Saturday, 31 May 2014

End of Month View – May

People say a picture says more than a thousand words, I tend to agree, but I also believe a movie says so much more than pictures. So for my very first ‘End of Mont View’ I am posting a movie of my garden – instead of the 50 or so photos I would need in order to show you the same. My garden is growing like mad and my inner London paradise is starting to take on the secluded and secret look it gets during the summer and autumn.

My movies are best viewed in full HD or in 720p, and in full screen - if you have the download speed for it, you can adjust the quality using the gear icon. I make my movies using my mini iPad and I usually make many short movies. I then transfer the movies to my PC and use Windows Movie Maker (free program) to edit the movies and join them together before adding suitable music. And finally I upload the finished movie to YouTube. Making movies like this is something most people can do :-) 





Thanks to Helen at the The Patient Gardener’s Weblog for hosting this meme, if you head over to her blog you will find many more End of Month Views.

There is nothing from my front garden this time, it is undergoing spring-revamp; out with all the winter bedding plants and in with the summer plants. I hope to have everything in place for the June Garden Blogger Bloom Day. Until next time, take care.

39 comments:

  1. Hi Helene
    It never fails to amaze me how many gorgeous plants you manage to pack into your small yard. Stunningly beautiful - thanks for the tour!

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    1. Your welcome Astrid, and I am a bit surprised myself about how many plants I have managed to squeeze in – and I am still putting new plants in!

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  2. Your paradise looks absolutly great Helene.
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Thank you Marijke, hope you have a great week-end too!

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  3. I enjoyed the video Helene - must do some of our plot and garden as it's ages since I did a video fir nt blog

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  4. Amazing! That's so beautiful, love your garden. And thanks about the tutorial on making movie. Have a wonderful weekend!

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    1. Your welcome Endah, with a camera that takes movies or an iPad, it’s very simple really.

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  5. Great movie! Your garden is looking so colourful and lush. Fantastic.
    It's a cat's life though, isn't it.

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    1. Thanks, yes my cat is horizontal most of the time, can’t even be bothered chasing the squirrels out of the garden :-)

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  6. Amazing how you beautifully joined the movies together and the music, just wonderful. You difinitely have a great garden with soooo manyyy plants. And your cat he steals the show.

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    1. Thanks Janneke, my cat follows me around wherever I am, indoors or outdoors, and if I forget to bring with me something he can lie on when we are outside, he will tell me! His favourite blanket is this super-soft fleece throw.

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  7. I always enjoy the photos of your garden, Helene, but the movie really gave more of a sense of how the whole garden flows--it was as if I was walking with you. What a paradise you have created in your back yard! Love the last scenes of Kitty curled up in his/her blanket:)

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    1. Thanks Rose, I am so happy you came for a walk with me!
      I am housebound because of my health situation, so this is my world, this is the only place I get to enjoy fresh air and sunshine – my garden probably means more to me that to the average person. Yes, this is my paradise :-)

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  8. Your wonderful garden is chokeful of floral beauties and lush foliage. I can imagine how it will achieve its full potential in summer.

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    1. In the summer and early autumn it is like being in a glasshouse, without a roof! There are plants everywhere and you can’t really see the boundaries of the garden. Totally different from December and January, when the garden is very open and looks much bigger :-)

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  9. Your garden is so full and so many interesting plants. Thanks for joining in the meme, I hope you find it useful

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, and welcome to my corner of the blogosphere :-)
      I will try to join the End of Month View every month from now on.

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  10. I thoroughly enjoyed your end of month view Helene - everything looks wonderful and you manage to pack so much in.
    Are those opium poppy seedlings I spotted?
    Your garden is a real credit to you Helene and it's clear you love it so much!

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    1. Thanks Angie, my garden is growing like mad right now, even though the weather isn’t that warm. And yes, they are opium poppies, I had them last year too, Papaver somniferum ‘Black Beauty’ and P. somniferum ‘Cherry Glow’. The plant looks like a weed but the flowers are gorgeous!! I hope they will survive where I have them, it’s quite shady there, but in my garden only the neediest get the sunny spot :-)

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  11. Very inspiring, Helene.

    I've spent today tidying up (mostly weeding!) the garden in preperation for some still shooting. Looking at your example I think I might try some video as well. No cats I'm afraid - but my little long haired Jack Russell may make an appearence (the greyhound will, as usual, be fast asleep).

