A few pics

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:24 pm

Way cool telescope/setup! Around here there is so much light that it's hard to see the stars. One more reason to live in the desert!

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:12 am

GermanStar wrote:Here are a couple of better pics for comparison purposes. Your guess is as good as mine.

Here's a shot of a flower bud if this helps with ID. As usual, it never opened.

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:16 am

Harriet wrote:Way cool telescope/setup! Around here there is so much light that it's hard to see the stars. One more reason to live in the desert!

Thanks Harriet! Our night sky isn't as good as I'd like. Looking north and east, we get a nice starry sky, but looking south and west, we get all manner of light pollution from Scottsdale and Phoenix. My town, Fountain Hills, is separated from north Scottsdale by a very small mountain range, the McDowell Mountains.

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:13 am

GermanStar wrote:
Harriet wrote:Way cool telescope/setup! Around here there is so much light that it's hard to see the stars. One more reason to live in the desert!
Thanks Harriet! Our night sky isn't as good as I'd like. Looking north and east, we get a nice starry sky, but looking south and west, we get all manner of light pollution from Scottsdale and Phoenix. My town, Fountain Hills, is separated from north Scottsdale by a very small mountain range, the McDowell Mountains.

hmm. I guess I get turned around in Fountain Hills but it's a neat area. My Cousin used to live there but now she's moved up to Paradise Valley.

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:37 pm

When I was a kid my dad had a telescope and we spent many hours being fascinated by what we could find. It worked great in California (cool nights and out in the country), but when we got back to Florida the heat affected how well we could see as well as light from the nearby town and homes.

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:03 pm

Thanks, I enjoyed your film tremendously.

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:50 pm

More Agaves....

A. 'BlueGlow'
A. ghiesbreghtii
A. potatorum
A. parryi

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:54 pm

The four small Agaves in the pic above can be spotted here...

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:40 pm

nice variety

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 11:00 am

I really like the A. 'blue glow'. I may have to find a place for one of those!

I am struck by the differences between west and east coast gardening (or more specifically desert and jungle gardening). I have given up on empty space because down here weeds will fill that vacuum in minutes. I know you get weeds in every garden, but here weeds that are not controlled by machetes and flame throwers will take over your world. I figure that if that spot is going to grow something, it may as well be a "something" of my choosing!

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 2:16 pm

It was no small job to add the plants shown above to my yard. The job starts with a 6# pickax to try to break up the "soil", once the stones have been cleared from the area. Then dig the hole, add the plant, and back fill. But wait, we aren't done yet. Then I have to use a trenching shovel and/or hoe to dig a trench between the plant and the nearest main irrigation line (assuming I know where that is), then run a spaghetti irrigation line to the plant and fill in the trench. Before I added the plants and other decor, there was nothing there but rocks. All this in 110° heat (because I got a bug up my butt to tackle this mid-summer).

The Blue Glow is gorgeous, I agree, but they're very delicate and absolutely defenseless -- fleshy leaves, thin skin, no prominent spines. This is my third attempt. Of my first two, one became sun-damaged and nibbled (I've since potted it), the other was eaten by a rabbit. Let's hope the third time is the charm.

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 3:58 pm

No doubt about it, gardening/digging is not easy in triple digit weather, not even in Florida sand!

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 10:10 pm

GS,
at least you have "soil". In a lot of my yard I have caliche which=ROCK!. So for me I have to use a pick axe to mine a hole much larger then the plant so that it's roots have somewhere to go.

Harriet,
digging in sand might be worse, since it always seems to want to fill in the hole and you feel like you are getting nowhere!

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 10:20 pm

Caliche everywhere here, that's why I need a pickax. That's nothin', the Argentine Toothpick I stuck in the ground a few days back? Little did I know there was concrete there. Pickax got a good workout that day.

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 10:33 pm

GS,
hahaha, caliche=cement almost..

And yeah. It probably is everywhere. When I planted the Wal-mart bought Opuntia, I had to dig a hole about 3X3 and that was a pain, going through the caliche. It was almost like cement!