PHOTOGRAPHY & HOT SUMMER DAYS

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Elkton VA, Geraniums, Gerbera Daisy.Close-Up Photography, Heritage Basket Studio, Macro Photography, Pelorgoniums.Begonias, Photography & Hot Summer Days

 

 

It is just so hard to feel motivated to do much at all outdoors when the heat and humidity is so high. One morning this week, due to a good nights sleep and air conditioning, I felt energized to get up early and go out and do some exploring around the country roads through the mountain hollows of easter Rockingham county, which means just close to home. It was 8 am when I left my apartment, actually was simply a beautiful day, partly sunny, perfect for taking pictures, right, until I opened the door! Nonetheless, I thought that I could get some quick pictures, and run back home, cool off and process the images, that was not meant to be a joke, but it turned out to be, within minutes of setting the camera on the tripod and getting ready to snap pictures, my glasses were covered in salty sweat, I looked like someone pushed me into a swimming pool, it did not take me long to figure out that I was just a tad over zealous, I packed all back into the car and returned home. AHHH Air Conditioning!

 

As it turned out it was much easier to walk out onto the balcony garden and into my own little microcosm of nature and take pictures and walk back inside to the air conditioning, resulting in a much happier day and much happier me. While on the deck I found my little friend (generally spiders and I do not like each other) however, this one seems to like my Japanese Painted fern and the geranium leaves, he is so small you must look hard to see him and his web. It just looked like a little spider, until I pointed the 55-255mm lens with all 3 extension tubes attached  at it atop the tripod, then the magic of color happened. Amazingly enough it was one of the most brightly colored spiders I have seen, only really visible at this magnification, otherwise it just looked light grey.

The flower picture below the spiders, is a very petite thumbnail size zinnia that was kindly left for me last fall by a bird, totally volunteer and I could not bring myself to pull it out, it is kind of shy, it does not like to show its pretty face, just its backside, so this is what you are looking at.

Below, is a yellow Gerber daisy, partially opened. Below it are two very deep purple fusia geraniums, on with the remnants of the morning dew on its petals.

I have really been hoping that we have some moderately comfortable morning, so that I can get back over to Dayton, however those days have not been this week, perhaps next week.

 

FLOWERS FROM THE CONTAINER GARDEN

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CLOSE UP PHOTOGRAPHY, Flowers from the Container Garden, Gerbera Daisy, Heritage Basket Studio, Japanese Painted Fern, Lantana, Lobelia, Portulacca, Rex Begonia, Sweet Alysum, Wasp

This year we have had so many cloudy and rainy days, some flowers like the geraniums, which should be ramping up into constant bloom, due to warmer night temperatures in the upper 60’s and 70’s are just sitting idle, once in a while putting out a single bloom here and there.  So many cloudy/rainy days, the plants themselves are doing fine, but very few blossoms.

 

There are some which seem uneffected by the weather, the white sweet allysum, blue lobelia, gerbera daisies, and salvia gargantua. While portulacca loves sun and heat and only blooms on days which are very bright or sunny, seems to be doing fine. The Rex begonia and Japanese Painted fern, seems to revel in the cooler cloudy weather, though I do miss the masses of geranium blossoms.

 

The three varieties of elephant ears and caladiums seem to like this weather as well. Sunday was just a leisurely day with the camera and tripod out, seeing what I could get from the flowers on the deck.

At first I thought this little wasp, was being a huge annoyance, however it ended up trying to tell me that he wanted to be included in with the flower photography that day, as soon as I aimed the camera on the railling he landed and held really still for me to put on the extension tubes and lens and sat there very patiently and let me take its picture, then he flew away.

Below are yellow Gerbera Daisy & yellow Lantana

 

CONTAINER GARDENING TRANSFORMATIONS

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Balcony Gardens, Container Gardening Transformations, Crystal Palace Blue Lobelia, Geraniums, Greenhouse Soiless Mix, Heritage Basket Studio, Lantana, Miracle Gro Organic Choice potting soil, Organic Soil, Salvia Gargantua, Salvia Guarganitica, Sweet Alysum

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Due to the recent rains, my transformation of the container garden, on my balcony is taking longer than I had wanted, however you cannot circumvent mother nature. I have been successful in changing out the old soil in 2/3rds of the containers. Now that nicer weather is here, I sould be able to get the rest done on Tuesday.

You could not ask for better weather to not stress out the plants, all of which look great.  The only one that does not will be the Gerbera Daisies. Which has a built in defense mechanism, which protects it from excessive moisture loss. If you have ever had these you will know despite how much water you give them (over watering can kill them). They will wilt in the sun, it looks like they are dying, they are NOT!, as soon as the sun moves away from them they will stand straight up.

