Buddleia is one of the best butterfly attracting plants and this past summer has been a great butterfly summer, drought or not.

Pondlady, you take the absolutely most gorgeous photos!

Val, thank you so much. I love photography and have been at it for 50+ years.
Love the toad in your atavar. I suspect you are a great photog yourself.

Aha, dill just in time to pickle all those peppers in my veggie bed. Do you grow veggies? Tell us about your successes. Your failures.

I put this grate on legs so it looks like a coffee table. There are two metal lawn chairs nearby. Next year I will put different plants underneath it. Who knew that the coleus would grow that huge and cover up the grate.

Winter color went in at my house yesterday. I love snapdragons, so put in about a half dozen. Do you live in a climate where you can have winter color?

Very pretty Jan, i found out this morning that my grandson who lives with me has been putting his pictures on the web, I never realized i had such beauty in my own back yard, his pictures are at
community.webshots.com/user/obsidiannick
he captures beauty as you do.
and just to think i always thought of it as just the woods.

Wow Sky
thank you so much for sharing those beuatiful pictures. Indeed you have a very beautiful view in your backyard. Lucky you. Nice to wake up for something like that... beautiful trees reaching out to the skies and a soft running river.
Love and Light

Lovely photos, Sky. Most everyone is surrounded by beauty in their lives. Some just have to look harder than others.

Coleus has wonderful foliage, in fact it's one of my favorite foliage plants. I found this one just wonderful backlit yesterday PM while resting after doing some bed edging.
What are you doing in your garden now? Are you planting like we southerners are or are you battening down the hatches up north.

A viola peeking out makes you smile when the weather get chilly. Do you do winter planting where you live?

I have a bog garden in my front yard to keep excess rain from going straight into the sewer. Rain gardens are great for using rain water and conserving water in these drought ridden times. Do you have a rain garden or bog garden in your yard. Do you save water in a rain barrel? Tell us your water conservation methods

Have you taken the very best sunset picture ever?

Share it with us

I just put fall color in at my house. I live in zone 8b and can have color most of the year. Are you a lucky one who lives in zone 10 and have wonderful tropical plants all the time?

An egret came to visit this morning. What critters do you have in your garden?

A silkworm cocoon on my river birch tree. Wow, I can hardly wait until spring to see what emerges.

Have you checked your garden for cocoons? Now is a great time to check.

I do plant a winter garden. I typically grow lettuce, sometimes peas, spinach, radish, potatoes and carrots.

I also am in the process of getting a bog garden established. It is right beside my pond. This summer was really dry and I could not get it to stay damp enough. Hopefully next summer will be better.

Sheri

Hi Sheri. The drought lately has been awful. Over the summer, I sometimes had to put water in my bog garden. Something is really wrong with that picture.
Do you use cold frames over your winter garden or do you have a greenhouse. It gets kind of cold in Indiana to have winter gardens.

Tell us how you do it

I just had to reply to say that these are some of the brightest clearest pictures i've seen! I write nature poetry as well as Short stories and these took my breath away, the viola and the egret. I would love it if you visited my forum sometime and shared them with us - maybe you have a couple that would look nice with my stories? how about a cockerel for my Easter story?
Thanks again!

You have given me a great idea too - i wrote a Mothers day Gardening Story a while back - going now to go dig it out - will look at gumbo as well!

PS .... an inspiration ... could I write a Short Story based on one of your photos?

Do drop by, so we can discuss!

That's a great idea. I had hundreds of photos posted here on the gardening forum, but the editor deleted them, so I switched to water gardening. I used to be the water gardening editor and there is no replacement, so I figured I would be OK here.
Glad you are enjoying the photos. I have thousands more. Doing a collaboration could be fun.

OK - I can't remember which flowers I mentioned in my Short Story - I will look it up today! - and maybe you will have some shots of them. Then I will post the whole thing on my Editor page - wouldn't that be pretty??

