summer floral mix petunias
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: #Plant Life in the Great Outdoors

June is winding down, but there’s still time to celebrate June is Great Outdoors Month.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
~ Martin Luther

For those of us who live anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is well underway now that the solstice has passed. I caught this image at 4:30 am. 😁

Solstice Dawn's Early Light
Solstice Dawn’s Early Light

Here in North-Eastern Washington, it feels ironic to experience almost 18 hours of daylight for another few days as we begin to lose a minute per day. Already? Oh well.

Sunflower Sunset
Sunflower Sunset

By July 20th, we will have lost 30 minutes of light per day. But by the Autumnal equinox in September, it changes to losing 3 minutes per day as we get closer to the winter solstice. And in three short months, when the autumnal equinox arrives, the sunrise will be at 6:30 am, (compared to this week’s 4:49am), and sunset will be at 7pm. In every season, there are various twilight periods that allow for a lot of light in the sky when the sun is below the horizon.

Enjoy the late summer nights as long as you can!

Summer Solstice blue night sky
A Blue Solstice Sky, last light at 10:30 pm

I found Bob Berman’s article “How Fast Are We Losing Daylight?” The science geek in me always wants to know why! If you click on the article, there is another link where you can put in your ZIP code to calculate your sunrise/sunset times.

What does this have to do with plant life, you’re wondering?

Plants need sunlight in order to live and grow. Sunlight reaches its highest intensity between 10 am and 4 pm in summer. Some plants, flowers, and trees have a limit to the intensity of light in which they can thrive. Growing seasons vary, so check your latitude and growing zones for the best plants that grow in your area. When we moved from Sacramento, California, to Spokane, we knew many plants and flowers we grew wouldn’t do well in Spokane’s arid, high-desert Alpine climate zone. Eastern Washington’s temperatures range from summer’s hot 90+F to winter’s 0 degrees F and below freezing.

Smoky sunflower
Standing in solidarity against the smoke from Washington Wildfires
Potted Evergreens in snow
Green surrounded by white

When deciding to plant, take a look at what your neighbors are growing and what works well for them. Also, see what is sold at the garden stores in your neighborhood and ask the experts.

summer floral mix petunias
Summer floral mix with petunias purchased at the local nursery

We live near a local nursery, and I’ve taken the general manager’s planting advice over the years.

Transparent Greenhouses
Local Nursery Greenhouses

We discovered that many of our potted plants were too susceptible to freezing temperatures during winter, even after moving them and covering them in burlap. Most died after being exposed to 20 below zero (-29C) last January, which was ODD. However, these same plants planted in the ground or garden beds can stand the cold due to the insulation of the soil and their roots’ ability to grow deeper.

How Does Your Garden Grow? Hubby To the Rescue!

With his carpenter skills, Hubby built five garden beds from reclaimed “junk” wood. These beds are fenced in with a locking gate to keep our deer buddies out. Hubby also added these to our auto-watering system.

Backyard Fenced Garden
Fenced Garden

“Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.” ~Elizabeth Murray

Baby Zucchinis
Baby Zucchinis
garden eye view of flower plants
Dahlias, gladioli and bonus lavender
growing gladioli
Gladioli to Meet You!

“Plants are solar powered air purifiers whose filter never needs replacing.” – Khang Kijarro Nguyen

We Need Volunteers!

With all the purposeful planting we can do in our gardens, the volunteers seem to want their day in the sun. We transferred the strawberries to the “berry” garden after we discovered them growing in our topsoil last year. The pansies popped up everywhere this spring, and the domestic sunflowers were brought in last year by birds scattering black-oil sunflower seeds in the snow in the winter.

Volunteer Strawberries
Volunteer Strawberries
Volunteer Pansies
Volunteer Pansies
volunteer sunflowers
volunteers in 2023

Speaking of…Birds Like Your Plants!

When you have trees and plants in your garden, everyone knows the birds will visit!

