almost all turned orange (or their way to red); those trees didn’t need any maintenance!

There was pokeweed in several places that needed to be pulled (she is still battling it…no truce or peace yet in her yard!). It was growing in the woodpile, between bricks of the patio….and other places too.

The path to the side of the house overhung by a mature redbud shading the hostas and ferns on both side of the flagstones yielded several armloads of sticks to supplement the wood pile. Hopefully they will have a cookout using their firepit (and burn a lot of the pile) when they have their annual pumpkin carving event.

There was a mimosa that had come up in one corner of the fenced area. We didn’t have a saw, so we cut the top out with big pruners and girded the trunk further down. I’ll brink my saw next time we work.

It didn’t take us long to fill a dumpster with vines and weeds (including pokeweed) that we pulled.

What I thought was a cherry tree turned out to be a crabapple (when I cut open one of the fruits). I learn something new in her yard every time I work there!

The other plant I hadn’t recognized before was (I think) a silverbell. I’ll look next spring for its flowers. It’s a small tree growing under her big oak.

Other beauties in the flower beds that I couldn’t resist: cedar, wood hydrangea, Asian hydrangea, lichen, shelf fungus, southern magnolia seed pods (another huge tree).

I took home 3 magnolia seed pods - hope to watch how the seeds pop out as the pods dry.

We had some productive hours….and we felt good about what we had accomplished!

Snow Day

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Finally – I was not in Texas when it snowed last week in Nixa, MO; so… I have experienced my first snow at my new home. Unfortunately – I had an appointment and had to drive in it! When I first backed out of my garage, it was still dark, and sleet was falling (it seemed large enough to be small hail!); I almost decided to cancel my appointment. The data that kept me from doing that was the temperature: it was 38 degrees F. I continued to my appointment; the sleet was just rain by the time I was halfway there and then the rain paused just as I finished parking.

A little over an hour later my appointment was done. It was snowing but still above freezing. I had to clean snow off my car. The side mirror heaters worked very quickly! The roads were wet with the temperature at 34 degrees; I still was careful to keep plenty of distance between my car and the next. There was a snowplow on one road….not plowing but probably deploying to be in position if the roads started to be too slushy. I was glad to get home…and that I didn’t need to get out again

I decided to take a few snow pictures before I took off my coat: snow caught in dried vegetation,

The evergreens (holly, rhododendron, pine) flocked with snow, and

The snow dust on yard furniture and stones leading to yard.

Our Nixa, MO Yard – January 2023

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The January yard is full of plants surviving the cold – a cedar damaged by last summer’s drought, the hollies that are very green all 12 months, and bushes with growth damaged by the abrupt frost from last November.

There are pokeweed fruits that never ripened (because of that abrupt frost) and seeds on ornamental grasses.

I was surprised by the irises already coming up in one bed that must have been planted by the previous owner and a few of the bulbs I planted in November sprouting through the stones in another location.

The rhododendron is full of buds. The first time I looked at the house was just after it bloomed last spring, so I am looking forward to seeing it thise season. The leaves are not universally green and I am wondering if it too was damaged by the November frost or if this is just the way rhododendron leaves look when they are old. This is the first time I’ve had a rhododendron at my house.

The lamb’s ear is surviving the winter. There are small plants coming up in other locations. I’ll need to decide about whether to put mulch around the ones in the yard to curtail the growth of grass around them!

Colorful Outdoors Plants in December

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After the leaves have all fallen off the deciduous trees, plants that retain their color in the cold of December stand out against the background of browns and grays. Here are three of my favorites:

Kale lasts into the winter – particularly in protected area around houses.  The plants I photographed were in a location where frost covered the grass nearby…and the water droplets from an overnight rain were probably icy. I like the color transitions on the leaves…from the new leaves that are all purple/pink…the older ones with the purple/pink near the stem then the gray/green around the edges. The oldest leaves are all gray/green..

Conifers are the dominant greens of winter…and the cones that remain on the tree are interesting too. Is this a pattern from nature that we follow when we decorate our Christmas trees?

We have some hollies in our yard, but they are young enough that they don’t have a lot of berries. The hollies at my daughter’s house are large trees and are full of red berries. While the berries last, the tree displays Christmas colors! At some point there will be enough freeze/thaw cycles for the birds to decide they are edible – sometimes the berries disappear very quickly. Note that these hollies are varieties that don’t have the prickly leaves of the wild American Holly.

