How rewarding it is to see the fruit of one’s hands. I just love to look around my yard and see the harvest of hard work, faithful watering and plentiful produce! I enjoy a mix of flowers, vegetables and fruits. Each has their importance and enjoyment.

Year round I enjoy azalias in the front and a lilac bush which hasn’t yet decided to bloom! I remember it’s amazing fragrance that was enjoyed while hanging clothing on the clothes line as a child. Mom had a large bush at one end of the line, and I also remember being careful to avoid the bees that it attracted.

I’ve had issues with not having enough bees in our yard to pollinate our veggies. This year there were more which appeared to be attracted to the lavender and I’m hoping the same will be true once my lilac decides to bloom! I keep mint, spring lettuce, hot peppers, basil, tarragon, lemon balm, and cilantro in flower pots around the yard. They produce an appealing aroma and are useful in the kitchen as well. I’ve also attempted dill, stevia and rosemary, but I think my seeds are over 7 or 8 years old and they decided not to germinate this year! I’ll have to try again next year.

One of my generous neighbors gave us two strawberry plants a few years ago and now we have well over 50. I know I should cut off all but two runners that the plants produce, but I wanted them to spread and didn’t trim them back and now we enjoy a bumper crop! They have now spread all around the patio and I’m faithful to trim them back now or we would have a yard full of strawberries! I harvested probably ½ gallon of strawberries this year. Not enough to make jelly or can or anything, but definitely enough to add to smoothies, yogurt and for lunch! They boys especially enjoyed picking them and eating them before making it into the house.

Last year for Mother’s Day and my birthday Brian surprised me with three little blueberry bushes! They are quite little, but I’m patient! They are planted and we had ONE blueberry last week! They boys split it! 😉

In my raised beds this year we are growing beets, cabbage, broccoli, acorn squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and Hungarian hot peppers. So far this year we have eaten two delicious cucumbers and we even had a ripe tomato by July 4th!

Some of the flowers sprinkled around the yard include crocus, daffodils and tulips in spring, hostas, lily of the valley, columbine, sedum, lavender, purple ferns, calendula, black eyed susans, mums, iris, hydrangea, lemon grass, asters and a few others that I can’t remember their names!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have I given you the impression we have at least 2 acers of gardens?!?! I wish we did! It would be nice to have that much room! We are in a small townhouse and I have densly gardened about ½ of the yard and have left a little bit of grass for the boys to run around and play ball! I have a few raised beds which help organize the space. One of them I only plant 1 or 2 plants which I have the boys tend and water and weed. They do a great job and really enjoy seeing what they can grow! Last year Tonchi wanted to plant a plum seed, peach seed and a few apple seeds. They haven’t come up that I can tell, but he planted them!

Even if you don’t have a lot of space you can use what you have! I had a friend who only had a deck, but she planted LOTS of tomatoes, herbs and other good things to eat with container gardening. It is possible you just have to get creative!