Garden Update

Truly, Robin Mather has got me back on track. Even though she didn’t do a lot of gardening in The Feast Nearby, she did utilize, preserve, and “put-up” lots of garden fresh bounty.  (Please see my last post to clarify.)

I decided it was time for a garden update.

It has been soggy and rainy here, but in between spring showers, we were able to plant some tomatoes last weekend.   (I still have about a half dozen more in the green house to put out as soon as they are big enough.)

(Notice the clump of garlic.  In our garden, if a plant comes up on its own and survives….it stays.)

We were also able to reclaim what was once a beautiful rose garden but had been taken over by native bermuda grass.  After much digging up, we have decided to turn it into a decorative and functional herb garden with many different types of thyme, oregano, marjoram and sage (with a few onions thrown in for good measure—they make great dividers.)  Hope to post more about this experiment later.

It has been a goal of ours for a long time to take some of our dead Thujas and turn them into trellises for beans, cucumbers and other vining plants.  We accomplished this last weekend as well.

I am sure our neighbors think we are crazy, but we have birdhouse gourds and dipper gourds planted around each trunk.   (I even planted some Corsican gourds around one of the trees that we have yet to remove.)

The strawberries are blooming and have some little green berries set on.

Our fruit trees are loaded with emerging baby fruit.

Honey Crisp Apple Tree

White Haven Peach Tree

We have lots of cherries set on as well and our apricot tree has four or five large fruits on it.  They, however, did not allow me to take pictures of them.  I gave up trying to get a clear shot.  It is the first season for both, so I don’t know how much fruit we will allow to stay on the them.

Our grapes have busted out, too.

We recently bought two more Cynthiana vines (from Chateau aux Arc Winery) to add to our vineyard.  (Please note that I am a bit presumptuous when I call our grape vines a vineyard.)

Our Yellow Rose of Texas is blooming away.  This is a true heirloom rose that has been passed down in the family from my great grandmother’s “home place.”   I originally got my start from a second cousin and had to re-gift another start back to her this spring after her rose died out.

When the weather cooperates, my favorite place to write is on the patio.   I love to listen to the water trickle from our water garden.   This spring, the most spectacular calla lillies have sprung up out of the middle of our bog.

As I am typing on the patio about our recent garden exploits, the aroma of lilacs is wafting by and an angry mother cardinal is scolding me.

I think she is rethinking building her next in the climbing iceberg rose that is trellised behind this lilac (which is just steps away from our back door).  I hope she soon realizes we mean her no harm.  (I must have a stern talk with Eliot the Cat and tell her the cardinal’s nest is off limits.)