{"id":98985,"date":"2021-06-16T15:18:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T19:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=98985"},"modified":"2021-06-16T15:20:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T19:20:59","slug":"the-mysterious-island-in-my-back-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=98985","title":{"rendered":"the mysterious island in my back garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2m5T1tq\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51251046190_0ffff3a2a7_z.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_3415\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the movies on heavy VHS-cassette rotation when my boys were young was Jules Verne&#8217;s <em>Mysterious Island<\/em>.  Hot air balloon escape from  a Civil War-era prison, crash landing near an uncharted island to fight for survival against monster-size crabs, chickens, and bees &#8212; all exquisitely rendered by the special effects artistry of Ray Harryhausen.   Riveting stuff (and the boys liked it too, ha ha&#8230;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2m5QQiG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51250621762_5feb18d29c_c.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_3408\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>A single truss bloomed in March this year, with satellite trusses forming like elephant ears in May.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I&#8217;ve flipped the script on the bees.  Watching them frenzy over my Tree Dandelion, Sonchus palmensis, I have to wonder if the local bees feel they&#8217;ve wandered into a mysterious island of their own. Up and down the street dandelions come in the garden-size variety, but buzz over our fence and the dandelion is as big as a tree.   And there may be more than one soon, because it&#8217;s apparently happy enough here to self-sow.  For zones 9b-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2m5ZXjf\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51252401350_a061ccfbfc_c.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_3432\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Self-sown seedling of Sonchus palmensis, lower right rosette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming from what are to me the ultimate mysterious islands, filled with one-off, eccentric, and just plain gorgeous flora, the Canaries, Sonchus palmensis turns the back garden into an adventure, for me and the bees.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the movies on heavy VHS-cassette rotation when my boys were young was Jules Verne&#8217;s Mysterious Island. Hot air balloon escape from a Civil War-era prison, crash landing near an uncharted island to fight for survival against monster-size crabs, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=98985\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[36],"tags":[4493],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-pKx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98985"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98985"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99060,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98985\/revisions\/99060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}