Benjamin Vogt's Blog, page 44

A Study of Black Tulips -- Photos

Below are various shots of my 'Queen of Night' tulips, quickly fading in early summer heat (the white ones are long gone). I find their textures and colors to be even more striking as they end their bloom period. Don't forget to click on the photos to expand and see even more detail. I admit, I cropped some of these--which I usually don't do--but that's all the manipulation I did. I'm an au naturel kinda guy.

I've Been Taking Pictures of You

Queen of Night tulips







































Pasque flower







































White Triumpheter tulip



































Prairie Fire crabapple





























Shooting Star





























Prairie Fire crabapple







































Fenceline





























Garden from deck





























Side garden and entrance





























At the fountain



I'm revving up for the garden tour. Mulching paths, moving plants, filling in holes, soon to add steppers, patching lawn, ordering signs. Father's...

My Garden in the Paper & More Good Writerly News

Looks like I never linked over to a nice article written on my garden and another's (Sue) here in Lincoln. So, here's that link: Flowery Blogs.



Also, as long as I don't get bumped, I will have a small piece appearing in The Sun come August. The section is from my January-written mini memoir Sleep, Creep, Leap: The First Three Years of a Garden (click on the bio tab above to learn more about the manuscript). Big, wonderful, lovely, important magazine you should go check out.



So if anyone's k...

Strange Redbuds On UNL Campus

Have you ever seen redbuds like these?





Mossy blooming








































These are by the "radiator" building








































Double trunk lean north






































And how about a brief tour of other blooming trees on campus? The school year is over--goes faster and faster each year--so bloom on, you crazy trees. Bloom on my lovely students who will now pass by on the sidewalk and not acknowledge me, not remember all that we shared. Ah, lost love (on my part alone, mos...

End of Semester Quote

"The natural world need not be logical in any obvious way. Science [or literature!] does not consist of imposing our reason on the world but rather reducing our preconceptions to the point that the world imposes its logic on us. This is very difficult indeed, involving a minimalization of our ego while maintaining our full powers of observation and receptivity. The capacity to perform this feat is what the teacher of science [or English!] attempts to foster in the student. No one succeeds com...

There's A Bluebird....

Each year we see more and more birds and insects as the garden grows. Last night was my first-ever-in-my-life sighting of a bluebird, who inspected the lawn from the red maple, then the fence, then lifted away. Strange how exciting such a moment can be, yet afterward, such a let down. Whoever wrote the lyrics for that song didn't have it right.



My (free) bluebird house is late in arriving, and is surely too late for nesting anyway, but even still, I doubt my suburban lawn would be the large...

It's Spring, Think Fall -- Get These Native Plants

I can't tell you how many gardeners I talk to who say they wished they had more fall-blooming plants. What is it with all this spring and summer stuff? Isn't THAT boring? Everyone's so excited to get as many flowers ASAP once the snow melts, then an early fall hits because you're out of blooms by August. Yikes.





Mid October, 2010

(various asters, grasses, coreopsis)
































I garden for fall, when my landscape gets a massive second wind. Winter's already long enough, why not ha...

The Naming

Here's another small bit from my latest manuscript-- Sleep, Creep, Leap: The First Three Years of a Nebraska Garden . What will my wife say? I'll let you know after dinner.





My wife and I are walking the garden after lunch. She comments on how thick everything is, especially in contrast to the picture I emailed her that morning, which showed the garden sprouting in April. After the annual cut down in March, the place is a moonscape—you could play a football game here unimpeded by any plant, ex...

Monarchs are Too Early

If you've been hanging around Monarch Watch and Journey North, you know monarch butterflies are ahead of their annual migration, and well ahead of milkweed growth. Some of the images at Journey North show dozens of eggs on milkweed only a few inches tall. Not good.



Warm temps and strong south winds have coaxed the butterflies north at a rapid pace. Chip Taylor, the director of Monarch Watch in Kansas, says that unless temps stay warm, populations will suffer. Obviously, cooler temps (above f...

The Big Cut Down of 2011 -- Images

Gardening is a contact sport. I'd show you my arms, but even I can't stand to look at those candy cane twirls of scratches and painful cuts.



Over the last month I've spent a few hours here and there taking my time cutting down herbaceous perennials--plants that, in 2010, had begun to reach their full potential. As someone who likes tall plants, I was quickly overwhelmed this spring. Plus, I was sad to see a beautiful winter garden end.



I don't know how clean of a practice this is, but for t...