Garden « Canadian in Candia

October 1, 2009

Photo Editing

Filed under: Garden, Photography — Tags: Nature, Photography, Picnik — Miriam @ 10:06 am

I have this bush in my backyard that has the most amazing leaves in fall. They actually turn an amazing pinkish red. The picture below is actually a pretty accurate color on my monitor. It’s beautiful.

Just for fun though, I decided to throw the picture into Picnik’s AutoFix. This is what came out.

Perhaps Picnik decided that the leaves pink was bright enough that the greens had to be brighter. Just a reminder that autofix can make things better, but you can actually lose your natural color schemes in the process.

Anyone know what my pink leaved bush is? I’d love to know.

Here’s a couple more pictures of the plant.

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August 12, 2009

Flower Karma

Filed under: Flowers, Garden, Uncategorized — Tags: flowers, sunflowers — Miriam @ 9:09 am

In the Winter time I feed the wild birds with a generic bird seed mix. I enjoy watching the birds come by to eat but I also feel good that I’m helping them make it through the rough New Hampshire Winters.

And now an unexpected result. I noticed a weed growing in my hydrangea bush (which is right below the bird feeder). The birds and squirrels had missed some seeds and I had Sunflowers growing in my front yard.

So I help out the birds in the winter and in exchange the birds help me by growing pretty flowers in my garden.

August 10, 2009

Prescott Park Flowers

Filed under: Flowers, New Hampshire — Tags: flowers, New Hampshire, portsmouth — Miriam @ 7:56 am

I really love Portsmouth New Hampshire. I go there from time to time to bring the pup to the Dog Park and to Pierce Island which has off-leash sections. But Saturday I didn’t bring the pup with me to Portsmouth. So I was able to do some things I wouldn’t normally have a chance to do.

Such as visiting the flower gardens of Prescott Park. Prescott Park is a pretty park between the Strawberry Banke Museum and the River. It has beautiful gardens full of name tags to identify the flowers. If you have more time than I did they also have concerts in the park during the summer.

The flowers are so perfect and so beautiful that you could just walk around taking perfect pictures of flowers and they would turn out to be frameable no matter your technique (at least if using an auto function camera).

Rather than post a hundred pictures of flowers I made a mosaic of a random selection of the flowers.

You can see the Mosaic full sized here.

Full set of Flowers from Saturday is in this Flickr set (It also includes some of the pigeons from the previous post).

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July 30, 2009

Mystery Weed Revealed

Filed under: Garden — Tags: burdock, Garden, plant, weed — Miriam @ 8:36 am

Remember my mystery weed next to the driveway? It’s been identified as a Burdock. The plant that inspired the innovation of Velcro with it’s hooked tendrils that attach seeds to animal coats and human vestments.

Wikipedia tells me that some varieties are actually cultivated for dishes from other cultures. I’m still considering it a weed and plan on eliminating the early growth next year (it has simply gotten too big to do it this year).

The bees are currently enjoying the flowers on the plant though. But I’ll plant equally yummy flowers in place of the giant weed.

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July 18, 2009

In-laws Garden – July Edition

Filed under: Flowers — Tags: flowers, New Hampshire — Miriam @ 9:00 am

So while I’m in Vermont helping out my nutty husband and Ben is home alone probably having a massive party, I figured I would fill the computer screen with pictures of flowers found in my in-laws’ garden during the month of July. I seriously don’t know why most of her stuff is flourishing while my garden is languishing. I think I have to add a lot more manure into the mix so that I have a richer soil or something.

Without further ado:

Lilies – I used to think of these as Tiger Lilies when I was a kid. Probably because they were black and orange?

Petunias still surviving the summer heat.

I really should ask my mother In-Law to write down the names of the flowers she grows, she has a head for that kind of thing. But these flowers were just the most beautiful iridescent purplish blue .

Maybe it’s a sign that I was too much of a tomboy growing up that I don’t know flower names beyond Petunia, Morning Glory, Rose, Carnation, Tulip, Forget-me-nots, and Impatients?

July 10, 2009

Mystery Weed

Filed under: Garden — Miriam @ 9:00 am

We have this giant weed growing at the edge of our driveway. It’s very much like a rubarb plant. It has long celery like stalks but it smells disgustingly bitter when they are broken off. I would have ripped it out (like I did with several others) but I wanted to see what it would grow into.

It’s grown huge. It’s at least 4 feet high and 3 feet around. Anyone have any ideas?

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June 18, 2009

Beach Roses

Filed under: Flowers, Nature — Tags: beach, flowers, New Hampshire — Miriam @ 2:34 pm

I have lived in states that border the Ocean for over 7 years now. And for many of those years I have visited beaches on a regular basis. From Maine to Cape Cod, I have always associated these flowers with the salt spray, the sound of waves and dogs and people running along the sand. I never knew what they were.

I recently listened to Anita Shreve’s Strange Fits of Passion as an audiobook. At one point, while describing a cottage on a cove in a remote part of Maine, the author mentions the cottage is surrounded only by “wild beach roses”. I decided to look up the plant to see if I had seen the flower before. Sure enough, the pretty pink, red and white flowers I have seen and known on the beaches of my adulthood are Beach Roses.

What surprised me most? They are not native to North America. They originate in Asia.

I’m not sure if these flowers that survive the sometimes brutal climate of the New England seaboard are planted as low maintenance ornamental plants along the coast or if they actually do grow wild now. But they are a beautiful addition to the coastal areas.

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June 11, 2009

Mystery bud

Filed under: Flowers — Miriam @ 8:30 am

Does anyone know what kind of flower this flower bud will become? It’s been a bud for over a week and the flower has yet to bloom. The ants certainly seem to love the flower bud.

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June 4, 2009

Irises

Filed under: Flowers, Uncategorized — Tags: flowers, irises, New Hampshire — Miriam @ 8:35 am

Another pleasant surprise in my front garden after the daffodils these the big purple buds showed up.

I was excited because I had been seeing big beautiful irises blooming everywhere in Southern New Hampshire. Mine seemed to bloom several weeks after my neighbours irises. Perhaps I just had a late blooming variety. Or maybe the area in which they were didn’t get enough light.

Domestic irises seem huge and lush. This weekend I found some other irises in Pawtuckaway State Park. Are these wild irises? Are Irises native to New Hampshire?

I ask because the are of Pawtuckaway used to be a populated area, so perhaps many years ago they were planted there. I found them on the shore of Round Pond right off old Round Pond Rd.