Attack of the GIANT ZUCCHINI!

This is our Zucchini plant. It has grown HUGE. I am so glad we planted it apart from everything else. It was actually a "lets take a chance on this" afterthought planting. And it has turned out, so far, to be the best growing. Hmm, maybe we have discovered a new spot for the rest of our garden. One day, I asked DH to see if there were any zucchini ready to be picked for our dinner the next night. His response was... "yes there is". Not' Oh man, you should see the size of those babies!" or "Uh, no, not zucchini, but maybe alian pods!", or even "Sure there are, but you should check out the size of them." No, instead I think we have a few small zucchini's for dinner. The next night, I pull aside a couple leaves to pluck a few babies, and I fell back on my behind. HUGE HUGE HUGE Zucchini's. And not just one, but about 5, and more starting. No idea THAT would happen. What do I do what that much zucchini? Well, the neighbors are enjoying it, and I am coming up with a lot of recipe's to use them in...LOL
The other plant that is producing nicely is the Serrano. The one pictured below is actually left over from last year. And we planted another, in case the first didnt fruit. Now if only our tomatoes will start ripening, so we can make our Salsa!

The strawberry plant started slow, and has produced a few small bitesize berries, but it is also sending out shoots, so I am hoping for a nice crop a little later in the season. If the birds or bugs dont beat us to them.

We planted red and yellow bell peppers. So far this is the only pepper to come to life. It is almost completly yellow, but not very big. I am optimistic still.

The little cucumber plant, was planted the same time as the Zucchini. It is being shaded by the Zucchini and growing slowly. But I see some flowers popping out, so I hope the Cuc's follow suit!

This is a watermelon plant. It is another "What the heck, lets try it for $1.99" planting. It is close to the Zuc and Cuc. I am not a big fruit fan, not that I dont like it, I just dont crave it, but am willing to enjoy it, if it just pops up in my yard. No work required.

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And last but not least, the "pretty much finished" pond. DH would still like to bring in a few more rocks, but I am extremly happy with how it looks right now. The lillies are shooting up pretty white and yellow flowers, the 2 hibiscus we planted add a pretty touch of color on both sides of the back of the pond. The palms that bookend each side of the water fall are filling out beautifully. Unfortunatly, the Canna Lilly is cut out of the lower left side of the picture. It really draws the eyes to the pond, when you enter the back yard.

The greatest enjoyment of the pond is watching a couple birds dive and dance over it. They must be catching bugs mid-air, as they will fly over, and made a quick turn mid-flight, almost looking as if they stopped flying and started to fall. It is very relaxing to sit with a mojito in hand and enjoy the sound and sites of our oasis. Exactly what I dreamed of.

Springtime planting

Updates first: Remember the Mexican Heather I planted around the log last year? It has gone CRAZY! Look how filled in it is? And this is after I trimmed it back a little. I LOVE how full it is. So Scott agreed he would like to try some around the pond. See below. And the little rose in the garden is sprouting it's once a year bloom. How very pretty!

It feels good to get dirty again in the yard again. Ok, minds out of the gutters, people!

Today I hit Lowes and Home Depot and bought this years veggie garden. Scott has been composting the garden pits this winter, so he is hoping this will be our best crop yet.

Below is 6 Jalepeno plants, 1 Serrano, 1 Habanero, 2 Yellow Bells, 1 Red Bell, and it looks like we have a pepper plant left over from last year, but cannot recall which one it is. It has little green peppers starting to pop out right now. It will be a pleasant surprise we are sure! Below is our 4 Early Girl tomato's, 2 Roma tomato's (those are EXPENSIVE this year!), Basil and Cilantro. We are ready for our summer salsa and pesto!

Scott went on the hunt for rocks all week, and worked all day today laying them out around the pond. He is going to be super sore tomorrow.

This is a little hidden surprise. I planted some more of the Mexican Heather, as it did so well in my first garden.

On the far side of the pond a decorative grass (seen on Right side) was planted and last weekend we planted a new Hibiscus bush (seen on left side)

We now have the waterfall bookended with 2 Pigmy date palms that seem to love the spot. Along with Pompus grass ruling over the head of the waterfall. Just to the right of the falls is another Hibiscus bush.

