Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Home & Garden

Irrigation Glitch

irrigation.jpgAs if it weren’t already a busy-ass week for us, the landscape irrigation system controller decided to go belly-up on us. I called out the landscape guys who showed up and removed the defective controller. They are supposed to bring back a replacement tomorrow.

Meanwhile, if we want our landscape to be watered, manual irrigation is in order. The guys from the landscape contractor showed me a couple of controls in the box with the electrical valves where I could manually open the water lines to the irrigation system.

I waited until the sun is low in the western sky to start the flow so the sun won’t evaporate the water before it has a chance to sink in. We had the controller set up to water twice a day, once before sunup and once after sundown. I’m just going to run the water for a couple of hours and turn it off for the rest of the evening. I hope the guys show up in the morning and restore things back to normal. Click on the image to enlarge.

01 Aug 2013 by Arizona Home & Garden Retirement

My Pretty Little Desert House

My Pretty Little Desert House

Today was another beautiful summer day in our town. A few puffy white clouds floating by, mostly blue skies and warm (but not too warm – 104°). It always makes me so happy to walk up the driveway to my pretty little desert house. We love this place. Click on the image to enlarge.

28 Jul 2013 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography Retirement

Prickly Pear Fruit

Prickly Pear Fruit

We have several varieties of prickly pear cacti growing in the neighborhood, but none on our property. I have imported several cuttings which are just about ready to transplant from their pots into the ground west of the house. We hope to form a boundary along the west property line consisting of several varieties which we have in pots.

The cactus in the photograph is growing near old downtown Wickenburg. The pears on this cactus look just about ready to harvest. Someday, I hope to harvest our own pears and experiment with making jellies, syrups and whatever else we might think of. Click on the image to enlarge.

23 Jul 2013 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography

Another Beautiful Cereus Flower


We bought this cereus a couple of years ago at the garden shop. When we got it, it needed re-potting, so I put it in this three gallon container. It was getting little lobes on the sides and needed the room. The bad thing is that I lost the name of this variety of cereus (I think it’s a cereus).

Well, in timing with the monsoons and the other cereus “queen” flowers, one of the flowers on this cactus opened early this morning. It’s very beautiful and it has a light fragrance – almost lemony.

The image above is one of five in a slideshow. Click the image to advance to the next frame.

21 Jul 2013 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Queen of the Night Opening

Queen of the Night

The first of the three “Queen of the Night” flowers opened tonight. We went up the little hill where the cereus cactus is growing and took several images of this beautiful flower. There are two more buds that should open in the next day or so. Looks great, smells great! Click on the image to enlarge.

UPDATE (7/20/13): The other two cereus flowers opened last night. I captured this image of the two open flowers and the remnants of the frower from the night before. Click on the image to enlarge.

Two More Flowers

18 Jul 2013 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Cereus Flower Update

Cereus Flower Stalks

After a couple of days having monsoon weather and showers, I noticed that one of my little cacti had developed a couple of flower stalks. That made me think of the “Queen of the night” cereus cactus on the hill above the little wash. Upon inspecting the cactus today, we noticed a great deal of growth on the flower stalks. A while back, we feared that they might have gone dormant, but thought that the monsoons might have something to offer for flower growth. Now, it looks like we might have been right. We will be checking after dark every night from now until they open up.

Image above: Composite view of the three flower stalks today. Click on the image to enlarge.

17 Jul 2013 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Categories

Archives