Gardening updates

   I picked up 17 tomato plants, sweet pepper plants and jalapeno pepper plants as well as an assortment of flowers.  I added a large bag of potting soil for vegetables and flowers and a couple bags of mulch as well as a small ball of Rebel fescue  to my shopping cart. 

    When I got home I mixed a bag of sand and a couple pounds of Epsom salts with the  potting soil.  I dug 15 holes for the tomatoes and filled each hole with my potting soil mixture.  I filled two planters full of the mixture for my two patio tomato plants and put them on the back porch.  I also dug six holes, 3 each for my pepper plants.  After putting the plants into the hole I fished filling the holes with top soil and the with the dirt from the hole itself.  I put up the  basket on the back porch and filled it with potting soil mixture and flowers to attract hummingbirds.  I then filled two other pots with my potting soil mixture for the pots that go on the front porch. 
   
    I then took one bag of mulch and put around my two peach seedlings and some around the little dogwood I planted.  I then prepared my bald spots in the yard and  seeded them with my Rebel fescue.  I then cleaned up and put away all my tools and equipment.  I went in to take a break and swallow some cool refreshing liquid before I headed out to clean and vacuum my van but mother nature took care of the watering of the gardens and yard for me so I postponed the van until tomorrow. 

   I'm really excited about my yard this year.  Most of the fruit trees were planted from seed.  I dug my two water ponds by hand in the rock filled hard red clay.  When I first moved here the yard was so uneven it was hard to push a mower from one end to the other.  One side of the yard was almost bare and full of rocks while the other side was just bare.  It just didn't seem possible to get anything to grow and my yard was just as plain and barren and ugly as any yard in the neighborhood. 
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   I've been here 7 years now.  I have 11 peach trees, nine apple trees, 3 cherry trees, 12 grape vines, two blueberry bushes, and three blackberry bushes.     I also have 4 Bradford pear trees, a Bartlett pear tree, 2 dogwood trees, 4 crape myrtles, a holy trees, 4 holly bushes, 8 rose bushes, a butterfly bush, 3 Japanese holly bushes, 2 bushes with the yellow/green leaves, 2 Hawthorne trees, 5 pine trees,  2 Redbud trees, and 2 other trees I can't recall the name of. 

  I also have two water ponds, one 250 gallon pond for goldfish and one 1200 gallon Koi pond.  There are 4 bird houses, the garden around my water ponds, the 2 flower gardens in the front of the house, my rose garden I planted for my wife that extends between the two Bradford pear trees in the front yard, my phlox garden, my Iris garden on the hillside, my watermelon and cantaloupe garden, my tomato and cucumber garden, and my pumpkin garden. 

     That's not to shabby for a less that a 1/2 acre lot.  The fruit trees are just now beginning to flower out and hopefully I can get some fruit from them this year.  last year I think I pick 1 peach and 4 small apples.  One year two grape vines were loaded and two had a few small grapes.  Last year the one that had a few small grapes were loaded but the grapes were still small while the first two had just  few grapes that never seemed to ripen.    The best thing though is my yard is about to reward my years of hard work with natures beauty.