So the other day I noticed my Tonto crape myrtle had this crusty white stuff on it. Not powdery mildew, which sometimes appears later in the year on crape myrtles. Mildew looks like white film on the leaf’s surface. Mine had white stuff on the tips of the leaves. My first thought was woolly aphids or cottony scale, but it… Read more →
Winter forces us to look closer for beauty in the garden. No more cantaloupe-sized hydrangea flowers, no flamboyant dahlias, no voluptuous tree peonies. We look to the details to find beauty in unexpected places. My neighbor has an English holly that hangs over the fence in the corner of our backyard. The leaves it drops are thick and waxy, but… Read more →
I have the greatest job, though some days I only make $5 an hour. I have the pleasure of writing about trees for an online tree retailer in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. I write about the stories behind the trees—where they came from, how they were used in their native lands, who “discovered” them for the West. I often… Read more →
In the words of Bruce Springsteen, and later, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: “Mama always told me not to look in the eyes of the sun. But Mama, that’s where the fun is…” This is the second installment on how shooting into the sun can bring some dramatic results to your garden photography. The previous post covered foliage effects; this one… Read more →
March and April bring fresh new foliage back into our lives. I love to capture this special time of year in photos, so that I can better recall at any time of year the brilliance and translucency of those young spring leaves. But sometimes, when going through the day’s photos, I have found that they don’t capture the spirit of what I saw… Read more →
I love all seasons of the year–even when there’s not much (or anything) blooming. Winter has its unique beauties. However, after moving to Portland, I didn’t expect to see much of the winter wonderland that visits the Midwest. Boy, was I wrong this year! Nine inches of snow and a coating of ice made for some fierce cabin fever last weekend,… Read more →
