Thursday, August 26, 2010

Garden Pictures - August, 2010

Well, it's time for another update on our garden to see the changes and what's growing now. Hope you like the pictures.


This is our nectarine tree now! If you look at my March garden pics of this year, you'll see how much it's fluffed out. We're so proud of her. She produced one nectarine this year, and let me tell you, it was the most amazing, sweetest nectarine I've ever had. Everybody but G took a bite - he wanted the rest of us to enjoy it. I'm looking forward to more next Summer.


For Mother's Day, my family gave me these two avocado trees. The one on the left is a Stewart, and the one right in front here is a Bacon, so we've named it Kevin. Stewart and Kevin will have a long life together here on our plantation. Poor Kevin almost died when we first got him; that's how come he's so much shorter than his brother. On the fence is the grapevine that G planted a few weeks ago.

Here is just an example of our extensive pumpkin patch. They take up two short beds, a long bed, the ground, and stretch beyond the short fence onto our patio. The seeds came from our pumpkins from last Fall. GR's been cultivating her special pumpkins, while the rest of us maintain the rest. They are several varieties.


Here is an example of one of our white ones. We also have gray, orange, and striped.


Here is one of our strawberry plants. We didn't know it when we bought the seeds, but apparently this variety is small and tart. Hmm. I'll pay more attention next time, but they still are pretty.


Okay, there are several things in this picture. In the front right corner is our old artichoke plant. You can see the faded trunk extended several feet. It produced several artichokes for us, and they were all big and delicious. Well, I let an artichoke flower go into full bloom to see what it looked like, and it apparently killed the plant. I was going to pull it when G saw new growth at the bottom. Sure enough, we've got a bunch of new growth at the bottom there, and it's just as big as the plant next to it that we planted several months ago. It's coming back, and it's coming back strong! Behind the artichokes in the same bed are red cabbages and kale. We actually left our old kale plants in the bed to go to seed. I read that in Scotland it grows like a weed, so I wanted to see if it would replant itself. It seems to be doing so. In the bed behind this one, you can see our zucchini plants. We actually planted tomato seeds which had begun to sprout, but then the zukes totally surrounded them and they never took off. We've also grown and eaten sugar snap peas, as well. The children made an attempt at sunflowers, but they didn't do very well. I think I'm going to designate one plant to each bed from now on, except for beds with already established plants. We'll keep trying our hand at this gardening stuff!


This is our almond tree, which we were actually able to harvest a couple of dozen nuts from before the squirrel got them.


A new baby almond tree that SR is growing.


Our ruby red grapefruit tree is still growing...


...as is our mandarin tree.


We got this golden delicious apple tree free from a friend, and you can see white apple blossoms just beginning to grow on it.


SR is growing the pink lady apple tree in the middle, and G is growing the black walnuts on either side of it.

(The pics I posted of our furry family members showed their tags with all our info, so I had to delete them. Next time, I promise.) Hope you liked our photos and that they encourage you to keep on gardening!

15 comments:

  1. Fabulous garden pics. What a bounty! I love that you let the kale reseed itself.

    All the different fruit and nut trees too! So wonderful you can grow all that...as the orchard matures what luxuries you'll be able to harvest...grapes, avocados, almonds, grapefruit...all of it...I think I need to move south.

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  2. Thanks, Rose. I just wish I knew ten years ago that we would still be here, so I could have planted then. Ah, but I can't look backwards, just ahead.

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  3. I love gardening posts! You have such an great variety of fruit and nut trees! Your yard is beautiful, with all the veggies and growth :) I love how your whole family is involved with growing something :)

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  4. wow thats a lot of stuff! that must be so fun to go "harvest" food in your very own backyard.everything looks so lush and green.your kids will really appreciate these memories i think:)

    somehow i missed your last post so im going to go read that one, dont know how that happened.

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  5. What an amazing variety of vegetables and fruits. You're so lucky to live where you can grow avocado trees. AVOCADO TREES! I'd love to grow one of those.

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  6. Thanks, Maggie - I try to make it a family affair, and everyone seems to love it.

    Michelle, it is fun and cost-saving, too!

    I know, Andrea, I KNOW it! I feel very lucky, and when they come in, I'm going to take pictures of me eating them just for you. :-)

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  7. You certainly live in the ideal climate to be able to grow citrus, avocado and apples.

    (G might want to read up on the Black Walnut Tree before picking a site to plant them,i.e., the size they will grow to and whether you can plant underneath).

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  8. beautiful garden! what a great experience for kids, to be able to harvest their own food and see exactly where it comes from!

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  9. You are encouraging me to keep gardening! So far I have only been successful with basil and mint. What would you suggest as the next step for me? Maybe the kale, if it does grow like a weed.

    Too bad that your little strawberries are tart, but I agree, the red fruit looks really good. Cute, even.

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  10. I can't wait till I move and actually have a place to grow some neat fruits and veggies like you. How fun!! Thanks for sharing all the great pictures!

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  11. I love your garden pics, but then again, I always like garden pics :) You have so many great plants! I love that you have an almond tree! How awesome! You must attract tons of squirrels! Good. Keep them in your tree away from any roads or highways :(

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  12. Wonderful pics! I can't imagine living somewhere that you can grow all that beautiful food! (Our summer has been rubbish this year...)
    I look forward to seeing photos of your furry family sans information!

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  13. Hi, Ladies, and thanks for the comments! I've been very busy the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to respond. I'm glad you like my garden pictures, and I will occasionally do this to keep you all up to date on our home-grown goodness!

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  14. I just found your blog through a link on another blog I'm reading - very glad I did! :)

    I loved seeing your garden pictures - you've done a great job! Living in an apartment in the middle of the city, I currently don't have a garden myself; but I visit my parents often and enjoy their huge garden, with a wide variety of trees, flowers, vegetables and berries. I wish we lived a bit farther south and could plant some of the things you have - like a mandarin tree...and grapefruit?! I'm a little jealous. ;)

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