New Satsuma Tree

For Christmas, I got a Satsuma orange tree! Satsumas are hardy in our climate; the fruit is sweet, seedless and easy to peel. T's second grade teacher had one in her yard and shared her extras with us - a real treat. Super excited to grow one ourselves!

Here is the tree, on Christmas morning

And here it is, planted in the side yard!

Maybe this time next year, we'll have some fruit? 

This Week's Veggies

From the farm - carrots, broad beans, red potatoes, cucumbers and one giant zucchini

...and from our garden, golden cherry tomatoes, banana peppers and our first green pepper.

Garden Update

Our golden cherry tomatoes are ripening! I ate the first one this morning (a taste test to see if orange was the final color of a ripe golden and it is - it was sweet and juicy!

We'll have lots more to enjoy in the next few weeks - lots of fruit on the two plants.

Garden Update

We have added new plants and have tomatoes ripening:

Our golden cherry tomato plants are now hip-high (on me) and both have fruit!

Less than a month ago (see them here), they were a foot tall. We made some good compost!

Last weekend, we got a variety of pepper plants (all kinds - spicy and bell). We have heard good things about them doing well in the heat and hope they'll be happy in the summer. We also planted Italian basil and Thai basil to add to our parsley, sage, rosemary (and no thyme... sorry thyme doesn't like hot weather!). Here are some of the peppers:

a few of them are already blooming!

We'll keep posted on our progress!

Garden Surprise

We came home from vacation and found our watermelon plant had a big fruit growing on it - a butternut squash!

a quarter for size comparison

Our Herb Gardens

It's time to get plants in the ground here (and protect them if it gets too cold). With thanks to Mom for her weeding and inspiration to keep weeding here are our two herb gardens. First on the driveway side of the back door, we have, at top, aloe (that wintered over surprisingly well, considering how cold it's been); a new rosemary plant, then oregano and at the bottom a grape tomato. The tomato plant is an experiment. The soil in this garden is really sandy (which makes aloe and rosemary happy). We'll probably have to add some compost for the tomato.

Yes, it still needs mulch.

Close up on the aloe. It is so useful for burns and rashes.

The second herb garden is in the backyard but again right outside the back door for easy access. A few pictures I took while preparing for planting - you can see what a weedy mess it was:

Almost weed free!

Basil (2 plants, top left), parsley (top right), other three are nasturtium, which have edible flowers.

A new pineapple sage (bottom) to join the two baby ones above it that have come up voluntarily.

Along the side wall of the garage where they'll be a little more protected, 2 dill (toward the top right) and a sage (lower right). The top right corner there is reserved for lemon grass, and we have plenty of space for more herbs and flowers.

One last sunny picture of the first nasturtium blooming.