Wordless Wednesday: The DC Cherry Blossoms

Cold Day at the Cherry Blossoms

This year I was happy to get away and check out the Washington DC cherry blossoms a bit early. They were just about to peak but most of them were out and the display was quite nice. Not may people were around because it was COLD! I bundled up in a winter coat, hat, scarf, and thick sweater. Well, it usually is chilly but this year there was a bit of snow the day before we went. (Which did not harm the trees.) I was glad to get over there and enjoy it while the crowds were away.

Wordless Wednesday - the Baltimore City Hall Garden

Wordless Wednesday - Butterflies at Sotterly Plantation

A Nice Set of Cabbages

Last week I went down to check on the City Hall garden. Someone emailed me about a harvest date, but I couldn’t make it on that day. But, I still wanted to write about the garden each month because my focus is Baltimore gardening and you can’t get closer to the topic than the City Hall garden. It looked a lot better this time around. The black mesh was gone and things were getting big.

Actually, there is an interesting variety of cabbages down there, plus lots of kale and mustard greens. (I apologize for the red signature on this photo. I couldn't get it readable any other way.) The beds nearest the War Memorial building were empty but the lettuce was once there and I’m sure that was what they harvested. Since I didn’t make the harvest day I instead wrote "What we can learn from the Baltimore City Hall garden" to promote the usefulness of it.

The photographs I take there look great but it amuses me to see Baltimore life in the garden. Here and there are beer cans and random items of clothing. Street people were washing up in the nearby fountain. I’ll be back down there in a couple of weeks to do another “progress” article, hopefully with a slide show.

Speaking of slide shows Examiner wants us to focus on National Rose Month this weekend. This means that everybody else will be writing about roses. Every time some kind of editorial focus comes up with a garden focus I am busy with other more newsy topics so I never really do it. Rather, I think I’ll plan a slide show or garden history article for the following week.

Wordless Wednesday - New Plantings at Sherwood Gardens

Wordless Wednesday: Roses are in Bloom at the Flag House

The Flag House

Investigating the Tulip Library

When I went to visit the cherry blossoms in DC a few weeks ago I stumbled on the Tulip Library, which is also near the Tidal Basin. I was excited by it, but there were no brochures or other information available. I only knew it was the Tulip Library because some excited kid came running up to his mother to report that he found the sign.

At home, I didn’t have much luck. Little research is on the web and the National Park Service write up mostly just mentions the history of tulips. The most helpful was this 2007 blog entry from Washington Gardener magazine. (Hmmmm…note to self…change blogger theme.) They have a link to a PDF of an old brochure, which was better than nothing. If Tulip Library had been here in Baltimore City I would have the good old Pratt library vertical file to play with. (Yes, I know that this garden is in another city. But I also like to write about places within easy driving distance of Baltimore because most gardeners love to visit other gardens.)

Well, with my arm still on the injured list and my ability to do a lot of typing and mousing curtailed, I pulled out the Tulip Library research and put up an article. It is not what I wanted, but if I don’t do this now the topic won’t be relevant again until next year. (Then, I can revisit it and do a slideshow or something.)

The photo at the top of this post was my first choice for the article, but it looked too similar to the photo on the National Park Service PDF and also to the one I selected for Sherwood Gardens. Tulip gardens are rather hard to photograph at times because of the way the flowers are spaced. If I don’t get a good angle and lots of flowers blooming at the same time I end up with a picture of little dots of color amidst the dirt.

Wordless Wednesday – National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

(Their web site.)

Wordless Wednesday - April Flowers

Peeking over a wall in Annapolis

I was in Annapolis on St. Patrick’s Day and peeked over the wall of the Paca house to see how the gardens fared. It mostly looks as lovely as ever, but in the second photo you can see how their evergreens were damaged by the storm. I also saw lots of damage to the shrubbery in front of the Hammond-Harwood house.

The Paca house is dear to my heart and I assure you all I do not always look for free. I’m sure I will be there again this summer, once the garden season is in full bloom.