3 young Say's Phoebes

Our Phoebes, which fledged 3 weeks ago, are doing well and still hang out in the backyard. I recently caught one of the juveniles getting a drink of water out of Brodie’s dish.

Juvenile Phoebe
Juvenile Phoebe

“The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today.” ~ Eliud Kipchoge

purple hydrangea framed by setting sun

Partially inspired by and sharing for Cee’s FOTD, Lens-Artists: Two Rectangles hosted by Egidio, and Johnbo’s Cell Pic Sunday.

If you want to see how a garden is grown, please check out my good friend Maria’s garden here!

“The whole surface of the earth is made beautiful by the vegetation that clothes it.” – Herma Baggley

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week for the last day of June as we explore Landscapes in the Great Outdoors. Have a wonderful week!

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90 comments

  2. Thank you so much for your kind words Terri ❤ I think you have a great set-up for your garden. The garden beds are wonderful. I am so grateful that I put up a fence around my garden this spring, the neighbours that didn’t are sad that they didn’t..

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    • Thank you, Maria! A neighbor shared that she places large pieces of cardboard in the garden beds, then puts in the soil. I believe it deters weeds from growing up from underneath. The deer here are too many! My poor willow tree got beat up last year by a young buck. All of our young trees are fenced now except the pines. You’re a smart gardener, my friend!

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      • Yes, it is a great idea to cover the bottom of garden beds with cardboard. I did that with all my beds. On top of the cardboard I have branches of various sizes (leftovers from trimming bushes,) other plant material, cow/horse manure and soil on top. If I have bokashi compost at hand I mix it in before adding the soil.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Terri, this was very educational and inspiring for those who want to grow a garden. Your photos take us through the process and results. Intuitively, you have shown us several photos with rectangles, such as the solstice images, the nursery’s greenhouse, the boxed flower beds, and that parting image with the flowers creating a solid and grounding rectangle against the open sky. Beautiful post and photos!

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  18. That’s so interesting about the sunrise/sunset times Terri. Funny, I just heard one of our local weather forecasters give that data – it was the first time I ever heard/saw it broken down like that by seconds to minutes to hours. To someone, like me, who is not keen on the Winter months, it is discouraging to see how we begin this downturn.

    I like what Hans has done with the reclaimed wood garden beds … less bending for you, protection against the nibbling deer, plus a watering system – lucky you and I am impressed as this looks to be a large piece of land to get this effort into place.

    I like all the flowers you featured, especially the close-ups of the petunias, one of the hardiest, yet prettiest garden flowers.

    Here is my post about plants:

    Blame it on the Bossa Nova … and Terri.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thank you, Linda! The farther north we are the more we lose or gain in daylight minutes in each season. There is something nice about living closer to the equator where days and night are equal all year round. But I like all the seasons, even dark winters, as long as we get a few sunny days, I’m good 😀

      We live on 3/4 acre, which is surprisingly large because it’s all usable and flat. Our neighbor to the west is on 5 acres, so we have room. It’s very quiet here, a far cry from our previous suburbs in Sacramento.

      I had to dial back on petunias this year. They need a lot of pruning!

      Liked by 1 person

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      • Terri, we had scorching hot weather this week plus it was stormy. The torrential rain at least saved me from watering the ornamental trees and bushes, so that was good. I remember when my garden was full of flowers, annuals and perennials, so those hot days meant watering twice a day, so your irrigation system is great and a lifesaver. I always hand watered the flowers and would take advantage of the early morning sunshine before I went to work – out at 6:00 a.m. and in those days I still worked on site and took the bus.

        I only have a small house, but the whole backyard and side yards, plus front were filled with flowers back in the day. It was a lot of work and I was a lot younger. 🙂

        When the Wave Petunias first came out I “went to town” with them … they were gorgeous. I had four hanging bags of impatiens …they were a pain. Three in a row on the fence and a spare one in the backyard in case one of the three bit the dust or got too leggy too soon. They were just too much work. The best were geraniums … almost zero maintenance!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Geraniums are no-maintenance, but they lose the flower and it takes a while to grow another one. I went to shrub roses after the tea roses I originally planted would bud, flower and die, all in a few day’s time. Shrub roses are very little maintenance. Marigolds are great – no deadheading. I planted them for color and to deter slugs. A garden IS something to be proud of.

