Beautiful garden Eunice I don't have much of a garden Very smaall in fact But they do take of lot of looking after these large gardens

to val, glad my links helped, yes they are lovely plants and you
can get the nyger seeds back for the birds

to Eunice I love your garden, great photos
thanks for sharing

huggs
karenxx

You had lovely gardens, Eunice. They are hard work to keep up though.

Everyones photos are so lovely. I do not have much garden these days and of course, we are in our winter so there is not much to show. However, I am posting some photos of gardens I had in the past.

My gardens in Waimate















My Christchurch garden frontage

Those are brilliant links, Karen. My plant is the first link, right side pic.
I think next spring I'll grow some properly, it is a pretty plant.

take a look at these links val

http://www.ukwildflowers.com/Web_pages/guizotia_abyssinica_niger.htm

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Guizotia+abyssinica

I feel happy mine grew and I bet you are now glad
you know what the flower is

love the bird pics val
we dont get anything like that here
you are very lucky to have them
in your garden

Goldfinches on the niger feeders, extreme left, extreme right of pic.


Taken through sun lounge window on full zoom, early this Spring, so it isn't brilliant.

Yes, Karen I do, I have two feeders with niger seed. The Goldfinches love it. The odd Greenfinch will eat them too, but we haven't had any here for ages, they were wiped out by the finch parasite. Luckilly the Goldies didn't get it.

great photos Val love looking at anything you post

so do you feed nyger seeds to the birds val
if so I bet its the same as I have found out
about

what a beautiful picture Val

Begonia.

Ripe Loganberries.

Detail from a window box.

The weedy greenhouse.

Thank you, Jo.

The photo of the flower/plant you posted below, Karen, looks very similar to this one I put on before. This grew from dropped bird seed as well & I had no idea what it was.......

*Thanks for the advice Val no I dont want an all singing or dancing
camera *



Had to post this, didnt know what it was, added it to a gardening
website to get it identified

Its from the nyger seeds I fed the birds with
its called Guizotia abyssinica, it grows
in Ethiopia as a herb and for oil
so how amazing is that, to be honest
I am quite thrilled, its about 18 inches tall
with small yellow flowers

Val I have so enjoyed your photos. They are stunning. You are both a good gardener and good photographer! You obviously have a very good eye!
Jo x

There is a new version out now, Karen, it has a 12x optical zoom on it. Not sure if they still make mine. They are good camera's if you are a novice or don't want a 'posh' all singing all dancing one.

thanks val I am hoping to get a camera
later in the year as I love taking pics

huggs
karenxx

The trees halfway down on the left are Willow, Oak & Hazel, Karen, it's a natural Devon hedge with a bank. It was here when the houses & gardens were a field. The bottom of the garden hedge, also natural, has Hazel & Ash. We have a little brook that runs through the garden inside that hedge & behind the big shed. The 3 trees at the bottom of the garden beside the shed are plum & damson, not much fruit on any this year sadly.

I have a very basic camera, it's almost totally idiot proof. It's a Panasonic Lumix DCM-TZ3, with a 10x optical zoom.

I love looking at your garden val
its very interesting, what are the
trees at the bottom?
and what kind of camera do you have?

huggs
karen xx

More garden photo's.....
Blackberry blossom.

Planters/window boxes on the patio.





The garden from the edge of the patio.


And a Dog Rose.

Thank you, Karen, I have some more to add when I have downloaded them from the camera.

love the new photos val and I agree with jo you are
a brilliant photographer, not seen cuckoo spit
on plants for a while, used to think it was cuckoo's
until I found out its a grub that does it, love
the squirrel and what views you have

Thank you, Jo.
I'm not really that good, I have an idiot proof camera & providing you click it onto the right setting for the type of photo you want to take, ie, close up, landscape, etc, it does it for you, if you aren't in the right position, it even refuses to take the photo untill you are.
The Blackbirds at present are feeding young, so they are very 'tame' & I can get quite close to them.

You are a very good photogra[pher, Val. I loved the photos. How did you get so close to the blackbird? The view from your garden is stunning. Actually ours is not dissimilar, though not such a wide expanse perhaps. I will post a view soon, so you can see - Devon is just beautiful isn't it!


Jo x

A few more from my garden...





The view to the South East.