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Pictures & More Pictures

Here are some pictures, just to update everyone on what’s going on here on the mountain.

In the garden, the garden is growing very well, the peas have run their course and are looking a bit tattered, I left the remaining peas on the vines to dry and I will plant those for a fall crop. Here is a picture of most of the garden.
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These are the broccoli, they are just now putting on heads (the GOOD part!), I planted more but they haven’t come up yet.
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The lettuce is going crazy, these are over a foot tall, I pick ONE plant, I break it off a couple of inches from the ground and that is enough for 2 individual salads. It’s hard to see, but there are a few okra plants peeking through, they are the ones with the purple stems. You can also see bush beans in the background.
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The summer squash is starting to do something, finally! But it seems that I may have more than I can eat…
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These are the cutest watermelons I have ever seen! They are small, individual sized watermelons, since we had limited space, I trained them up a trellis, so I had to support the fruit.
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We have been having lots of rain, the creek is running here.
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This is the creek and in the background you can see a volcanic plug, I understand that we live in a caldera, fortunately the volcanic activity ceased a L O N G time ago…
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One of the interesting cacti that grows around here.
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A tiny, tiny wildflower.
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I was told that there is a mountain orchid growing around here, I have tried to find out more info on them, I thought I had found them only to learn that it was not the orchid, I asked what it looked like and was told, I would know it when I saw it, it’s very unique looking and will not look like anything else.

Well, I think I found it, this was growing between my neighbor’s property and our property, it’s growing up inside a rock wall (no mortar, it’s dry stacked), I have to assume this is the mountain orchid in question, it’s a rare plant and is supposed to only grow here, anyhoo, here are the images, the plant is about a foot tall, the flowers are the size of a quarter. The entire plant is purple, the stem and the leaves(?) are the same color, the flower is a lighter shade of purple.
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A distant view of the house. The original (main) part is on the right, the bedroom addition is in the middle, and on the left is the deck.
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This is the bedroom addition, this picture was taken on the north facing side of the house, this room has lots of windows and it’s own door to go in and out.
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Hope you enjoyed the pix!

Wretha

10 Responses

  1. The orchid is beautiful. Let me guess — most of the year it looks like there’s nothing growing there, or just one or kind of weedy looking leaves.

  2. Thanks Anna, there is not too much to be envious of, wait until next years garden! ;) yes, we have had lots of rain, though I did have to water the garden today, we do get rain nearly every day, today it was sunny and hot, the plants were complaining, so I water them, hopefully it will rain tomorrow.
    Bummer about your roosters eating your garden, we had to put wire around the entire garden to keep the critters out otherwise our garden would have been reduced to nothing with the deer, rabbit, javelina, donkeys and all the other hungry critters…

    Wretha

  3. Great pictures. I loved the wild orchids. I’m so envious of your garden. My Spring hatched roosters have eaten everything I’ve planted. I’m thinking next year I’ll plant in the chicken pen and turn the chickens loose to scratch under the trees. You’ve had lots of rain too.

  4. Thanks Ozark Mamma, this is my test garden, I have gardened for years, but in a totally different zone, soil conditions and altitude. It’s been fun seeing what grows well and what doesn’t…

    “oldest screamer”???

    Wretha

  5. Wow Wretha…that broccoli looks fantastic. Wish our cauliflower looked half that good (so does the oldest screamer for that matter).

    Beautiful orchid too…I bet that is exactly the one you’ve been hunting for!

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