Garden Status (image heavy)

We had some big rainstorms this week, with even a bit of hail and a nearby tornado, but the beds have held up. My driveway did have to be repaired a few times, though. On the plus side, the heat and humidity have gone down and the nights are even cool now. I’ve also got several varieties that are finally starting to bloom, after spending all Summer making large amounts of foliage without buds.

The plants are reaching out farther into the walkways, so you have to squeeze around/between them in several spots.

Here’s the vase I took into work last week:

Previously I’ve been using a Nexus 4 phone to take flower photos. Now I’m using a Sony α6400 mirrorless camera. Here’s a rough comparison, first the Nexus 4:

And now the α6400:

The α6400 has higher resolution and of course a much larger lens, but the lens I’m using also has a shallower depth of field so not as much is in focus. Here’s a more detailed comparison at around 100%:

It’s not really an ideal comparison since I’m letting the phone post-process the image to make it look sharper and more contrasty (which also adds some artifacts), while for the camera I’m working with the raw image. I’m also still learning my way around darktable for processing raw images.

I noticed this week that a little tree next to the house has been stripped by some fuzzy caterpillars. They appear to be White-marked Tussock moths. I’ve had to be careful over there, because while I was taking photos one was hanging in the walkway on a thread, and another dropped out of the tree and landed next to me. They apparently do sting, but so far I haven’t gotten hit.

I probably won’t know for a while whether the tree survived this. They thankfully haven’t gone after the dahlias, and are even ignoring the hibiscus that’s intermingled with the tree they’ve been eating. Speaking of which:

As usual I’ve got various other bugs around, some good and some bad:

Here’s what dahlia reproduction looks like. After the flower opens it makes tendrils with clumps of pollen, then if it gets fertilized the petals drop away and the bud closes back up to form seeds inside. I normally remove them before they close, so that the plant will keep flowering:

And here’s some assorted pictures from around the beds:

Normally this is the time of year when I’d be preparing for the Fair competition, but that’s all been cancelled for 2020 due to the virus.