cheech 297

Garden

By cheech513 on August 24, 2013

I garden in a somewhat haphazard manner, mostly in pots on my porch/deck and three beds near the house. The pots I can manage on my own, but anything in the ground I have to coerce others into maintaining (it’s a good thing I have fabulous friends). Things grew at unexpected rates this year, some thrived with the additional rain and some sulked from diminished sunlight, but I had relatively few fatalities.
This was my most successful color combination this year, mostly because everyone was a little horrified at the colors initially and they almost died in a late frost in the spring – they looked skanky for ages.

I find my water feature, sometimes referred to as the puddle absurdly hard to photograph. Late day looking toward the paddock and the perennial bed.

The fountain at the raised end.

The best thing about the puddle is the critters – frogs, fish, dragonflies, butterflies and in dry weather the birds.

They are green frogs (Rana clamitans) which is right up there with blue birds for a name, so simple you’re sure you’re wrong. I often see four at the same time and I’ve grown ridiculously fond of them.
Fish are very frustrating to photograph, it’s all luck….you just keep shooting and hope they arrange themselves in a pleasing fashion at some point…..argh. The frogs are easier to capture, but hard to make interesting.

I regularly see four of them sunning themselves. They are Green frogs (Rana clamitans) a name that’s right up there with Blue birds for simplicity and making you feel like an idiot when people ask “What is it?” “It’s a green frog.” “I can see that, what kind of frog is it?” “A Green frog” “If you don’t know….” You get the idea, happened to me with Blue birds, the woman was convinced I was making fun of her. A bit not good.