GPE #9 : Ms Nations' Bought Her Spider Plant A Mansion

This stop on the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour is a reblog of An Occult Apperatus (from Steve. Because 'Steve' is almost as nice a name as 'Paul' was.), as instructed by the blog author herself,

M S  N A T I O N S

 

I live in an apartment, and I don't have a yard. What we do have is a tiny little back patio, and what I've been doing is growing a few nasturtiums in pots out there every Summer. 

 

This is where we hang out and talk shit.

 

 

I never get tired of nasturtiums. You just cannot beat this intricate flower form - and the hummingbirds adore them!

GPE #8 : Maddie, the Mistress Borghese's successful gardening year

M A D D I E

The Mistress was very pleased as to another fairly successful gardening year.  Considering I still don't have much nous when it comes to gardening and when and where to plant things. 

 

GPE #7 : Mitzi can't live anywhere with 'bog' in it's name

Dear Mr Device.  

Please forgive my tardiness in sending you my garden photographs, I've been driving down to the south coast every touch and turn looking at properties, hence my blogging absence.  The last house I viewed was in Bognor Regis...  BOGNOR!  It was a nice house but I can't live anywhere with 'bog' in it's name.  I'm away for 3 weeks so I might not be able to thank people for their gracious comments.

Hope all is well,

 

M I T Z I

 

Birds eye view from the car camera.  Look how clean my drive is compared with theirs next door.

[Can Mitzi's car fly?? - IDV]

 

 

The other side of the fence lives a Chinese lady.  She likes to peer through the knots in the wood at us, reminiscent of that horror film The Ring.

GPE #6 : UptonKing Keeps It Up

Had quite a bit of help with these.  The house faces my mother's house, so...  Yes.  Ugh.  Have to keep it up (hee hee). 

 

U P T O N K I N G   2

- The ReTURN -

 

 Roses in the backyard...

GPE #5 : Dividing Uptonking

U P T O N K I N G

 

I've been dividing my time between the north house and south.  The north house, I have a good deal of help keeping it up and the soil is good.  The south house is just a frightful mess; poor soil, and I'm on my own.

 

South house first... 

Bush...  Is in the front.  I took that pic in April.  It blooms for 2 days and then nothing.  The leaves turn from black to green to red to black.  Oddest thing.  I feel sorry for it, as it is under a giant pine tree and another smaller tree and crunched up against the deck now.

[This looks like a slightly less glam version of Ms Scarlet's Big Pink Bush™ - IDV]

 

The front is a bunch of garbage lilies which keep sliding down the hill in the front.  This year, milkweed sprung up and as I'm all for helping butterflies and the like, I decided to keep them.  The backyard too...

GPE #4 : Ms Scarlet's Opportunity to Show It Off

M S   S C A R L E T

I don't have much to offer up this year - this year being one of the most miserable ever, BUT, my big pink bush was glorious and I don't want to miss any opportunity to show it off. 

[Ms Scarlet's infamous Big Pink Bush™ in situ - IDV]

GPE #3 : Melanie's Native Beauties

I'm afraid I've been tearing up the pavement between my home in Woodinville, WA and my parents' homes in the Spokane, WA area. If I win any award it should be for my knack for avoiding the worst of all the road construction this year! I suppose the hours of saved time was reward enough. I can't remember the last time they did such an extensive year of road construction, not since the 1980's at least!

 

So, since my garden this year was rather sad, and indeed, some of the beauties that graced the Garden D'Lite in the past are sadly no more, lets just give you a gander of what the other end of this big ass state has to offer. If you were to drive from the ocean to the very edge of the Washington State line bordering Idaho it would take you 6hr 19min with no traffic delays at the freeway speed limit of 70mph (112.65Kmh). Like most Washingtonians I go 5-10mph above that.

 

 Without further ado..... 

 

the visited greenery of

P R O X I M A B L U E

 

Dad's house overlooks a small valley surrounded by wheat and sunflower fields. Unfortunately, the sunflower fields were past their prime.

 

The view of the hill behind me, a well-maintained Ponderosa Pine forest. Forest fires are the biggest threat to living here.

 

 

Three Native Beauties - 

GPE #2 : Jon's & Madam Arcati's Glorious Spells

Despite the fact that it has been a pretty mild (and on occasions glorious) spell of weather lately, the Spring and summer of 2024 in London were mainly pretty grotty. As I recall, we had a couple of days of sun in June, and in late July/early August we had a proper blast of heat, but then it once again went to shit until October.

