Open Contest Outdoor Garden Show—2025 BYC Summer Fair

[D1N0]

I'm going to do a picture of a chocolate sunflower when it sprout (if it grows and blooms in time)

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

I wasn’t going to enter, but lookit lookit how my squash is doing!

*coughs*

Entry #1:

Squash bloom. It was a seed library seed, and the packet said it was ‘2000 Year Old Squash’ (a little digging brought up the name ‘Gete Okosomin’) donated by the local indigenous museum. Of the five or so I tried to sprout this is the only one that made it, and it nearly died during the month of cool weather after it went into the ground - but it made a comeback with a little babying while all the other big viney seedlings (melons, cucumbers) had already died outright and had to be replaced.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Entry #2 more rall garden phlox

I got my first phlox plants (the pink ones in my last entry) from walmart on a whim just to have something to plant that would bloom after the irises were done. I was not expecting to like them as much as I do, so I bought these as mail order roots a year or two later to add to my collection. It was supposed to be a pastel mix, but the 3/5 roots that sprouted are all this lovely cream/pink color. I was looking for a little more variety when I bought them, but I am not at all disappointed with what I got.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I’ve always wanted to grow this. Is it hard to get going?

Not particularly. These came as started plants from walmart, but I've also grown them from root stock. They're not super impressive the first few years, but mine have come back thicker each year. I watered daily the first year, but every year after they've bloomed beautifully with no extra water from me. I'm in USDA zone 5, slipping into 6 (we've been zoned 5b all my life but recent years my zipcode comes up as zone 6a, "thanks" climate change)

I love perennials because they're so little work in the long run. But it's so hard to be patient while they're becoming established!

 

[K0k0shka]

Here’s my entry #1, flower category - an explosion of peony:

This is my 3-year-old Alexander Fleming peony, putting on the lushest show and biggest blooms I’ve ever seen. They were as big as melons! Got completely destroyed by the first rain, but they were glorious while they lasted…

 

[alinas2010]

Entry #3:

Radishes I harvested:

 

[Rethia]

Cherry tomatoes after a rainstorm

 

[Rethia]

Potato blossoms

 

[Rethia]

Mammoth sunflowers in the "plant forest".

 

[Rethia]

Trellised watermelon. I don't remember what variety this was this year. Maybe Allsweet.