Hosta, Shade Plants

Around here, the hosta plants are about half-grown. They will get bigger and then put up blooms on tall stalks.
Hostas like shade. Their leaves will burn in the sun.
The pictures I took show hostas near or under trees. They are a good plant to put under tress. Be careful that you don’t plant them under conifers or trees that are nasty to plants. You can always ask someone who know.
The trees protect the hostas from the sun all day long.

Hostas are perennials. That means they usually come back after winter and you don’t have to plant new ones in the spring.

You are not born knowing about sun and shade. You have to figure it out when you go to plant something. One way is to go out in the morning and look at where the sun is shining on the ground. If you go out at noon and then in the afternoon, you will see that the light is different. You could put a marker, like a large stick in the ground and see its shadow change during the day.
At first, it might be confusing. You will get the hang of it as you go along.
For hosas, the plant tag from the grower will say plant in shade.

When you plant hostas, remember to have plenty of room to grow. They will at least double in size.

This shows the north, south, east and west directions. It helps to know where you are planting so that you know what kind of light your plant will get during the day.

The sun rises in the east and heads over to the west during the day.

When the sun is in the east, the shade under the tree is shorter on the east side of the tree and longer on the west side. This is because the tree is blocking the sunlight.

At noon, the sun is directly overhead. The shade is even on both sides of the tree.

When the sun is in the west, the shade is shorter on the other side of the tree.

The rest of the pictures are of different kinds of hostas.

Green hosta.

The next three pictures are of variegated hostas.

These last two pictures are of blue hostas.

How to Plant a Hanging Basket

Let’s say you’d like a hanging basket this year. You look around at garden centers and don’t find exactly what you want.
What you can do is plant your own hanging basket.
You can get what you need where they sell supplies for planting.

First, pick out a hanging basket. You can get one that is plastic. These hold up well. That’s the kind I’m going to talk about.
You can get hanging baskets in different sizes. Choose the one you want.

A lot of plastic hanging baskets come with trays on the bottom of the pot. The trays snap on and off. You can leave the tray on or take it off.

Next, you will need potting soil. It is also called potting mix. It is different from top soil, so read the label. It’s easy to pick the wrong one. Potting soil has stuff in it to make it lighter. Top soil is just very good dirt.
With potting soil, the water soaks through and the weight of the hanging basket is okay. With top soil, the water can pool and rot the plant. The wight of the hanging basket would be too heavy.

Plants come in different containers.
The plants we are planting are annuals. That means they don’t like any temperatures below 55 F. If there’s a cold night, bring your hanging basket where it will not get cold.

Market packs have small plants. Usually they come in four or six plants per pack.

If you don’t want that many plants, you can get a single plant in a pot.
Look at the size of your hanging basket. It can be small, medium or large. For a large, use the market pack.
For medium size hanging baskets, get a plant in a 3 or 4 inch pot. You can put the pot into the hanging basket to see if it fits. It should have plenty of room inside the hanging basket for the plant to grow.
You can buy plant food at this time. If you are unsure about what kind to get, ask someone who knows. There are different kinds of plant food and it is confusing.
Feed your hanging basket plant once a week.

When you get home, find a place where you can make a mess and bring your stuff there.

Wash your plastic hanging basket. You can use dish detergent and water. Wash your hands.

Put some potting soil in the hanging basket about half way up.

Put your plant in its pot on its side. Gently squeeze the pot and slide out the dirt and the roots of the plant. You might want a bit of help with this. One to hold the pot and one to slide out the plant.

Put the plant in the hanging basket on top of the soil. Make sure it sits straight up in the basket. If you finish and it’s crooked, just stick your hands into the soil around the roots and move it gently.

Put in more soil, patting it down as you go. Put the soil just at the top of the dirt and soil of the plant. You can put a little soil over the top of the roots, but not too much.

When the plant is planted, you want the soil level about an inch or two from the top of the basket. This prevents the soil from running over the top of the basket when you water your plant. Gently water the plant. Water it at the soil level. Don’t water over the leaves and flowers. The plant doesn’t like you doing that.
When it rains, that is different from watering. When you water, there are minerals and stuff in the water. The leaves and the flowers don’t like that.

Every time you water, make sure the water pours out of the bottom of the hanging basket. When it’s hot, water the hanging basket at least three times a day. The plant won’t like drying out.
Hanging baskets have less soil than big pots and they do dry our more quickly.
If the plant in the hanging basket dries out and dies, get another plant and put it in there. It isn’t a big deal.
When you are done, remember to wash your hands.

This is the last picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Cooper’s Hawks

Cooper’s hawks are mid size birds. The male is smaller than the female and if you saw them together, You would notice the difference in size.
The male cooper’s hawk is about 14 to 18 inches long and weighs in at around 8 to 14 ounces.
The female cooper’s hawk is around 17 to 20 inches long and weighs in at 12 to 15 ounces.

For a long time, cooper’s hawks were called chicken hawks. It was believed that the hawks killed chickens. The hawks were hunted and shot.
This belief wasn’t true.
Cooper’s hawks weren’t swooping down and grabbing chickens for dinner.
Finally, word got out and now it is known that cooper’s hawks aren’t chicken predators.
You see these hawks in the US. I’ve seen them around here.

All of the pictures are from Wikimedia Commons.

The first three pictures are of juvenile cooper’s hawks.

By, Yboo photos.

By, Pprince999.

By, Matt TIllet.