Don't forget to drop by my forum/Short Stories site!
Thanks, pondlady

(You will see there that I live on the Wild Moors of England by a rocky rushing river - in the Summer I write there surrounded by Lime dragonflies and Electric blue damselflies - we are both lucky aren't we? Such beauty!!

I envy you where you live. Unfortunately we live in Katrina country and have been trying to recover from losing our house and all else. We try our best to do our recovering by surrounding ourselves with the beauty of flowers.
I dropped by your editor's page yesterday. Love your work. There are grandchildren running around here occasionally who will enjoy your stories.

I dropped you a note re Lulu. Hope I hear back.



My camellia in my front yard is in bloom. I am thrilled even if it is weeks early.
Do you have winter bloomers. Share them with us.

Here u r Jan, didn't know where u went lol. thanks for the picture of the silkworm cocoon. never saw one. I have to get out of the house more ;o) your picture are all so beautiful would love to blow then up and hang them on the wall.

thanks jan -I found my garden story - the flowers were tulips and pansies if you have them - i saw a nice zinnia one on gumbo too - i saw a post about you going - i hope thats not so - didnt occur to me you might have lost garden in New Orleans - how terrible - hope the grandchildren like my story about my mischief in the garden when i was little - my kids love to hear those stories!

I had to leave the gardening forum, Sky, so I made my own forum over here where I used to be.

Siobhain, I have pansies, but no tulips. It is too hot here in New Orleans for them. I have a friend Oz who has many tulip photos tho, so I am sure she can help you.

We did indeed lose our garden in Katrina...our house too. But we are in another house now and are recovering slowly.

We will be leaving this part of the world, but have not picked out our retirement spot yet. I can tell you that no hurricanes will visit wherever it is.

Thank you so much Jan, I have picked out a few lovely ones....... watch out for them in my story in the next few days - you could even make a little book if you print it off and add in some grandchildren photos!!

Hey, would you like me to write a personalised short story just for them, with your own pics, if you suggest family garden anecdote? You could do cover,pics etc, as an e-book? Maybe one where the Mischief-making storm comes to spoil the garden, but doesn't win cos it all gets replanted? Just an idea!!

I have been writing short stories for the g'kids since the first one was born 11 years ago. They love the ones with their names in them and look forward to adding another book to their collections each birthday. We are now starting to talk about boys (eek) in the stories for the 11 yo.

Do you have grandchildren stories to tell. We would love to hear them.

There a "Mischif in the Garden " story coming up this week on Short Stories ....... I will be happy to share links .... gorgeous pic as usual - I have just got a used Kodak easy-share - are they any good?

Could we get through the short days of winter without colorful snapdragons?

What do you do in your garden to get you through winter? Let us know.

Have you taken the best sunset photo ever? Share it with us.

Kodak makes a great camera. The photographer uses a camera like a carpenter uses a hammer. It's the photographer who takes the picture. The kind of camera is incidental.

Let your sunflowers go to seed and the birds can have a feast. What food do you put for birds? Let us know.

Hi Jan - just to let you know I will display your lovely garden photos with credits in my Garden Mischief Short Story "The Ugly Bugs Fall" as soon as I am through Graphics Training (next week ) The story goes up today, I checked I would be able to go back and edit it to include your photos later on!

I can repay you "in kind" with some Photo Promotion Places I have come across if you message me??

Thanks again
Siobhain M Cullen
Short Stories

I will pop back here with the story link if you like?

Thanks much, Siobhain. I market photos through several stock agencies. I sure don't get rich, but it's fun. It' pretty easy to put photos in your articles. You can use photo bucket just like I do here in the forums. Upload to Photobucket, copy, paste and voila, it appears. You can also do live links easily. It seems hard to learn, but isn't at all.

A Giant Crinum or swamp lily. This bloomed at my house this morning. I thought I was going to lose the plant earlier in the year, but somehow it came back to life and has given me a gorgeous bloom.
Do you have plants that have resurrected themselves? What did you do to make them healthy again?

Do you believe this color?? It's a malva, a sort of hibiscus. It grew from about 4" tall to 8 feet since spring and now it has bloomed. I love it.
What's your favorite flower?

hi pondlady

my kids love the chocolate flower! Cosmos !

siobhain

The pansies make us smile all winter long here in the southern US.

