GPE 2023 : The Finale

the 2023

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event Finale

 

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 Hello, and thank you all for -

- coming.

 Sorry about that.  The Official Hexenhäusli Device Woodsman is clearly keen to get going with my wood and couldn't wait for me to finish the introduction.

 

 Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yes: Thank you all for taking part in the Garden Photos Event this year!  Whether you opened your gardens for the event or just visited and made approving noises in the comments (or just to yourselves if you didn't comment), we hope you enjoyed the show and maybe took away some inspiration for your garden/courtyard/balcony/windowbox/windowsill next year.

 Oh, before I forget, two years ago Mr Tonking suggested a little music to accompany these GPE recaps.  I don't know why I didn't make good his suggestion last year, but I've picked three tunes for this year. 

 First is "Since Yesterday" by Strawberry Switchblade - one of my favourite 80s songs.  I picked this to go with Ms Scarlet's and Mr Tonking's strawberries (and mine!) - as well as those lurking behind Melanie's pitchers.

[Strawberry Switchblade recorded a demo track suitably called "Trees and Flowers" but it's a bit wishy-washy for my tastes]

GPE 2023 : IDV's Zoological Gardens

 This, the final array of flora & fauna from the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2023, is my own.

 

Take a Turn Around the Grounds with

M E,  I D V

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 I thought we'd start with the zoological specimens first as the display includes the majority of Hexenhäusli Device's grounds, so you can see the layout of the gardens and many of the plants too (not pictured: the North Lawn and Gardener's Private Retreat):

 

Arial view of the South Gardens

Widdershins from top left: Nursery web spider (Pisaura miribilis) in the red greenhouse [April], Large yellow underwing moth (Noctua pronuba) x2 in the potting station (not the related Satellite as incorrectly marked on the image) [July], Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) [August], Peacock (Aglais io) [August], and some sort of spider that I can't be bothered to try and identify on a rock next to the pond lake [June].

GPE 2023 : UptonKing Gets Fruity

Here we are at the penultimate garden of this year's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, the red, yellow, and orange-hued grounds of Mr Tonking.  Welcome to:

 

U P T O N K I N G' S

 

Weird & Wonderful Gardening Year

 

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GPE 2023 : Mago's Garden Com Post

 Ah, you're right on time for...

 

M A G O:

 

Where No Plant Has Gone Before

 

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I snapped some photographs last night [Hallowe'en, spookily enough - IDV]:

 

GPE 2023 : WOW, DINAH, YOU LOOK GLAM!!

My "garden" here is still very much in its beginning stage! says Dinah, as she's only recently moved house.  But I'll rake up a few things...

 

 D I N A H M O W

 

does

Beginnings and

Borrowed Views

 

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Because my "proper" garden is not yet established, I'm going to cheat with some of the borrowed view!  So there!

A native Eucalypt (nope! don't have the full name)

GPE 2023 : Mitzi Couldn't Give A Fig

 Ah, here you are!  Welcome to the sixth garden of the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour.  I hope you brought that bacon rind I mentioned in the previous post? 

 Right, strap in - here we go:

 

M I T Z I' S

 

Unnatural Beauty

 

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Hello Mr D, I hope I'm not too late for this year's garden extravaganza. Sadly I won't be able to reply to any comments as I'm going away tomorrow [Saturday 28th Oct - IDV], if you wouldn't mind letting the hoi polloi know, I would hate them to think of me as haughty.

Love Mitzi.

[Disregard the above: Mitzi's back off her hols now - IDV]

 

An upright fuchsia called Jubilee something or other, Jon will know. A cutting taken from the garden centre.

GPE 2023 : Mooning About with Maddie

On stage at the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tonight are:

 

the Bootilicious Blooms

of

M A D D I E

 

T H E

M I S T R E S S   B O R G H E S E

 

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 This is my selection for this year.  I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how nice everything did considering I still don't know what I'm doing.  Some of the gardens are still things my father had done when he was alive.... but much of the garden is fairly new beds with a little bit of everything.

 

A few pictures from spring...

Columbines

 

GPE 2023 : Ms Scarlet is a Big Pink Bush Tease!

 Ah, how lovely to see you all again!  This time on the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event we have:

 

M S   S C A R L E T' S

Abundance of Blossom

(as well as her infamous Big Pink Bush, of course).  I will pass you over to Ms Scarlet to introduce her garden photos:

 

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 You will notice that Devon had an abundance of blossom in Springtime - Cherry blossom, and soooo much Hawthorn.

 I have included a tease of my big pink bush, along with a couple of pots of pansies. And then there are several arty photos of my hydrangeas.

 The hot spell in late September has given me a little crop of strawberries, which is very odd - the bonus being that I don't think there are any birds around to eat them if they ripen.

GPE 2023 : Jon's & Madam A's Stars of the Seasons

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event is proud to present Jon's and Madam Arcati's:

 

Garden Festival

at

D O L O R E S

D E L A R G O

T O W E R S

 

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Rosa "Veilchenblau"

 

 After the horrors of the Great Freeze in December 2022, when we had more than a week of frosts down to -8C/-17.6F (during which we lost all the Pelargoniums, both Eucomis, all the upper growth on the Cordyline, some Fuchsias, some Aquilegias, some Dahlias, some ornamental Cyclamen and an Agapanthus), one might have hoped for an improvement - but hell, no. We had mizzly, grey, chilly weather for weeks and weeks, culminating in torrential rainstorms all through March and April, which meant that time spent in the garden was intermittent, but at least the Daffodils, Tulips, Ipheion, Snowdrops, Crocus, Violas, hardy Cyclamen, Forget-me-Nots and Aubretia were all there to cheer us up!

 As were the "stars" of the season:

GPE 2023 : Melanie explains the Birds and the... Bears?!?

 Our second stop on the Garden Photos Event tour is at ProximaBlue's (AKA Melanie Reynolds):

 

Plenty of Pitchers at

 

M E L A N I E'S

Garden Party

 

Plant Entries:

Pitcher Plant: I was so excited to get my first pitcher plant flower. It was a bit tricky to get a good picture of it though since it stands up so far from the rest of the plant.

GPE 2023 : Shiny Peenee

Welcome to the first stop on 2023's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour:

 

the Green Accented Apartment of

 

M R   P E E N E E

 

As with previous GPEs, I'll be taking a back seat and letting the gardener talk us through the subjects of their garden photos.  As long as they provided enough - or any - captions, that is.  Which Peenee did fortunately, so I'll pass you over to him: 

 

 After years of having a large, meandering garden, I moved into an apartment with absolutely no exterior space. I resisted potted plants inside because it just seemed sad after all that time fighting the good garden fight. But lately, I decided to take advantage of the big windows here and have taken on a few inside plants.

 

I've always liked asparagus ferns and this one has returned my feelings by thriving.

Go girl.

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2023

 To those who made it through the Terrifying Triffidery pre-show relatively unscathed* - and to those who sensibly avoided it - welcome to the 13th annual Infomaniac Garden Photos Event!

 This year the totally non-binding and entirely voluntary theme is wildlife and we have quite a few creepy-crawlies in amongst the foliage and flora for you to cast your eyes upon - as well as one or two rather larger specimens! 

 But before we begin, a big thank you to everyone who has submitted photos - and to those who have yet to do so but will do in the next few days (there's bound to be at least one - maybe two?) - without you, there would be no Garden Photos Event. 

 And big thanks also to The Very Mistress for allowing me to continue with the GPE in her stead.

 Speaking of, the first garden photo that was submitted this year - which does include wildlife - was from The Very Mistress herself: 

 

 And here's what she had to say about it: