I grew up on a working farm with my grandparents, I was sickly because I was born with a birth defect so my grandparents whom I idolized watched me all the time. But to me they weren't watching me, to me I was the lucky one. I got to play in a room full of fabric or in a giant shop, or better yet a hay barn. During the mornings we would tend the garden, weed, harvest, and preserve the food. We might go out to the orchards where Granny and Papa would weed and I would climb up into a peach tree, apricot tree, apple tree, or pear tree and eat-eat-eat. I would literally watch the wind blow by.
So there is no surprise as to why I crave being outside, and getting my hands dirty.
My heirloom tomato is putting on , which is amazing because last year I could barely keep a bloom on that stupid plant.
Look! Its a jalapeno!
I have been growing lavender since I was in college, my first garden was in 2 giant square shaped plastic pots, it's all I could afford at the time, and even that I had to float a check! I had 2 lavender plants and 2 pepper plants in one pot. Then in another giant square shaped pot I had 2 tomato plants. I remember one drunk night I was sitting out on the balcony of my apartment...I had bought a tomato magazine and read that anything dead on your plant you should cut off. So during a drunk moment; I cut off the dead blooms. Yup a seventh generation Texan and grew up on a farm...and I cut off the blooms. Yup the men-folk in my family were mighty proud! I think I rendered the table speechless because unbeknownst to me at the time; that is where the tomato comes from....Anyways back to the lavender, my plants never got big, never bloomed ad eventually died. Even after the pepper plants died and had that pot all the themselves.
So last year at our old house I decided to try again. Then we bought the house and my plants (which I have a tendency to name EVERYTHING, so I lovingly refer to them as BF and Skinner-I heart the father of ABA) were some of first items to be transplanted. So finally 5 years later...I have lavender that blooms!
Rosemary: (in the forefront of the first picture) Chad and I have tried-tried and tried to grow this plant. The first one died quite promptly, we were living in an apartment and had it in one of my giant green square shaped pots. The second one, never really put on new growth, looked pretty sick, so I transplanted it into a bigger pot where it lived underneath one of Chad's college cheapy lamp. One day I was carrying the giant pot outside to get some sun and I dropped it...I was so irratated because I was heading to the bike trials to ride. So being streghted for time I plopped it into the soil next to the lavender. That silly rosemary has never looked better, its dark evergreen color and thick needles and potent smell makes me glad I dropped a giant clay pot! I think it was my grandmothers way of thumping me in the ear, telling me to put that stupid plant in our wonderful Texas soil we have in our backyard.
Yes, those are the giant green square shaped pots, I floated a check for back in college!
So I bought these last summer and they produce little dainty purple flowers they have survived a horse, the hot Texas summer AND a move. And they ended up dividing into 3 different plants! I totally love them!
A wedding gift,"Forget me not's" in a pot
Every Garden needs an orange dog; to dig up flower beds, pepper plants, and begonia's. This is generally how she stands...between my legs!
Mia-Jean Ham Bone
This peach tree was given to me by Chad as a Valentines present! We planted it at our hold house, but the stupid horse got pretty close to killing it. She (her name is peachy-girl) is a fighter through and through!
Franky II the flamingo.
I took bread ties and finagled it onto the balcony...in every single apartment I have EVER lived in!
The story? Well at a family reunion my Aunt who is eccentric to say the least, took plastic flamingos and planted them outside her tent. My uncles, stole them and taunted her with ransom notes, and banter. Well I found it and stole it from them (what can I say, I learned from the best) years later when I moved into my first apartment I took bailing wire and push pins and put it into the wall in the living room. It reminded me of home and family eventually my dad made Franky II after he saw Franky the first on my wall. He put it outside his house in my hometown, and I took Franky II and somehow he ended up with Franky I who hangs in his office by bailing wire!
Now Franky II is the keeper and protector of the monkey grass from a certain orange dog who likes to fashion them into her bed!
The Hostas with the Mostest.
It was planted and grew a bit, then an orange dog decided she needed to sleep in that same bed. So it got transplanted into a pot, where eventually it died. Then somehow it resurrected itself in a completely different pot. Chad found it when he was moving, but at the time we had NO idea what it was, so during the cold snaps, she got moved in doors (there were many mornings I walked into my den to see 2 trees, and loads of plants) once again the hostas survived a certain black-fuzzy jerk (calamity) ate it!
Finally, we put it in the ground where Ms. Mia Jean once again dug up the bed! *sigh* We finally put a Mia proof fence around that bed. More will come up this weekend, we are spending our wedding money on Mia-proofing my Garden.
I hope you enjoyed reading the stories from my Garden. Being outside and putting my hands in fresh earth just makes me happy. I would try and use another adjective to describe my feeling but there isn't a better word than Happy! It brings back happy memories of the farm, and my Grandmothers weeding and tending to their garden (my maternal grandmother passed away this time last year of breast cancer, and my paternal grandmother passed of lung cancer 10 years ago) I brings me happy feelings to be outside and be apart of Mother Earth!
