There's Good News and Bad News

I've not done a great job this summer photo journaling my garden. Sometimes life happens and blogging is on the lower end of the totem pole. So when I had a few minutes this past weekend, I thought I'd snap these quick photos to share with you.

I have had an abundance of bell peppers and hot banana peppers this summer. And my bushes are still yielding in spite of the lingering heat and my lack of attention.

Earlier in the year, I had the bright idea to plant a pumpkin vine to have a pumpkin-lined front porch for the cost of a pack of seeds. This is what I had in mind:

My pumpkin vine was lush and green and spread like wildfire. There was blossoms galore. I just knew my pumpkin-lined was going to happen this year. But in spite of the blossoms and tiny, little pumpkins on the vine, there was one sole-survivor:

I don't even know what I'm going to do with it yet. So for now its my lone fall decoration on the kitchen counter.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. What's happening in your garden?

Preserving Fuit the Lazy Way

I've written before about my awesome peach harvest this summer. We ate a bunch, gave tons away and still had peaches for miles. What I decided to do with the overripe ones was slice and core them and freeze them for smoothies. Delish!

The peaches on the tree are long gone but I still have about five quart-size Ziploc bags full of sliced peaches ready for dessert.

Here is my smoothie recipe that I use for my single-serve blender:

• Half fill the cup with milk. We use whole milk, but if you want a skinnier option, feel free to use reduced fat.
• Add frozen fruit. In addition to the peaches, I use strawberries, blueberries, banana, whatever is on hand. The riper the better as this eliminates the need for sugar.
• Blend.

That's it. Can't get any easier, healthier or lazier than that.

Enjoy!

Everything's Just Peachy

Ever have something in your garden that you've fought with for years? I have several of those, one of which is a peach tree I planted in honor of my daughter.

Growing up with the sub-tropics, it was common to have fruit trees in your yard. And they required very little maintenance. Generally, you planted it, left it alone, and after a few years, you were rewarded with fruit. Not the case in SE Alabama. Fruit trees, specifically stone fruit trees are difficult at best. They require constant attention as they are subjected to any number of diseases and pests. I have waited year after year for my peach tree to set fruit, only to be sorely disappointed.

Imagine my surprise last weekend when I finally got around to spraying, that I noticed it was loaded. Actually my first reaction when I spotted the sea of yellow from a distance was, "It's only May! What's wrong with it already?" As I approached, what I thought were discolored leaves were actually baby peaches. Score!

 

 

There are quite a few on the ground already, which I'm hoping is due to birds picking at them. But nothing could dull my excitement. For me, this is the holy grail of gardening...hard work paying off! the DH suggested pruning them for large peaches but I don't have the heart to do it.

 

In other gardening news, my Asiatic lilies are blooming. YAY! Aren't they gorgeous?

 

 



Happy Gardening!

Veggie Garden Finally

Two weekends ago, I finally got my summer veggie garden installed. This year, I planted in one of the beds closest to the fence that was used for compost. There are four tomato plants and two bell pepper plants. Believe me, this will be more than enough for my family, the neighbors and co-workers!

In the other bed next to the fence, you will notice my blueberry bushes. They are loaded this year. I can't wait to enjoy them with the kids. That reminds me, time to get the rubber snakes out to deter the birds!

 

Planting season is my most wonderful time of the year. The weather is beautiful, spending time outside relaxes me and I truly enjoy seeing / tasting / smelling/ touching God's handiwork through my labor.

 

Happy Gardening!

 



More Eye Candy

After my latest blog entry, I realized that I forgot to include a few photos of these beauties. There are habanero peppers on the left, red bell peppers on the right and brown turkey figs below. Yum!

 

Blooms I'm diggin' right how include Mexican heather, marigolds, bougainvillea and queen's heart.

 

My marigolds have done so well, I wish I had planted several pots to display on my porch for fall instead of purchasing very expensive mums.

And this post would not be complete without a shot of my assistant photographer T-Roy.

 

Happy Gardening!

Goings On in my Garden

It's been a good gardening year thus far. This spring, my young forsythia plants bloomed and my amaryllis multiplied. I was tickled pink!

This young viburnum has had some struggles. A few years ago, my husband accidentally scalped it with the weed eater. Undoubtedly it would have been easier to replace it, but sucker that I am [feel free to substitute sucker with stubborn] I wanted to see if pampering it would help it recover. Well it did and to thank me, bloomed beautifully this spring.

We also had wild plums and blueberries!

A friend of mine gave me an old arbor which I plan to use next year to train muscadines. Those are strawberries in the hanging baskets and tomatoes on the vines.

 

Some of my beautiful flowers including day lilies, crape myrtles, sunflowers and spider lilies.

 

My son and I planted a single watermelon seed in 2012 which produced a massive vine with tons of juicy watermelons. We get volunteer vines every year since from the composted seeds. They were not so sweet this year so I don't think I'll keep any other volunteer vines that come up. It was good while it lasted!

