Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings Kathy Lawler — Guest Blogger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have had so much rain in Virginia this year. Saturday was our first day to get outside and finish the yard projects we had been trying to do this year. This was not only our first chance to enjoy the Spring — due to the crazy number of rainy days — it was also our last chance to enjoy a bit of Spring — before we get into a long hot summer! This year, to add to our Artsy Fartsy plant containers we made last year, we decided to build a birdbath (or bird spa as I like to call it) to add to the fun aesthetics and to enhance our variety and number of visitors! I built this using terra cotta pots that I spray-painted and stacked. The finished birdbath stands about 3 1/2 feet and is made up of 5 different sized pots. Two upside down terra cotta saucers make up the birdbath part of the piece. Birds do like a shallow-water bath so these saucers worked out quite well. If you do an internet search for terra cotta birdbaths you will find a surprising number of great ideas and different looks for your pending creation. Be sure to read about how to finish the terra cotta pots before you begin. I also did a bit of reading about what birds like best in a birdbath — unfortunately I read this after I had planned, painted, and constructed my birdbath. So here are the do’s and don’ts for you to consider when you build a birdbath for your yard.
You will need to change the water and clean your birdbath often — apparently birds aren’t opposed to pooping on, or in, art. We are still waiting for our birds to discover their new spa. I’m thinking that they are as tired of all the water falling from the sky as we are. Of course, we’re hoping for some great photo ops coming soon and we will share them with you when they happen! Thank You for visiting,
— Kathy, Guest Blogger P.s. Have you added a birdbath to your yard? How did you get the birds to start using it? Do you have any great suggestions you would like to share? We would love to hear your ideas and compare notes!
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Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recently, at an Art Fair, I was talking with a couple kindergarten teachers about how I view my world prior to photographing it. I spoke of how I employ virtual tunnel-vision in my Mind’s Eye to home in on a small subject; to eliminate all the visual clutter and distractions around it; to show it in its unique singularity, unhampered by the chaos around it. In discussing this concept, we came up with a great two-part project for their students. In Part One, the class would learn about telescopes and what they have done to improve / advance civilization. The students could then “build” their own “telescopes” by coloring the outsides of TP or paper towel tubes using Crayons, markers, or finger paints (OMG!). Hey! We even managed to work Art into Science class! With Part Two comes Nature Study. The telescopes become microscopes with the Little Nature Explorers crawling around in the grass and among the bushes looking at life through their ‘scopes. A vociferous discussion soon erupts about all the colors, and bugs, and leaves, and pebbles, and worms, and…, and…, and… This is essentially what I do every time I go out on a Photo Safari. My TP tube is a bit more sophisticated. My voice is a bit quieter. But I’m still a kid, on my knees, rooting around in the garden, discovering the mystery, the majesty, the esoteric, the familiar [re-seen differently], the minute, the wonderful… all seemingly for the first time.
It’s Grand to be a Kid again! Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. Do you think you might try this with your own kids? You did?! How’d it turn out? What did they discover? Share their stories for us all to enjoy. Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gardening is how I relax. It’s another form of creating and playing with colors. — Oscar de la Renta One of our local botanic gardens — Green Spring Gardens, in Alexandria, VA — has a really fun element incorporated into their vegetable garden. An element so fun we decided to incorporate it into our own yard at home. In a nutshell, it involves short sections of corrugated drain pipe of various diameters, painted fun, bright colors, and ‘planted’ in the ground as plant pots with fun plant specimens growing in them. This was a really fun project to do. The planning and visualization. The painting of the pipe sections. The actual installation and planting. My Inner-Scavenger even enjoyed the finding of the pipe scraps we could get for free. I got some — about 40 feet worth! — from a neighbor who was doing a complete yard re-do. I got some larger diameters from the superintendent overseeing a huge highway project in town. So fear not. Get out there and scav some materials! Cut them into various lengths using a regular hand saw. Use a coarse file, rasp, or very coarse sandpaper to smooth out the cut on one end; never mind the other end, it will be buried about 2-3 inches. I would suggest having lengths of about 6, 8, 10, 12 inches, intending for 2-3 inches of each to be buried. To clean these, wash them in detergent to remove any soil or other obvious gradoo. Then you might scrub the outside with medium sandpaper or steel wool to roughen the surface for better paint adhesion. We didn’t do this and we have a few small areas where the paint is scratched off. Now wash them in a solvent such as denatured alcohol or paint thinner to remove any residual oils or grease. And they’re ready for paint! Use a spray paint that is intended for plastic; we used Rust-oleum. Spray inside the top lip an inch or so and over the