The Best of the Rest, 2011
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:00PM January is a good month for clearing out duplicate or subpar photos from my computer. It's a big job, as I can stroll through the garden and come back with several hundred photos! I eliminate a lot of them from my digital camera before transferring them to a computer, but I still end up with scads of photos just taking up hard drive space. However, there's always some photos I want to hang on to, even though they never made it to the blog.
Here are a few of the 'best of the rest'. For each month of 2011, I picked one previously unpublished photo taken that month. I chose them for different reasons, and the selection was harder than I thought!
January:
Naked trees are beautiful! January may be a dreary month, but even as a few dead leaves still cling to tree and shrub branches, I appreciate the sculptural quality of the landscape. It's a good month to see the 'bones' of the garden.
February:
Snowfalls are few and brief here in Helena, Alabama. I enjoyed pretending this is the normal winter appearance of my yard! The blue bench in the Front Garden is beautiful whatever the season.
March:
Only six weeks after the previous photo, dogwoods and some azaleas and other flowering shrubs are blooming. The Japanese maples also put on a show this time of year.
April:
I have had this concrete squirrel ornament for many years. He moves around the patio and surrounding area according to whim.
May:
The swing in the Lady Garden is a favorite spot to watch and listen to wildlife. Hawks, owls, bluebirds, robins, cardinals, and many other species of birds frequent the area. Not to mention squirrels, chipmunks, and bunny rabbits. Occasionally there are raccoons and foxes, opossums, and snakes. And lots of insects!
June:
This year I added several hydrangeas to the ones already growing along the little path that connects the Lady Garden to the Front Garden. I now have a hydrangea walk!
July:
This 'Butterfly' Japanese maple was planted earlier this year. It grows near the hydrangea walk. I love its variegated leaves. I once had another one of these, unfortunately planted in poor soil in way too much sun. It was a deadly location. I hope this one will like its shady site with soil enriched with lots of organic matter. It's looking good in July, and so far, so good.
August:
Many plants and people suffer through the summer doldrums in August, wilting in the heat. The bright foliage of weeping Deodar Cedar 'Feelin' Blue' is a refreshing, deceptively cool note in the Woodland Garden.
September:
Look very closely amidst the garlic chives. Can you find two hairstreak butterflies?
October:
This October photo looks over the herb bed. One can see down the slope to the arbor in the Lady Garden. This area becomes wild if I don't trim and weed it regularly through the summer, which I never do because it's craziness to do that kind of work in July and August! I clean things up once the weather starts to cool. The herb bed is on my list for a major renovation. It's not at the top of the list, but it's on there.
November:
The ivy that grows in the woods beside our drive may be beautiful, but it is terribly invasive. Lou cuts the ivy from around the base of as many trees as possible each year, but it is a losing battle. The lady who built my house sixty years ago loved ivy and planted a few sprigs here and there. I wonder what she would think if she could see it now. I have to work to keep it out of the main part of the Woodland Garden.
December:
I love these variegated poinsettias. Each year many of my Christmas decorations are plants, and that is no surprise to anybody!
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my leftover photos. May you have happy gardening and make many good memories in 2012!
If that's not enough, also see 2010 Leftovers
Reader Comments (25)
It's fun to look back, isn't it? But it's hard to choose out of so many photos!! Enjoyed your "leftovers"!!
Hi Deb, your choices for each month very well exemplifies the difference. It can very well go for a calendar of Debsgarden. In our case in the tropics, our variations with the months are not as varied. They stay mostly the same, except when it is at the height of the dry season, that most grasses die.
The thought of a hydrangea walk sounds lovely.
I did enjoy these leftovers Deb! And I did find the Hairstreaks! Lovely all!
Lovely images all, Deb, but I especially love the snow image. The blue bench makes that scene. It is so peaceful looking. We are lacking snow this year and have loads of sunny days. As nice as that is, it just seems very wrong.
February and November both are well worth posting. They're all good, but those two have something special about them!
The blue bench in the middle of the snow forest reminds me of Narnia. It's beautiful. The wooden hanging chair is the second best on my list. Thanks for sharing.
Deb - October was my favourite month in your garden from what I remember of your posts, and this summary.
Thanks for the wander through your garden, loved the photos of the snow and your blue cedar. Yes I did find the 2 butterflies after a lot of searching! Really liked the photo for October, so much of interest there.
Deb these are lovely. I adore your blue bench and each picture had a sweet surprise...snow in Alabama? Looks pretty
The October foliage photo is beautiful. Definitely not sub par from where I can see it.
All beautiful! It is nice to look at garden photos this time of year.
You have a beautiful garden! I love that picture of the blue bench in the snow! And the leaves of the Japanese maple are so interesting - I don't think I've seen one like that before. I hope your new one will do well in its spot!
A great selection Debs! And I've always loved your garden and looking forward to your updates for the year :)
My favorite is the March photo of the trees in Spring!!!
I think I spotted the butterflies. They're so tiny! You know, I'm learning to appreciate January for what it is. It can be very calm and peaceful, and any color that may be around really stands out, like the blue bench in your second photo. Beautiful pictures, no wonder it was tough to choose!
I vote for the blue bench :)
LOVE the variegated maple!! So beautiful! Hooray for your hydrangea walk. Sounds wonderful. :o)
Wonderful post! I loved reliving the year with you. I agree, your blue bench is beautiful all the time; I love it in the snow.
Happy 2012! Looking forward to seeing more from your beautiful gardens this year.
Julie
Lovely photos from the year. Your benched area is such a lovely and peaceful setting, worthy of spending many hours in relaxing.
Cher
Hi Deb,
Hrmmm I really ought to take your lead and delete photos... Sadly I've now got to that point where there is no return other than to delete all photos I have taken that haven't been published. I aim to delete most after uploading and then looking through them and choosing images to crop and publish on the blog; but somehow it just doesn't seem to happen, enough.
Anyway, beautiful photos and such a lovely idea. I don't think I can participate though - just thinking of the thousands of images I would have to sort through is making me dizzy!! :D
Hi Deb, I need to do the same with my images, as you so rightly say it is always hard to edit them. I really enjoyed your photos that didn't make it to hte blog first time around; your garden is lovely and I'm looking forward to not missing any posts this year. Have a great gardening 2012, Christina
Going through my photos and trying to pare them down is really hard for me because I like something about each of them. You did a really nice job of illustrating each month.
I enjoyed seeing your best of the rest, especially Feb., March and October. So lovely!
Deb a beautiful round up of your garden through the seasons, Frances