Citrus Trees

Here is a look at my citrus trees, all gifts last spring from my husband's kind parents. 

Here is the lime tree.  I was worried it wouldn't make it after two frosts that made it drop a lot of leaves, but it has pulled through with flying colors! 

 It produced a few limes last year, despite it's small size.  No buds yet, but it did have a visitor today.

Here is my little loquat tree.  I had never even heard of a loquat before last year.  It's surrounded by some fence pieces for climbing peas , but they're here now to keep my puppy from digging.

 Here are my two orange trees.  One is in the front and the other is in the back right. 

 One has just one bud, but the other is exploding with them!

Veggie Progress

Here is a shot of my first little veggie plot, with my kitty Cleo making an escape from the yard.

From left to right, we have carrots, beans (need to get those climbing poles in!), green onions, and corn (need to thin that row).  I'm hoping to get lots of yummy veggies from this plot but also know there will be a steep learning curve this year.  I'm as bad as my 4-year-old, checking on everything about 15 times a day.

Please ignore the mostly dead herbs in pots. 

I really need to get more dirt for the other two beds!

Cut Flowers, not "Cutting Flowers"

I know I've said before that I love having cut flowers in the house.  Since I cut my roses back a few weeks ago and the bulbs are far from flowering, though, I don't have any cutting flowers in bloom in the garden.  This evening, I went out and just cut a bunch of pretty little flowers, definitely not "cutting flowers."  I doubt they'll last long, but they'll make me happy tomorrow!

Seeds started

Oh my goodness, I just disappeared there for a bit!  I went to visit my parents and did nothing but relax and enjoy a couple inches of snow with the kiddos.  While I was away, my plants were busy growing in the quasi-springtime.  Here are the seeds I started just before leaving.  I thinned them out to the strongest stem per circle.  Another couple of weeks, and these will go outside!  I'm sure that can't happen soon enough for my husband since this is sitting in our master bathroom - it gets good light and has a huge countertop!

My Raised Vegetable Beds

Here are my three beautiful vegetable beds!  I'm almost as proud of them as I am of my children.  Is that wrong?  I used pressure treated 2x6s and 4x4 posts I bought last summer for a project I never even started.  Some of the boards were pretty warped, but whatevs.  Good enough for flower beds. 

I totally use my kids' wagon to haul 40 lb bags of dirt from the driveway to my back yard.  Someday I'll buy a yard cart or wheelbarrow or something.  The bed on the left is ready (except I added 3 more bags of soil this afternoon).  I made the posts a few inches deeper than the 2x6s so I could set them in the ground a bit.  The two beds on the right haven't been set in yet. 

3 4/8' beds may seem a bit excessive for my first real veggie garden, but my boys helped me pick out seeds, and they include ground-gobblers like corn, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  Yeah.  We'll see how that goes.

Here you can see how little my new-suburban-development backyard is, although my pie-shaped lot gives me a big side yard on the other side, which is mostly full of a swingset and sandbox.  That corner of a wall on the left is part of my house.  I'm all about making the most of the yard you've got... and being grateful there's no more of it to mow and water.

Here is my little rose garden.  I have big plans for enlargeing it, of course.  :-)  Doesn't everyone have a rose garden right next to their A/C unit?  The little plant on the left is a Milkweed, loved by Monarchs.  I'm waiting for it to grow a bit more before planting it in the ground.  As for the roses, I pruned them back for spring except the Don Juan on the left.

How could I hack off these two glorious buds??  I'll prune it all after they open enough to cut and put in a vase.

Vegetable Garden planning

Ok.  Today's obsession is preparing for my vegetable garden.  I made a half-a... attempt last spring with my boys, planting seeds for peas and carrots in our sandy beach of a backyard, which were quickly gobbled up by some sort of critter. 

This spring, I'm gonna be on my game! 

I've been studying this textbook of an article on the University of Florida website.  Since our soil in the site of my veggie garden is pretty much sand, I'm planning to work in lots of garden soil from a garden center.  I originally planned to make raised beds with just garden soil, but I think I may go to route of improving the soil I have. 

I made a big Excel chart of all the vegetables I may someday like to grow, using the helpful charts in the article.  I'm excited to go cut some 2x4s and outline my beds!

This article also reminded me I need to get moving on making a compost bin.

Cut Flowers

My 4-year-old took this photo this morning (2-year-old's arm is trying to find a snack in the pantry at right) because, well, I don't know why.  He just wanted to take a picture. 

This photo shows the reason I really started trying to garden.  I LOVE having flowers in the house.  They make me happy when I look at them, and I know I keep the kitchen cleaner when they are around.  I'd quickly go broke buying all the cut flowers I want, though, so I figured I could grow them.  I'm not there yet, getting all the flowers I want from my garden - these beauties are courtesy of the grocery store - but I'm getting there!  I had a pretty constant stream of roses in the house over the summer, and I've learned that bleeding hearts last fairly well as cut flowers.  This summer, I plan to have a house full of cut flowers!  A girl can dream.