Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Happy Birthday A Moi


















Blotanical, that great garden blog hub, holds the wrong date for my fete national; but I fixed it. Many thanks to all the wonderful bloggers I've met for the salutations--it's like having two birthdays. So, if anyone wants to wish me a happy birthday again, today, on my real birthday, now's your chance. And... go.

To celebrate myself, and much hard work over the last year (and many successes with their evil twins, failures), below are pics of my garden (celebrating its first birthday). I've got a photo somewhere of white liatris in my garden, and it is perhaps TOO much white liatris in my garden.

And somewhere below: for our anniversary one week ago, my wife purchased an ecosphere. You should check these out. Inside is a bit of coral, some tiny shells, algae, and four shrimp; the shrimp can live anywhere from 2-10 years in this self-sustaining environment. Pretty neat.


















Drumstick Allium















Queen of the Prairie smells like roses, and is thus better than roses















Purple Prairie Clover adding nitrogen to my clay















Floristan White Liatris makes me look like a naughty flower connoisseur



















Many storms this year, many cool sunsets















I think people call these things gardens















Can you see the shrimp? Yummy.

16 comments:

mr_subjunctive said...

I didn't say anything yesterday 'cause I just knew it was the wrong day.

Happy birthday and stuff. Please take pictures if you get really drunk or something.

Helen/patientgardener said...

Happy birthday again

Anonymous said...

Ha! Any excuse to keep getting birthday wishes. I'm now eagerly looking forward to tomorrow's e-mail, to see if Blotanical will send me yet another notice that "It's Benjamin's birthday!" When I saw today's, I figured that you'd somehow rigged it so we'd all get notified every single day for the coming year. Very funny! But okay, have a great day and a great year, and take advantage of their mistake to live every day as if it were your birthday (without the getting older part, naturally).

Gail said...

Happy Birthday...Blotanical sends out notices, hmm! and it's your garden's birthday, too? Happy birthday garden,

gail

Anonymous said...

The garden is looking marvellllous! I will not look at liatris without thinking of your observation. LOL at that one. The ecosphere is beautiful. Happy birthday!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday! I had wondered why I got two different notices of your birthday, so thanks for explaining. :)

Since it's your birthday, I guess that I shouldn't tell you how green with envy I am over your garden. It's just one year old, and it already looks so much more established than mine!

Victoria Summerley said...

So not quatorze juillet, but quinze juillet! Never mind, that's the date upon which the French adopted the Marseillaise as their national anthem. Alors, 'le jour de gloire est (vraiment) arrive' !

Amanda B. said...

Happy Birthday, Old man!!!!! :):)

Love the pictures- very awesome!

Frances, said...

Well Happy Birthday Benjamin. Somehow Blotanical is enraptured with your birthday date. How is it that only your big day is sent out? Or is it the first of many emails to come with this announcement? I am envious of your naughty liatris, mine was supposed to be white but is purple. Your garden is very deserving of a birthday wish also, looks good. Cool sphere, is the coral alive?

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday, dear Benjamin, clever, witty man,
Happy Birthday to you!

Les said...

All the best people have birthdays in July.

Benjamin Vogt said...

Mr S--No pics. Here, I got drunk on my wife's great dinner and cake, i.e., I ate so much I actually got sickish. I don't do that. (And I was drunk only once in my life, well, severely tipsy, on $1 bottels of white wine in Venice in 1997).
PG--Wish me again. C'mon!
Ellen--Older? What's THAT? Sheesh.
Gail--well, close enough to my garden's birthday. We moved in about July 4 of last year, but did already have the beds in and mulch down, but no plants.
Layanee--Thank you! Liatris is just an really interesting plant to me....
Kim--oh come now, maybe it's the perspective of my photos, or the angles, that makes it look ok. Well, my secret is to use uranium as fertilizer--that's green, right? It comes from the earth.
Victoria--Merci beaucoup. Je voudrais deux anniversaires chacque annes! Est-il possible? (Mon francais est mauvais, n'est-ce pas?)
Frances--Oh, maybe it's a new thing on blotanical? Come to think about it, I've never received a birthday anouncement for anyone else. But, I AM VERY SPECIAL.
Kathryn--You forgot gorgeous. I am also very gorgeous. :)
Les--So what day this month is yours, hmmm?

Les said...

Mine is 30th, Mom's was also 15th, Grandmother on the 12th, Uncle on the 3rd, what was happening in October?

Benjamin Vogt said...

It was gettin' cold outside, Les, and the end of summer work and fall harvest provided free time.

WiseAcre said...

HBD

I wasn't there, had nothing to do with it and frankly don't care when your birthday is.

But I do hope you had a good celebration followed by many more.

It's not the birth date that's important, everyday is the time to celebrate life.


I just spotted Queen of the Prairie on the side of the road the other day. It looked like the flower spike exploded. It also reminded me of 'cotton candy'.

I can't believe I've overlooked them for so long. I've only seem them twice while stuck in 'wildflower mode' and it never occurred to me to look in my perennial catalog to see if they were there. DOH! 5 varieties of Filipendula listed with one a rubra (Filipendula rubra is the native prairie wildflower)

Guess what I'm bringing home from the nursery next time?

Benjamin Vogt said...

WA--Oh, you hurt me. Truly. Deeply. OR, I agree with you completely. THAT might be it, yeah.

I now have THREE various types of filipendula.