Fruit!

BLUEBERRIES!

I never cease to be amazed by nature. I get really excited to see things blossom and fruit. Yes, I've done this before, and yes, it is still amazing. The miracle of life. When I first see the signs of fruit, I usually throw my hands in the air and shout, "Blueberries!" or "Cucumbers!" like Tom Hanks shouting "Fire!" in the movie Castaway. I do this every year.

Last spring, I planted two blueberry bushes (of different varieties) at the base of my porch, which is partly shaded, so I wasn't sure how they would fare this year. One of my plants has done just fine--there are plump berries all over it. Yay!

The other bush only produced a few berries, which dried up right away. I don't know why. Does one get more sun than the other? Is one variety more resilient than the other? It would've made sense to label them, but I never got around to it, so I don't know which is which. But I read that the two varieties I have (Bluecrop and Bluejay) have different colors of leaves in the fall, so I'll get back to you on that.

Patio cucumbers growing ... on my patio! Yay! I may not need to self-polinate this year. I mean hand-polinate.

CUCUMBERS!

And strawberries! I'm not expecting much from this everbearing crop. (Shady yard.) I grew them in containers on my porch last year, and they grew pretty well, but chipmunks and squirrels and slugs and who knows what else ate them. I tried putting chickenwire fencing (*chicken* fencing, not chipmunk fencing--that was my mistake!) around them, but it didn't keep out the little critters.

In the fall, I planted them in the ground so the roots wouldn't freeze over the winter. They came back nicely, and are producing fruit. I'm sure we're in for another battle with the critters.

STRAWBERRIES!

Dandelion Gardening

My front garden needed some attention. There were tremendous weeds growing in it and little else. I was pulling out dandelions larger than I had ever seen! And I was struck with an idea. I have paid good money to *buy* dandelion greens; why not add these to my salad?!?

The garden bed was close to the house, and not near the street, so I wasn't concerned with contamination from car exhaust. With gusto, I began pulling up the big weeds in my dandelion farm, and asked my daughter to wash them so we could eat them. It was almost as exciting as actual gardening! After they were washed, I dried them with towels and kept them in the fridge until dinner.

Dandelion greens are peppery, and they can overwhelm the salad, so I mixed just a few of the leaves in with romaine lettuce. We were really excited that we got some very healthy produce *free* that we almost threw in the compost bin.

Jelly (my greens-eater) was eating them right out of the ground. I had to remind her to save some weeds for dinner!

Hello, Spring!

 Wow! I love spring! I love seeing all the green leaves and sprouts poking out of the ground--abounding life!

Lily of the Valley

Blueberry Blossom

Hosta

Mourning dove fledgling

Azalea

I am not much of a gardener (see my previous attempts at gardening), but every spring, I love to plant, dig, and watch things grow. The miracle of life right before our eyes! Food from the earth! (I'm easily pleased and easily amazed. And that's a good thing.)

Last year we grew blueberries

 and pole beans (I was totally amazed at the tiny, twisting vines ... reaching, climbing) ;

and oregano and strawberries. My harvest was modest, since I have a shady yard, and my plants don't really get enough sun, and most of my "bounty" (I say that with a full-on smirk) was stolen by squirrels, birds, and other varmints.

I do mostly container gardening, since that allows me to move the plants around to where the sun is. Last fall, I transplanted the oregano and strawberries to the ground so they would survive the winter. I'm looking forward to seeing if they survive shade and creatures this summer.