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enjoying the journey

All the stars aligned perfectly on Friday morning and I was able to spend a significant amount of time in the garden. I’ve been a little down about my garden this year. We’ve not had much rain, we had a crazy freeze a month after our average last frost date and we seem to have pill bug infestation.

But actually getting to leisurely spend time in the garden instead of just running out there to do this one thing or another reassured me that things are not as bad as I thought.

Here’s what I saw…

Our repeater onions are flowering. They look so funny to me but the bees are loving them.

I have a total of 62 tomato plants. I counted. I have 8 empty spots because pill bugs ate the seedlings. I’ve sown some seeds and put wide mouth mason jars over them to create a mini greenhouse.

I planted nasturiums on some of the cages. I can’t wait until they flower.

Our potatoes are doing great. Carl and Benjamin surprised me one afternoon by putting wire around the bed so we can add leaves and hopefully get a larger harvest of pototoes.

Even with the pill bugs munching on the green bean seedlings, the freeze killing about 75% of them and Carl and Benjamin “helping” me by putting the wood chips in the bed instead of the walkway I still picked our first two beans on Friday.

Baby tomatoes growing.

Wildflowers in our backyard. An advantage of not mowing. The bees are enjoying the pollen. One day I want part of our backyard to look like this. Go ahead and click over, you’ll be glad you did.

One of our peach trees is finally budding. It’s late for us here so I don’t think I’ll be forced to choose to remove the first years fruit so that the tree can get better root growth.

Our blueberries are looking good. I need to water them more than I did last summer. Because I’m scared of overwatering I tend to underwater them.

This is our pomegrante tree. See that little red dot in the middle? That’s it’s first bloom ever. It has 4 blooms so far. Hopefully we’ll get a few this year.

More and more mulberries are ripening each day. Esther and Gabriel or Benjamin have a mulberry date daily to pick the black ones.

Our Cara Cara orange tree is full of blooms. I bought this from an elderly man who was selling them on the side of the road. You never really know what your getting when you do that  – time will tell if it really is a Cara Cara.

The Satusma orange tree has little oranges on it. Last year this tree didn’t produce at all so it’s nice to see it come back.

I found some ladybugs on the Cara Cara tree. (Ignore the black on my thumb, I had to spray paint an apron that morning.)

This is what I’m most excited about. One of the pineapple plants is producing a pineapple! I planted this one from a pineapple that I bought at the store in 2011. The other one I planted that year isn’t producing just yet but I check it regularly.
We (as in I) have decided to plant lots of pineapples near the peach and plum trees. So each time I get one from the store I’ll be planting the top in the ground. (millions of pots are just too expensive)
I know some of you are just getting started on your garden for this year and can’t believe that I’d be down about mine but usually by mid july it’s too hot here for anything to really produce. Maybe our crazy weather will continue and we will have a cooler than normal summer.
Are you gardening? Are you enjoying the journey?

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Rene Sharp

Tuesday 21st of May 2013

Very inspiring!!!

Summers Acres

Wednesday 1st of May 2013

It is looking fabulous! That is a lot of tomatoes. It would be great if you shared this with us Thursday at:

http://summersacres.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20HomeAcre%20Hop

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 1st of May 2013

That is a lot of tomatoes. I'm hoping that it will be enough to supply all our canned tomato needs this year. last year I made 42 qts of spaghetti sauce and we were out by Christmas.

I'll try to link up. I need to make a list that I can refer to each week instead of just relying on my brain.

Rob @ Bepas Garden

Tuesday 30th of April 2013

It's interesting to see what's growing in different parts of the country. The pineapple looks pretty amazing!

I am just starting to get the gardens cleaned out and ready to plant in a couple weeks. My garlic, onions and kale that I planted last fall are all coming up nice. The greenhouse is chock full of tomato, lettuce, pepper, kale, cucumber, pumpkin, basil, sunflower, morning glory, zinnia, and petunia seedlings just waiting to go into the ground.

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 1st of May 2013

Thanks Rob. I'm now buying pineapples almost every week so we can plant the tops.

That's great that you have all your transplants ready to go. I wasn't super diligent this year on our transplants and have had to purchase some.

Thanks for stopping by.

Rachel E.

Tuesday 30th of April 2013

Your garden is looking great. I like to see the blossoms grow on the fruit trees.

Our fruit trees are growing which gives me comfort. It reassures me I planted them properly and they are taking to the climate well - so far. The only things not growing are the grape vines, but I think they take longer. I know I won't get fruit from my trees and bushes this year, but just seeing leaves is enough for me.

Rachel E.

Wednesday 1st of May 2013

I'm not sure what kind I bought. Right now the vines look like sticks in the ground. :) I thought they were concord, but I might be way off with that. I just found the paper...it is Concord.

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 1st of May 2013

I love that you have grapes! What kind did you plant? Grapes are on the list for us but pretty far down.