Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 43 of 124

Creativity in a Tiny Terrarium

It’s hot here in Central Texas. I know you’ve heard me say that before, but it’s really hot. We’ve had more than 25 days over 100 degrees since late May. We normally have an annual average of 12 days over 100. That makes gardening tough. Planting is impossible and even established plants and trees are struggling just to survive.

When the heat exhausts me and I’m forced indoors, I miss my garden. But when one door closes another door opens, and I find refuge in my garden magazines and books (and the air conditioning!)

So, I was excited when my friends at Timber Press sent me Terrarium Craft to review. I sat down with my preview copy and a tall glass of iced tea and had myself a little eye candy.

I grew up with an enormous floor-sized terrarium. My Mom created it and we had it as far back as I can remember. It was a beautiful bluish-green and I was always amazed at how the plants grew and thrived in that bottle.

The first thing you notice about Terrarium Craft is that it’s full of beautiful photos of the most creative little vignettes. It took me a while to start reading because I was mesmerized by the amazing miniature worlds.

The book provides a blueprint for 50 original projects, including options for materials, plants, and techniques. And it’s designed to spark your creativity and inspire you to make your own magical little glass world.

There are so many choices to put in your terrarium – sand, stones, shells, sticks, and even ball moss, with limitless possibilities for memorabilia.

After outlining information about all the categories of materials, the next section provides step-by-step instructions about how to assemble it all.

Then, pages and pages with an amazing array of terrariums — beach, forest, desert and fantasy terrariums.

Inspire me it did. Now I’m trying to decide what special things I want to put in my terrarium. Given my love of birds, I think it will include a little ceramic bird and some branches.

Now I’m going to walk around my air conditioned house and see what little goodies I can collect to put in my own special little glass world.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:23-06:00July 8th, 2011|Blog, book review, books, creative, Sharing Nature's Garden, Terrarium, Terrarium Craft, timber press|0 Comments

Can I watch my artichoke bloom in the garden and eat it, too?

Ok. I know the answer to that.

Eat it or watch it bloom? That is the question.

First artichoke of the year and the answer was simple. Watch it bloom.

I’ve done it before, and loved looking at their amazing flowers.

But as I rounded the corner in the vegetable garden today, it literally took my breath away.

The color, the fuzz, the exotic quality, the intricate petals.

So this was the first test for my new DSLR camera – a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. My number one priority was a lightweight DSLR I can take with me on garden tours and to the annual Garden Bloggers Fling. I have a point and shoot, and my DH has a very high-end professional Nikon that’s heavy and I won’t travel with, but this is really what I need.

Looks like it takes pretty good photos, too. (Though you can’t really tell on Blogger because their photo quality is so low, you’ll have to click on the photo to get a good look.)

But then the artichoke bloom was a brilliant subject!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:23-06:00June 21st, 2011|artichoke, Blog, camera, Canon, DSLR, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden, vegetables|0 Comments

Beautiful Green Barcelona

Barcelona is a bustling metropolis. Full of beautiful and historical landmarks and still a sleek, urban landscape with amazing food and wonderful people.

Churches and cathedrals that date back to 11oo, Roman ruins so intact that historians can identify rooms designed for cooking in large vats, dying clothes and bathing — all complete with water channels.

Gaudi’s multiple world-renown art and architecture, including La Sagrada Familia, which I will post about next.

Las Ramblas, the most famous street in Barcelona, is a tree lined paradise of fresh flowers, love birds for sale and the home to the Boqueria market that will make your head spin with fresh food and wine and cava and tastings that make you never want to leave.

The market was filled with fresh fruit of all kinds.

Seafood played a prominent role in the market.
Peppers and spices and garlic galore to season great Spanish food.

And, most importantly, the famed Serrano ham and other charcuterie. I could eat the Serrano ham every single meal, and we almost did! It’s at the top of the list of Tapas in every cafe (and there is one on every corner and 5 in between corner to corner on every block).
We ate dinner one night at a fabulous and trendy restaurant that was an anchor to another fresh market and I fell in love with this green wall. Because it was dark – dinner is LATE in Barcelona – and I didn’t want to disturb the folks sitting next to it – my camera was lacking. But each row features fresh herbs used in the restaurant.
Like Italy, cypress trees are everywhere in Spain.
As were these beautiful trees with vivid yellow blooms. I never did discover the name of the tree, but they were such a breath of fresh air in the heart of the city.

Many balconies also sported beautiful plants and planter boxes.
Cypress trees weren’t the only stars of the show — they had to compete with beautiful palms all over Barcelona. Its beaches bordered the beautiful Mediterranean. Cloudy and rainy weather couldn’t keep us from the beach though.