        Liked by 1 person

  24. Terri,
    You and Hans have done a fabulous job with your new home and property. Thanks for sharing–I look forward to what comes next. Helen loves to plant flowers, but since we’re spending the summer on the road, we are content to enjoy flowers wherever we are. My contribution is a cactus flower we passed while hiking in Arizona. Love the Phoebes!
    http://www.easingalong.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Cactus-Flower-scaled.jpeg

    Liked by 1 person

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  28. Beautiful pictures once again Terri!
    Your husband did a great job on your gardens. I enjoy Maria’s gardens as well. I followed her when she lived in Las Vegas.
    I to am enjoying the long summer days. But know we are losing a minute a day now. Boo Hoo!
    Love your birdies!
    Happy Tuesday!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you, Nancy! Glad you follow Maria. She used to live in Northern California and we connected. We met up in Vegas a few years ago on one of our trips. The bird show is amazing here, we feel blessed to be a part of it. Have a great week!

      Liked by 1 person

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  32. Your garden boxes have my full and entire supply of envy. It is so much fun to have all that room to spread out and grow! I know you love it. I also envy your daylight right now. What a fun time to be in the Spokane area. Your little phoebe is so cute. It’s in heaven drinking that water. Look at its little eyes. They are almost closed in extasy. I’ll be gladioli when your flowers start blooming. 🙂
    My post has nothing to do with plants this week unless you allow fake plants! But they aren’t outdoor fake plants, oh wait, I have an opening real plant picture. So there is my link! We got lots done today thanks to our neighbor Aaron. He is adorable and so accommodating to both of us.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • I think fake plants have their place anywhere, Marsha! I have three small houseplants that are difficult to kill, but all the flowers are faux! Our property is fun to plan but almost evening needs fencing around it to keep the deer out.

      I actually hung curtains in our bedroom because the daylight comes early, even with blinds. Summer heat just joined us today. I’m going to enjoy the Great Indoors the rest of the day.

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  37. A great theme! After just over a year in our new home, we’re still discovering plants blooming in our yard that we don’t remember from last year. There’s quite a variety in our neighborhood. All we lost during last winter’s cold snap was one lavender plant so we count ourselves lucky.

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  38. This is a lovely educational post, Terri. I don’t do any gardening; my partner does it all, but I enjoy sitting in the garden (under a sun umbrella when it’s sunny) and enjoying all the sights and sounds.

    Many of our plants have flowered early this year. However, the earliest are the gladioli. They usually flower in August but have already flowered.

    Do you grow any fruit? If you do, I guess it’s all behind the fenced garden, so the deer can not reach it. We’ve lots of blueberries this year, but they are not quite ripe yet. They always taste much better than the blueberries bought in the shop.

    Thanks for the information on how much daylight we are already losing. It’s strange to think that the nights are already getting longer. But I do enjoy the long summer evenings. The light is lovely just as dusk arrives.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you, Hugh! I’m no expert, but I learned a few things by trial and error. The GM of the 10 acre nursery is 6 properties away down our street is so knowledgeable. Anything he shares is gold.

      I’d love to see a pic of your gladiolus. I planted mine in early May so I hope to see blooms in August. And yes, one garden bed is all berries. One blueberry bush has a lot of unripened berries! Fingers crossed we get some this summer.

      Enjoy the long summer nights. It will take a while before we see the loss of light.

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  41. We are slowly building boxes and filling with new soil. Then will attach a watering system. Fingers crossed for some produce to make the work worthwhile! Bernie
    Ps I won’t listen to talk about days getting shorter until hm…mid Sept

    Liked by 1 person

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