In April I blogged about Bloom Day, a feat of extreme international coordination as garden bloggers the globe over get together on a single day of the month to show off what's looking good in their domestic patches.
Obviously, here in the Northern Hemisphere we are feeling particularly happy with ourselves at the moment, as gardens are looking great. So this month I've made the effort to take part - remarkably time consuming and slightly disappointing (for me) to look at. You can read further about the steep learning curve elsewhere: in the meantime, I'll advise you to seek out some of the other garden bloggers who really know how to make June go with a bang.
PS: Today is actually Bloomsday too - the day Ulysses is set. Come on! The perfect time to decide to read the big bugger.
Lovely. I'd do one of mine but it's like tempting fate and asking the Rain Gods to come along and bash more of my lupins.
Posted by: jakers | Monday, 16 June 2008 at 02:41 PM
Your pictures look A-MAZ-ING. So pretty. I'm very jealous (not least of the software expertise). My daughter told me the other day that our garden was 'too green'. I don't think she meant it in an environmental sense, either...
Posted by: Victoria | Monday, 16 June 2008 at 02:56 PM
I insist you both do it. For one thing, it's a way of recording the loveliness before the rain gods get to it. Secondly, the so-called "software expertise" amounts to clicking on "Make Your Own" and then following the instructions.
I am thinking, Victoria, of a new institution for those garden bloggers with mainly green gardens - Green Leaf Day, about the 30th of the month? What do you say we kick it off? Only greens allowed - green flowers are permissible obv.
Posted by: emma townshend | Monday, 16 June 2008 at 03:07 PM
Sounds good to me (so long as I'm allowed foliage... but then some of that is yellow, or mahogany...) Anyway, let's go for it. Egged on by you, I've now tried Slide, and you're right, it worked! But I'm going to take some new pix first. NOTHING in my garden is flowering at the moment, except geraniums and fuchsias (and I only do hardy fuchsias, so they're not exactly spectacular). Oh, hang on, there are some nasturtiums! And some Lotus berthelotii! Maybe I have got enough after all.
Posted by: Victoria | Monday, 16 June 2008 at 05:33 PM
Yeah! let's do it! Flower has Power but Green is the Queen, etc.
Posted by: emma townshend | Tuesday, 17 June 2008 at 11:56 AM
Hi there Emma,
Love the slide show :-D It shows your plants wonderfully and is a great change from scrolling down a posting of photos. Green gardens get my vote! I love foliage plants and I am definitely not alone by the comments I get on my blog too :-)
Of course like anything careful editing can also make a garden seem like a riot of colour on Bloom Day. Although the garden bloggers I know (quite a few) are simply celebrating the flowers in the garden. I often post montages of my flowers which really are little bursts of colour in my green garden! But I like to celebrate the foliage in the garden too. Occasionally I choose to show short videos from the garden rather than a wide angle photograph with dots of colour. This month I did both with a preview post with some close-up shots with a link on my video posting which you can find at http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/06/garden-bloom-day-june-2008.html .
I have great fun with these posts – thanks for you comment Emma. I also had great fun when I teamed with a garden blogger in USA for a posting on ornamental grasses where we invited other garden Bloggers to join us. It was quite a big posting in the end of the day and I have often toyed with the idea of doing the same for foliage plants. I have a strong feeling I would get many more to join me for that :-D
Enjoy your weekend :-D
Posted by: Shirl | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 11:25 AM
Green gets my vote too - I wanted to put Crocosmia foliage into my Blooms Day slideshow just to show how great it looks when backlit!
Have you been in Dublin on Bloomsday? Fantastic!
Posted by: VP | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 04:58 PM
Veep, you're back! How was the holiday??? can't wait to hear all about it. We must definitely do Big Green Leaf Day. I am going to get organising - Shirl, I hope you'll be involved!
Posted by: emma townshend | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 05:04 PM
Hols were brilliant thanks and I had a fab day with Artistsgarden. Of course some of this will be appearing on the blog this week!
And contrary to my pessimism, I also finished manual 1 of my gardening course - buoyed up from all the GW Live inspiration and meeting up with JAS.
Looking forward to BGLD!
Posted by: VP | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 05:12 PM
Yep Emma, count me in! Just drop me a mail or comment.
VP - Looking forward to hearing about your meeting with a fellow blogger. I will be very interested in seeing yuor pics of Karen's garden :-D
Mm... I just might have a story to tell there too! My lips are sealed for the moment :-D
Posted by: Shirl | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 08:44 PM