We did spend a few hours in the sand – button sweaters and all.

Our daughter was oblivious to the wind and cold as she went in up to her knees, searching for shells and rocks and building a sand castle.

And, the port was overflowing with beautiful sailboats, yachts and three cruise ships.

Las Ramblas – which seems to go on forever — is also a tree lined oasis.
More cypress…
Another unidentified and beautiful tree with exotic bark.

It was a fascinating, exciting and educational adventure. And boy, did we eat well and drink fabulous coffee. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Next, how Gaudi’s love of nature turns into art. A UNESCO World Heritage site, La Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia is the most phenomenal architecture I’ve ever seen throughout Europe, Greece, Turkey and the USA.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:23-06:00June 14th, 2011|Barcelona, Blog, cypress trees, La Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, palms, Sharing Nature's Garden, Spain|0 Comments

Botanical Garden displays…

Seriously, I thought I was in Texas when we toured the Botanical Gardens in Madrid (except for the rain that is). This beautiful Yucca recurvifolia one of many US plants.
Mediterranean style abounds in the flora and fauna of Madrid, but many of the plants we saw were Xeric varieties well know to Central Texas.
This Nolina was even labeled as the Texana variety and attributed to the USA.

This beautiful bottle brush tree reminded me again of how I lost two of these at home in the last two winters!
An entire section of the display gardens was dedicated to grasses.

This Coreopsis gradiflora loves this climate as well as ours.

The timing of their gardens is also similar to ours — the irises were almost all done blooming, and other bulbs were also going dormant as the grasses and summer perennials were coming into their own.

Next post, some of their beautiful palms.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:23-06:00June 8th, 2011|agaves, Blog, Bottle Brush tree, cottage garden, garden tour, grasses, Madrid, Mediterranean, Sharing Nature's Garden, yucca|0 Comments

Madrid’s botanical gardens…

This morning we set out to see the Parque del Buen Retiro in the heart of Madrid. Enormous and beautiful, it reminded me of Central Park.
It was primarily green – lush with huge trees and paths and a suprise around every corner. There a few splashes of seasonal color, but this is not a flower garden by any means.
There’s a little lake and rowing and the wide avenues (no cars) were filled with walkers, runners, skateboarders and hordes of roller bladers. They were even giving lessons to kids and adults alike – it was so fun to watch. Then there were people and families like us, the strollers.

It really is a treasure in the heart of the city, and everyone came out to enjoy it on this beautiful Saturday morning.
Even though there were people everywhere, it was still vast open space to enjoy the setting. It includes formal fountains, children’s play areas (we checked all of those out!), outdoor cafes, snack vendors, bubble blowers, fortune tellers, musicians and more.
And it was peaceful – a haven from the hustle and mucho bustle of the heart of the city. The park was once the private playground for royalty.

When we finished going through but a small section of this enormous park, we headed across the street (well, not quite that directly) to the Botanical Gardens. My Spanish is passable at times, but my comprehension when getting directions at a very fast clip is not quite as good. So after several “permit a me’s” we finally arrived at our destination. Missing nuances and words can make a big difference when getting directions – imagine that!

We’ve had internet “issues” with the hotel. We get it — sometimes. So, that’s why this is my first post. Just glad to be able to share it now.

Tomorrow I hope to give you a peek into the Botanical Gardens. You’ll be amazed at what I found there. And I know I’ve made the folks back at the house terribly jealous — sorry. But it is wonderful. More to come…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:06-05:00June 4th, 2011|Blog, Garden, park, Sharing Nature's Garden, Spain, travel, vacation|0 Comments

Baby wren developing wings and feathers…

Those little wings are so much more developed in just two days. If you look back to Monday’s post, you can see how much he’s grown.

I keep calling it a him — of course I have no idea if it’s a male or female Carolina Wren!

Tomorrow morning will be my last chance to check on him for a while. We’re heading to Spain tomorrow, so I’ll have to get photos emailed to me from family staying at home. He may have fledged before we get back, but I hope not.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-09-28T18:10:21-05:00June 1st, 2011|baby birds, bird nest, birds, Blog, carolina wren, eggs, nest, Sharing Nature's Garden, wrens|0 Comments

Sharing Nature’s Garden

Creativity in a Tiny Terrarium

Can I watch my artichoke bloom in the garden and eat it, too?

Beautiful Green Barcelona

Botanical Garden displays…

Madrid’s botanical gardens…

Baby wren developing wings and feathers…

Escape in the garden