From master gardener / photographer Scout211:
Here are some random garden pics taken around our property today (5/20/2024). All were taken with an iPhone 13.
At top: Oleanders thrive here in the dry climate. We have many of them and they show nice colors most the year and brighten up the dry, dead grasses around here. They also require very little water, which is nice.
Some cactus flowers. I never remember their individual names, I just enjoy the flowers this time of year. The first one comes with a complimentary bee.
Most of the apricots have been eaten by birds or blown off in the wind. But here are a few today that I picked after snapping this photo.
Anyone up for salad? Here’s your pick of greens. Please ignore the weeds, I don’t have any idea how they got there. Someone should pull them.
The garlic plants are blooming and they do so for most of the year. For a dry climate, they take very little water on a drip line and show some color most of the year.
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Jeffg166
Great shots.
The lettuce is impressive.
This week the high heat rolls in. Philadelphia has dodged the worst of it for the last several years. Looks like our lucky streak is over this year. It will be August at its worst for at least ten days.
satby
Very nice Scout211! Love how vivid the colors are.
I have a small window of time this morning to dig a few holes and dump the remaining hardy glads and daffodil bulbs in before I go meet my DiL’s family for a Father’s Day brunch. By the time I get back mid-afternoon the heat wave here will be well started and I’ll only come out early in the morning to water. I hate hot weather. HATE.
eclare
Those greens look yummy!
Mousebumples
Interesting how different garlic plants look across climates/zones! I have a few garlic plants (that we did not start last year!) that I’m keeping an eye on for harvesting. We’re currently at the garlic scape stage. I’m not sure that I’ll harvest any of that this year. They work in stir fries for an onion-y/garlicky flavor, but we historically forget to use them, so they just stay in the kitchen until they’re all dried out.
Thanks for sharing these photos!
OzarkHillbilly
I do believe the 3rd cactus flower is prickly pear. Having said that I am certain that an actual cactus expert will come along to correct me.
MazeDancer
Great blossoms! And impressive lettuce.
Gvg
We are in high heat but are finally getting our rain. It’s a relief. Oleanders are used in Florida a lot too. The Highway department plants them along interstates because of the low water needs. We get rain, but interstate embankments mean the water drains away which is almost like not getting watered. They have found Oleanders can take it and look good with amazing flowers. Some homeowners plant them but there are downsides for us. There is a caterpillar (baby butterfly) that absolutely loves oleander. Most of the time you are lucky, but then a hoard of caterpillars arrives and strips your bush. It only lasts a few weeks and the oleander regrows fast but they are intimidating looking critters that freak a lot of people out (my mother). The plants are poisonous and can be irritating to the skin, plus NEVER ever burn them. The smoke is very toxic.
Some of them are fragrant with a baby powder scent, most aren’t. It’s kind of random which cultivars are. They also mostly grow too big for most yards. Specific cultivars grow certain sizes so if you grow one, pick the right size and put it in a good spot. Full sun even in Florida. There are dwarf ones, though not many, but it’s better not to have to prune it. It looks better I pruned anyway.
lowtechcyclist
“Northern California, where the girls are warm” – Steve Miller
@Jeffg166:
Wow! Here in my corner of southern Maryland, good deal to the south of you, the forecast is high just above 80 today, then mid-80s through Thursday, then low 90s next weekend before t-storms cool it down, but that’s far off enough that who knows for sure.
Still, pretty normal summertime weather, nothing that would chase me indoors for long.
delphinium
Wonderful photos Scout211-love all the bright colors! And apricots-yum!
The heat wave will be coming my way as well-looks like temps won’t be back to normal until the weekend.
MomSense
Beautiful garden!!
I have quite a few peonies surrounded by tall grass! Yikes, I have a lot of yardwork to do.
bjacques
Wettest June in NL (Amsterdam especially) in several years. The upside is I’m looking after a friend’s garden and don’t have to worry about watering it for now. I’ve pulled weeds and cleared away some debris to toss later. There’s no space for a compost heap, which would attract rats anyhow.
jlowe
Up in the Inland Northwest, just over the border from northwestern
GileadIdaho, a region forgotten by Nick Kristof because, for old Nick and the on-the-wrong-side-of-history NYT, the Washington state border ends somewhere west of Issaquah, we are starting to harvest lettuce for salads and sandwiches. Looking forward to tomatoes and potatoes soon. Lavenders are starting to flower. Bugloss is flowering, attracting the pollinators. Shame it’s regulated as a noxious weed under the agricultural code (makes alfalfa moldy if they are baled together, which produce toxins that are poisonous to livestock, so it gets sprayed by the growers). Our county is under quarantine to control bugloss but the bees love it and I’m in town anyway.kalakal
Finally got some much needed rain here in West Florida. Everything is looking a lot happier. Always happy to see the Curcumas reemerging from their winter nap
Scout211
What a difference a month makes. We had a heat dome and heat wave after I took those pics and unfortunately, all the salad greens bolted. I pulled them and fed them to our neighbor’s goats. But I still have three 1-gallon bags of greens in the fridge so we are still enjoying them. I’ll plant another crop of greens this fall.
Currently, the garden is producing squash and cucumbers and the melons and tomatoes are looking good but not yet ready to harvest. I’m out there daily picking blueberries though, with so many still on the bushes needing to be picked.
Our mimosa trees are blooming now. I just love those fluffy flowers. And our one jacaranda tree has its deep purple flowers blooming right now, too. Otherwise, everything that is not on drip lines is dry and brittle and we are already into fire season here.
StringOnAStick
We had a prediction of 34 last night, and based on prior experience I decided that was too close for comfort and covered all my veggies, berries and baby fruit trees (bare roots planted this year). Good thing, because it got to 30 and there’s two more nights of this on tap.
My tomatoes are huge and blooming, plus the green beans are nearly to the top of their trellis, no way I’m not protecting all that! The pie cherry is the only fruit tree I’ve seen that survived the other frosts we had when they were blooming, but ours is short and I covered it each time then so it’s loaded with fruit. Thankfully I have a 14′ by 14′ sheet of Agribon so it’s covered and has chunks of old climbing ropes thrown over the top in case the wind picks up again
pieceofpeace
@jlowe: Grew up on Idaho side, miss some of it, as it used to be, anyway….
Good BJ name-play!
pieceofpeace
Good photos! Waiting for tomatoes to make my days…..
kindness
Modesto here. I can only grow lettuce as a winter vegetable. We’re already at summer phasing out here in the Valley.
Tehanu
We lived in the Central Valley of California when I was a kid and almost the first thing I think of whenever it’s mentioned is oleander, because the bushes lined the highway for hundreds of miles. Always loved them. Here in L.A. we used to live in a house with an apricot tree and they were scrumptious, I never find such good ones in the store. Yours look divine.