It's Not Easy Being Green

At our previous house, we built a raised garden in the backyard and were very successful at growing some vegetables. The Basil grew pretty wild. Okra was too abundant for us to use. And then, we transplanted some Opa Squash from my parents garden and it was over! The Opa took over the whole garden. We put up a plastic enclosure to keep out any pest but the Opa, being the ivy that it is, wrapped all around it and extended out onto the patio. It also grabbed hold of our window screens, and if it weren't the end of the season, the plant probably would have climbed the house. Lesson learned!

At this current house, there's also a raised garden built behind the garage. The previous owners told us that they've had pretty good luck growing tomatoes, squash, aloe, and even cauliflower. Tomatoes weren't big fans of ours, so we haven't added them to the garden, yet.  A couple that made the list are cilantro, squash, cucumbers, okra, peppers, and basil.

{Green}

{Fluffed}

We have family that's had difficulty in growing cilantro and we can see why. Once watered, the stems aren't strong enough to stand back up, so it requires continuous fluffing of the stems and leaves. We also have 1800 pine trees in our backyard that have pine needles falling like snow. TLC is a constant must. We have the peppers, okra, and basil in a starter tray in the house. They'll soon be transplanted to this garden within a week or two. I may also need to replant the squash and cucumbers because they are flourishing and I think I've planted them to close to each other. Oops!

A success story that we'll claim credit for is our Lemon Fig tree. This tree was left by the previous owner and they claim that the squirrels steal all the fruit. We did see some fruit in August last year and they were pretty sweet. With the 16 freezes (more like 2) that we had over the winter, we were sure that we had gained a new spot for any new tree that we wanted to plant. But us being lazy for two weeks allowed the Lemon Fig to grow again and it's this healthy:

{FIGures}

{preserves with Brie please}

We're getting there! Some of which we didn't have to do much to, but we'll claim credit! Next to tackle would be shrubbery around the patio. Maybe if we plant enough to hide the rest of the backyard, we can start entertaining earlier! Sarah won't mind.

Are you going organic?!