Tag Archives: gardening

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Peach me, I’m peaching

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Once upon a time (last summer) I bought a peach tree and planted it in the front yard.

Look how tiny it was once upon a time!

I watered it and fed it and picked off all its leaves when it got peach leaf curl. And eventually it grew taller than me!

And then it started growing peaches.

Now, all of a sudden, long before I was expecting it, those peaches are ripe. One fell off the tree this morning so I thought I would try eating it (because, yes, I normally just pick food up off the ground and put it in my mouth. I washed it first. With the hose.) It was perfect. And so were all of these.

Princess Beef is sad that she’s not allowed to eat any. I’ll rub the soft, fuzzy skin on her face so she’s doubly jealous. Someday, PB. Maybe next year.

There’s even still some on the tree that didn’t seem quite as ripe. Oh peach bounty, you have graced me.

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Farmer Gibney Strikes Again

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So last year I started gardening for the first time and planted a lot of things, 2 of which were in the Bible (this is a random side point). You can read all about it here

In addition to the stuff I still have from last year–a raspberry, a blackberry, sage….hm, that might be it. Well and the things I got after I wrote that blog–a dwarf peach tree, a Japanese lantern/Tiger’s eye thing, another raspberry, a trumpet flower thing, a different basil, and lavender, jasmine, honeysuckle…mmm, ground cover flowering succulent thing. It’s hard to remember everything. Where was I? Right so in addition to all that this year I built a raised bed (shoddily out of old and semi-rotting wood that used to be a retaining wall and some old fence posts) and planted more things. These include:

5 kinds of tomatoes, 6 eggplants (2 kinds), 3 kind of chile peppers (I blame my brother) and some chives

containter pots

30 some snap peas, 14 beans, 2 corn, 3 sunflowers

raised bed

a kalamata olive tree that I forgot to take a picture of but it’s totally growing olives right now. As is last summer’s peach tree–growing peaches though, not olives. Obviously.

peaches

One of the old dwarf oranges is covered in incredible smelling flowers (and bees)

orange flower and bee

and I bought some pretty colorful cacti because I couldn’t resist the flamboyance.

cacti

I need to go get that Bible plant book from the library again so I can check on all my new things. I also need to stop planting things. I find it very difficult to stop. Kris and Christine went to an edible perennials class this weekend and told me about tree collards and now I want some. I also want a neem tree, (Don’t ask. Though I bet it’s in the Bible plants book), and a bunch of other fruit trees. And more roses. I’m getting some estimates for how much it’ll cost to remove the three offensive pine trees in the backyard (I find them quite offensive) so maybe someday I could have a neem tree.

Anyway, if you want to see more photos of my plants, they’re here.

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Spring

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Two days late on books and I don’t care!

I just planted a backyard bounty. I forced my mother to accompany me to Navalet’s where I proceeded to load up a cart she was pushing with 5 kinds of tomatoes, Walla Walla onions, leeks, basil, sage, 2 kinds of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Also much dirt. And one hanging garden planter to test on 1 tomato variety.

Hanging tomato garden! More pictures of planting here.

I very carefully consulted my Plants of the Bible book by Allen A. Swenson when I got home–from the library. Because I was curious. Out of everything I bought, the only 2 from the Bible are leeks and sage.

“The Roman emperor Nero was said to have held leeks in great esteem, eating them every month. Behind his back he was called by his detractors ‘eater of leeks’.”

Those Romans–SO insulting!

The sage is less rude biblically:

“When pressed flat, sage is likened by Biblical scholars to the seven-branched candlestick which is the traditional Jewish symbol, the menorah.”

Because it has 3 leaves on each side of a central stalk apparently. There’s a whole passage about it in Exodus (37:17-18).

So that is my gardening news.

In related home-making news I also cleaned the bathroom (be impressed) and added a 5th “bookcase” (2 small bookcases stacked on top of one another) to my bedroom and rearranged all the furniture in there. It’s kind of crowded now–big surprise–and the 5th bookcase only marginally helps with the ridiculous amount of books. Still, I’m pretty pleased. Especially since the entire undertaking was mostly done because the fan broke and it was plugged in behind a bookcase and I couldn’t remove it without moving said bookcase. It was a stupid place to plug it in. The new one is not plugged in behind a bookcase. I learn.

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