The year things suddenly went Pop.

I really,really wish our camera was working.I have so many things I would like to show all of you.

This year the espalier fence in the front yard is finally coming into its own.The grafted apple,Italian prune and kiwi's have all grown so much.We have lots of apples and a few prunes set and getting more hopeful everyday.As for the kiwi's,we had thought last year we might lose them but they have bounced back full of vigor. There is also the Gravenstein apple we planted,thought it was lost but came back.It's still just a bit thicker than a chunky marker pen but it has leafed out.

Under the fruit trees the berries are lush,full of blooms and set berries.I spied the first pinkish strawberry last night.The blueberries after 2 years in the ground are looking like they will give us our first real picking.

Mixed into the fruit and berries we have flowers blooming.Chance and I had saved two pink Floribunda roses from a dumpster a couple of years ago and they have come into their own beauty this year.Both plants are chest high on me and full of blooms.They are planted at the end of our walkway and as I come up or down the walk I smile to think someone thought that these two lovelies were not pretty enough and had been doomed to the dumpster.

This seems to be the year of lushness.We have worked hard over the past 4 years to get where we are,patiently waiting,tending and feeding.We were willing to put in the work and knew that planting fruit is full of years waiting for the labor to pay off.

We have also been working in the back yard on the garden beds there.We have dug and are prepped two new areas for growing food.

The spot where our old compost site has become our lettuce beds.This area is shaded but has some very nice filtered and direct sun through out the day.When we plant the lettuces in the big garden it will always bolt on us once it is warmer out. So far it's looking like a good idea and place,the lettuces are small but up.

The other new garden beds are in a unused corner that gets full day sun.I have not planted this bed yet and still need to add in some compost to amend the soil.I think I may plant a couple more tomatoes and maybe a vine type squash.There would be plenty of room for a squash to just ramble all over without interfering with other things near by.

Every year we try some new thing or idea,this year we have ended up with three.The first was the lettuce beds.The second is we are trying the "Three Sister's" planting of pole beans,corn and squash in one of the big garden's beds. I figure it should work but worry about the corn growing at the right rate to support the pole beans.The back up plan is we can always string up the beans if we have to and the corn will do what it will do.

The third new thing we are doing is we have added some goldfish to our open water barrel.We had both read about people doing this and thought why not.We purchased 10 of the cheap "feeder" fish at the pet store for 27 cents each.We are down to only 6,that's life with fish,good thing we went cheap.The purpose of the fish is to eat any larvae the mosquitoes lay. We do feed them some fish food everyday. Our barrel is an old wine barrel so it is tall and deep,this will keep the fish safe from critters and give them different temperature zones to be in as needed. From our reading we learned the fish should be fine over the winter here.We sometimes get a thin skim of ice on the top of the water but the fish will be able to dive deeper and stay alive unless we get a really cold spell.

Today we celebrate our Issac's 18th birthday with family,cake and ice cream.I have no clue where the years have gone that he is already at this milestone of a year.I guess in the same way our garden has come into so much potential,with love,tending,nurturing and patiently waiting to see the fruits of our labors.

Rois



P.S, I almost forgot the raspberries are looking like bumper crops as well.It's going to be a fruit year which means there will be plenty of Jam of all sorts for the winter.Yum.