Garden Challenge

I love plants!  I'm pretty sure it's in my blood.  My grandpa was from Holland, and when he came to the US he grew and sold flowers.  My dad stayed in the agricultural field as well, so I grew up surrounded by beautiful fields of vegetables, and orchards of citrus and avocados.  Then I moved to the desert...

I have tried to have gardens out here before, but they have never really produced much.  It was mostly my fault, because I didn't take the preemptive measures that need to be taken when dealing with the ridiculously hot summer sun.   This year will be different!

Last year my husband made me a beautiful raised garden, which I planted a few weeks ago.  My daughter helped till the soil and plant the seeds.  She loves gardening!  We planted tomatoes (early girl), carrots, lettuce, spinach, habenero peppers, jalepeno peppers, and zucchini.

This last weekend we also added a new area to our yard...the pumpkin patch!  The kids are very excited about this, well ok, I am too.  They were already planning who they would invite to their pumpkin carving party.  Honestly, I'm just hoping we get at least two pumpkins!

We also have strawberries in pots that are doing very well.  I put them in pots this year so that they only get morning sun, and so I can better control how much water they get.  They are sitting on our patio table on the backyard porch.  I love seeing them every morning outside our family room window!

On the side of our house we have a little vineyard, where we are growing red globe grapes.  We never get too many grapes (they turn into raisins pretty fast!), but the vines look so amazing outside our dining room window.

Last year we planted one little lemon tree.  I love this tree!  This last fall it produced quite a few lemons.  This year it is covered in blossoms and smells amazing.  I can't wait to make lemon cakes and cookies!  I'm hoping to plant more fruit trees if I can figure out where to put them.

  

And finally, we have a beautiful fountain outside of our nook window with an herb garden underneath.  This has been growing very well for the last couple of years.  The fountain is off right now because there is a leak, so I am a little worried that my herbs aren't going to make it without the fountains protection.  Hopefully, we'll get it working again soon.  This year K and I planted basil, chocolate mint, thyme, lavender, oregano, chives, and garlic.  I didn't get a good picture of all of them, but here is the lavender and basil.

If you can't tell, I'm very excited about our garden(s) this year.  I'm even ok with it being spring for the first time since I've lived here.  I'm usually the biggest complainer in the state as soon as the temperature gets to 75 degrees!