The rest of the pictures are of adults.

By, H. Gilbert Miller.

By, User: Zatoich26.

By, Eugene Zelenko.

By, H. Gilbert Miller.

This last picture is by, Mdf.

 

International Space Station, Ammonia Leak

Last week, the instruments on the International Space Station (ISS) detected an ammonia leak in part of the cooling system.
The part of the cooling system was located. The cooling system is outside of the station and is under the solar panels.

Last weekend, two astronauts went outside to find the exact cause of the leak and fix it.
This is easier said than done.

All of the pictures are from NASA.

Here are the pictures of the two astronauts In their space suits.

Christopher Cassidy, USA.

Thomas H. Marshburn, USA>

Keeping a steady eye on them from inside of the station was Commander Chris Hadfield, Canada.

Chris Hadfield, official picture  by, Robert Markowitz, NASA.

On the Earth, Houston Mission Control was also keeping a close eye on the operation. Houston is in the state of Texas.

Houston Mission control during the operation.

As is usually the case, the leak was hard to find. It wasn’t showing when Astronauts Cassidy and Marshburn had a look at the cooling module.

The decision was made to replace one of the units with the spare.
This picture shows the whole cooling module with the unit that would be replaced. This unit is called PFC5.

This shows the replacement part and where it will be put.

They used a mirror to check out the next unit, PFC6.

The problem was with PFC6. They had to get it out of the module to have a close look at it. It is held in place by bolts.

This is a picture of one of the bolts.

This diagram shows how they will remove the bolts on the old PFC5.

Next, they had to release the old PFC5 after the bolts were taken off. They were always checking their gloves in case there was any damage to them.

This shows the removal of the old PFC5.

This is the back of PFC5 and it had frozen ammonia on it.

The old PFC5 went into the place where the spare PFC5 was on the module.
This shows the docking of the spare PFC5 into the module.

The spare PFC5 was inspected and it was normal with no leaks.
This last picture shows the inspection of the PFC5.

 

 

 

 

 

Forget Me Not WIldflowers

Forget Me Not Wildflowers grow in areas that are grassy. They are small flowers. If you see some, you’d have to kneel or sit down to get a decent look at the blooms.
Forget Me Not flowers are also cultivated and can be bought in the spring at garden centers. If you buy them, make sure that you plant them in a well-drained area. If the ground stays wet after a rain, they will rot.

All of the pictures are from Wikimedia Commons.

By, Robert Matthews.

By, AnRo0002.

By, Emoke Denes.

By, Jorg Hempel.

By, Olivier Pichard.

By, Von grzanka.

By, Salvor.

This last picture is by, Tauno Erik.

 

 

Azaleas Are Done Blooming, May 17, 2013

The Azalea bushes have finished blooming for the season.
I took some pictures when they were in bud and then when they bloomed.
Now, they are fading away.

The first three pictures are of the same bush.

An Azalea in bud and then in bloom.

The last three pictures are of a red azalea bush starting to bloom and then in full bloom.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I have an assortment of pictures from the National Park Service and NASA, International Space Station.

This is from Zion National Park in the state of Utah.

From the US Interior Department, I’m not sure where this is located.

From Cactotin National Park in the state of Maryland. A close up of a dogwood tree flower.

The next three pictures are from the International Space Station  by, Commander Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut. He left the space station this last Monday.

The Highlands of Cape Brenton.

Scotland.

Moon setting.

This last picture is of a Neutron Star  by, the Hubble Space telescope.

 

A Perfect Spring Day, May 2013

Once in a while, you have a day like this one. A nice breeze, not too warm and clouds in a blue sky.
I went out with the camera, not intending to take pictures, but having it around for just in case.
I found trees that were common around here. When you have a closer look at them, they aren’t common at all. When you get used to seeing a lot of the same thing, you stop noticing it.

Bark of a maple tree.

Maple tree leaves from the same tree as the bark.

This is one of the oak trees I saw.

This is the trunk.

This is a close of the leaves.

A dwarf weeping red maple tree.

The next two pictures are of an unknown pine tree.

Three pictures of a weeping cherry tree.

Unknown tree leaves.

I heard the birds singing and watched them dart around from tree to tree.
After a time I heard low level of warning calls and looked to see what the birds were talking about.

A black cat.

This last picture is of a male Northern Cardinal that decided to have a look at me, from a safe distance.

 

 

 

 

Spring Green, May 2013

Around here, the leaves have come out on the trees and bushes. It is green where it was brown before now.

Maple trees grow wingers that have seeds in them. They come off the tree and fly in the wind. When they land in a good place, the take hold and a new tree grows.
I saw one maple tree with dry, brown wingers. I then found another kind of maple tree that still had the wingers on it.

These are wingers that landed on the ground.

Here’s a young maple tree that grew nearby.

I don’t know the name of this plant. It lived through the winter. The building protected it a bit.

This is a red Peony.

Unknown flowers.

The last four pictures are of tulips.

 

The Irises Are Blooming, May, 13, 2013

I was out and about with the camera yesterday.
I didn’t do well with this picture. I don’t know how I did this.

The irises are blooming. I went to different places and took pictures. Except for one place, the irises were blue.

This picture was taken on May 5th.

May 12th.

These five pictures were taken in the same area.

These two pictures are of the white and purple irises.

These two pictures were taken in the same place.

I don’t remember where I took this picture.

The last three pictures were taken in the same place.

April 10th.

These last two pictures were taken on May 12th.