This year I am gardening with two other people who wanted to give John Jeavon’s Biointensive Gardening a try. One of the main ideas is that you start EVERYTHING from seed in flats, even corn, beans and peas. These are some marigolds I started quite a while ago. It really has made gardening a brand new experience for me. I’ve tried to start things from seed before and failed miserably. It’s going better this year due in large part to the grow light Steven put together for me, but I also have a very different attitude about it. In the past, I’ve always bonded with each little seed and plant, WANTING it to thrive, but you know, nature just isn’t like that. And the spiritual lesson for me has been: maybe God isn’t like that either. Most plants produce an abundance of seed and you wouldn’t want it all to survive. I get upset at myself for each little failure, sometimes making it monumental. But this week I’ve realized, I need to make lots of efforts, and only some of them will go on to grow and produce fruit, and that is just the way nature is. And God, the Master Gardener, knows that and has planned it that way.
Archive for Green grass, flowers and such
Poppies
In 2010, I went a little crazy taking photos of some daisies in my neighborhood. They made me think of the movie, You’ve Got Mail, where Meg Ryan’s character says that daisies are the friendliest flowers, and then Tom Hanks’ character brings her a bunch of daisies, trying to convince her that the big bad Fox Book Store man might not be as bad as she thinks, as in, he is really the guy on the internet she has fallen in love with. Ahh….so romantic!
So this year, the flower of 2012 seems to be the poppy. This little spot of poppies on a corner in my neighborhood always just knocks my socks off when it blooms. So here it is, 2012, the spring of bold colors and poppies!
Does anyone know of a romantic story to go with poppies?
May Basket Day 2012
Here it is, this year’s beautiful May Basket from my dear sister! It makes me feel like I am in a late spring meadow with my favorite Queen Anne’s Lace!
And these are the sweetest little pink tulips ever!
It seems like every year there is also something new and exciting in the May Basket. This year it was this yellow “puff”, a very lovely spherical element. I have no idea what it is. It seems like the center of some flower with the petals removed. The basket came from Mary Kay’s Flowers and Gifts, so I may have to give them a call and satisfy my curiosity!
Once in a lifetime spring???
Every day the last couple of weeks, when I head out into Ames, I almost faint, the spring flowering show has been so beautiful. You know how it usually goes? You wait all of Feb, March and some of April for the blossoms to pop, and a day or so after they do, you get an April shower, and it’s all gone, in the blink of an eye. And usually it’s a procession, yellow forsythia first, then red buds, THEN white apple blossoms and finally the violets and crab apples. As the next blossom appears, the previous ones fade. This year, it’s all out there at once, lingering until the last one on stage has made its appearance!
We’ve had a gentle rain this morning on this side of town, but if the skies clear, I think I can get out there and get some more photos of this once in a lifetime spring!
Violets
I love that you can still find patches of violets.
I had to smile the other day when a group of sometimes rough little boys at school came in from recess with their fists carrying bunches of violets. They were in such a rush to get the fragile little flowers into some water. Flowers bring out the best in all of us!
Spring Flowering Trees in Ames
Today was the day! I feel like spring is about at its peak here in central Iowa, so I took out the Cannon and drove around town to capture the beauty.
Iowa State University has a beautiful campus and every year when the blue squill bloom it still takes my breath away. This year I finally got onto campus for some close ups of the patch between the Memorial Union and the Knoll.
Last of the Poland Trip Nostalgia
It’s 75 degrees F here in Ames, Iowa, and I bought my first flowers for the garden, so I better wrap up my recent postings reliving my trip to Poland. I’ll end with a flower picture, just to get you in the mood for gardening season! This was taken in Wroclaw.
And this last photo shows the reason for the trip in the first place, spending time with my son!
Polish Flower Boxes
Wish I knew what kind of geraniums these are that were so popular in Krakow when I was there in 2008. They were amazing!





















