Your very favorite photos from out in nature or gardens, your own or borrowed

[RadishRose]

Got up to the botanical garden at UC Berkeley today and though it was a little damp out we didn't get any more while we were there. Lots of nice fall color:

Giant sequoias:

So many great textures:

Dawn Redwoods along a stream.

https://flic.kr/p/2pjgsVf

Beautiful!

 

[MarkD]

I like tropical plants, so in Missouri I do mostly potted plants that don't survive the winter. I typically winter in Naples Florida but don't have any plants as I live in a condo. If I owned a home in Southwest Florida it would be ideal for the type of garden I enjoy, but I'm only there 4 months out of the year.

I also love seeing tropical plants but my own garden making aesthetic isn’t disciplined in any particular direction. I just want plants that can cope with our draught and bounce back when the rains return as they are beginning to now.

But I could never live in the tropics just as I prefer not to live where snow is a regular feature. The beauty of those environments are ones I prefer to visit rather than actually live in. But I do know a couple guys near San Jose who have made a tropical garden which they somehow get through by the winter every year. I’ll look for photos. Found them David and Eric's garden is on a pretty average sized suburban lot so there aren't many vignettes of any distance to be had except the first when people started arriving in their front garden. But the plants are all treasures.

Enough or too much? Once I started looking closer at these I kept seeing more to share. Oh geez and its still happening:

 

[Pinky]

I also love seeing tropical plants but own garden making aesthetic isn’t disciplined in any particular direction. I just want plants that can cope with our fraught and bounce back when the rains return as they are beginning to now.

But I could never live in the tropics just as I prefer not to live where snow is a regular feature. The beauty of those environments are ones I prefer to visit rather than actually live in. But I do know a couple guys near San Jose who have made a tropical garden which they somehow get through by the winter every year. I’ll look for photos.

We used to have a neighbour who grew bonsai outdoors. When winter came, he moved them indoors. He gave talks/lessons on growing bonsai. I doubt that he told people where some of his bonsai came from (Provincial Parks .. which is illegal).

 

[MarkD]

We used to have a neighbour who grew bonsai outdoors. When winter came, he moved them indoors. He gave talks/lessons on growing bonsai. I doubt that he told people where some of his bonsai came from (Provincial Parks .. which is illegal).

Surprising. Aren’t there plant nurseries that can sell young trees?

 

[Pinky]

Surprising. Aren’t there plant nurseries that can sell young trees?

Yes there are .. and this neighbour was asked by a nursery owner, to give talks about bonsai. I'm sure he didn't know where my neighbour's bonsai came from.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Horses

 

[JBR]

These are some swans flying southward through our area these days, on their winter way down into the warmer zones. It was sent to me today by a friend in our river conservation/restoration group.

 

[Bretrick]

Small mob of Kangaroos resting after a long day foraging

 

[peramangkelder]

Small mob of Kangaroos resting after a long day foraging

@Bretrick I love kangaroos. We have a few family groups near where we live in rural South Australia

 

[Bretrick]

@Bretrick I love kangaroos. We have a few family groups near where we live in rural South Australia

Here in Perth, every time I venture into the bush I espy Kangaroos espying me.

 

[peramangkelder]

Here in Perth, every time I venture into the bush I espy Kangaroos espying me.

@Bretrick makes you feel good doesn't it. We sometimes see Koalas and Echidnas too

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I took this picture in our courtyard more than a decade ago. It has not been photoshopped.

 

[Bretrick]

@Bretrick makes you feel good doesn't it. We sometimes see Koalas and Echidnas too

Real good. I love our native animals. There are no wild Koalas in WA.
I have come across Echidnas in my perambulations.

 

[Furryanimal]

 

[MarkD]

Where I live we call the strip of land between the street and the sidewalk a "hell strip" since it is notoriously difficult to grow anything there or to keep it from getting damaged if we do. These photos show my hell strip from two years ago in the summer:

When I got here there were large prickly shrubs with red berries in the bit of planting area across from the sidewalk but the only thing growing in the hellstrip was some nasty stoloniferous grass which, with the rest of the weeds, I mowed short. Before I built the arbor reaching out over our side fence I'd planted a tall growing, red flowering salvia among those shrubs and a very large growing 'Kiftsgate' rose which scrambled over the top.

When I finally dug out those shrubs I built up a raised bed for the rose and to provide informal seating. I built the arbor in 2014 originally for the rose. Here I had just begun cutting out the shrubs.

After a particularly difficult job pruning that rose back, in 2020 I decided to remove the rose altogether.

 

[MarkD]

Here in Perth, every time I venture into the bush I espy Kangaroos espying me.

My wife visited Perth and took lots of photos of Roos and plants. She stayed with someone with an amazing garden which made me jealous.

 

[JBR]

 

[PeppermintPatty]

View attachment 323332

That’s truly fabulous.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

 

[MarkD]

View attachment 323344View attachment 323346View attachment 323347View attachment 323348View attachment 323345

Spectacular. Makes me wish they liked my conditions better.

 

[MarkD]

We used to have a neighbour who grew bonsai outdoors. When winter came, he moved them indoors. He gave talks/lessons on growing bonsai. I doubt that he told people where some of his bonsai came from (Provincial Parks .. which is illegal).

Sadly several wonderful trees were stolen from a local garden in Oakland and theft of bonsai trees is up in many places.

Thieves steal $20K in trees from Oakland bonsai garden at Lake Merritt

 

[dobielvr]

Where I live we call the strip of land between the street and the sidewalk a "hell strip" since it is notoriously difficult to grow anything there or to keep it from getting damaged if we do. These photos show my hell strip from two years ago in the summer:

When I got here there were large prickly shrubs with red berries in the bit of planting area across from the sidewalk but the only thing growing in the hellstrip was some nasty stoloniferous grass which, with the rest of the weeds, I mowed short. Before I built the arbor reaching out over our side fence I'd planted a tall growing, red flowering salvia among those shrubs and a very large growing 'Kiftsgate' rose which scrambled over the top.

When I finally dug out those shrubs I built up a raised bed for the rose and to provide informal seating. I built the arbor in 2014 originally for the rose. Here I had just begun cutting out the shrubs.

After a particularly difficult job pruning that rose back, in 2020 I decided to remove the rose altogether.

Hi Mark, what is the name of the big flowering white shrub/bush in the 5th photo?
Were you saying it was a rose bush?

I like it.

 

[MarkD]

Hi Mark, what is the name of the big flowering white shrub/bush in the 5th photo?
Were you saying it was a rose bush?

I like it.

Yes a rambler called Kiftsgate named for the famous garden in England which maintains a huge one; I’ll look for and post a picture of theirs in a minute. I decided I didn’t want to bleed for it.

Taken in July of 2008 by me. The others I took there can be found in this album: XVI. Kiftsgate Garden, UK, July 5th 2008

 

[hollydolly]

The first of my DD's strawberries..

 

[hollydolly]

Te first of her yearly oranges