It's a Tomato Horn worm

It's a tomato hornworm. The are so effective in camouflaging themselves among the tomato plants. You literally can't see them. Once you've seen one then you can see others. Last year I have several dozens of these pests and since I try to be as organic as possible they won the battle. I still got a good crop of tomatoes though. This year I will be moving my tomatoes to a different location in the garden and if they do come back I will ask to neighbor kids to come over and pluck them and give them to their chickens! I have a real problem squashing a 4 inch meaty little worm. Though I will say they are very photogenic. It's amazing what you will see in the garden once you really start looking.

Happy gardening!

Another Look at Nature

I thought while I was on the subject of imagination, I wanted to add the above photo to the collection. I won't tell you what it is, just that you may not always see it when it's staring right back at you! I'll leave it up to you all to figure out what it is and I will post the photos of what it is in a few days. Please leave comments if you know what it is, or what you think it might be. Have fun with this one.

Have a great day!

Imagination

The imagination can be a beautiful thing. I recently viewed a blog that reminded me about how abstract my past work was. The photos here are of construction materials which could make for a very interesting photograph. Though I look at these photos and I did take them with corporate/industrial theme in mind, but realistically when I think about it how many homes would have these kinds of photos? Then I thought anybody who enjoys the uniqueness of construction materials or I should say the imagination to see beyond construction and see a beautiful piece of art. So I will be pulling out the old abstracts to see just who would be interested in my art. While I was in photography school in Seattle I really enjoyed hanging around the pier and construction sites to photograph close up abstracts of whatever looked good. Black and white was and still is my favorite medium of photography though color has a big spot too. Especially when it comes to some of the nature work I do. Photography has really opened my eyes to the world around me. I see things now that I would have never saw before. I absolutely love photography! Take a minute and look around you and what do you see? I bet there is a photograph there somewhere.
Have a great day!

Well here in Maine we have had a great stretch of nice weather. I have been able to get some gardening done, alittle tilling, alittle weeding and finding lots of earthworms. I mean lots! I have black plastic paths in my garden that had some some small dirt piles and under those dirt piles where huge clusters of earthworms. They were everywhere. So where I tilled I threw them on those beds and they almost immediately disappeared into the soil. Tell ya I don't have any soil problems with that many earthworm! Which is very good! You just never know what you will discover in the garden. It's kinda like being a kid again, you get in there and clean and weed and you seen new things and explore and try to understand why. The earthworms were trying to stay warm from the black plastic and also trying to keep from drying out. There is always a reason why nature does what it does. We just have to figure it out. You never, never, never stop learning! This is when I wish I had some kids around to show and tell with. Some how I don't think my dogs really care. They would probably try to eat them. Yuck!!

So in between trying to get my gardening done and all the other errands that I have been running around doing, I have managed to update my website and have added a What's New in 2009 page which contains 2010 calendars and I will also now be accepting credit card payments. I am very excited about it! I hope that it will boost my sales some. Please visit my website at http://www.cindiresslerphotography.com/ and let me know your thoughts. I can take some criticism.

Everyone Have a Great Day!

Spring Cleaning

Today was the first chance I've had to get out and start cleaning the gardens. I was weeding out the dandelions, which unless you can get the entire tap root it will be back soon. I was cleaning around my snake garden and getting it ready for some planting and seeing what is coming back. I saw the beginnings of my sea holly, pink bee balm, yarrow, thyme, creeping phlox as well as lots of earthworms and some cut worms which were disposed of (the cutworms). I also started on my garden by my back porch which is now named the bee balm garden. The bee balm has taken over half the garden space about 3 feet wide, by about 4-5 feet long. Some people don't like the bee balm because it can be invasive, but it love it because it attracts the hummingbirds and butterflies. I checked the large garden and saw my hollyhocks, iris, lady's mantle, valerian which kinda looks like queen anne's lace, but grows much taller and is very fragrant and is an herb and attracts butterflies, I also noticed phlox and I do grow wild queen anne's lace too. I checked out my walking stick tree and it's looking fabulous and the branches are all curly like. Generally everything is looking good and survived a Maine winter. In a couple more weeks if the good weather continues I'll be done with the clean up and see more new growth.

This is one of the most exciting times of the year for me as a gardener, because if the plants come back then I know I have done well as a gardener and I am encouraged to plant more.

So with that said I am off to do more gardening have fun getting dirty.

Happy gardening!

April showers May flowers

As I wait for the May flowers and for the April showers to end. I sit patiently at my desk looking at my garden thinking about what flowers I will add to the garden. I have already purchased and beautiful purple day lily as well as purple and orange phlox. All of which will add a nice rich vibrants to the garden. I planted seedling perennials last year and I am anxious to see if they come back. I have an abundance of red bee balm that I have to move which will go into my snake garden. Yes I have a snake garden. It is a small garden with a large rock in the middle. The garden was there before we moved in so now I have learned over the years that there is apparently snake housing below the rock. So I get my gardening there done early and that way I can see the snakes (gardener) early and not get surprised! So weeding has become a problem with the snakes and all. So that is why I am transplanting the bee balm there. Weeds will be less and the snakes will be undisturbed and it will look good. We'll both be happy.

That will be one less garden to worry about. My large garden is a combination flower, vegetable and fruit garden. I have started my tomatoes, broccoli and my herbs. I'm still thinking what to add next. I'm thinking of more daylilies, and peonies. I absolutely love my peonies. My garden is my canvas for my photography so I try to find and add different flowers every year, until the garden is full. A lot of the flowers on my website www.cindiresslerphotography.com are from my garden. I am so trying to keep my garden as maintenance free as possible. Early in the season I have lots of time to maintain it, but when I start my shows my time is very limited and unfortunately the weeds take over. Some day maybe this year I will win over the weeds. We will see.

Happy gardening!!!