Wednesday, March 30, 2011

BLOG SHOTS #14



GAWE - BLOG  SHOTS

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE) will post two or more never before seen photos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for today.

moments in the garden - - enjoy



Geranium in Formal Garden Planter

 Fountain Head in Old English Patio Garden

Barberry at Middle Walk

North Pier Light as seen from
Gardens at Waters East

Early Evening Moonrise

Sunset in January


Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:


Monday, March 28, 2011

ART: Impressionism #2



Impressionism: - - Manet, Monet, & Me

An ongoing series of “art” photos:

Gardens at Waters East  calls these pictures -  Impressionism”.  Here there is a play of color and light.  Here too is expressed inner energy and contemplation.  Photos from the garden can easily be “adjusted” to make very “impressionistic” like paintings.  These can be used in a variety of ways from note cards to letter heads and more.  This is another way of viewing your work and efforts in the garden as “art” and beauty.  Again, these would make interesting note cards.

Enjoy


The original photo of Asters - Gardens at Waters East

Photo as "Impression" #1

Photo as "Impression" #2


If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:






Thursday, March 24, 2011

This is a joke - Right?




“You have to be kidding.”
“You can’t be serious.”


“Haven’t you had enough?”
“You’re joking.”


“Enough is enough!”
“Isn’t it about time to call it a day?”


“Time to move on!”
“What is wrong with this picture?”

These are just some of the many comments, thoughts and yes - - frustrations
a visitor to Gardens at Waters East might have this week.

On Monday February 21st., strolling through the gardens there were tulips, some three inches out of the ground, others there in place but not yet broken through.  There were daffodils breaking ground.  Sedum, red with buds enlarging.  Tardia, a good inch and one-half into growth.  Allium Azureum a couple inches showing.  Grape Hyacinth, Muscari Armeniacum, well on their way.  Iris beginning to show themselves.  Egyptian Walking Onion going strong, and many other plantings about to meet the sun.

On Monday the first Robin appeared – always a welcome sign of Spring.

Then too was seen the damage, not very encouraging.  The deer and the rabbits had a “field day” this Winter in and around the Gardens at Waters East.  So may bushes bitten back by the deer.  So many bushes striped and girdled by rabbits and rodents.  It is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese calendar.  How perfect.  For indeed the rabbits celebrated and no doubt partied wildly all Winter long in the Gardens at Waters East.  Those rabbits sure had their way.  For whatever reason this year there were more rabbits than normal.  The eagles and the coyotes didn’t do their “thing” to help keep the population under control – Shame! Shame! Shame!

Can you imagine what kind of damage there will be in the garden next year?
It will be the Chinese year of the Dragon!!!

On Tuesday the rains came, then sleet, then snow and more snow, then lighting and thunder snow, winds blowing hard with strong gusts, and more snow.  This went on all night long.


The blowing snow is so heavy, one can only see the shadows of South Ravine.

On Wednesday lots more snow.  Ten inches by 9:00AM.  Snow and more snow all day long. There was a mounting “lake effect” with additional heavy snows coming in off Lake Michigan.  This was as bad as the storm posted back on February 3rd. – the "Groundhog Storm".  The winds blew and just kept blowing throughout the day.  Branches on the bushes and trees whipping around wildly.  Winds constant 30+ miles per hours with stronger gusts to the mid forties.  It looks like mid January out the windows!  It is a very heavy snow with high moisture content.  The branches are sagging.  Power outages here and in the area.  Schools and business closed.  Roads impassable.  It is all like a bad dream!

Asian Garden as seen through a window.

Finally, Thursday the snow has ended, the sun is out, and it is time to take some  pictures.  It is true that the Gardens at Waters East really does not need more Winter pictures.  There are plenty of them already from this Winter’s snows.  Today’s photos are an attempt to “fill out” a complete record of this season in the gardens.  Yes pretty, but enough already!

