Newbie in Las Vegas, year 1!

The Lemon Queen looming into the camera lens looks like something out of Day of the Triffids!

Are the yellow leaves supposed to shrivel up? That's what is happening to my one SF..

So. Many. Bees.

Also, unrelated..."and then there were five..."


Quick explanation:  a couple/few years ago, a friend got a phalenopsis orchid on her birthday.  Fearing her cat would destroy it, she asked if I would keep and care for it.

It had three leaves.  Well, and a flower spike with blooms.

So the blooms passed, I cut the spike off, and kept it in a comfy spot with a little late day sun, and weekly waterings/baths.

Now it has seven leaves!

To continue, I kept noticing phals around the office, and one day I found one in an empty cubicle that was being ignored and hadn't been watered in weeks, and it struck me how sad it was, that once the blooms faded people were so quick to dismiss the plant, and abandon it, and ignore it.  Sort of like what happens to animals sometimes.

And so it began.  I would find phals, find the original recipient, and ask to have it, and no one has ever said no.  I just received my fourth and fifth plants today (and that fifth one is in BAD shape), and I am going to do my best for them.

Leave No Orchid Behind

Regarding the sunflowers, all I can say is "Run!"

(they're beautiful)

sanderson wrote:Regarding the sunflowers, all I can say is "Run!"

(they're beautiful)

Thanks!

My phal orchids rebloomed for the first time this year.  I have been able to keep plants alive in the past but no reblooms.  My housesitters got them blooming.  I lost one dendrobium last year, but the second is hanging on and putting up new growth.  

I'm afraid I'm one of the folks that leave orchids behind, but I always try to leave it with a co-worker.  When I travel, I need something to cheer up my hotel room, so one of the first things I do is buy an orchid that is just starting to open.  With care it lasts the 2 months I'm usually on a trip.  I've paid big bucks in Vienna and next to nothing in Taipei, but they give me a bit of a garden.


Kay

Tada!  Garlic harvested!  Red Inchelium softneck, 36 cloves planted on January 1st, 36 cloves harvested on June 21st (summer solstice)!  Next time I'll catch the winter (planting) solstice better, but all in all I'm not unhappy.  They're on the small side, but that was my dumb butt not amending all the beds with compost after last year's harvest...so this year is an experiment of sorts to see what does and does not thrive.  Sunflowers don't care about compost so much...pretty much everything else does.

MORE!



These look better than the other plot's did.  Only planted one square of each...they might be pithy though.  A taste test is in order!

D B,  Was a photo supposed to be post?

Brainchasm - it all looks great!

My DFIL grew orchids.  Had a whole greenhouse full!  I tried but just killed them...    AND the bromeliads.  I miss him & his greenhouse...

Harvested my Long Red Florence, aka Italian Red Bottle, onions!

And now for curing/drying...

I was just thinking of you with this heat! A most unusual looking onion. How do they compare with round reds?

They're oniony?  No idea really, they were just something to grow.

They look really nice!

BC, How about some hot summer photos? Just to show folks that SFG works in the hot zones.

Curing complete, so I trimmed them up in preparation for eating, storage, and gifting.

Beautiful!   

Nice 6-pack!

Crunchy looking! Good going.

When I first put the seedlings out there, they grumped so hard I didn't think they were even going to grow, much less fruit!

That is the second half dozen of peppers I've pulled off those two plants, and there are so many more peppers still on the way.  Loving California Wonders!

All those and more off two plants.  That is pretty good.

In other, sorta related news, I got this the other day (to chop up veggies of course!)



Shun 8" chef's knife, 10th Anniversary Limited Edition, with alternating stainless and copper damascus cladding.

One of the best kitchen knives you can buy, basically.  I felt like treating myself!