Tell us about your winter garden.

This some eerie looking fungus growing on old old firewood in the corner of my yard. Anybody know what it is?

Let me know.

Hi Jan can't identified your fungus, but would like to wish you n yours a Happy Thanksgiving

Hello. I use both cold frames and greenhouses. Lettuce does just fine in a cold frame here and so do carrots. Other things, like peas will eventually freeze out.

Sheri

Hi Jan Pondlady and Welcome Sheri (I am new too, and a gardening addict!)

Please, please, please, can someone tell me how any of you manage to grow anything at all without the slugs getting it?

I am so sad. I thought we had found the perfect food crop - Turnips!! they throw themselves up in no time with no care and we all love them and ,so I thought , slugs do not like them. Wrong! Each one has a round hole in it!

Do people secretly resort to slugicides? I have tried all the other remedies. Maybe the only answer is to grow them inside something?

Siobhain
Short Stories

Shallow containers like jar tops full of beer attract slugs who love beer, but don't know their limit. They drink, drown, and no more slugs. All the turnips you want.

Cormorants occupy pilings that used to hold up houses pre Katrina.

Learn more and tell us your garden stories.

A white camellia is budded up in my garden. What is blooming in yours now?

Decaying pumpkins, fallen leaves and worm casts til spring - hi jan - thanks for the slug tips - stop by, say hello and read my garden story - my forum;s all spring=cleaned now!

Siohain
Short Stories

I read your new forum rules, siohain. Good luck. I agree re not posting your work. Good idea.
We were out driving yesterday and wildflowers are bursting out all over the sides of the roads around New Orleans. Even Katrina could not keep the wildlfowers away.



let us know what your garden favorites are.

Violas are sweet additions to the winter garden in the southern US. Tell us about your winter color.

Got grandkids? Kids? We love photos and stories.

What birds hang out at your house? We have these gorgeous egrets looking for a juicy crawfish.
Tell us about your wildlife.

I have a bunch of crows, lol

Anybody got pansies? Aren't they great? Do you know that pansies love blood meal?
Tell us your garden secrets .

We had a banner year for butterflies here in New Orleans. Did you have the same in your part of the world? Tell us about them.

Camellias are a favorite winter flower here in the South. Tell us about your favorite winter flower.

Jan, Merry Christmas to you and your lady, thanks for a year of your great pictures, hope to be able to share more of your pictures in 2008

I just wanted to drop in and wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!
I also wanted to share this pond photo I took.



Sheri

Creepy,

Hi Rosie,

Why do you think it is creepy? I am intrigued.

Sheri

IT just looks cold n dark, its not a bad picture Sheri. something from a scary movie lol

Rosie,

Your take on that is interesting. Here is another picture that I took. It reminds me of a jungle!



Sheri

This one is my favorite out of all the ones I took this year.



Sheri

Very nice what are those balls in the water,it looks a fantasy island

The balls, made by Dale Chihuly, are blown glass. The display named 'Chihuly in Lights' was fantastic!

I happened to be in Chicago when this display was put on at the Garfield Park Conservatory in 2002.

Sheri

Oh how pretty i thought they were big beach balls, lol

Is it lava rock in the photo Skyhaven thought creepy? - it is so smooth. I like it made into a little waterfall! I, too, love shows with water gardens.

I am not sure. I think it was just regular rocks. I loved the way the photo came out. The sun was setting on a spring evening when I took that photo. It was of a little pond at a botanical garden. I was so shocked when I got the photo developed and saw it. To me it appears as if part of the water is icy, even though it wasn't and I love the golden glow of the sun.

Sheri

There will be no more pictures, Rosie. Lisa has made me stop posting here or anywhere on Bella because I am 'advertising'. Hope you have a good holiday.
Sheri, good luck as the pond editor.

advertising what?????? i'm gonna miss your pictures Jan and your post, so sorry, hope you don't leave all together