New Flower Bed!

This past weekend, my dad and I put in a new flower bed on the side of my house. He also trimmed up the shrubs and I put mulch in the existing and new flower beds and everything now looks really great. I took a few photos to share with you.

This is one of the flower beds before the shrubs were trimmed up. This is the only before picture I took because I was pretty dirty and didn't want to get mud all over the camera.

Same flower bed after new mulch and trimmed shrubs.

The other side with new mulch and trimmed shrubs

The new flower bed on the side of the house.

It contains the hydranga that I planted last year

An elephant ear plant that my neighbor Jeff gave me

Some day lilies

A new hydrangea

And a new shrub - can't rememeber what kind.

If you are wondering why the bed went crooked here,

it's because this is where I keep my garbage can and it needed a little extra space.

And, just for you lovers of The Tide, here are a couple of photos of her looking out the glass door,

which is one of her favorite things to do:

Garden Update

The garden is growing like crazy! Tony’s garden is growing fast too, or so I hear. I haven’t seen it since the first of June and would like to go over and take a look for myself.

Juliet Hybrid

I’ve picked a few of the sweet 100 tomatoes, which are the really small ones – like cherry tomatoes; and I’ve also picked one of the Juliet hybrids, which are a little bigger. One of the large tomatoes was almost ready for picking when an animal started eating it. I think the problem is squirrels and I’ve got to get some netting to put around the plants. I had this problem last year too and thought it was a rabbit, but now I think it is squirrels.

Sweet 100s

Saturday when I looked out the door, I noticed what I thought was a green tomato laying beside the garden in the yard. Sure enough, when I walked out there, it was a green tomato with teeth marks in it. I guess a squirrel picked it off the vine and started to take it off, only to abandon it in the yard. I imagine it was a bit too big for the squirrel. Yesterday when I got home from work, I looked out and two tomatoes were lying by the fence. These squirrels are getting really brave, I’ll tell ya. So, one of the projects for this weekend is to buy some netting so that I may be able to enjoy at least one tomato before the season’s out.

Tomato - captured and attacked by a squirrel

I’ve also already picked a jalapeño and used it in some salsa I made this past weekend. There’s a bell pepper that will soon be ready and a couple of more jalapeños will soon be ready as well.

So, that’s the garden update for today and of course, here are a few more photos of The Tide, just for Candy.

Garden Update

We’ve reached another Friday and today I’ve got some garden pictures to share with you. My garden is growing like crazy this year. I was talking with my neighbor Jeff the other day and he said his garden was growing like crazy too. I’m not sure if it’s the humidity or the fact that we are getting rain almost every night or what the deal is, but my tomato plants are already above the cages; and the garden was planted less than a month ago!

Tony’s garden is growing fast as well. I saw it on Memorial Day but didn’t take my camera so I don’t have any photos to share. We are really anxious to see how the pumpkins turn out.

Here are some photos of my little garden:

The garden on May 25

The garden on May 31

May 25

Little tomatoes coming in

More tomatoes

Tony decided he wanted to point at the blooms

And then he wanted to hold one

This is a juliet hybrid tomato - very good!

Tony's probably pondering why I haven't pulled the weeds out of the spot where the peppers are planted.

Last year I planted this Hydrangea- it only has one bloom.

Closer look at the lone bloom

My neighbor Jeff gave me this plant last year.

I'm not sure what it is.

This dog, Dudley, moved in next door. He likes to bark!

Here are some photos of The Tide (just for you, Candy!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Garden: Version 2010

Finally! The garden is planted! Since March I have wanted the small plot of land known as my garden to be tilled up and ready for planting. Unfortunately, I had trouble procuring a tiller to do the job. A few weeks ago, Tony’s uncle and dad went halves on a small tiller and Tony borrowed it this past Friday for 20 minutes of tilling on Saturday morning. (My garden is super small.)

Around 8:30, I headed outside and started working on the yard. I dug up an old shrub, did the weed eating, mowed the lawn, trimmed some erratic greenery, and scooted a 70-pound door to the road. Yes, scooted, that old door was heavy and I could not lift it on my own. It probably weighed more than 70 pounds. I don’t really know. At any rate, it was picked up by some scavengers and who knows where it is now?

Finally around 11:00 or 11:30 (I wasn’t wearing a watch) Tony came over with the tiller to loosen the earth that is known as my garden. Believe it or not, I’d never really seen a tiller in action. It was rather fascinating. It sure has a lot of power. There were a couple of times when Tony first started using it that it almost took of with him; luckily he was able to hold on for dear life and not injure himself. I thought about asking for a turn but didn’t want to make a fool of myself. So, I left the tilling to the men folk.

Tony the Tiller

No, I did not order a mattress, the guy that bought one of the house behind me did.

