The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

My favorite garden photos of 2011

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How about a little year in review today?

My staff (of one) has put in countless hours reviewing all of the photos I’ve taken this year and we feel these are the best of the best.

If I’ve learned anything over this past year, it’s snap away with the camera and ask questions later. It’s amazing how many times a throw-away shot ends up being a gem.

In no particular order:

These Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum) seem like light posts illuminating the Heuchera below them:    

Love the effect of the ornamental grass in the background. Almost looks like there is a tunnel within it beckoning you to enter:

Nothing says spring like a Viburnum bloom … and dandelions throughout the lawn:

Who knew an individual Spiderwort (Tradescantia) bloom was this interesting?:

After I snapped this shot, I called 911 to let the authorities know the sky was on fire:

Loved the lighting on these Rose of Sharon (Althea) blooms:

The plant colors along with the mist just screamed early autumn:

I swear I didn’t line these deer up before taking the photo:

So simple yet says so much (And yes, I’m that deep):

Goodbye summer:

The anticipation is killing me:

Snow on a Dahlia bloom? Get the hell outta here:

The only bird photo I am sort of proud of:

It is fleeting, but oh so worth it:

The color contrasts are incredible, maybe my favorite shot of the year:

Here’s to more photos in 2012!

“I am dumb” a rebuttal by Alex

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For your comedic pleasure, I give you my friend Alex’s rebuttal to yesterday’s post, where I ripped him a new one. He sent this to me and dared me to post it. I couldn’t resist, considering the amount of time he appears to have put into it. Also, it is taking all of my strength to not edit his grammar but I will leave it as is so you can witness his lack of skills in that department. Enjoy:      
First, it’s true, I am dumb.  I can’t spell, I don’t reread what I write, I don’t check my grammar – and when in doubt I throw in a semi-colon (or apparently a dash).  
I poorly write a little blog of my own which has been described as:
“this is uninspired, uninformed, sloppy, rushed and forced blogging at it’s absolute worst and lowest common denominator. how could something be worse than this god forsaken eyesore of a background image executed J.V. squad style, tiling into infinity? I don’t know but this blog entry is somehow worse. And how can something meant to be funny be so devoid of humor? I guess when you steal the safest, most oft-used nhl satire bits from 2005, anything is possible. And by anything i mean, the hottest, wettest garbage on the internet.”
But I am not going to stand around and allow John to carry out a character assassination on me without rebuttal.  Suck it ONG, I demand you post this rebuttal.
As John said, I’m not a plant guy.  As a matter of fact, I’m not much of a nature guy at all, unless it’s something I can eat with a  fork and knife or artificially manipulate by treating with chemicals.   How can you not be a plant guy, one might ask, they provide so much to the planet…. Bullshit.  I don’t trust them.  I think if it weren’t for humans attempts to aggressively control the plant population they would be plotting to achieve world domination.  How do I know this?  I remember watching this documentary when I was like eight:
I know exactly what you are thinking right now, because I had the exact same thought; a troubling documentary on the dangers of plant life.
Are plants good for the environment?  Please.  Did you know that the 8th largest cause of methane gas from human related activities is“forest land remaining forest land?”  And that has over 57x more of an impact that my favorite past time “field burning of agricultural residue”.  Conclusion:  Burn agricultural = save planet.
And they are two-faced.  Oh yea sure, during the day they are all about that photosynthesis we produce oxygen shit.  Well guess what?  You know who else produces Oxygen?  Oprah…. And I trust her a sure as a hell a lot more than I trust some Pteridium aquilinum (worlds most common plant it turns out).  Why?  Because as night Oprah doesn’t do a 180 and attempt to steal our oxygen suffocate us by cellular respiration (Oprah is only interested in stealing our money).
So while I’m not a plant person, that’s not the problem I have with ONG.  I’ve been to ONGs house, and much like Amoco’s advertising that it’s Crystal Clear gasoline was better for the environment, the twenty-seven times he takes a picture of the exact same plant and slaps some obscure latin name on the thing is not a full representation of neither his house, his garden, nor his family.
Fortunately I brought my camera last time we were over to provide a fair and balanced assessment on his garden.  Take a look, and you can be the judge as to whether you want to hit him with a false claims suit.
First, parking is always an issue at casa da ONG.  That’s just a pretty solid house design right there buddy.  If I am not mistaken that is an arbor mala he’s planted in middle of his driveway.
We parked, walked up to his front door, and saw this lovely little beauty waiting to greet us.  I mean nothing says welcome like a mortua planta.
It was a pretty nice afternoon, so we spent most of the time outside on his porch just taking in the scene and appreciating garden, and him showing me some of his new plants and the garden he was working on, as well as how he had decorated for Christmas.

