How Does Your Garden Grow?

William came in from mowing a couple days ago and told me that next year we need bigger, stronger tomato plant cages.  Two of my tomato plants had fallen over.  They are like tomato trees!  It's hard to believe how huge they are.  I have played around with having a garden in the past but have never succeeded in getting much fruit from my half-hearted labor.  

This year has been different.  Our whole family has put much more labor into having a garden this year, and the fruit is evident!  Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I walked out to the garden to see if William's stakes were holding the tomato cages up, and we found our first ready-to-be-picked zucchini!  And we picked it!  Josh and Matthew said, "You are a gardener!  You are a gardener!"  I planted 10 zucchini plants this year with the hopes that we would pick enough to get one loaf of bread.  Wellllll...from the looks of it, we will be having all sorts of zucchini side dishes and desserts!  And sharing many too.

The pictures below are some that I took back in early May when we were first planting, trimming, and weeding.  Things have changed a lot since then, but I don't have pictures of what everything looks like today.  This afternoon I'll head out and take some pictures of all the changes!  

We're going to start landscaping the side of our home this summer and fall.  For now we have planted a Pinky Winky Hydrangea and a couple Astilbe plants.  I'm hoping to put in different types of Hostas too.

My new baby Hosta...

And the more resilient Irises around the light post that the Lilies haven't crowded out...

The Ivy is going crazy and now so is the Chameleon Plant that I though had died out a couple years ago during the very dry summer of 2012.

Honeysuckle, Lemon Balm, Peppermint, and Lily of the Valley.
While I was weeding next to this flower bed, a hummingbird flew up to the Honeysuckle and started drinking!

Speedwell and Wild Strawberries.

The Burning Bush that one of our naughty dogs had chewed down to nearly nothing about 10 years ago...

Two years ago, I took a gardening class at church with a dear friend named Honie.  She taught us so many things.  One of the really fun things she told us about was garden teepees.  Carrie and I came home and told Paul and William about the teepee.  Before we knew it, they were building us one of our very own!  We weren't very successful with it our first couple years, but this year, Paul tilled up the garden around the teepee and I planted clematis and three of the pole beans that Josh stared in a gardening class that he participated in with our homeschool group.  Success!

And it is SO STINKIN' CUTE!

Our one remaining pumpkin plant.  I planted two seeds, but something got to the other one before we put up the fence.

These are the tomato plants that once looked so cozy in their great big cages.  Who would have guessed that they would grow so big that I wouldn't be able to find the cages!

I don't think that William was taller than the teepee two years ago when he and Paul put it up.

After losing one of the pumpkin plants and a zucchini plant to a hungry visitor, William and Carrie helped me put up the fence.  I was afraid that it wouldn't look as nice with a fence, but I like it better with the fence!

The Chocolate Chip Ajuga in our front flower bed still hasn't come back.  It has a few little purple blooms on it right now, but nothing like it used to have.

More Speedwell, some Wild Geraniums, Rose Bushes, and Live Forevers.

This is Carrie's beautiful Rose Bush.  I keep debating about whether I should transplant it somewhere where it might get more sun, but I am afraid that I might kill it.  I will probably just leave it here.  It seems happy.

This is the bird feeder that Matthew made for me last spring.  I don't put bird food in it for fear that the squirrels will try to get to it and break it.  It's just for pretty.

Mugs in a tree!  Don't ask me why.  I just have a few mugs that I think are so beautiful but never use them, so I decided to hang them in my Bald Cypress above the flower garden.  They are interesting and so pretty.

I love a pot of Red Geraniums in front of the house.

Well, Hi Daddy Cardinal!  What are you doing?

After watching him for a little while and waiting for the Momma Cardinal that I knew would appear, I saw the Momma fly into the Forsythia in front of my bedroom window.  There's a nest in there with at least one fuzzy baby!   I've never seen a Cardinal nest around our house!

Rose Moss!
It reminds me of my neighbor, Paula, who died ten years ago of cancer.  She always had some growing in a big pot outside her back door.  She also had some in a flower bed by the driveway.  Several years after she died, it appeared again in that bed.  Her husband, Jerry, said that he hadn't planted it there.  It just came back.  I like to plant it now.  It makes me think of Paula.

Here's the Chameleon Plant that has come back again.  I got it because I had read that it's intrusive...and that's what I wanted in this area.  It has the prettiest leaves and sweet little white flowers.  It is very intrusive...I'm having to work at keeping it from taking over the garden past the Forsythia.  And it's stinky when you pick it.  But I do love it.  I like that it surrounds the base of my Forsythia and helps the Forsythia to look grounded...like it won't get up and run away.

I am so excited about these guys!
Jonathan Apple Trees!  I planted two of them and also a Yellow Delicious Apple Tree for cross-pollination.  What a perfect pair!  One of Paul's favorite apples is the Yellow Delicious and my favorite is the Jonathan!  And they need each other!

I planted more Pole Beans at the base of the red trellis.
The clay pot is for holding my sun tea jar.

Zinnias!
Mom used to plant Zinnias at the front of her garden, close to the road.  She said it was so that nobody could see past them to see the weeds that grew.  I love Zinnias, because they remind me of home.  I cannot wait for them to begin blooming!

Mom also grew Cosmos along the side of the pole building.
So feathery and beautiful!

The Pole Beans!

This is Carrie's garden!  She dug it up and planted it herself this spring!  It's fun to have the whole family excited about planting and growing and enjoying their own "bit of earth."

Snapdragons!  My Grandma Bellman used to make them talk to me.

Carrie's Hobbit hole...

These are my raised beds.  The green one has herbs growing in it and the orange one has my very first successful Rhubarb plant!  It grew huge this year!

The window frame is from the farmhouse.

My favorite flower...TIGER LILIES!

William planted two more bunches on the other side of the bridge.  I have wanted to do that for years but have never gotten around to it.  All I had to do was mention it, and William was on it.  I love having the bridge surrounded by Tiger Lilies!

 I love gardening so much.  I remember when I was a kid and Mom would go out early in the morning to pull weeds and water her garden and flower beds.  I could never really figure out why it was so enjoyable.  As I've grown older, I've come to love it like she did.  And I can see why my Dad enjoyed farming so much.  I've always felt a little sad that I had a dad who farmed and a mom who gardened, and I couldn't grow a thing.  But when I harvested my first rhubarb this spring and when I picked my first zucchini yesterday, I felt like a true gardener.  When I look at the growing plants and the beautiful flowers, I see the glory of God and it reminds me of His love and faithfulness.