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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Random Friday: In A Fog As Usual

Although I often walk around in a fog, this week it's been doubly true as the weather outside has been foggy for days with only a couple of days when the sun barely broke through by about 3:00 p.m.  Here then is a walk around part of my garden in the fog. 






The gold and brown things falling all over the ground make it difficult to pretend that it's still summer!









 Note that you can see the top of the table again.  There has been some planting going on finally.

Meanwhile out on the street!









 
The spiders, having recently participated in a terrific webinar to hone their skills, wanted to show off their handiwork!
 


 
Thanks for joining me on my stroll.  Have a great weekend everyone!

40 comments:

  1. Fog rules (when you don't need to drive)! Gardens look special in the morning. Love the brown carpets and spider webs, your bamboo and tetrapanax.

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    1. The fog is lovely but I like it even more when it buns off and lets a little sunshine to peak through.

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  2. I used to like the fog, but lately it has just been too much! I was looking forward to a little sunshine. Last night when I went to the train station to pick up Nigel, I couldn't see the house next door! The whole world has been swallowed up, it's like being in a Twilight Zone episode.

    I loved seeing these autumn photos of your foggy garden. Woo Hoo! On clearing off the top of that table! I still have a long way to go to get everything planted that I bought this past spring and summer.

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    1. I hear you on the fog front! Some plants got planted, some got taken inside for the winter and some are huddled together in the warmest part of my garden right next to a basement window.

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  3. I'm loving the fog here too...although ours usually burns off well before noon. I don't think I've ever noticed your brick paths and patio...they're wonderful!

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    1. While we all love it occasionally, the fog has become oppressive. For the last couple of weeks, you just wonder if it'll be really dense fog that won't allow you to see your own hand or just light fog that blocks the view across the street.

      The brick paths are much better when they get pressure washed at least once during the year. This was my season of garden neglect.

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    1. That's what happens when the gardener has no control at nurseries.

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  5. Love the bamboo (it's huge) and the stream running through it.
    How do you manage the bamboo, and is it blue glass that creates the 'water' effect?

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    1. Manage the bamboo...well, I planted it 16 years ago before I knew anything about running bamboos or barriers so now I cut a lot of it down throughout the year and dig up and pull out the roots from spring through late summer. Someday it'll just take over the world. Yes, there are blue glass paths back in that part of my garden.

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  6. I love the way the fog softens everything and adds a sense of mystery. You could send some of yours my way and we would both be happy.

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    1. You didn't get any? We'd love to let you borrow some or ours for a while!

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  7. Last night there was a piece on the news about the persistent fog blanketing the PNW. It certainly makes for some neat garden photography effects. I was going to ask about the bamboo but I see someone beat me to it. Oy!

    Love the blue glass. One of my goals this year was to amass a decent collection of blue glass wine bottles for garden use. I can only take so much Luna di Luna though. What else can you suggest?

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    1. I got mine from the Spectrum Glass, the world's largest producer of colored (stained) glass years ago when it was free or very cheap. They are here in Washington and the glass is shiny but not sharp so you can walk on it in bare feet if you wish so it's great for paving paths. Breaking wine bottles for paths could cause damage to your feet/shoes if you don't tumble it first. There are a couple of reislings that come in cobalt bottles. You could do a search for home wine making supplies. I wanted a bunch of cobalt bottles and bought a case of 12 online for very little. The price of postage was more than the bottles themselves.

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  8. We haven't had much fog until this week. We've been having great dry warm weather so I've been getting lots done clearing weeds and making bed to plant. It's so kind of you to offer a retirement home for old bowling balls.;-) I wish your bamboo would have a webinar for my bamboo about how to grow all spaced out and neat looking. I have black and Henon timber bamboos but they seem to take a lot longer to get going than P. nuda.

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    1. I like to do what I can for the bowling ball retirees plus they add that sought-after winter color in the garden.

      No webinar necessary, just kick over the bamboo culms you don't want when they're emerging from the ground. You can make your own bamboo shoots for asian cooking!

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  9. Ah, your garden wears the fog well! We've been blessed with a breeze that's cleared out our fog by noon, resulting in lovely afternoon sunshine and warm temps, today however we're in the same foggy boat as you.

    I think the sidewalk shots are some of fav, although that shot from above is pretty wonderful too!