Nice wreath.
So at the end, I’m not opposed the fact that he takes 400 shots of the same plant – I just think he needs to show everything, you know give a full perspective.

To read more of Alex’s work, check out his blog http://awkward-sandwich.blogspot.com/. 

My friend is dumb

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A good friend of mine, a non plant and gardening fan, said to me recently “How many pictures can you possibly take of all your plants. Aren’t you done with it all yet?” 
I responded with “No, you’re dumb, you have no soul and you don’t know anything about gardening so you have no grounds to say anything on the topic. And oh yeah, the Chicago Bears are awful and so is your grammar.”
See, a very mature response on my part. 
So this post is dedicated to you today Alex, may you some day look back and understand the absurdity of your comments. 
A few quick items today:
Love this color combo, especially this time of year when it stands out more than ever. A bonus – it is what I see every time I look out my front window:            

This Hawthorn ‘Winter King’ was only planted this spring and I already love its amazing shape and silhouette. May it survive our brutal winter winds:

And last but not least, the Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla) still keeps on keeping on and still remains one of my absolute faves in or out of bloom:

Feel free to criticize Alex all you want in the Comments.

John

Wordless Wednesday – Texture

A frigid stroll

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I was home early from work today and made it a point to walk around the yard despite the sub freezing temperatures. There is a lot of “brown” all around, but upon closer inspection, there is still a nice variety of subtle colors and textures keeping things interesting.     
I’m assuming the red tipped boxwood leaves indicate stress from the cold, but I still find it to be an interesting part of their life cycle in the fall/winter. Call me crazy:  

Speaking of boxwoods, the Japanese boxwoods have turned their usual yellow/orange as the temps drop and now is their time to shine as everything else dies around them:

The basal foliage (foliage that hangs low to the ground under the stems) on many of the perennials have maintained their color and only now, truly stand out amongst the carnage. I’ll take it:

Achillea ‘Moonwalker’

Penstemon ‘Husker Red’

Physostegia ‘Summer Snow’

The seed heads on the Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum incanum) look fantastic and maybe, just maybe, I’ll finally harvest the seeds:

This is a mystery Heuchera that has held it’s color better than any other I currently own. Any idea of the cultivar? Need more, stat:  

I went on an Arborvitae shopping spree two years ago and while they have been a bit slow to establish, the varying colors displayed throughout the seasons have been impressive:

My apologies if I’ve bored you to death but when you’ve got the “plant obsession” you can find interest any time of the year.

John

My “Twelve Days of Gardening” song

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I ask that you actually sing as you read it. It will make it that much more enjoyable/absurd.  
“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a kid who gives a shit about gardening“: 

“On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two sets of cojones so I could shoot the deer on my property”:

“On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, more shrubs with three seasons of interest”

“On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four lessons on how to take photos of interesting birds”:

“On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, fiiiiiiiive … golden … foliaged …. conifers“:  

“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six more ornamental grasses with vertical interest”:

“On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven more days in the week so I can remove all of the lawn from my property”:

“On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight shots of performance enhancing drugs so I can keep up with my mammoth weeds”:

“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine reminders to stake my larger perennials”:

“On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ten extended days of peony bloom time”:

“On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eleven kick ass native plants“:

“On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve months of summer”:

Wordless Wednesday

568 days to go – Thinking Annuals

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of my “xxx days to go” posts but I’m back thinking big picture. As a refresher, I made a vow about two months ago to do some big things with my gardens over the next year and a half. You can read about it here. I want to “go big” and see if I’m capable of matching my lofty expectations. The fun will be in the journey and I will document it all here.