After my little patch of soil was tilled up, Tony decided we needed to till another row on the other side of what was once the outhouse. Yes, the outhouse. In the pictures, it’s the large concrete squarer. Under that upside down fire pit is what was once the toilet – now concreted in. So, Tony tilled up another row while I planted the tomatoes. The garden consists only of tomatoes and peppers. Last year it also contained squash and cucumbers and okra. The squash was invaded by some disease and to be pulled up and the cucumbers ended up drying up (although I did get a few good ones before that happened), and I never ate any of the okra because by the time it came in, the garden had lost its luster in my eye – and it was HOT! So, this year, we’ve only got tomatoes and peppers. I planted three better boys, two sweet 100s and one Juliet hybrid. For the peppers there are two green bells (one was supposed to be banana, but was in the wrong case at Lowe’s) and one jalapeño. I may go back to Lowe’s and get a banana because I like those and my peppers did really great last year.

Freshly tilled earth

Tomato Plants

Peppers

So, the garden, while not very exciting to some, is indeed exciting to me. I love to watch it grow and I love eating the tomatoes that it produces. Maybe when I get braver (next year?) I can plant some other items and see how they do. In the meantime, this is all there is. I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Until then… happy gardening!

The Tide enjoyed some outside time as well

The Culprit

Well, folks, I think I found the garden thief. Have a look.

It would appear as though this little rabbit is the one who has been eating my tomatoes. Even the netting won't keep it out. I haven't seen it for a couple of days - ever since I snapped this photo. Maybe it's camera shy and won't come back. Here's to hoping.

Pecan Trees

A week or so ago, I was pulling weeds out of the flower beds in the front of my house. As I pulled, I would just toss the weeds into the yard because I was going to mow the yard and planned to run over them with the mower. A few of the weeds seemed to be especially hard to pull u, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. Then, I took a closer look, only to discover that they were actually pecan tree saplings. How exciting! If you read the post from a few months ago about the pecans I was picking out of my yard, then you will know that my neighbors had a pecan tree that was very fruitful this year. Apparently a few of the pecans found their way into the flower beds and started sprouting. I pulled up five trees, and replanted three of them in pots. I hope that they will continue to grow and as they get bigger I will move them to bigger pots and then eventually plant them somewhere permanently.

Garden Update - Bird Attack!

Are you tired of hearing about the garden yet? I hope not, because that’s about all I have to write about these days. Friday at work, I was warned by my dear friend Gary McDonald that I should put some netting around my tomatoes because the birds would eat them. Sure enough when I got home, there was a half eaten tomato in the garden. I went to Lowe’s on Saturday and picked up some netting and put it around the tomatoes and other vegetables, but not before the birds destroyed two more tomatoes. I still have about 30 tomatoes growing away, I just hope the netting will keep those pesky birds out. Are you tired of hearing about the garden yet? I hope not, because that’s about all I have to write about these days. Friday at work, I was warned by my dear friend Gary McDonald that I should put some netting around my tomatoes because the birds would eat them. Sure enough when I got home, there was a half eaten tomato in the garden. I went to Lowe’s on Saturday and picked up some netting and put it around the tomatoes and other vegetables, but not before the birds destroyed two more tomatoes. I still have about 30 tomatoes growing away, I just hope the netting will keep those pesky birds out.

Tomato attacked by a pesky bird!

Another cucumber

The Tide enjoying some time outside

June 24 Garden Update

So, I went out to the garden yesterday afternoon, as I do everyday, and discovered that my squash is basically toast. I’m not sure what exactly happened. A few days ago it was doing just fine. Then over the weekend, it looked as though it was dying, and I have been watering it the same amount as everything else. I think it was either a rabbit or a fungus. I’m not sure which. The roots seemed to be rotting but also all the fruit was disappearing. So, it may be a combination of the two. Who knows for sure? So, the majority of the squash got pulled up yesterday, which really made me sad because I was looking forward to eating it. But, I have to keep in mind that this is an experimental year and anything that actually does well is a success! Here are a couple of photos of the squash.

Along the lines of success, I have picked three jalapeños and two cucumbers. I gave the jalapeños to my aunt because there was nothing I needed them for at the moment. I honestly don’t know why I even planted peppers because I don’t really eat them. Like I said this is the experimental year. The cucumbers I haven’t tried yet. Hopefully they will taste okay. I also have a tomato that is turning red. It’s one of the newer ones and I’m not sure why it decided to turn red before all the others. Gardening is a mystery. But, overall I have almost 30 tomatoes coming in which is very exciting! Also, the banana peppers are coming along quite nicely. Here are some photos taken last week and yesterday, June 23.

A cucumber - June 15

Another cucumber - June 15



The two cucumbers pictured above - June 23

A tomato turning red!

Banana Peppers

Jalapeño picked from the garden.