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Barbie's garden Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous Products

The new Gardening Journal

We have to show you all our new addition to the Gardening Blog. Because we are still new to this gardening phenomena, we really needed somewhere to write all the stuff we had to remember and all the chores we need to do.  All the bits of paper we scribble on wasn’t practical because now you need a folder of sorts. So that doesn’t really work – you need something portable and compact.  Like a paperback book!  We could not find a  gardening journal ANYWHERE that we could say was easy-to-use and practical. We hunted around and decided – hey, why don’t we create our OWN gardening  journal. So, through New Voices Publishing, we have published our own book – THE GARDENING JOURNAL and here we share it with you!

[one_half]The Garen Journal[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The Garden Journal 2[/one_half_last]

It is full of places to draw, make notes, create shopping lists, add gardening chores, write reviews and nursery contact  information and also write down your research on what plants you like and what to plant in your garden – all on a monthy basis.  It is with me all the time!! Everything that I want to jot down or refer to is right here, in my journal!!

Title: The Gardening Journal
ISBN: 978-1-920411-58-9
Authors: Christine Searle and Barbara Mueller of The Gardening Blog
Cover design: Kristen Barrett of ScarlettDesign
Price: TBA

It is such a useful tool for any gardener who is serious about gardening! It is beautiful and compact and a must have!

We are going to make it available soon!

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Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Gardening and Macro Photography

At long last I received the Macro lens for the camera and what a learning experience this is going to be! No quick point-and-shoot photos anymore, this is a whole new experience and I obviously have lots I need to learn. I’m not a good photographer at the best of times (strictly a happy-snapper!) so photography with a macro lens is going to be quite a learning curve for me. I thought I’d share the first photographs I’ve managed to take. They didn’t turn out too badly but I have to be honest and say that of the nine photos I’m happy to share and publish on the blog, there are about ninety that are awful … so clearly I have to experiment and learn how to do this properly!

So here we are, my first Macro Photographs (click to enlarge):

[one_third]Strawberry Flower[/one_third]

[one_third]Lavender[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Lobelia[/one_third_last]

[one_third]Dipladenia[/one_third]

[one_third]Grasses[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Carex[/one_third_last]

[one_third]Aphids on rose[/one_third]

[one_third]Pretty flowers[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Mozzie[/one_third_last]

 

I really like the “Aphids on rose” photograph, but obviously I don’t like the aphids – I’m off to get rid of them now …

Happy gardening!
xxx

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Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Yikes! Mushrooms! what to do?

Oh my, its certainly never dull in the garden is it? Just when I think I’m winning, something new pops up out of nowhere and I have a new issue to deal with. And novice-newbie gardener that I am, I really don’t know what to do with this new thing happening in one of the beds nor what is causing it. A full on growth of uninvited mushrooms – and there’s nothing magic about them! How did they get here? How can I prevent these or is it a good thing?

So here are the photographs of my “mushroom forest”. They are confined to this bed which is small and has growing in it Sacred Bamboo (Nandina Domestica), Dwarf Sacred Bamboo (Nandina Pygmaea) and Murraya Exotica. The area is shaded but gets light. The plants are all doing well in this bed, very well in fact. Lots of new healthy growth. No pests visible. So is this mushroom something to worry about and what should I do with it?

[one_half]MushroomsMushrooms[/one_half]

[one_half_last]A closer lookMushrooms[/one_half_last]