The joys of early winter….

Through my office window – September 2022

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I am finally situated to do ‘through the window’ photography from my home office in Missouri. The last tweaks were to put the screen in storage and clean the window. I also moved one of the bird baths for easier viewing. My husband and I moved a bird feeder to be surrounded on three sides by hollies….the open side being visible from my window; the other feeder, in a more open space, has become secondary based on bird traffic. Here are the best images from this month:

House finches at the bird bath

Rain drops pelting the bird bath

A chickadee that seemed to be looking at me!

Goldfinches at the feeder

A downy woodpecker at the feeder

Doves taking over one of the patio chairs

Foggy Morning

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I am up before sunrise these days…in my office before it is light outside. I noticed the fog advisory in the forecast and waited until it was light enough to go out to the patio for some pictures. Fog takes away familiar landmarks…making everything look different. It changes the perception of place considerably. I like the image with the holly and pine around the edge best.

At closer range everything just looks wet. Spider webs stand out because every strand is coated with tiny water droplets.

The leaf texture makes a difference in whether water beads or makes a film. The poke weed (picture on the right) had regrown very quickly from the cut stump of a few weeks ago.

A few minutes…and I went back indoors to continue my morning routine: dark chocolate and some reading.

Our (new) Yard – June 2022

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A quick walk around our back yard…on my way to a walk before the heat of the day.

There are still a few roses. I’ll water them and hope that the blooms will linger. There are still buds but the heat could be problematic for them.

There are pines and hollies around the deck with steppingstone paths through the beds to the lawn. The lower patio is very private and will be in the winter as well. We see the neighborhood tennis courts and pool over our fence from the 1st floor but the basement level, where my office is located, is a green walled oasis. I love it already.

There are a few plants blooming – they probaby need water too – and there is grass growing into them. I need to find my gardening gloves and clear out the undesirable intrusions into the flower beds.

My sister bought us a glass bird bath that has a solar cell in the base that glows at night. Our first addition to our yard. I can see it from my office window.

There is a swallow nest over the patio – under the deck – and we are avoiding the area in an effort to not upset the parents as they are frantically feeding their hungry young.

Our Yard – May 2022

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Damp weather has been my excuse for not doing yard work…but I finally did a walk around and an hour of work a few days ago. The holly at the corner of the house was hiding the weeds behind it. They are gone now. The front flower bed had quite a few little trees: red maples and tulip poplars; they’ve been pulled.

I appreciated the oak near out mailbox. The tree has been declining but it looks like the spring rains have helped it come alive for another year. The Virginia creeper on its trunk has leafed out as well.

The azalea that drapes itself over a side of the front porch is blooming. I’m going to trim the bush beside it to give it more room….or maybe that will make it easier for the deer to nibble the tender azalea stems.

The nine bark bush is blooming. I will trim it after the blooms are done.

A branch broke in one of the bushes…I cut it out and the bush looks lush and green. There were also some vines growing up through the bushes…which I removed.

My goal in the chaos garden was to cut down everything except for the spice bush and, of course, the sycamore. I started but didn’t make much progress during my hour. I discovered some irises getting ready to bloom – which I won’t cut down!

Overall – I had a wheelbarrow of vegetation that I cut or pulled that was added to the brush pile at the edge of the forest. On the way I noticed that the violets are beginning to bloom. I dodged the ferns coming up under the deck as I returned the wheelbarrow to its place; there seem to be more ferns every year.

Shades of Spring Green

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The dominate color of spring is green….in a lot of different shades. There are the greens that have suffered through the winter – usually darker like the holly and other evergreen bushes below. And then there is the new growth:

Pale greens like the new leaves of day lilies (nibbled by deer), tree leaves just unfurling (cherry and tulip poplar)

Blue tinged greens of the spring bulbs (daffodils and iris)

Yellowish greens of new nine bark leaves, and

Bright green of new moss growth and grass and violets and weeds.

I couldn’t resist the including the bright yellow of the dandelion blooms with all the green!

Deer at Dusk

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The deer seem to always come through our yard at dusk…heading back into the forest for the night. One evening it was a small heard with a male…females…youngsters. The male was the last to leave our yard. They all looked healthy…well fed.