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    1. I have take videos of my garden regularly since 2009, it is a great way of keeping a record of how the garden develop, just as taking photos is – but the videos complement the photos in a great way. I look forward to seeing your video – with or without the dog :-)

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  12. Your garden looks just fabulous Helene. What a great idea to make a movie - you really would have needed hundreds of pictures to display all of those plants! I also love your cat - he looks so happy in your garden.

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    1. Thanks, I have quite a lot of videos of my garden now, it is a great way of keeping a record. You can find some of them under the label ‘Posts Listed by Categories’ , and then under Videos on the left side of this page. So far I have posted 27 but some of them are photo slideshow with music rather than actual movies.

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  13. Hi Helene, I love the video! It really captures the feel of your garden much better than photos! I really need to take some video of my garden I think! It's sadly neglected at the moment but the good thing is that I have all of winter to get it in order. If it's anything like the first months of this year it's going to go faster than I think though! Anyway, your garden is looking amazing, and it cheers me up when mine is looking less than its best :)

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    1. Thanks Ruth, glad you liked the video, I have made many over the years and it is a great record to look back on so you should definitely do some of your garden. Good luck with getting your garden back in ship-shape :-)

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  14. Hi Helene, you manage to cram so much in, your garden is lush and colourful, lovely. But I don't envy you all that watering!

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    1. Thanks, to be honest, I don’t water as often as you might think, some pots need water every day, but the beds only need once or twice a week when it is not raining. I didn’t water at all from November to March, as we had enough water coming down from above! It helps a lot that large parts of my garden is in shade and that I have bark mulch in all the beds.

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  15. Helene what a wonderful tour to see your garden up close and personal...I felt as at home as your lovely kitty...I am amazed at how you have staked each peony and rose bloom with bamboo and so many delights around each corner and crevice just tucked away like that delightful cup and saucer.

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    1. Thanks Donna, glad you enjoyed the tour. I don’t like to stake the peonies, I feel they look a bit too regimented, but if I don’t stake them like this they will bend down all the way to the ground, all of them! They are simply too heavy for the stalks, so as pretty as they are, they have get this treatment every year.

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  16. White roses, red maple, blue bells, deep red rhododendron, fuchsias, clematis....your garden is beautiful as your video and music you chose! The kitty that speaks Norwegian looks very serious!

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    1. Thanks Nadezda, I am glad you liked the video – and the music. My cat looked a bit apprehensive in the first part of the video, but he mostly looks like in the end – horizontal and at sleep!

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  17. Your garden looks great, as always, Helene! The Roses, in particular, seem very healthy and lush. I enjoyed seeing your happy kitty in the movie, and that was a great ending. It's funny--my kitty was sitting contentedly in my lap and purring while I watched your movie. :)

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    1. Thanks Beth, I enjoy making these movies too, and in reality it doesn’t take any longer to take, edit and post a 5 minute video than it does to take, edit and post 50 or so photos from my garden.
      Here is my very first movie, made in early March 2011, before my last major re-design of the garden. Not sure you will recognise the garden!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqBlYB9wCkY

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  18. What a lovely idea to film your EOMV. You fit so much into such a small space. Beautiful. You seem to have a lot in pots, that must create quite a bit of work?

    My EOMV: http://www.gwenfarsgarden.info/2014/06/end-of-month-view-may-2014.html - just in pictures though.

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    1. Hi, and welcome to my blog. My pots require a bit more in terms of watering, but a lot of the garden is shady or part shady so it’s not as if the pots and containers are baking in the sun all day. The good thing about having pots and containers in a small garden is that there is always something ready to put in the flowerbeds whenever there is an available space – some bulbs that has died down or an herbaceous plant that has stopped flowering. My garden is filled to the rafters most of the year :-)

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  19. Your wonderful short film certainly does your garden justice Helene. I know you have mentioned it before but your use of pots fascinates me, do you have somewhere that you put them when the plants aren't flowering or at their best or do you just move them to less prominent positions?

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    1. Rick, I am forever moving pots around in my garden! I have my nursery shelves, which I use for plants that needs a bit attention, but many of them just stand in the flowerbeds between plants, either hidden when out of flower or in a more prominent space when in flower. If I planted all my pots in the ground, many of the plants would get much too big for the space I have, and I would have lots of open spaces from all the spring bulbs. This way I can ‘plug’ any gap as soon as I have any available :-)

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