outside, being sure to get up and down in the ‘inside’ parts of the outside corrugation. Mix it up. Be random. Paint various colors of various diameter pieces and various lengths. Now the really fun part begins! Arrange them in your yard. Try to be as random as possible while still keeping in mind that taller plants — probably in the larger diameter pots — will be in back and yet pot sizes and colors still need to be mixed up. If you have an upper deck or balcony overlooking your planter bed, consider the view from above also, when arranging your pots. When you plant them, dig a hole twice as wide as your pot and twice as deep as you intend to plant it. Fill the hole half way with very coarse yard bark, mulch, or bark chips for drainage. Settle the pot in, paying attention to its natural curve, then top off the hole around the pot with dirt and pack it — very well. After all your pots are planted, take a general picture showing the overall layout including any relationships to structures, existing plants, borders, points of view, or any other factor that will affect the overall visual. You’ll use this (these) photo(s) when you go to the nursery to get plants. Get plants in sizes much smaller than your pots for ease in planting them. I suggest 2” pony packs for the 4” pots, 4” plants for the 6” and larger pots. Do the math to know how much potting mix you’ll need to fill all your pots. V = π (r 2 ) Volume = pi times (radius squared). Total up the sum for all your pots. Now, plant ‘em! Be sure to plant them down a bit from the top to allow for watering. And be sure when you fill the pots that you smoosh the potting mix into all the inside nooks and crannies of the corrugation. Wasn’t that FUN?!
Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. How’d your project come out? What unique features did you incorporate? Where did you find sources of scrap drain pipe that others might also search out? What fun, unique plants did you use to make your garden project scream “YOU”!? Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings Kathy Lawler, Guest Blogger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's about that time of year in our household when we are wishing winter was on its way out. Our thoughts are turning to spending time out doors in the sun where we can go on photo safaris to see spring in all its glory. But since we aren’t quite there yet we did the next best thing, brought a little spring home and went to work in the studio. It seems this time of year orchids are for sale just about everywhere. Turns out that orchids, according to the Rainforest Alliance, are the largest plant family in the entire world and there are over 25,000 different species of orchids – no wonder they're everywhere! Orchids have also been the flower we have never before dared to buy, only admiring from afar, for certainly growing them would be way beyond our abilities. But we took the plunge – we now have one – only 24,999 to go! We found this very photogenic variety, Phalaenopsis [fay~len~OP~sis] and we were told it was easy to grow. After getting two beautiful plants home we looked up the care and feeding of these lovelies. According to Missouri Botanical Garden site: “It serves as an excellent houseplant as long as basic growing conditions can be met. Best sites are on east window sills, but plants also grow well on well-shaded south or west sills, with growing conditions that include (a) temperatures at 72-85 degrees F in daytime and above 60 degrees F at night (a temperature drop to 55 degrees F at night in fall helps initiate flower spikes), (b) significant humidity (50-60 % - set pot on moist gravel tray with the base of the pot NOT standing in water and mist in morning), (c) bright light but no direct sun, (d) good air movement (ceiling fan is ideal), and (d) a potting mix of coarse fir bark or orchid bark mix that facilitates circulation of air and water. Plants will tolerate some brief temperature extremes, but temperatures in excess of 95 degrees F or below 55 degrees F should be avoided. Water thoroughly with tepid water in mornings only.” … OH REALLY!!!! It goes on and on from here! No wonder the name starts with the sound Phal (fail). Good news for all of us is that there are a number of beautiful orchids shows going on right now and we can visit and admire all sorts of varieties to our hearts content and not feel the least bit compelled to take home a living plant. The other great news is that you can visit the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton in March (March 9th through April 3rd) to see Chris’ excellent and unusual photos of orchids. These require no feeding or maintenance and will bring even more enjoyment to your home than the real (really hard to care for) thing. As you can see we had a great time in the studio trying new approaches to photographing orchids by raiding the cupboard for props and accentuating the natural beauty that is ... The Orchid.
Doesn’t mean we aren’t still waiting for spring. Thank You for visiting, — Kathy P.s. Have you tried to keep Orchids? How did you succeed? What's your favorite variety? Let us know in the comments how you overcame any problems... we'll compare techniques. And do be sure to come see Chris' Orchid Ovation show along with all the great Artwork on exhibit by the other great Associate Artists at the Workhouse, building 9. |
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About Chris
I am a Virginia-based photographer and gather my images while hiking in parks and natural areas here at home and in the locations I travel to. I also love to visit arboretums and botanic gardens to find unusual and exotic subjects. Archives
March 2017
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