If you haven’t tried to identify the plants in my quiz, back up to last Thursday and try your hand before reading any further.
So, how did you enjoy trying to ID various random plants from a photo or two? I think it’s fun, which is why I love my job. Sometimes I know the answer off the top of my head (number 1, for example) while others have me tearing my hair out while I track them down (such as number 8).
How well do you know your plants?
For the past few years I’ve posted a monthly bird quiz. I hope you’ve enjoyed the challenge. This morning, as I identified plant after plant for my GardenCompass.com clients, I suddenly wondered why I have never created a plant quiz—so I did. Now you too can experience the joys and frustrations of identifying random plants.
I’ve attempted to provide you with a realistic demonstration of what I do. Therefore, all I’m telling you is where the photo was taken. (The Garden Compass app has a GPS feature.) I’m responsible for answering questions from all the mountain states, from New Mexico and northern Arizona to Idaho, plus Nebraska and both Dakotas, but for this round, I stuck to plants seen in Colorado.
(If you missed last week’s post about how photosynthesis works, you might want to read it now. I’ll refer to it below.)
As gardeners, we all want to grow healthy plants. Knowing what they need is helpful, but knowing why they need it is even better. Today I’m going to go over what plants need in order to feed themselves—and us. That’s what photosynthesis is for.
It was the house-shaking boom of thunder that first caught my attention. As my ears recovered, I heard a drumming on the roof, a steady beat that rapidly got louder and louder. More flashes of lightning. More thunder. I stopped chopping up celery for the stir-fry I was making, and looked outside. Sure enough, that wasn’t just rain I was hearing. It was hail.
Vicious icy balls almost an inch in diameter were pelting the house, bouncing on the driveway, burying the flower borders. I switched windows so I could see my veggie plot. That was a mistake. It’s such a helpless feeling to watch a lovingly tended garden, the beds I had so carefully weeded just hours ago, turn into lime sherbet.
I know that wind is merely “air in motion,” but why does it have to be in such a hurry?
Here in Colorado, the wind has been blowing for weeks now—and not just gentle breezes, but howling gales that topple trees and suck every drop of moisture from already desiccated soil. First a dry winter, now this ceaseless wind.
As a gardener, there are times when I’m totally frustrated by too much wind. It stunts the growth of tender new shoots (I’m not trying to create bonsai tomatoes, but sometimes that’s what I get) and makes working in the garden a miserable experience.
Too many times I find myself wandering around my yard, holding a new plant in its pot, wondering where I can squeeze it into my landscape. While those impulse buys are a lot of fun, that’s probably not the best way to go about adding plants to a garden. It’s best to consider the size, shape, and color of a plant first, before trying to determine what exact species is best.
Consider how nature positions plants. In any forested area, trees form the highest canopy. They reach up to capture the full brunt of the sun pouring down on them, and provide shade in varying degrees to the plants underneath.
In the shelter of the tallest trees grow understory plants. Usually large shrubs or small, multi-stemmed trees, these plants form a middle layer of the forest. (more…)
Mountain Plover 