Our Trees and Garden

A year after we moved here, Julianna begged us for a tree. We bought her a small Bradford Pear on clearance and I planted it myself in August 2008 with a little help from her. About a month after I planted it, Hurricane Ike happened. During the storm, Julianna was really sick with a 103-4 fever, but all she worried about was her tree. I tried to prepare her for the possible loss of the Bradford Pear, but she told me her tree would be ok because she had said a prayer. The morning after the hurricane, we went outside  and her tree was standing completely undamaged, although most of our well-established shrubs that were planted more than a year before were off the soil... her faith was really amazing!! I wish we had a picture of the tree at the time we planted it. I did find a picture of it from January 2010.

 Here is the tree today... see how the trunk is much thicker... the tree is much taller too, although the first picture was not a really good one since it was winter and the tree was bare...

 

 

Michael also wanted his own tree. We went shopping for one and came home with two!! This one he's holding is a peach tree and the tiny one to the right is a tangerine one. Michael dug the two wholes by himself and both him and I planted the trees... he did most of the work though. Raphael helped a little too...

 

The boys working hard...

 

 

Here is Julianna taking grass off her tree so we can put more mulch on top. Look at Sadie, our faithful dog by her side.

 

We also planted a vegetable garden this year. We are highly unexperienced and our garden was mostly a huge mess... we didn't realize how big plants get and planted a lot of stuff together with no room for them to grow... but they did grow and a lot!! And they grew on top of each other... however, our bell peppers were somewhat successful... they are tiny, but we get lots of them every week and they are delicious. I use them all the time. The red ones start purple, then turn green, and then turn red. The orange ones start white and then turn orange... I have to admit that I didn't figure this out until yesterday... I even told my mother-in-law that I never got a white one until I was pruning yesterday and found a few white ones and a few white turning orange.. then I made the connection...

Here is our lettuce... after our huge cucumber plant died, the lettuce found room to grow... look at the green onions between them... they've been very successful too

 

Here is our broccoli... there are no florets right now as I had just pruned them before the picture... it's a strong plant, but our florest are usually so tiny that they are not worth picking... I usually just let them turn into flowers.

Our Lima beans... Julianna planted them in school and we transplanted them here. It's a very easy plant to grow!! We didn't get many beans though, but the ones we got were yummy.

 

We also planted basil and it's doing really well. I forgot to take a picture of it and it's dark outside right now. I love it a lot since I love cooking with it.

Plants with no success: Tomatoes - I planted two varieties. The plants grew, but we didn't get a single tomato. Cucumbers - the plant grew huge, but it got infested with bugs and died before giving any cucumbers... Spinach- they were growing beautifully until the cucumber plant overtook them... I'll definately try them next year. Carrots - the broccoli took over their place as well and they never grew much. The one I picked after 3 months was only 1-inch tall... I'll try next year again.