Mid-August Garden

Most of the posts this season have been close-ups of flowers in the garden.  It occurs to me that blog visitors may like to see parts of the whole garden.  So here are some shots.

Lavatera with ‘Stacked Focus’

Taking macro photos of flower blossoms is a great way to show fine detail and beautiful forms.  One of the challenges is to get the entire image in focus.  Often the front or back of the flower is not tack sharp because of the shallow depth of field when taking close ups.

To get around this with digital photography,  there is photo editing software such as PhotoShop that can merge a number of images of the same subject and create a single image where all of it is in focus.  This is referred to as ‘stacked focusing’.  Today I tried this out.

With the camera on a tripod, and in manual mode so that the exposures would be the same, I took six shots of this lavatera blossom.  In the first image I made sure the front edge of the bloom was in focus.  The back of the bloom is very much out of focus.

I kept moving the focus ring at slight increments, taking another photo each time, as each part of the bloom was in sharp focus.  In the 6th photo the back of the bloom is in focus and the front is blurry.

I then loaded all six images into PhotoShop, aligned them and merged them, and presto!

Here it is, the whole image in focus.  Love it when stuff works!

Some of this season’s blooms

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Delightful Delphiniums

In my last post with the delphiniums and the bumble bees, there was a comment from Jean that she enjoyed seeing the delphiniums doing so well.  I responded by saying I’d post a photo of the whole row of delphiniums.  Here they are in front of the greenhouse and shed. We think the red petunias in front of them provide a nice contrast in color.

Delphiniums and Bumble Bees

The biggest bumble bees seem to be attracted to our delphiniums.  It’s great fun to get the camera out and take some shots of them buzzing around and gathering nectar.

Creative Gardening

We get lots of comments from neighbours and passers by about the old tree stump in the front yard, and the flowers we grow in it.  This year it has red ‘Dream’ petunias.

The tree stump looks for all the world like it has always been there, but actually we brought it with us from our previous home in Carcross, Yukon.  It was a remnant of an old forest burn between the Carcross Desert and Lake Bennett.

Here it adds a bit of creativity to the front yard garden.

Yep, that’s right !

 

A bit of fun in the garden

We’re not much for garden gnomes or animal ornaments to decorate the garden. OK, you’ve noticed the odd frog in some of the photos.  But generally, we try to focus on the plants and minimize the number of ‘cute’ accessories of which there seems to be an endless supply in catalogues and nursery centre shops.

However, we couldn’t resist this ‘peek-a-boo’ elf when we saw it in the catalogue.  It’s whimsical and a bit goofy, and makes visitors smile.  Well, us too when we pass by.

We Have Apples !!

A headline like this would probably not draw a lot of attention in southern climes.  But in Canada’s Yukon Territory, believe me, it’s pretty good news.  We’re not exactly the apple orchard centre of Canada, like perhaps Meaford, Ontario, or Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

So when we get apples on our Norland apple tree, we like to celebrate.  Or just delight in the idea that we can really grow apples here.  Well, at least for a time.  The tree has been producing apples quite faithfully for the past four years, but the sad fact is we run out of summer before the apples actually ripen.  So in the late fall, before the heavy frost ruins them, we bring them inside and ripen them in a cardboard box with newspaper.  Then, some applesauce.

Bishop’s Goutweed

Long considered one of the worst garden weeds in the perennial garden because of its invasive nature, Bishop’s Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) nevertheless is an excellent ground cover.  Ours is contained in a small raised bed with stones all around, and we expect (unreasonably perhaps) that it will behave and limit its travels.  As you can see, it overwintered very well and is thriving in this location where it gets mostly shade during the day.  This is its first season of performance, so we’ll see next year whether it will succeed in escaping its present confinement.  We pinch off the flowers so it wont’ spread by seed dispersal.

In the meantime, we’ll enjoy its wonderful variegated foliage – a great addition to the garden.