In the next few weeks, I hope to purchase and plant pansies in the front around the birdbath and fire hydrant. I'm also thinking about planting a winter garden. We'll see.

Here's hoping you have enjoyed your garden as much as I have mine. :)

Pictoral Update for May

Yo-Yo Weather Side Effects

The recent yo-yo weather has my plants confused. My blackberries and forsythia, which long went dormant, are putting out green, leafy growth. On the other hand, my warm-loving bell peppers and parsley are still going strong. Crazy!

Honey-Do List

Fall is here which means it's time to work on that pesky garden honey-do list. These include:

1. Lowering the pH of my garden from a whopping 8 to a more reasonable 5.5 to accommodate my blueberries (See http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/lowerpH.html)
2. Building a raised bed for my summer garden items e.g. bell peppers, tomatoes
3. Transplant asparagus away from the blueberries, although the alkaline soil has them growing like weeds
4. Transplanting forsythia and one butterfly bush as they are planted too close to the house
5. Expanding garden bed under crape myrtle trees
6. Consider planting a winter garden (yeah right!)

Tonight, the DH, kids and I got started transplanting the asparagus. Not going so well. We're doing a bang-up job on the roots so it will be a long shot if they survive.

Tomorrow it's off to Lowe's to purchase the necessary soil ammendments to achieve #1. Oy!

Progress

I'm so excited to show how well my crinum bed is developing. (To call this a crinum bed really isn't fair. There are stella d'oro lilies, firepower nandina, tulips, daffodils, spider lilies, 3 types of asiatic lilies and Louisiana iris.)

My two-year old asparagus roots have finally sent up shoots. I had serious doubts for a minute (more like a month), when almost overnight, shoots appeared everywhere. As excited as I am, I'm a bit frustrated at the conflicting information I read about them online. Apparently my plants will last anywhere from 5-50 years. Talk about a wide margin of error. Well, I paid $5 for the bag of roots. Asparagus runs about $4/lb at Wal*Mart. If I score at least a pound from my bushes next year, I'll be happy.

As for the fruit trees, if you look closely, there are tiny pomegranates and plums developing. Yay! Just need to focus on keeping the birds away now.

More Progress

Heavy winds last night blew away last year's crinum lily decaying foliage to reveal this year's upcoming foliage. So exciting.

My blueberry bushes are coming back to life:

And I planted bell pepper, chives, dill and moon vine seeds in biodegradeable pots and am storing them in my makeshift greenhouse. Thanks for the tip JG! Of course they come in at night.

For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year.

Watermelon Schwatermelon

I've given up on watermelons. For this year anyway. My southside garden receives too much sun for the poor things. That, and the rainspells caused them all to split on the vine. Same reason tomatoes split - too much heat followed by a deep watering causes the fruit to expand suddenly and split. Thing is, green tomatoes are edible, unripe watermelon is not. I couldn't leave them on the vines to putrefy, so I fed them to the birds. This happened one too many times and I pulled up the darn thing instead of wasting more water on it. Shame really. My vines were really healthy and were loaded with young watermelons.

There's a lesson here though. A north or east location would be more ideal for next year's vine. I'll let you know how that goes.

In other news, rabbits roam my garden at night, devoring sweet potato vines and bell pepper bushes. AND they've even eaten all the leaves off a potted croton plant in front. How dare they!?! At least they're also fertilizing my garden while they're at it. How's that for a mutually symbiotic relationship?

Working Hard in the Hot Alabama Sun

I haven't been blogging lately because, well, I've been gardening. In the hot Alabama sun no less. But I'm really happy with the results.

In addition to my rose beds, I have several other flower beds and an herb & vegetable garden which keep me busy. Thankfully, those are way more successful than my poor rose beds. Anyway, over the last few weeks, I've enjoyed watching pink hydrangea blooms, scores of Stella d' Oro daylilies, Big Time Happy daylilies, red and orange Canna lilies, Hibiscus, Phlox and my new favorite Coreopsis. In addition, I'm keeping our home and my neighbors well stocked with Early Girl, Husky Cherry and Roma tomatoes. I'm even experimenting with watermelon. Geek that I am, I'm photo journaling the growth of my first melon on a weekly basis. Good times.

In other garden news, my mother-in-law, handy go-to-17-year-old helper and I have installed a paver patio and playground area combo, and doubled the size of the vegetable garden. Thank God for sand and roto-tillers. They (especially the patio) are not perfect (or perfectly level) but it's hard to tell.

A few other trees have been planted on our enormous hillside, including flowering Crabapple, English Dogwood and Crape Myrtle. Hard to tell when my husband lets the grass grow too high, as they're only about eight inches tall. But I'm looking forward to photo journaling their progress too. lol!

Next up, a homemade arbor over my new patio area with (insert drum roll please) climbing roses. Maybe I'll have better luck with those.