Grow Baby Grow

Last year we planted a garden. It was a decent size and produced well for our knowledge and skills. This year we have educated ourselves and expanded our garden, by more then 5 times we had it last year. I couldn't get a full picture of it either, I'm going to try climbing on a ladder, to get a full view of it, so we will see. We planted a ton of things. It is going to be so good if everything grows. I'm so excited. This has really been Lorie's and I project, with Adam offering advice and labor every once in a while. We planted tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, hot peppers, banana peppers, basil, green onions, yellow onions, cilantro, parsley, chives, eggplant, bush beans, pinto beans, mint, strawberries and a few other things that I can't think of right now. Lorie, help me out and tell me what I'm missing :) Lorie saw an idea of turning an old tire inside out and we got Adam to cut the tire and turn it inside out. We spray painted them and used them to plant some beans. We planted the peas and cucumbers along the fence and have 3 rows of tomatoes. Can't wait to can and freeze tomatoes and stop buying them at the store!! I also planted 4 bushes of blackberries along one side of the property, I so can't wait for those to be ready to harvest. Yum, jelly, ice cream, and frozen berries, so excited!!! Here are a few pictures, I'll explain what each one is so you know what you are looking at.

This is the back part of the garden. The back row is the peas and cucumbers along the fence. The small timbered row is our strawberries. Then tomatoes and some yellow onions. The stepping stones are a tree that we lost during Ike that Adam cut up to use as stepping stones.

This is a close-up of our yellow onions. See how they are already doing good, it's been a month since we planted. They aren't very big underneath, but we can use the top as green onions while they keep growing.

This is some of the peas growing on the fence. Almost all of them have grown up enough to grab onto the fence to start climbing.

This is the front area of the garden, looking at this picture, on the left, are 3 more rows of veggies, and on the right are the tires with the bush beans and a few tomato plants we have left over.

This is the tire with pinto beans growing. They are doing awesome. Please excuse the white dust, it's seven dust. We've been fighting some stubborn ants and hopefully this will be the end of them. They've gone from the bed to the tire and hopefully this is it.

Landscaping 101

We've been here for almost 6 years and have never done anything more to our yard besides the small flower beds up by the front of our house. This year, we really wanted to add more to our yard area and give the driveway some "curb appeal". So we've been steady adding to the yard. We have a while to go, but it all costs money, so we've been adding a little every payday. I love the things around the tree, can't wait for the flowers to grow!! So here are a few pictures of what we've been working on.

Our hanging jalapeno plant on the porch!

The small flower bed around a few trees. I have a long way to go with that, but I'm working on it!

Our flower bed that I've planted every year, this year it's doing awesome, we blocked off the porch so the dog can't climb that way and it has protected the bed. I should have a rose in a week or so!

Our curb appeal lol! Adam came up with the idea to make the flower bed around the fence, we did it on both sides, but I couldn't get a good picture, had to be too far out, but both sides are the same. We have two solar powered spot lights that illuminate our names at night, it's awesome!

Our small fountain/fish tank. Kameron wanted some fish to go it in like he has seen at the garden center at Wal-Mart so I let him pick out two goldfish and they are swimming around in there.

I added pictures of the fruit trees that we planted to that original post!

Kort and Morgan 3-6-09

Friday March 6, 2009. The day that Adam's brother tied the knot. Adam was the best man and Kameron was the ring bearer. They had to be at the place at 12:30 that afternoon and we followed them around 3:30 for family pictures. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. Kort even sang a song to Morgan during the ceremony. After the ceremony, we headed back indoors for the reception and dinner. It had a good turn-out! Here are a few pictures.

Oranges, Lemons and Figs, Oh My

So this morning I was awakened by my grandma calling me to tell me that the local garden guy for the Houston area was going to be at a garden center near our house. So we decided to head over because Adam was listening and they were going to have fruit trees for twenty bucks. We get there and start looking around. Only the lemon and lime trees were twenty, the rest varied in price. We talked to a guy that worked there and he was so helpful. We ended up buying an avocado tree, a lemon tree, a fig tree and an orange tree. We also bought the mix that is needed when you plant citrus trees. It is 2 pots of trees for one bag, so we had to get two of those. All in all, it was a fun trip and is going to be awesome when the fruits grow. We also stopped by Wal-Mart to get two more blackberry bushes. We want to have plenty to freeze, make into jelly and have to eat. I loved having blackberries when I was younger, and I think that they kiddos are going to love em too. Adam and I walked the yard and figured out the best place for them. We wanted to make sure that they would be good there for a long time, since trees are pretty permanent lol. We should have fruit by this fall. They said that the first crop might not be more then a few fruits, but that it would make some. We also learned about how to fertilize it and what they need. I'm so excited to get em planted. We are going to plant them tomorrow!! I'll post pictures when we get them into the ground!! We are also going to get a pear tree. We want some fruit around in case anything happens and because having fresh fruit will be awesome!!

This is our lemon tree, it is up front by the drivewayish area. It is already starting to get purple blooms so I hope that it means that lemons will be coming soon. Fresh lemonade, yummy!

This is the orange tree, it is along the side of the property opposite of the blackberry bushes. We are going to be buying another one soon, because our kiddos love oranges and they are oh so good.

This is the fig tree. Figs are good, but the tree isn't so pretty lol. It is about 50 feet from the orange tree, towards the trees on our property. It is starting to bloom too, so good thoughts, good thoughts!!

This is the avocado tree. It is at the edge almost of the house. It's leaves are droopy, and I'm not sure why, but we are watching it closely so everything should be okay.