We have had a heck of a time keeping any grass growing in the back half of the yard. It looks green, but that is all weeds! UGH! Then when we pull them all, we have a bunch of dirt that gets tracked in with Sasha's paws, and Scott's treadbottom boots. Little dirt turds all over the dining room and office. AAACCKK! So today I came up with the idea of making paths. And leaving the green weeds inside the paths. The places that the weeds were pulled, I turned up the dirt and am going to try to come up with some plantings to make little gardens. I would LOVE LOVE to have some mounds, but have to learn how to keep the water from just running down and making mucky ditches around it. Dad, any idea's? After pulling up all the weeds, I am sure I will be as sore as Scott tomorrow.

Do I hear the spa calling?
Stay Tuned!

They are ALIVE!!

These flowers were given to me last year when I lost my job (a year ago this month) and when I had surgery in January this year. I took a chance and planted them in the ground. They withered and hung in there. Sort of pathetic all year. But right now they are so beautiful. I hate to cut any off to put in vases. They are the only flowering plants in the front yard right now.

POND VISITOR

Besides the bee's surrounding the Water Hyacianth, there is another admirer to the pond. It is a beautiful copper colored dragon fly. He seems to prefer to visit during the hottest part of the mid-day. He hovers over the pond, then lands on the Plumeria on the island in the middle of the pond and gazes over the pond. Sometimes he will disappear into the distance for a few minutes, but always returns to gaze upon his territory. We have named him Rumplestillskin. Recently he has been bringing a friend. She is very iridescent, so deserves her name as Tinker Bell.

They are a beautiful addition to our landscape in progress!

BEFORE & AFTER

I am very excited to see my garden still thriving...

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Still Digging

The Dream Garden is a dream come true. It is growing like crazy, and really enjoyed the winter rains. Scott continued to have a problem keeping the mulberry twigs on my path leading to the garden, so we finally dug it out and put in a bark path, to match the one in the garden. I LOVE IT!

Scott is back to digging again. The plumbing has been buried around the outside of the pool, I mean pond. Now he is digging a hole for the top of the waterfall, leading down to the pool, I mean pond. Today we were excited to notice one of our vines producing flowers for the first time since we bought it 2 years ago. It came home with a couple buds from the garden store, then promptly never budded again. What a beautiful site to see pretty purple trumphets. I planted garlic cloves last October, to grow over the fall and winter. They are not ready to harvest yet, but we are anxiously awaiting the turnout of our first homegrown garlic. Just planted tonite, several varieties of tomatoes... and jalepeno, serrano and habanero peppers. Along with red bell pepper and cucumbers. We are still keeping an eye out for some more peppers, as we need a full batch for our summer salsa makings!

IS IT SPRING YET???

Shopping Spree

My aunt Carol gave me a generous Home Depot gift card encouraging more plants for my garden dream. So today I went on a shopping spree.

I added my other Cana Lily in front of the fountain. Oh, how pretty it will be when it grows tall and shoots out another bloom. What a view from the dining room it will be. Behind the Cana Lily, I planted a Big Leaf Philodendron. This will add to the tropical garden theme. Scott decided the Tree Fern (far right) would be too big for the far corner I put it in, so he moved it forward, so it will have more space to spread as it grows taller.

In the dream garden I added a Cape Honeysuckle. I was not able to find too much about it, but said it had fragrant flowers, so sounded nice, plus it was inexpensive :-)

To finish off the tour, I added another Star Jasmine, at the suggestion of mom. Behind the Polka Dot plant, I will train it to vine around the new gate Scott built for the garden. The day after I was laid off from my job, my friend Mildred showed up with these beautiful burgandy Mum's. I finally got them planted next to the Corrie Girls. Now there will be a fun story with this. As I stated in the previous blog, Mildred and Corrie used to be roomates, until Dred married, and now Corrie is a missionary in Italy. So, they may be seperated by an ocean now, but their namesakes are roommates again. Meet Dred's Mum's (Dred is a mommy too- how appropriate)Thank you Carol & Dred!