Earth Day Turns 48

Yesterday was Earth Day.  Google's contribution is a doodle made in partnership with Jane Goodall. The founder of Earth Day was Gaylord Nelson, who wanted to make the environment a political issue in 1970.  Remember the rivers burning? We never guessed then that the environmental issue this year would be plastics.  The measure being used for the crisis is that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. Earth Day marked a new Guinness World Record set in Dubai - with the longest line of bottles to spread awareness about plastic pollution.  That was 58,477 bottles and the line was 3,842.5 metres long. If you were in Toronto, you could have gone to the Earth Day Festival at Downsview Park, and made Garlic-Mustard pesto! Its new shoots are edible in cool weather.  It turns bitter with the warm weather like many greens. In British Columbia they celebrated by broadcasting 24 hours of wetland noises. The UN News site had various articles. Of interest was  the coverage of new agricultural heritage sites:  farming in harmony with nature.  The article is HERE.   Their coverage of climate change is HERE.   Our pictures today feature purple flowers - Verbena Bonariensis at the Denver Botanical Garden and Wisteria with bees in it.  Purple is the flower colour of the year in 2018.

Pacific Coast Gardens

Such a different landscape on the California Pacific Coast.  The cascading Rosemary is in full bloom covering walls, along with Mexican Sage, and New Guinea Impatiens turned into shrubs.  At Half Moon Bay, I walked down a wonderful little street with original seaside homes and lovely gardens. There were great ideas for the xeriscape garden with lots of pebbles small stones as cover.

Longwood Gardens Visit

I went to Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, PA on the weekend.  We stayed with friends in Reading, PA about an hour away.  With the head, there was a mist each morning, so I had a chance to take some photos of the lovely picket fences and house lines in Roger and Irene's neighbourhood.   

At the Longwood entrance are some beautiful flower gardens - this year there was a bed of verbena bonariensis.  The butterflies were constant on the bed, so gave me the opportunity to get a few butterfly shots as well.

The big attraction this time of year is the water lily courtyard.  There are hundreds of flowers and likely a hundred varieties of water lily, plus all kinds of water garden plants.  I'm posting a sampling of the water lilies on display.

More to come...