Our area has an overpopulation of deer. Managed hunts are held in the fall to reduce their numbers but there are still a lot of deer. My neighbor put up mesh around a young holly because it was being so heavily browsed; I am surprised that the holly in our yard that came up on its own (planted by bird droppings probably) has not had the same problem.

Zooming – January 2022

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Not as many zoomed images to choose from in January – I did more photography with my phone than my bridge camera. I was in extra-rest mode for part of the month after my surgery and it was very cold outside. Still the usual January photo subjects have a showing this month: snow, birds, deer in our neighborhood and flowers indoors. Enjoy the January 2022 slide show!

Macro Photograph (Brookside Gardens) – Part II

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Continuing the images from my walk around Brookside Gardens….

Even cold damaged flowers are good subjects for macro images…particularly with small water droplets on them. The amount of magnification makes quite a difference!

Juniper adds green and blue color to the scene this time of year.

I am always attracted to the horsetails near the visitor center…in a thick stand. These primitive plants have always fascinated me because they are a plant I learned about in a biology text book (way back in the early 1970s) then recognized in the wild on a day trip to Platt National Park.

And then there are the best of the rest. Do you recognize the gingko bud, a yellow holly berry, a rhododendron bud?

Overall – every time I go to Brookside there is something new to notice. My observational and photographic skills get a workout!

First Snow this Winter

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Our first snow of the season came this week…and it was about 6 inches that fell from the wee hours of the morning until about noon. The temperature hovered around 30 degrees.

I did little photography projects throughout the morning. The accumulation between 7:30 and 10 AM shows in the pictures below.

I stood in the open garage door to photograph the scene from the front of our house about sunrise while it was snowing heavily and leaned out to take a close picture of the holly growing at the corner of our house.

Later I went out on our covered/screened deck and opened the door to take pictures of the sycamore – old leaves, tangle of branches, and the snow clinging to the texture of the peeling bark.

The snow was sticking to near vertical surfaces of the deck.

I did some experimental pictures of the maple and a cedar through the screen (the screens were catching snow too). It made a counted cross stitch effect!

I heard a wren singing when I was in my office and looked for it…found it under the bench…and watching for a space at the feeder to open.

I also noticed some crows cleaning up around the base of the feeder out in the yard.

My husband too a picture of the deck. The feeder was periodically full of birds throughout the morning!

I made our traditional peppermint snow ice cream after most of the snow had fallen…skimming off the top layer of snow into a big bowl and then adding milk, pieces of peppermint candy, sugar, and vanilla. Mixed with my electric mixer. Yummy! I was not as successful at another traditional activity: photographing snowflakes. At first it was too warm and then it seemed like the flakes were all breaking on impact with my chilled plate. Maybe I’ll have better luck with the next snow.

Macro Photography Practice (3 and 4)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

Getting the gear and camera settings set gets easier with every practice. My skill with composition and focus still has a ways to go.

My third practice was disappointing. I felt rushed. I returned to the holly, oak leaves, azalea, mint blooms, a black eyed susan, clover and a maple leaf. The subjects were OK but I didn’t get the magnification I wanted.

The fourth practice was on a rainy day and I was indoors. I looked at some cicada wings I had picked up during the 17 year cicada peak. The glare from the flash on the clear part of the wing was hard to avoid…I decided I liked the look of ‘lightning’ within the wing in the last image.

I had a dried out piece of ginger – getting a macro view of the outside and the cut end.

Even printed materials can take on a different look when magnified.

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The lid on my countertop collection bin for compostables has condensation on the end inside. Taken through the plastic, the droplets have a metallic sheen.

There was a leaf that had dried and fallen from a house plant. I liked the focus on the curve in the macro image – choosing this one from other focus points I had experimented in the practice.

I’ll improve with more practice….but am pleased with at least some of the results now. It’s encouraging enough to continue the practice!

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear)

Yard Work

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My husband maintains the lawn part of the yard while I am away – but the bushes and flower beds are left for me to get back in control when I return. The milkweed was dominating the front flowerbeds….but there were no caterpillars (or signs that there had been caterpillars) on the plants; it was time to cut them down. There were some black eyed susans that came up through the day lily leaves beginning to bloom.

