Tags
Balcony Container Gardening, container gardening, Dayton VA, Heritage Basket Studio, Mitchell Webster, Old Order Mennonites, photography, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
What I thought was going to be a dud year for the containter garden on the balcony, due mostly to the bizarre weather that we had this spring, weeks of darkness, the geraniums just set there begging for sunlight and warmer temperatures, I just kept my fingers crossed and hoped for the best.
I know having changed out all the soils in the containers helped tramendously, as the geraniums and other plants kept full and bushy lush green growth, though sunlight and warmer temps are needed for flower production. I was atleast pleased to see they were getting what was needed from fresh soil.
At last we got some warm night time temperatures and day time sun, and suddenly over night they exploded in growth and bloom. Everyday so far all the plants have doubled in size from when these pictures were taken on June 30th.
The Elephant Ears are huge, the caladiums I am very pleased with, in years past, at various places I had lived, whether planted in open ground or containers, I never had quite the success that I had hoped for. I have found too much sun, not a happy plant, but at the same time I have found that total shade the same can be said. Actually in the containers I can make a little ecosystem for them dappled sunlight through the Elepant Ears they seem to be happiest, some sun but not too much.
The only problem that I have is with a pesky bird, that as in years past has a problem with my Salvia, for several weeks in the spring and early summer in the early mornings he/she will dive down to the deck and break branches off the plant, no the bird does not try sitting on the branches, just sits on the deck railing and picks at branches, breaks them and then flies away. The first year I discovered what was breaking them I thought, nesting material, nope, he/she says I just like breaking your plant to peices just for the fun of it! After a certain time each year, he/she flies away and forgets about the plant. Two plants this year and the bird has been successful in cutting them back to half their original size. I hope it is soon time for it to fly away!
My plans are for the posts on the Old Order Mennonites of Dayton, Virginia to be posted throughout the summer & aumtumn months, as I process all the RAW files. I will be going out on a Sunday soon to take more pictures while they are going to church, as well as more of the rural countryside of the central Shenandoah Valley. I never go on vacations, now these day trips to do photography have opened up a whole new world for me with the mini one day vacations just getting out and exploring my local rural area of Virginia.
