There’s a lot of repetition here and I apologize if it’s annoying. There are probably more photos of iris than you care to look at, but it was a spectacular iris year here and I had trouble whittling it down!
Anne sometimes likes to call this the crazy bed. The weeds and grass (and potential snakes in the weeds and grass) drive her crazy at times. The bed is also home to a haphazard collection of shrubs, flowers and a growing number of trees. It seems to be the go-to bed for items that do not fit in other beds. Most of the trees in the crazy bed are very small at this point. But they too are crazy. Anne plants Redbuds like some people plant tulips — they can be thick. It totally makes sense though (in a crazy way) — the Redbuds are small and can hang out with a lone day lily, a dogwood, large swaths of euphorbia, winecups, primrose, wild mulleins, and dozens of others.
click the image for a much larger view.
I like the crazy bed for it’s unpredictability. Always a new species to be found that I didn’t know existed. Anne says there isn’t much going on there right now, but I say there is always something crazy going on. In time I’m sure this bed will have a new name. Maybe it will become the Redbud bed.
This year the irises were sublime. Too bad we don’t have a wide angle lens to capture the mass effect. Here are a few worth commenting on.
My all time favorite iris. A random purchase at the Green Scenes Annual Plant Sale in Waterloo in ’08. Was not blooming when I bought it. Don’t know it’s name and don’t care. What a color!
Peach iris. I do not know the names of any of the iris I grow. Most are pass along plants.
The 2-toned iris in the foreground came out of a ditch up the road.
This is as much variety as I could capture with our regular lens.
This one starts out black and turns deep purple at the end of its bloom cycle.
Click any of the images in this post for a larger view.
Daisy with expired allium bloom
Double Hollyhock
Single Hollyhock
White Cone Flower (echinacea)
I’m blurring the lines of work and gardening 
I’ve been starting work on a Second Life build for the college and it needed some plants. If you are not familiar with Second Life, it is an online virtual world built by its inhabitants. Our island isn’t open yet to the public, but I hope to open an observation deck on Monday so anyone wanting to come take a look could do so.Â
I think the planter needs some more flowers. It looks a bit sparse. The dude in the picture is the college’s avatar – styled to look like the founder of the college.
Eventually, I hope to add in a small vineyard (the college has a viticulture program) and certainly a small field of corn – perhaps scripted corn that grows along with our growing season.
I think some real weeds are calling 
I was tempted to make a slideshow, but slides get dull after a while. Then I thought I could make a little movie with some narration, but I couldn’t think of anything incredibly clever and fun to say. So I made a little game of it. There are 34 closeup images in the garden. Click on the garden to find and see them. I put a little counter in the bottom right corner so you don’t need to keep track. These images were all taken on June 14th. (If it seems nothing appears below, just click in the space).
[swf]http://www.www.barkandbloom.com/flash/interactiveGarden/interactiveGarden.swf, 400,300[/swf]
Spring is a magical time. Amazing little changes every day. Little pieces of land in the process of becoming garden displays perform a super-slow drama that captivates, entertains and motivates us to plant more.
The plants are the scenery, props and characters all at once. Anne is the director. I wonder how far this analogy can go? Probably not too much farther. The first act is coming to close. Tulips never last long enough in my opinion – I’ve likely said that before, and I will likely say it every year.
With all the projects going on, it is often difficult to remember to take some time to enjoy what has been done. Check out some of these new growths we’ve been watching and enjoying. See if you can identify everything.
Answers after the break…
