The Barefoot Photographer®

a photography blog

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Planting Photos

By now many of you have been busy planting in your yards for the spring and summer. Spending time at the local nursery or home/hardware store you can find many beautiful additions to your landscape.  As you are planning, keep in mind plants that attract birds, butterflies, insects, and such to your yard.  Many places that sell plants will have information about the best to choose to attract wildlife to your yard.  Also think about the plants themselves.  All of these things -- plants, birds, insects, etc. can be your subject matter for the next 5 months or so.  

I still have a little taming of my outdoor area to do -- but I am busy thinking of where I need to add a little color.  Also, I need to toss out some parsley seed. Parsley plants are the food for the black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Parsley is also a biennial -- blooming and going to seed in its second year.  I think the is the first year in quite a while that I do not have any parsley coming up in any of the beds in the backyard.  

Along the back of the house, inside the courtyard area, I have three old iron urns that I like to put coleus plants in for good color against the house.  The urns are old, black, and rusty.  The bright colors of the coleus are a nice contrast to the container.  I bought some red coleus and the pink and green variety to mix in the pots.  The coleus colors I bought were the Rustic Red and Watermelon.  Coleus plants grow fast.  Pinch the buds or tops of a tall, leggy plants and they will become fuller.

For the front porch I chose deep, dark, scarlet geraniums.  In the pot with the geraniums I added a white verbena plant and a couple of the Rustic Red coleus plants.  The leaves of the geranium plants are just as interesting to photograph as the blooms are.  Also for the front porch I bought some portulaca plants for hanging pots.  These are excellent in a spot with hot summer sun -- not like we have seen much sun lately!  

For the deck I bought yellow grape and Mr. Stripey tomato plants.  These sounded good to eat in salads this summer and good to take photos of as well.  I like to take photos of the tomato plants as they bloom and as the tomatoes grow and ripen.  I hope the tomato worms don't find them -- I hate the tomato worms -- they are very creepy and gross.  (But if they show up I will take photos before I "remove" them -- once I removed them into a plastic zip bag, forgot the bag on the porch until the next day -- went to get the bag and found a big hole and no worms!)

The backyard is already filled with butterfly bushes and many types of daylilies getting ready to bloom.  I like daylilies -- they are easy to care for and come back year after year.  Last year I also added some canna lilies, lizard's tail, and other plants around the pond.  Already this year I have seen two white water lilies and one pink bloom.  The white ones usually bloom a lot -- but the pink one is not as prolific.  The lamb's ear is almost ready to bloom too -- that means bumble bees are coming soon.  There are a few cosmos and zinnia plants that continue to return thanks the the previous year's seed.  Or should I say -- the seed that the goldfinches missed!  Those little yellow birds love to hang on the old stems to get seeds, and drop a few.  Look closely at the plants to spot the crab spiders whose color will match the plant so they are not easily seen.  Toads, tadpoles, skinks, dragonflies and more will be all around the pond.  

Plant!  Then charge up your batteries and get outside with your camera.

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