 

Regardless, the extensive gardens here at 

 

D O L O R E S

D E L A R G O

 T O W E R S

 

                                                                               still managed to provide us with some stunners – the ferns [every one of which has self-seeded, so we have dozens of new plants], lilies, clematis, begonias, hemerocallis. thalictrums, daffs, tulips, brodiaea, taro, aquilegia, lobelias, pelargoniums, hesperis, verbena, agastache, tradescantia, brunnera, veronica, geraniums and roses all did us proud (and of course the salvias, impatiens and fuchsias, which continue to do so); but the phloxes (all varieties), hydrangea, campanula, dianthus and dahlias all struggled compared to previous years. It was probably just too gloomy for them – what with the preponderance of grey days, and the encroaching canopy of bastard weed trees that blocks more and more light off our garden every year.

 

So, on with the show… In a melodrama akin to “Sophie’s Choice”, I have slimmed down the myriad photos we’ve accumulated since the beginning of the year to one “Star of the Month” each month to date. And here they are:

 

Jan 2024 – Ipheion uniflorum

 

 

Feb 2024 – Primula

GPE #1 : Dinah's Sex in the Front Yard

How many can you handle? asked

 

D I N A H M O W

 

I'll start with some of the Quisqualis which is an absolute cracker this year!

 

 

Will look for more!

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2024

 

Yes, the Infomaniac Garden Photos event is finally upon us - Welcome to the show everyone!

 As I type this, there are photos from nine Bloggerati (including mine) waiting in the wings to be published throughout November.  However, I am fully expecting at least one tardy entry - even if I have to scrape their blog for the photos myselves!

 Oh, and due to an unavoidable scheduling clash, there won't be a showing from the Infomaniac duck this year - The Very Mistress sends her apologies.  Instead, may I present the Hexenhäusli Device dove and jackdaw:

 Beaky is livid that he didn't get a starring role, but it's his own fault for being such a demanding little diva!

☙❧

 Now, on to the winners (i.e. the triffids that managed to devour whole persons or limbs) and losers (those that only inflicted minor lacerations or stings) of Terrifying Triffidery.  Just in case anyone hasn't yet seen the previous Terrifying Triffidery post and wants to guess who sent in what, I've redacted the names in the captions below but they can be revealed by selecting/highlighting the blank part.

GPE 2024 : Terrifying Triffidery

 

 You made it.  Splendid.  Welcome to the fifth annual Terrifying Triffidery show!

The hors d'oeuvres are here!

Hang on... I didn't think we were serving our Bloggerati guests with food?

We're not.  We're serving them as food!  The triffids are getting peckish and without Gavin and his monstrous arms we have no way to hold them back.

We are NOT feeding our guests to a load of house plants with ideas above their station!  And where is Gavin?  I haven't seen him since last year.

I think Maddie made off with him.  Or was it Hound?

Christ!

 

 Ah.  Don't pay the SubCs any attention.  And don't open that door!  Just follow me to the orangery where one of the staff will be serving Champagne or cocktails or something before we begin the tour.

What's Witchface talking about?

We don't have any staff.

Unless you count the woodsman?

I hope he's changing out of that horrid flannel shirt...

 Right.  Let's have some music to accompany our tour.  Oh, and remember to keep all your appendages on this side of the velvet rope - unless you don't need them, that is.  And some of the triffids' tendrils and tentacles are quite long, so be on your guard.

Garden Photos Event update

 Well, the deadline for sending in your garden/graveyard/windowsill/duck photos has come and gone, and I'm surprised to have received entries from as many as six Bloggerati (thank you all).  I am not surprised that dear Savvy's entry wasn't amongst them...

 

 Anyway, you still have time to get your photos in if you want to take part (into the first week of November, if absolutely required), but please note: if you have a Terrifying Triffidery photo, you MUST email it to me by midday tomorrow UK time.  That's anywhere between 5am on the US west coast to 8am on the East, I think?  And 1pm in Franconia...  (The expected Australian entry is in, but if there are any more you'll have to work the time out yourselves as your country spans too many time zones for me to be arsed to list).

 

 Everyone is welcome - even newcomers, friends-of-friends, lurkers, Lady Goldberg-DeWoofs etc. - so if you'd like to take part, please do!  This blog's gmail address can be found in my profile up there on the Sideboard to the right.  If you have any questions, please ask away in the comments.

 

Hope to see you and your  I N F O M A N I A C  Garden Photos Event snaps soon!