I'd Like to Introduce You To...

My garden buddies.  Not all of the plants are buddies.  Just the ones shared by my friends and family or the ones that survived from seeds.  Only the most prominent ones have names.  Those include the king of the garden my olive tree sent to me as a birthday gift from a friend who knew I always wanted one.  The second is a gift of heirloom lemon seeds from the same friend that traveled 3000 miles to be lovingly and patiently sown in organic soil in the window this past winter.

 

 

 

This is the king of the garden.  Oliver.  Appropriately named for his species - the olive tree.  He's a bit shy and doesn't like his picture taken.  Truth be known the photo has a lot to be desired.  He is skinny now, but he is suppose to grow a wide and thick trunk as he matures.  Kind of like a good baseball player.

 

 

 

The plant on the right is the lemon tree I grew from seed during the winter.  At last count it has 11 leaves on it.  I guess it will be a while until I get fruit from it.  Currently both Lawrence the Lemon and Oliver the Olive Tree live indoors.   I put them outside during the nice weather and bring them in at night.

 

 

 

 

I planted a dozen heirloom cucumber seeds, but only one survived.  I check it out a few times a day in case some sort of enemy wants to make it's home on my one lone cucumber.  This is war.  I know we have bumble bees in the woods because last year there were quite a few every day pollinating my plants.

 

 

 

 

The first photo is the heirloom tomato I planted from seed.  Again only one of a dozen survived.  I check this plant out a few times a day, as well because I lost all 9 of my plants last year due to a caterpillar invasion. The bottom photo is a plant I bought at a home center.  Which one do you bet on surviving?

 

 

 

 

Peeking out from behind the cheesecloth is my blackberry bush sent to me from my friend.  It was the first of an experiment to see if plants from far away could like the East Coast.  He loves it here.  This is the second year and I have 30 berries at last count.  There's a load of new growth so I am expecting more berries.  I'll pick them as they ripen, then freeze them for jam.  I will most likely have to combine them with other berries from the local farm to get an entire batch of jam.  But, a good start.  The shroud is to protect the berries from the birds.  They wake up before I do and would have a nice meal before I could drink my coffee.

 

 

 

 

One of seven bean plants planted.  To my surprise all of them germinated.  There were slugs munching on them so I put egg shells around them to keep the slugs away.  If you use egg shells be sure to wash them in hot soapy water before surrounding your plants with them.  This alleviates the risk of salmonella infecting the garden.  I wash them then dry them in the oven for a few minutes before use.

 

To be continued.......