Wordless Wednesday: Oxford garden
Chaplain’s Quadrangle garden of Magdalen College, Oxford, September 2012.
Plant supports
I just wanted to show off the plant supports that a local craftsperson recently made for the garden from my “design.” They’re cut and bent from lightweight rebar, and he gave me two sizes — about 30″ and 5′.
I can tie plants directly on to them, or I can slip bamboo poles through the loops to make a supporting grid. They’re much easier to push into the ground than bamboo or wooden poles, and they should last pretty much forever.
Painted reddish-brown (more brown than they look in the photos), they’re unobtrusive in the flower beds. But I think they would also be fun in really bright colors.
Pinned . . .
I like these plant labels — photographed by Stacey Shintani at a community garden in Chicago.
Both photos are via flickr under CC license (and spotted on Pinterest).
More grows in the garden than the gardener sows.
— old Spanish proverb
Vintage landscape: snowy city street
“What sorcery within a night has made a city street into a fairy glade?” Possibly Detroit, Michigan, ca. 1900-1910.
Photo and caption by Detroit Publishing Co. via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything . . .— Billy Collins, from “Snow Day“
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: zinnias
The zinnias in our cutting garden (in Rwanda) have begun to bloom this week.
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is the 15th day of each month. To see what’s blooming in other garden bloggers’ gardens, check out May Dreams Gardens.
. . . So unguardedly, unthriftily
do they open up and show themselves that subtlety,
rarity, nuance are almost put to shame. . .
— Mona Van Duyn, from “A Bouquet of Zinnias”
enclos*ure 