A Garden Grows in California

5 Nov '07 9:31 pm

But I'm certain I told it to post my post Mad

SO - in each set of pictures you seem to capture the garden with more skill and clarity, Mark! Lovely shots. I think you are exploiting the slanting light very well, and the late season lushness must also play its part. The backlit spiderweb with the cactus echoing the effect is magical. That is an Ansel Adams shot as far as I'm concerned Applause

And Fletcher has fascinating markings and looks a real character!

Faith, I find that less 'high' light is preferable, and in strong summer light I too often lose definition and colour. However digital cameras are much less capable (I think) of coping with extremes of contrast than slide-film which I used to use. Of late I have set my camera permanently to under-stress contrast; it hasn't made a huge difference, but after years of moaning about excessive contrast, it all makes sense to me.

Your Cape honeysuckle seems to have very large flowers, Mark. Is there one within reach for a scaled shot, perhaps including a hand? I would be fascinated to know if you have larger flowered cultivars. It is actually not easy to get a sense of scale against that blank wall - perhaps it is lower than I imagine.

And as for garden maps: do I remember correctly that you published one in your early postings? Or am I thinking of early shots only? Please point us towards it now that you have shown us more of the garden.

And if not: Ve vill all find ze time to post ze maps, ja!

6 Nov '07 5:39 am

Hi Mark,

Somehow your gorgeous pictures seem to have passed me by until now - so sorry! I loved the one of the spider's web and the hairy cactus (as I like to call them), and the aeonium - my Dad's promised me an aeonium when I next visit them which is something fun to look forward to - and the aloe is amazing, is it as big as it seems in the photo?

Loved the photo of Fletcher too - as Jack says, his markings are really nice, quite unusual too I think.

6 Nov '07 8:55 pm

Oh, Mark!! You must have experienced some blessed , sublime moments in your garden, while taking your gorgeous latest pictures!! THAT is what THEY tell me!! You were in perfect unison and interaction with your models!! What an enchantment to experience!! Very Happy

9 Nov '07 10:19 am

Thank you to Liza, Bambi, Jack and everyone else here who have been so patient this school year. Just the other day I came across an old album of garden photos. I wish I knew exact dates but I believe these to be about 12 years old, about the same as the other two I posted a while back. I thought I'd post them by location, starting with the first bed I planted here. It was always a crescent shape and an area that I irrigate. In the first photo I recogniize strawberries infront, dahlias to the left, crocosmia 'Lucifer' in the center, a California Flannelbush Tree toward the right and three fruit trees: an apricot to the far left, a Fuji apple in the center and a Fuyu persimmon to the right. The photos that follow are all of this same bed, albeit from different angles. I know the dates of the other photos but I don't know the first one which is obviously oldest. Items missing in this photo include: the two archways, the decomposed granite pathways, the corner deck, the circle lawn beyond this bed, the corner deck beyond that, the gravel area and the broken concrete courtyard area. There are also no phormiums which will come to play a big role and then a slightly smaller role. Anyhow, here is the first batch.

9 Nov '07 11:05 am

Isn't it great to look back at old garden pictures to see how much everything has filled in? You almost wouldn't recognize the garden of today in that early photo when all the plants and trees were so small and everything was new. I love how lush and full the Island Bed is today. Thanks for sharing the photos.

9 Nov '07 6:01 pm

Thanks, Mark, for the pictures showing how your garden has developed and grown. Sometimes it's important to see how really far things have come since we started. As you know, we (gardeners) constantly look to the future, "Next year, I'll do. . . ", and don't give ourselves credit for the successes we've already made. We tend, I think, to focus too much on our failures. Let's give ourselves a pat on the back for all the good (and hard) work we've done! Seeing the older pictures can make us realize that we've done pretty well!

Cheers!

gordonf

9 Nov '07 6:41 pm

Thanks Gordon. It is exciting for me to see these old photos and to compare them with more current photos from the last few years. I only wish I had more photos showing more inbetween stages of the garden. There are many missing links here. Tonight I will post some shots taken about a dozen years ago I guess along the backpath.

10 Nov '07 2:30 am

More interesting photos Mark. While reading your descriptions I was trying to figure out where the back path lies in relation to your home. From the name "back path" I would guess that it lay at the furthest back boundary of your property; however, in one photo I think I can see part of a deck structure. Does this path begin near your home and make a circuit around the perimeter of your lot? I was also intrigued by some purple looking foliage overhanging the path in some of the photos (Backpathnorth 1999.jpg). What is this? Your photos of the asclepias (Butterfly Weed) and Lantana illustrate how the growth of your garden has affected the microclimate there. You now have much more of a shade garden don't you? It is fascinating to see how gardener's have developed their spaces over time. I think five gardener's could be given five identical pieces of ground and come up with five very different gardens.

11 Nov '07 8:27 pm

Great, Mark! I've just discovered this last week's posting. (My reminders are 'lost' from my usual address now that I'm Jack Two - or something like that.) Tomorrow at work I will open and download your pics. Then I can take a proper look at them. And zis iz an order: ve need even a very basic sketch plan now, ja?

By the way: who has learnt that clicking on refresh before saving allows one to save a named jpg instead of an unnamed bitmap?

You make me think... a early December project when my dad and I are in Johannesburg together for a day or two MUST be to finalise and set up the system for photographing to digital a lifetime's worth of slides. (That is 55 odd years in his case, 30 in mine!) He has just had bad heart news - what it boils down to is a more sedentary lifestyle for two years awaiting the release of non-surgical aortic valve replacement technology which is in the final stages of testing. We have spoken of a better camera and a system of photographing slides on a lightbox I read about last year. It is the sort of thing that can keep him busy without too much exertion.

And oh boy - am I going to THEN have a source of pics I don't have the time to process to the forum!! Confused

11 Nov '07 10:09 pm

Love the pics, Mark, and ditto Gordon's comments re appreciating the accomplishments gardeners make over the years. Having only been gardening for a couple of years myself, I have yet to get to this stage, but hopefully one day! Very Happy

Jack - when I read your tip about photos, I got really excited (sad, I know! Wink

) but when I tried it, it didn't seem to work. Oh well, maybe it's just my system, or perhaps I'm doing it wrong Confused

Sounds worrying about your Dad though - I hope he's ok. Sounds like you've got a nice task for him to carry out while he's taking it easy though, eh? Very Happy

A Garden Grows in California

They say computers only do what we tell them to do...

Dear, dear Mark!!

New old photos have been found!

Old pictures, what fun!

Before/After along the BackPath

Hallo, Mark's Garden!!