The favourite photos of 2014 - the garden, flower and insect edition

Continuing my 'favourite photos of 2014' series, this is the garden and insect edition.  I love taking photos of pretty flowers, and bees and insects. Our garden changes so much throughout the year and it never looks the same month to month or even year to year.  I post some garden pictures from time to time but I tend to forget them and leave them sitting on the hard drive.

Before I had kids to chase around and take pictures of I spent most of my time practicing my photography on things in the garden. It was what made me love both photography and my macro lens (which I've since upgraded for a much better macro lens).

I've broken the pictures down into seasons. Looking at what I have taken photos of reminds me all the things I haven't captured in the garden - the fruit trees, vegie garden and interesting foliage have been largely ignored for the past year. So I might try and get some of extra pictures of those this year. I hope you enjoy this colourful look at the changing seasons in our garden.

Summer

Summer in our garden is full of bright colours. It gets very hot but the waterlilies do well as do the agapanthus, oriental lilies, flowering grasses and bottle brush. We always have an abundance of purples and pinks and all the grasses and flowers around the ponds do well.

Autumn

Autumn is amazing in Canberra. We have lots of deciduous trees and they always put on a show. The start of Autumn also has the tail end of the flowering plants, like my amazing dahlias. These are followed on by the beautiful Autumn colours. The garden is always full of red, yellows and oranges in Autumn.

Winter

Nothing much happens in the garden for the first half of Winter. Our deciduous trees gradually drop their leaves during April and May but by the start of June it's pretty bare (and cold). As Winter progresses the deciduous trees start budding and the Magnolias burst into bloom. Despite July and August being the coldest months, the second half of July is when some of the bulbs start putting their heads up. First the crocus, daffodils, and jonquils and then the tulips in very late Winter. The fruit trees and flowering deciduous trees burst into bud in August and by late August the garden looks and smells like Spring (even if it is still freezing).

Spring

It's all about the flowering trees and the bulbs.  September is daffodils, blossoms, hellebore's, spring stars and hyacinth. By October and November it's starting to warm up and it's the freesias and lilies taking centre stage. There is always lots of colour, and something different in flower every week.

Insects

If I see a bee, butterfly or interesting insect buzzing around the garden, out comes my macro lens and I try to grab a good shot. They move fast and you have to be quick to even get something in focus, but it's fun and they look so different up close.