Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My Green Thumb

Disclaimer: For whatever reason, my blog is not cooperating with me and letting me move the pictures around. In the interest of keeping my sanity, the pictures are just a jumbled mess (kind of like my garden).

Okay, I guess realistically this should be titled "Dave's Green Thumb" since he has done the majority of the labor. I helped pick out the plants and am involved with simple upkeep, namely, weeding, picking and eating the food. But wanted to share and document what we have growing in our garden this year. It's so much fun to see how everything grows!

Check out this cantaloupe - it's huge!

Lots of squash growing!




This bed looks a little unorganized, but the watermelon and cantaloupe vines grow like crazy and kind of go wherever they want. We also have squash, peppers, basil, and lavender.



Here's my basil. This started out as a small plant that I got from Lowe's and has grown into this giant monster. It also keeps trying to flower so I am contstantly out there picking flowers off. I have been eating fresh caprese salads and sandwiches (tomatoes, mozarella, basil) and have made several batches of pesto with the basil.



Dave built these beds early this spring. After starting seeds in a smaller box he transplanted them. Unfortunately, south Texas winds can do a number on small plants and several things - like green peppers - didn't quite make it. Those are tomatoes on the right, all grown from seeds, and they have done awesome! We have beefsteak, roma, and cherry tomatoes that I have been picking like crazy. Unfortunately, nobody but me eats the tomatoes, so I have also been giving them away to family and friends.





We also have lime, kumquat, satsuma, and grapefruit trees, a few strawberry plants, and a pineapple guava tree. Last year we had lots of flowers on the guava, but none of the fruit stayed on. This year we had two fruits growing. One fell off this weekend, but there is one still hanging on. I really hope it gets ripe because a fresh picked guava off the tree is absolutely amazing!! (My cross country team used to pick and eat them when we ran through the botanical gardens in Hawaii - haven't found fresh ones anywhere else). That's about it for the garden. I'm hoping to be eating fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the summer, but I'm afraid this hot weather and lack of rain might put a damper on their growth.

2 comments:

Amber said...

Oh! I am so impressed with all that you have going there. I love your basil - I just can't get it going up here. I just bought some more pepper plants to see if I could get them to grow.

I love being able to pick all the fruit and vegetables straight out of the backyard! Great job with your garden.

Carrie said...

Great job! I am hoping in the next couple years to get a garden going here and I will be picking everyones brains...we have a TON of big tree roots and I just don't know where to start!
Wish I lived closer so I could raid everyone's gardens!