 Portholes from the ferry boat Straits of Mackinac

Total snowfall just west of the gardens a few miles  inland was 17.9 inches.  Pretty impressive.  Here at the Gardens at Waters East the total reached was 12+ inches.  More than enough to make it look and feel like Winter once again.  To top it off, the temperature is in the low teens!


The sculpture "1000 Cranes" is nearly buried under the approaching six foot drift.

The bad new.
Gardens at Waters East will have to do a lot of trimming and replanting to remove the many damaged plants.  There was painfully lots of that showing on Monday.

The good news.
Now that Gardens at Waters East has received so much snow these recent days,  all the Winter damage is hidden.  Trying to be the eternal optimist - the place looks nice!



Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:




Monday, March 21, 2011

BLOG SHOTS #13



GAWE - BLOG  SHOTS

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE) will post two or more never before seen photos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for today.

moments in the garden - - enjoy


White Siberian Iris


Texture of Green - Asian Garden

Brave Heart Daylily

Blue Siberian Iris

Buddha in snow

Sunset - February 4, 2011 - Gardens at Waters East


Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Ides Of March - Hoar Frost



Whenever the "Ides of March" happens, it is easy to think back to one’s studies of Shakespeare’s play - Julius Caesar written in 1601.  Shakespeare build his play around the historical fact of Caesar’s assassination on March 15, 44 B.C.E..  He was warned a number of times by the soothsayer Spurinna not to attend the Senate that day, yet Caesar went.  It was in the Pompey Theater at the foot of the statue of Pompey in the Temple of Venus that Caesar was stabbed to death. Ouch!

Today early this morning on the 15th of March with the weather conditions and temperatures being just right, there was a covering of Hoar Frost throughout the Gardens at Waters East.  This gives another reason for gardeners to remember Idus Martii.  Not only did Julius Caesar meet his fate this day in history, but on a happier note;  this day, March 15, 2011, there is the beauty of ice crystals with a gentle touch covering so many grasses and trees today in the gardens.

The following fourteen photos were taken this morning on the property of Gardens at Waters East.  These are only a few of the one-hundred and ten taken this morning.


Enjoy

 At Sunrise

Barberry Bush

Lichen on old log

Magnolia Bush

Native Grasses

Driftwood

Milkweed Pods

Fencing

Coneflower Seed Head

Austrian Pine

Queen Anne's Lace

Beach Stones

Field "Weeds"

Old Wheelbarrow



Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:





Saturday, March 12, 2011

Seasonal Contrast in the Garden #4



Seasonal Contrast in the - Gardens at Waters East

Postings in this ongoing series will show the same garden “area” and “objects” at two or more different times / seasons of the year.  The contrast will offer the viewer an appreciation of the beauty found in the same spot but in different months.  Some of the photos have never been seen before, others were collected from earlier postings in order to provide the needed contrast.  Each season has its own “feeling”, has its own  beauty.

Enjoy

 Upper Walk - Fall

Upper Walk - Winter

Upper Walk - Summer

Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

BLOG SHOTS #12



GAWE - BLOG  SHOTS

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE) will post two or more never before seen photos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for today.

moments in the garden - - enjoy


Daylily - "Awesome Candy"

Lone Tree at South Ravine
February 2, 2011

Summer Flowers

Double Orange Daylily & Phlox

Lake Ice

Sunset -- Gardens at Waters East


Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to:


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Monarch Butterfly Feeding Station



Monarch Butterfly Wayside & Feeding Station

The Monarch Butterfly with its orange, black, and white markings, adds such vitality and beauty to the garden space.  From childhood on, they seem to have found an enduring place in our minds as we see them pass through our lives on their migratory routes coming from, or returning to Mexico.  It takes all of four generations for the complete round trip, from Mexico to Canada and back to Mexico.