 

There are 3 different Geraniums in each contain, along with Crystal Palace Blue Lobelia, and Carpet of Snow White Sweet Alysum. The corner containter, which as the terra cotta Olla in th center of it, has a bright Red/Orange and a bright yellow Gerbera Daisy in it, along with a pink Lantana, and Black and Blue Salvia Gargantua, in front is Sweet Alysum and Blue Lobelia.

The Olla I cannot say enough for over the past 4 years. It has been amazing in the container, all plants are kept well and steadly watered even thought the hottest weater. When I went to remove the soil around the Olla, The root system was a solid mass from the past 2 years of growth, I had to remove ALL the dirt and roots from the container to the bottom. One day I would love to try an Olla in the open ground of a garden.

You can read more about the Olla in this blog post from April 2015

THE AMAZING OLLA WATERING SYTSTEM!

Learn even more from the site:

Dripping Spring Ollas

 

Here is the soil & soiless mix I am using the containers this year. It looks like it will require a second bale of greenhouse mix. I mixed the soil mix.

2 parts greenhouse mix –to- 2 parts Miracle Gro & 1 part Organic Planting Soil, so far the plant seemed to love the mixture.

THE CONTAINER GARDEN–TRANSITIONS FROM SPRING TO SUMMER

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Greenhouse Soiless Mix, Heritage Basket Studio, Miracle Gro Organic Choice potting soil, Pansies, Soil Mixes, The Conainer Garden, Transitions from Spring to Summer, violas

One of the hardest things to do in the container garden is transitioniong from Winter/Spring to the Summer garden. The pansies and violas, with their beaming radiant, smiling faces, looking at you in such a loving manner, that brings you peace and joy to look at them. Knowing this, seeing this and feeling this, makes what you have to do the hardest thing! Lifting the robust blooming plants out of the soil and into the trash bags! However, you must constantly remind yourselves that they will succumb to early summer heat and humidity. Pansies and Violas are cold and cool weather plants that reach their peak and die back during the heat of the summer. They do not fair as well trying to keep the alive in containers as you can do in the open ground. In the garden, where the soil is kept cooler by mulching, the shade of summer plants, where there is not as high of an evaporation rate of moisture from garden soil. Yes the garden dries out, but in the flower beds, you tend to water more. Containers by their very nature of being elevated and the sun hits and heats up the containers much more quickly the demand for watering is much higher in the container garden and plant stresses are much more demanding than in the open ground.

 

When I moved here to the apartment, I was self concious of weight of soil in the containers. The one problem with most people is that they choose containers that are too small, for the luxious blooming plant and the equally large root system that grows to match the top growth, as with hanging baskets, which during summer heat should in most cases be watered twice a day, alas a lot of people do not water until the plants are drooping over the sides of the container. This is why I chose the size containers I chose. I went to Dollar Tree and picked up styrofoam coolers (holds one six pack of cans) for $1.00 each, this takes up some space with in the container, which lightens the load, allows for better drainage, and the roots have a cooler interior space to grow around. The soil mixture I use in my containers, is the greenhouse mix that most all commercial greenhouse operations use, it is “soiless” in that it is based on spaghnum moss, vermiculite and perlite, as well as some added moisture retentive ingredients, it by nature is a sterile mix, to inhibit soil diseases etc. I use it for these properties in the containers, but I also add Miracle Gro potting soil which too is spaghmum peat moss, with other composted materials, so it would not be considered soiless, I have also included this year a new organic soil, that I found at Costco, it is organic and contains Kelp and Alfafa meal. which I always used Alfalfa pellets in the garden to enhance and build up the soil.

The depth of the totes I bought for the containers are key, as it allows ample depth for root growth to move downward, as well as moisture retention deeper down. This system seems to have worked well even with the styrofoam containers inside. I was not sure, when I did this experiement if it would work or not, however I think 4 years of good growth and blooms is proof enough that it has worked.

My plans were to rework the metal balcony rail baskets, to reline them with the cocofiber liners and new potting mix in them as well. I find while these are aestetically pleasing to the eye, they are NOT practical. They are neither wide or deep enough to encourage a good root system. In addition during exceedingly hot days they may require water more than twice per day. I have tried many types of flowers designed for heat and drought. I have found the best, least suffering flowers to be Portulacca (a member of the Purslane family) as you know purslane in the hot, hard, and at time drought ridden vegetable garden, will thrive! This year I looked and last years Portulacca reseeded and there are babies everywhere, alas, I will do nothing to the wire baskets (this year) I had bought Portulacca to put there anyway.