how does your garden grow?

I love my house. I love spring. There has just been so much progress in the yard these last several months. You should come over and see. Or just look at the pictures.

Here's the front bed. This one is for the butterflies. And hummingbirds and happy little bees. The potted plant is the new lime tree. It won't end up living there but will go in the only bed we haven't finished prepping. I'm very excited the flag is up again. That crazy tornado-like storm we had awhile back ripped it and the holder off the porch.

Still the front of the porch. I love how this garden blends from one plant to the next (except in the area shown above--things are still filling in there). The little purple ball flowers in the foreground are new this year. They like it here. In the picture after that, the purple flowering bush is new, too. That one has probably quadrupled in size since I planted it probably around February. I love it. I think I put in several new purple plants because that seems to be the dominant color of San Diego flowers. I'm easily influenced.

Then we have gardenias. These flowers smell great and are obviously blooming but the plants themselves don't look too hot. I'm thinking the soil needs to be amended. And maybe I'll hack them down to be short little guys after they quit blooming. I love them outside because they greet you on either side of the front steps but their smell is a little too overwhelming for my allergies when I bring them indoors. I did use several of them in my bridal portrait bouquet which was pretty cool. (The pics that I've seen so far have turned out fantastic. I wish I could share.)

When I moved in to the house there were tons of overgrown herbs in the back part of one of the beds. We ripped all of that out and now have these guys. Much more manageable. I used some of them for the first time this weekend.


Last year we planted two tree babies. One of them isn't doing so hot. This one is doing great! He's still little but we took his "training wheels" off this weekend because he's probably tripled in height since we got him. Most of that growth has been this spring.

And the most exciting part is that we put some vegetables in the ground. Tomatoes, squash, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, strawberries, carrots, cantaloupe, watermelon, and corn.

The tomato plant has done great! These will be our first harvest.

I tell you, I'll be so excited if the corn grows. Their tiny little selves all in a row makes me pretty darn happy.