Today, while looking back at all of the photos I’ve taken this past year, one plant in particular stood out. It reminded me that I really want to move in a new direction with my garden design. It also reminded me that I’m dumb because many of you have voiced your opinion many times over about how important this “type” of plant is when building up your garden beds.  

I am not a big annual guy. Never have been. I enjoy planting and nurturing perennials knowing they will give me pleasure for years to come. I also enjoy the process of watching small plugs mature right in front of my eyes. I’ve always thought of annuals as the cheap way to create a garden. I’ve seen too many people load up on impatiens or pansies in the spring and act all proud of their accomplishment. Sure the flowers look great, but where is the soul of the planting? Don’t you want to evolve along with your plants? I realize most of these individuals are not “real” plant lovers, so I shouldn’t criticize. But I do and will for the foreseeable future.

What I’m missing out on of course, are those fantastic annuals that are unique, carefree, loaded with color and character and most importantly, if used correctly, fantastic space fillers. This is a plant genre I’ve ignored for too long and it needs to be added to my repertoire.

Oh yeah … the plant I referenced earlier that grabbed my attention … it was Coleus ‘Alabama Sunset’. I bought a few of these on a whim in early spring, stuck them in some containers and quickly moved on. Well they kicked some major booty!

Here is one the day I planted it:                      

And then a few months later:

And finally, a few weeks ago before our first frost:

Talk about consistent color in a partially shaded spot. I did nothing to them other than supplemental watering when they wilted a bit. Why am I not adding plants of this ilk throughout the yard? Probably, as I mentioned previously, because I am dumb.

When all of the spring catalogs start piling up over the next few months, I will be paying special attention to the annual selections. I’ve grown them from seed in containers, but why not try them in the ground this time? It’s a small financial investment for a potentially sweet return.

John  

A fantastic Hunterdon County weekend

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We look forward to this same weekend every year. 
The first weekend following Thanksgiving is when we cut down our Christmas tree and sample all that beautiful, scenic Hunterdon County, New Jersey has to offer. We’ve done it every year since we moved out here. Last year was an eventful one which you can read about here if you are so inclined. No such drama this year.   
Rosemont Tree Farm has always been our tree farm of choice and this year was no different. The selection of trees is overwhelming and the kids can get lost within minutes. Here they are before running off in different directions:  

As is always the case, the kids could not agree on a tree so we had to threaten them in order to come to a mutual decision. Threats carry a lot of weight this time of year with Santa’s arrival on the horizon and I make sure to take full advantage of that. That is called leverage or good parenting.

We finally identified our tree and were ready to take her home:

And guess who kicked some major booty and cut her down?:

Hours later the tree was defeated and victory was mine (Note how over the whole thing my daughter is):

Beautiful tree with needles like knives. Guess who forgot gloves and still has bloodied fingers? This tough guy, who is hiding it well as this photo was taken:

The tree was stuffed in the car and we headed out to lunch down on the Delaware River. It was an exceptionally warm and sunny day and a great time to be outside:

This year, we hit up the Frenchtown Cafe, a local favorite. This place is always on the money. Click on the photo below and you can read all of the positive reviews that have been posted. Lines wind out the door on weekend mornings but it is worth the wait:    

Did it all end there? Hell no. That night, we made it out to the town tree lighting and even brought our ageless 12 year old dog, Casey, who I’m pretty sure made at least 50 people smile. She has that way about her:

Santa arrived dramatically via firetruck and my son reluctantly posed with him after making sure none of his classmates were around. My daughter, on the other hand, ate it all up:  

It was the perfect weekend that felt like it was right out of a Lifetime movie … without the murder or sordid affairs. Good times indeed:    

John

Damn, it’s cold