GARDEN PICS: BEAUTY FALLS IN THE GARDEN

The Crepe Myrtle are great this year.

Love that mantis! I've never seen any here. I've thought about buying them like I do with the ladybugs. Maybe I will next year.

This is a new pansy I picked up called Blue Denim. It is so pretty.

Pony..they are so much fun to watch. They have charming personalities! As an added bonus..they eat the bad bugs. GO Mantis!

Sold! hehe. Yeah, I will order some next spring. I didn't think of it until too late this year. They are so cool looking!

Looks like most of us are either: Pacific Lowland Mixed Forest or Pacific Lowland Mixed Forest.

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/ecosysmgmt/colorimagemap/ecoreg1_provinces.html

Interesting site.

I have way fewer squirrels that one would think, with an acre and a half of my own and several acres of woods to either side of me. That always surprises me, but I guess there's plenty for them to feed on without coming over here.

I did have a big raccoon on the car the other night -- I have the big muddy footprints down the windshield to prove it. LOL

I put out a praying mantis that I had purchased a couple summers ago, but the dog decided to eat it before it had hatched. I think they're so cool. Bea, it's great that they're occurring so naturally in your yard.

Beautiful pansy.

Katie, you always have the best information. First, a great spider site & now the forest types.

I love to have new topics to research (you guys are a great help with that) -- but I never finish reading everything on the site before I'm off to the next bit of information!!

I forget what I read pretty much right away. I told a friend the other day that at 40 I started forgetting things. Now that I'm (almost) 50, I not only forget, but I find that I'm making up stuff to replace it. Heh heh.

One of the best things about working in newspapers since I was 17 was that I got PAID to read read read all day long. The more wide-ranging your knowledge, the more valuable you were to the newspaper. As a copy editor, everything counted -- celebrity gossip, weapons identification, City Council history, Latin.

You never knew what might come up in a story, and it was my job to know a little about everything so that the little red flag would go up at the right time. I spent half my career with a little frowny face on, thinking, "That doesn't sound right ..."

Wow, it's the career for me. I'm full of "little known facts". My neighbor was doing an imitation of me at a party this summer, "You know, I just saw this piece on PBS about the guy known as the Lobotomist at the early part of the 20th century . . ." I can't help it.

My mom's dad had newspapers in Montana and Oregon in the 1920's and my mom helped typeset. My SIL sold ads for the Woodinville Weekly for a long time. My nieces husband writes for the Everett Herald - we do have a lot of newspaper people in my family . . .

Wow, how cool to have a heritage like that. My family is sort of ... well, ordinary. My mother's family is fairly well educated, but no astrophysicists or anything like that. Lots of spelling bee winners. One cousin teaching Russian studies at Yale.

Oh, don't get me wrong -- these aren't big papers - they are tiny local papers. My family's pretty ordinary, too, I would say. Certainly no astrophysicists. I did date a rocket scientist once, but his work was really just glorified math homework. And he wasn't terribly exciting. :-)

Now spelling bees, THAT'S pressure. I remember a few years ago that my whole family (3 brothers and spouses and me, their 5 offspring and spouses, and their 4 offspring) descended on my folks for the holidays. There wasn't room at any one house, so several people stayed at hotels. One morning my nephew and his sister were talking about having stayed up late after the kids had gone to sleep to watch the national spelling bees on cable. Turns out several of them were.

I knew we tended to be into crossword puzzles, but I didn't know that we were spelling bee junkies . . .

Bea....love the mantis, I want some too, so fun to watch. And that pansy is precious.

I have more squirrels this year, the coyotes aren't as plentiful, so they have a chance. This guy was a hoot to watch. The feeder closes when he put his weight on it. He did finally figure out how to get sunflower seeds, but only one or two at time.

Great picture, Sally!

I love mantids as well and a few years ago I hatched out several hundreds to release into the garden. I was hindered by all my garden activites in fear I would do them harm. It is wierd to have a bug turn its head to look at you.

Bea, Your Pansy is gorgeous, and so is the mantis! I think they are really cool, but have only seen one a handfull of times. We were planning on buying some for our garden in EWA as they do occur naturally over there as well and it is such a good feeling to have little helpers in your garden fighting off the bad bugs. We have been a little aprehensive about trying bugs through the mail again as we tried lady bugs for our greenhouses one year and got a bad batch...most were DOA.

Sally, I love the squirrel pic! Aren't they just the funnest little clowns to watch? Ours spend most of their time tormenting the dogs.

Just love the anenome's this time of year.

My favorite nicotiana...there is just something about chartreuse colored flowers that I love.

And this is for those of you who were interested in my "Kiss me over the garden gate" at roundup. It is blooming nicely now, but kind of hard to get a good picture of. I would guess that it is about 8 or 9 feet tall.

This one kind of gives you a perspective of height.

And a flower close up from a runt that I actually could get up close and personal with.

Love that KMOTGG

Hey Tills... That beautiful Procyon you gave me is blooming for me! I'm so excited! :D

I went to my sister's this weekend and wanted to post a couple of pics. I love this Mexican feathergrass (if I got it right)

This is a plant she brought from California she found on the beach. Species: idon'tknowwhatitis
(I looks like some kind of ice plant)

Another from a California beach (Same species as before, idon'tknowwhatitis)
Any ideas?

This message was edited Sep 28, 2009 8:39 PM

I couldn't begin to guess. hehe.

Did you have a nice birthday, Linda? :)

Thankyou Pony, I did have a nice restfull day.

Happy Belated Birthday, Linda. Sorry I missed it.

Pony, how is Tracy?

Can anyone ID this plant? They are growing in a yard that has been vacant for at least 30 years. I collected a pocketful of seeds.

Tracy's fine- and has decided he can't take the "no driving" thing anymore. He wasn't able to get to work a few days last week because of it, and finally said screw it. He drove to work yesterday.

I think it's an evening primrose, Lynn. But then I'm usually wrong. LOL!

I'm glad to hear he is doing fine. I don't blame him, I would drive, also.

LOL Pony! Even the stalwart Eagle Scout gives in when the rule is (IMHO) crappy! At least he held our for an admirably long time!

Lynn, I would second Pony's guess. They are very prolific, but very pretty. I would plant in a drier area to keep them a bit more under control.

I just looked it up in the Plant Files. Figures, I was so excited to get the seeds because they were so pretty and cheery, Invasive. I scattered some seeds in my DIL's border, Whoops.

Wait a second... you mean I got a plant ID right?

*faints*

Linda, a belated Happy Birthday from me!!

Yup Linda, Happy Birthday from me too! I knew, and still forgot to tell you! Sounds like you had a great pre-bday trip down south, and I hope your family party was good as well!

Lynn - Oenothera is not really invasive here like it is in the south and other areas. Loves heat. Seed will sprout, but my experience is that it's not happiest in our conditions.
Now if you insist on really liking it, I have more seed from my existing 'Sunset' strain.