Each generation lives only two to six weeks as adults, though the fourth generation reaches the Canadian border.  That generation lives up to eight months.  It is the one that travels the return journey of up to three-thousand miles back to Mexico.  There it reproduces the following Spring.  Those young are the ones who start the long journey once again.  It is so fascinating to think that the ones who finally return to Mexico and go to the very special Winter area there, have never been there before.

Monarch in the  Aster Field along Lake Path at GAWE

In order to attract and to feed these long journey travelers, Gardens at Waters East has incorporated a number of plants and items into some of the garden rooms on the property.  You will actually see many of these plants and ideas when you browse through the different postings for the gardens.  Hopefully this posting will encourage you to develop in your own garden areas similar plants to make a way station for both the Monarchs and other butterflies.  You may not know it, but Monarch Butterflies are prolific pollinators, second only to the bees.  If for no other reason than this, invite them into your garden.


In addition to the information here, search the web and you will find many sites with helpful hints on making your garden inviting to Monarchs and other butterflies.  The show the butterflies will bring to your garden is wonderful – and it is free.


Gardens at Waters East is fortunate indeed that the adjoining property owners have the same interest in helping butterflies survive. Taken together, the three owners have more than twenty-two acres of land where butterflies are welcomed and cared for with food, water, nesting, and resting areas.  On top of that;  less than 1,650 feet south of these properties is a thirty-five acres private conservancy with native plants, trees, and grasses; and to the north less than 1,700 feet is a state nature  preserve with much the same vegetation and a crystal clear trout stream.  Gardens at Waters East sits firmly in the middle of this exceptional shoreline stretch of land and is a welcome refuge and feeding station to many butterflies and other creatures.

Even in the Winter season milkweed has a beauty

Especially for the Monarchs, Gardens at Waters East has “cultivated” some large areas of milkweed, the essential food for these beautiful travelers.  Three of the larger areas range in size from four-hundred square feet to more than five-hundred square feet.  In addition to these special areas, milkweed is grown throughout the property and the adjoining properties.  It is an experience of awe and wonder seeing hundreds of Monarchs dropping down onto this garden area like orange leaves from the sky during their journey.  It is a real privilege and a joy to witness such a “happening”.

Milkweed pods awaiting the return of the Monarch

In small or large gardens, you can create a place that Monarchs and other butterflies will seek out and want to visit.  They will “appreciate” your efforts and you will delight in the show they bring.

 Butterfly inviting flowers at GAWE

Following is a partial list of the plants growing at Gardens at Waters East.
These and others encourage the presence of both Monarchs and many other butterflies.


Aster Field at GAWE


American Highbush Cranberry Viburnum
Wild Columbine
Baptisia Australis
Milkweed
Butterfly Weed
Butterfly Bush Buddleia
Joy Pye Weed
Cardinal Flower
New England Aster
Tickseed
Purple Coneflower
Blazing Star Liatris
Black Eyed Susan Rudbeckia
Bee Balm Monarda
Lupine
Cosmos
Lilac
Sumac
Alyssum
Candytuft
Shasta Daisy
Catnip
Phlox
Goldenrod
Thistle
White Yarrow
Lavender
Mexican Sunflower
Oregano
Fennel
Mallow
Mint
Salvia
Magnolia
Hops
Lovage
Dill
Chives
Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Queen Anne’s Lace
Sweet William
Chamomile

 Joy Pye Weed on the edge of the Rain Garden at GAWE



In addition to these plants;  there are other items that help make Monarchs welcome in the garden.  There are many resting and sunning stones throughout the gardens;  bushes and trees to protect the butterflies form strong winds;  low level watering areas with stones for the butterflies to rest on;  and areas of sand and mud at the shore for needed salts and minerals in the butterflies diet.



The Gardens at Waters East has done its best to be a place of refuge, feeding, and rest to these long-journeyed travelers.  One rightly can take pride that in some small way, the Gardens at Waters East is helping the continuing preservation of this beautiful and fragile creature we share.




Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design used here and throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010.

If you wish to email a message or share photos of your garden please do that through this Blog site or with an email to: