A New Back to Eden Garden!

We finally got around to installing a Back to Eden garden at our new home, here in S.E. Oklahoma.  We had purchased several sets of onions a few weeks back, and with the busyness of life, just haven’t been able to get them into the ground.  Thankfully, we got it done, after lots of work, and the onions are ready to grow!  We also started some seeds, too.  Spring is just around the corner!!

 

Kittan was prowling around while we were working. 🙂

The weather was perfect the past few days to work on the garden.

Onions! We planted white, yellow and red, I believe.

Dad and Jaden built a nice wooden box around our small garden plot. We hope to install some more plots soon!

They worked so hard to build that box!

 

Our fat kitty cat likes to roam our backyard and explore. 🙂

Kittan is hiding amongst the rocks – a favorite spot for her.

Garden Snapshots ~

Just received some photos from home, of our wonderful garden.  My favorites are of the produce we’ve gotten from our plants – there’s noting quite like garden fresh produce!  They harvested most of the onions, and boy are they big!  Mom said that a tomato the size of a tennis-ball (approx.) fell off the vine while still green.  They took it inside, and it’s ripened up nicely.  (See the photo below with the peaches in the window sill.)   Our little fig tree – yes, the same one that we transplanted and hoped wouldn’t die – is growing nicely, and even has some little figs on it.   God has indeed blessed our garden greatly, especially with plenty of rain of late!  Rejoicing in the abundance of nature and the God of nature!

Peaches (foreground), and a purple tomato (background).

Our little Brown Turkey fig tree. I’m sure it won’t be little for long!

See the tiny figs?

Onions, onions and more onions!!

This tomato is gigantic!

Even with the tomato cages, the tomato plants are taking over!

Loaded with yellow pear cherry tomatoes.

Our little cantaloupe vines have gotten bigger.

Red bush beans (or maybe purple).

We really need to give some of these guys away. Want some radishes?! 🙂

The beans haven’t done as well as I’d hoped. Only one row came up (out of two), and not even the whole row. Need to do some replanting.

Finally got another layer of potato boxes put on. Hopefully there are lots of potatoes beneath the soil. 🙂

The lettuce is officially dying (if not dead). Texas summer has arrived.

What? A caladium growing in the middle of the herbs? There must’ve been a blub hiding in soil.

The remaining onions.

A lone [almost] ripe raspberry.

Grandma’s peach tree is loaded. And they’re almost ripe!

Several have chosen the ground as a better home.

 

Garden Update

While I was back at home for a couple days, I got out into the garden, and was able to snap some photographs of it.  Enjoy!

(Click on images to view larger.)

Large view of the garden.

The other side.

A row of raspberry pots!

The lettuce has officially gone crazy.

Mmm… Onions!

Lots of delicious cooking in sight!

Fully blossomed onion top.

Half blossomed

Closed up.

Mr. Bee decided to let me take his photograph. 😉

Gettin’ nectar and pollan.

Red radishes

Golden radishes

Cantelope

Bean blossom.

Bush (I think!) beans

Bean row

Peppers

Yellow pear tomatoes

A larger variety (the name escapes me at this point).

A beautiful tomato blossom.

Flowers that look like they’re dying. 😦

Raspberries

Peaches!

Mom’s Mother’s Day gift

Comfrey

Virtual “Gardening”

Golden radishes!

As you may know, I (Phoebe) am currently out of town, and unavailable to tend to our Back to Eden garden.  But, thanks to my wonderful family back at home, I’ve been able to “garden” virtually.  🙂  Through pictures, and a couple live Skype video chats, I’ve been able to experience our garden in a whole new way!  Unfortunately, it’s not quite the same – you can’t pick up the water hose, and give the garden a good spray down, or dig your hands down deep into the earth.  But, even still, I’ve seen the garden grow, from afar!

It’s pretty awesome.  The tomatoes are growing big and strong, and blossoms and tiny tomatoes are already showing.  The onions are big, and it’s almost time to harvest them.  One has already been harvested, and it was about the size of a baseball!  (I’m so excited!!)  The radishes are growing well, too – we need to get some more seeds planted, so that we’ll have some later in the summer.  Unfortunately, the peppers aren’t doing too well (as reported from my family!), and some of the herbs aren’t doing well either.

But, overall, it looks like the garden is doing great!  I’ll get to see it in person tomorrow – maybe, just maybe, I’ll have enough time to make a short video.
In the meantime, you’ll have to be satisfied with these photos.  🙂

My dear Mom and Dad. Not quite sure what they were doing with this garden-fresh onion, but it’s a cute picture, nonetheless! 🙂 Mom was a gardener long before I was, and really instilled in us the importance of gardening. She also made it fun!

These babies are gettin’ big!

A red radish.

Some unripe raspberries.

Tomato cages are a must-have when growing tomatoes!

Our little raspberry patch. It’s so cute, isn’t it?! 🙂

I believe this is a yellow pear tomato plant.

Lettuce galore!

Soil Therapy

Working in the garden is sort of like therapy.  There’s just something about it that’s good for your body, mind and soul.  Maybe it’s the sunshine, or working the rich, black soil.  Or maybe it’s just being out in the fresh air, and interacting with God’s beautiful creation.  I don’t know, but I love doing it!

Yesterday, my sister Abby and I worked on getting some more things started in the garden.  We planted (all in seed form) beans, radishes, okra, and cantaloupe.  I planted four squash seedlings that I started about a week ago.  I’m just hoping and praying all the seeds I planted will spring up and grow big, strong and healthy!  Oh, we also planted eight of the raspberry plants, and have to expand the bed to plant the rest of them.  We’re going to add some string or rope to the clothes line poles and grow the vines up on them.  And, a couple days ago Mom and Dad transplanted our fig tree from it’s pot to the ground.  So, we have quite a garden going here in the bustling suburbs of Dallas, Texas!

Joel works on dismantling some old pallets.

Joel is such a hard worker! He built all the potato boxes from wood off of old pallets.

It’s not property of Coca-Cola any more!

The raspberry patch.  Looking forward to seeing these guys go crazy!!

The micro greens have grown even more since I last blogged.

Just look at the beautiful, vibrant green! It’s so beautiful.

Oh, and to add to our little homestead / backyard garden, we have a large peach tree filled with unripened peaches.  Grandma has had this peach tree in the backyard for as long as I can remember, and it’s produced very well for a long time!  

Up close: raspberry leaves.

Our little space for the potted plants. It gets plenty of sun in the morning and early afternoon, and then shade for the rest of the day. Lettuce and herbs are growing there.

Up close: Comfrey leaves.

You know, I’m not sure what these flowers are from. One of the herbs, I believe.

A baby cabbage plant.

Italian Parsley

My handy-dandy clip-board has accompanied me on many a gardening venture.

Sunflower seeds are a fun thing to keep your mouth occupied. 🙂  (And, no, these aren’t from our garden!)  

The bean plot.

The future spot (hopefully!) of many a cantaloup vine!

See those four little green plants? Those are the squash plants. 🙂

The radish rows.

And, last but not least, the okra spot.

I’m happy! Hope all your gardening pursuits are going well!

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