We've been learning all kinds of new skills since we became homeowners almost two years ago (i.e. how to fix a toilet that is spewing water across the bathroom, regrouting and some basic tile work, replacing broken screen doors, wallpaper removal and painting, lawn maintenance, replacing faucets, swamp cooler repair...). In the process I have been surprised to discover that I really love gardening. Who knew? I've never been a gardener before, but there is something so relaxing about working outsides with my hands, watching things grow, and being able to just go outside and picking some fresh spinach leaves, basil, and green onions for dinner that night. I'm a big fan of being able to eat the rewards of my labors.
To date the final inventory in my garden is: five stalks of corn that somehow escaped our quail (there used to be three rows, but the quail dug up and ate the kernels before they even sprouted--I actually caught them in the act), zucchini, straight-neck yellow squash, spaghetti squash, six kinds of tomato (would have been seven but my little purple Russian tomato plant was eaten), broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, cilantro, basil, one Chervena Chuska pepper plant, carrots, onions, cantaloupe, watermelon, two kinds of pumpkin, fifteen strawberry plants, a new raspberry bush that I’m hoping will spread by next year, one big branch of our neighbor’s apple tree that is in our yard so we're welcome to the apples, and then my jungle of blackberry bushes and brambles and my pear tree is completely loaded with pears. Pretty impressive, eh? OK, maybe not for someone who actually knows anything about gardening, but this is all new to me and right now I fall in to the category of a "let's stick it in the ground, water it, and hope it grows" kind of gardener. Here are a few pictures:
My five sad little stalks of corn (I planted some zucchini in that spot when I thought all the corn had been eaten):
Blackberries:
Raspberries:
Corner spot:
Here's my little pumpkin patch (yes, the space around it is big--I know pumpkins really spread):
Broccoli and tomatoes:
OK, I'll stop now before I get too carried away (I took 37 pictures outside this morning). You get the idea. Needless to say, everyone is invited to come have salsa, zucchini bread, and pumpkin cookies at my house this fall. Oh, and if you need me, I'll be outside gardening.
2 comments:
We've become gardeners too and love it--except this year we have a ton of weeds for some reason! Our corn is spotty too and think birds we bothering us. Sometimes birds aren't so lovely to have around. ;)
And I used to think quail were cute....I'm also battling snails this year. Only Adriana would find redeeming value in a snail. She finds them and builds elaborate "homes" for them, and then she finds other snail "friends" so they won't be lonely. Girls are certainly different from boys. When the boys next door find snails near their garden, they throw them against the shed to hear them "crunch." Ugggh.
Post a Comment