Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

I know several of you out there have gardens. We started one and are still working on it. We'll have (hopefully) corn, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, zucchini, cantaloupe, and I can't remember if there's anything else. But the big thing is...

see this?



and this:



and this:



The first picture is a line of stakes marking the spot for fruit trees. The next is a picture of one of the actual trees. The third is the bottom of the yard where several other stakes are located. They don't show up well because they are green.

We are embarking on an adventure. A small orchard in our large yard. The bare spot in the 3rd picture is our vegetable garden. We had already started that when the orchard idea came. I wanted a few trees and bushes. My husband went all out. We'll put the berry bushes in the back of the house. We don't have those yet.

I also have "frivolous" flowers. I say "frivolous" because they don't produce useful, edible fruit. At least, I don't think they do. I know you can use rose hips in tea, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on that.

One of my rose bushes:



This one had a couple of yellow roses right after I got it. Then I transplanted it from the pot to the ground. Nothing so far. I'm guessing it has to adjust to it's new location.

Some of my fellow gardners:







the merely observers (well, they helped a little :))








Oh and our little miracle when we cut down the dead tree (pictured above with the kids climbing on it):



Can you see the little fruit tree right next to the dead, cut-down tree? There was another one on the other side but the picture is not too good. Ah, I'll let you see it anyway. What's another picture?



Now don't worry if you don't see the tree in this pic. Like I said it's hard to see. I can barely see it and I took the picture! If you look really close, right above the mulch is a white tag. You can kind of follow the "stick" attached to it and see that it passed straight through the branches. Such a blessing!

Well, that's my garden and orchard adventures for the past week. We are still waiting more trees and berry bushes, plus some vegetable seeds. This is turning into a great homeschooling project. (We kind of just go all year).

The final project will include:
1 medium size vegetable garden
1 small melon garden
1 patch of 12 berry bushes in the back (1 blackberry, 2 blueberry, 3 red raspberry, 3 yellow raspberry, and 3 black raspberry)
1 small orchard (Standard trees: 4 Red Jonathan Apple, 4 Granny Smith Apple, 2 Red Delicious Apple, 2 Yellow Transparent Apple, 3 Stanley Plum, 4 Bartlett Pear, 2 Red Haven Peach, 2 Hale Haven Peach, 2 Elberta Peach, 2 Early Richmond Cherry, 2 Black Tartarian Cherry, Dwarf trees: 3 Yellow Delicious Apple, 3 Red Delicious Apple, 3 Elberta Peach, 3 Kieffer Pear, 3 North Star Cherry, 3 Nectarine, and 2 Sugar Sweet Cherry bushes) a grand total of 49 trees, bushes!
I also have to find a spot for 2 pecan trees, 1 almond tree, 2 weeping willows, and 1 Scarlet Red Maple.

That is not including the misc. roses and flowers I've also gotten.

Whew! Now you know why I've been busy lately. So, anyone else have gardens and/or fruit trees to tell about?

Until next time...