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    1. Thanks Danger! Anything that helps to hide all of the overcrowding, mistakes, and neglect helps my garden tremendously! Glad you got some sun as well as the fog!

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  10. I needed this "little stroll"! I really did.
    These are just beautiful photos - The wildness of autumn infringing on the orderliness of summer mirrors a bit of the flavor of my life right now....

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    1. Someone who didn't read your blogs and know what you're talking about might think that you've become a wild woman!

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  11. Peter, I love your bamboos, stone paths. All is so lush and green. Stunning!

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    1. Thanks, Satu! I wish it all had a little more order but it is what it is.

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  12. Oh, I just love how the fog makes a garden look - romantic, dreamy, mysterious. I am really taken with the touches of blue you have in your garden, especially the blue glass? seating area and pathway. What a great use of color - and a bit of a surprise. In these photos, your garden seems larger than I imagined it. And the plants along the street are wonderful.

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    1. It's a small garden but cut up into may spaces so pictures make it seem larger. The fog was so thick most mornings that there were random drops of water falling from the trees and adding beautiful random dripping sounds.

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  13. You have the most fantastic spiderwebs. And the fog evokes the northern rain forest primeval.

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    1. Thanks, a little fishing line, a spritz with some water and voila! Wish I could make webs like that! I do love fog but after a couple of weeks of it, I'm ready to feel the sun again.

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  14. I loooove it. It is beautiful, and the fog makes the pictures look great!

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  15. Fog adds an appropriate element of melancholy to the leaf drop that accompanies fall. The spider webs add just a touch of the sinister, also appropriate the week before Halloween. (I think my local spiders need that webinar - their creations aren't nearly as well-done.)

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    1. Ah autumn, so beautiful, so sad. It's called Charlotte's Webinar. I guess she used to teach macramé back in the seventies.

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  16. I enjoyed the foggy walk-about in your garden Peter. Our fog season down here in Norcal is on the horizon, seems like Nov and Dec are the fog months.Your garden looks fabulous..and gigantic compared to mine.

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    1. Glad you liked walking around in a fog. Thanks for the kind words - smoke and mirrors. (or rather fog and mirrors!)

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  17. Enjoyable walk in your garden Peter, your garden is lovely and the fog just adds to the atmosphere. Love the seating area with blue pebble mulch, and the bamboo grove, wow!

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    1. It makes me happy (mostly, except all of the beds that need to be totally redone.) Glad you came along on the walk, it made the fog a little less scary.

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  18. Your garden is about as different from mine as it could possibly be, so exotic. Do you ever open for NPA Open gardens? I would love to see it in person.

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    1. I've never opened for NPA open gardens because I didn't know about NPA open gardens until this summer. Also, I wouldn't want people to come all the way from Seattle to see this little overgrown space and be disappointed. Having seen some of the fabulous gardens on the NPA tour, I don't think mine would be of much interest and I'd be a wreck trying to make it look presentable. You are more than welcome to come and see it any time Linda. There's usually one 15 minute period sometime in mid August when it looks really good, usually it's after dark.

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  19. What a wonderland! Seriously, dude. I mean it! Your garden reminds me of a rainforest. I love the blue glass pebbles and what do you plant to grow a bowling ball? ;o)

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  20. What beautiful pictures of the garden in late fall! I love it all, the tetrapanex, bananas, bamboos and that great controlled jungle feeling:) Do you do anything special for your musa basjoo to protect it from the frost? I bought 2 this year and live down by the Tacoma Narrows;)

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    1. Hi Becky. Thanks for the kind words; I'm glad you found my blog. Some people protect musa basjoo stems by piling leaves around them, maybe even making a cylinder of chicken wire to hold a quantity of leaves around the stems. If you do that, you won't loose any height even in a cold winter. If you do nothing, musa basjoo may die to the ground but will regrow in the sprig. It may take all summer to regain the previous height of the plant. It's always safer to protect the stems. That being said, I'm too lazy to actually do that myself so my poor bananas sometimes die to the ground and sometimes don't. Supposedly the pseudostems will remain intact if it doesn't dip below 19 degrees. A couple of years ago when we had two very harsh winters and the bananas died to the ground two years in a row and the following springs were quite cold led to somewhat small banana plants for a while.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.