With the milkweed gone, the black eyed susans show up more. In my next round I’ll do my annual cutting of the day lily leaves to have fresh green ones growing until first frost.

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The Virginia Creeper is growing better than ever on the oak tree. I am leaving it alone this season.

I trimmed the Virginia Creeper growing into a window ledge. There were some ants underneath the leaves on the ledge….not good. I’ll monitor to keep it lower than the ledge for the rest of the season.

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The plant has suction cups that hold it to tree trunks and bricks…not as damaging as rootlets that some other vines have. I still cut the vines on the exterior of the basement because they were about to reach the siding and I did not want them to grow on or under the siding.

While I was cutting the milkweed – I noticed several things to photograph: 1) blooming mint. I have harvested it in years past but am opting to just let it grow among the day lily leaves now.

2) an insect exploring the nine-bark bush. I love the varying leaf color on the bush. It is growing well now, and I am reluctant to trim it because I like the lush and colorful new growth!

3) a zoomed images of a black-eyed susan flower.

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Our tiny holly has berries this year; they’ll start to turn red soon. I cut back the growth of the old bush (dying) behind the holly to maximize the space for the young bush.

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The ferns and grapevine are growing better than ever before under the deck. We are trying not to bother them although I worry about accidently rolling over them when I get the wheel barrow in and out.

The second morning of yard work, I took two wheelbarrows of trimmings from the chaos garden. There is one cone flower there….otherwise it is lemon balm gone wild, some blackberry canes, other invasives….leaves and sticks from the sycamore. There is still more to do in the coming weeks.

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The sycamore is already dropping its leaves…which is normal. The ones on the yard will be chewed up when we mow the yard. The ones on the stairs to the deck will be swept off and onto the yard before we mow.

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When I was taking the last load back to the brush pile at the edge of the forest, I found a red maple leave on the ground – already looking very much as all the leaves will look in upcoming months.

My goal is to work in the yard for 2 hours a week….trying to get it done first thing in the morning – when the temperature is the lowest of the day.

Springfield Yard and Xeriscape Garden

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Last time I was in Springfield, the priority was getting my daughter moved into a new house – exhausting work. This time I am savoring the yard. I walked around several times….marveling at how beautiful it is, noting a few things that need to be done but nothing critical. It is relatively low maintenance. I am starting to think about the various areas as mini gardens.

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The Driveway Garden has two hollies flanking the extra parking area – a male and female. The female tree is full of green berries which will be red by winter…pretty and food for birds as well.

The Back Garden has a dogwood that may be problematic (some dead branches and overall not looking healthy) but underneath the Queen Anne’s Lace is blooming and some other plants (that will also provide food for birds. I’ve been watching a small rabbit nibbling on the plants around the brick patio every morning when I nibble my dark chocolate in the garden room. The hosta plants have already finished blooming. There are some legume type plants that are blooming behind some evergreens and a stand of poke weed that will have purple berries in the fall. There is a wood hydrangea that still has dried flowers from last year along with light grene flower clusters on the ends of this year’s growth. Overall – a lot of shrubs, trees and perennials…very little grass.

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The Side Garden has evergreens on one side of the stone walk and ferns on the other. I might move one of the yard chairs to this always shady area.

The Magnolia Garden is under a huge magnolia tree. There was some damage to the leaves from the extreme cold from last winter that I noticed last time I was here but those leaves were dropped and the tree looks wonderfully lush at this point - full of shining green leaves, developing seed pods and waning flowers. There are a few ferns and hosta under the tree. My daughter cleared away the thick layer of magnolia leaves and is planning to encourage (or plant) more of those types of plants under the tree.

The Front Garden is dominated by some big trees. The river birch and oak are the largest. The oak was probably planted when the house was built in the 1950s. Many other houses in the neighborhood have a large oak in the front.

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There is also an oak leaf hydrangea between the house and the big trees that is blooming; it’s a great shade loving plant!

We took a walk in the neighborhood to a city park that includes a Xeriscape Garden maintained by volunteers. Kudos to the people that do the work there! It is a mini-botanical garden. The arum seed clusters are attention getting! The variety of plants there would make it worth visiting any time except (maybe) the winter. I was pleased to see that goldenrod was included. There was also some sculpture among the plantings.

Overall – the gardens of the yard and the nearby Xeriscape Garden are something to look forward to see during future visits.