Z Good Life

our very own apples

The dwarf gala apple tree is finally really starting to produce. For the past few years, we would get a handful of tiny apples. This year, we had a huge bumper crop! Well, at least I think it's a bumper crop. That young tree gave us a heaping 5-gallon bucket.

Just before they ripened all the way, they looked like this:

I know. Yummy, right? When I took this photo, they were still quite tart and a little green just beneath the skin. A couple of weeks later, they were ripe and delicious -- and 9 out of 10 apples were marred by brown scabs. The scabs didn't affect the flavor, but they certainly didn't look as pretty. We shared lots of "pretty" apples with the neighbor children. These apples are just the perfect size for even a small child to grab off the tree and snack on. It was great fun to see our neighbor's 20-month-old daughter walk up to the tree, pick an apple, and start munching away!

As for those scabby apples -- into the pot for applesauce they go!

pretty in pink

Many years ago, Summer threw a pouch of mixed flower seeds in the dirt behind the garage. It ended up looking like a weed patch with a few colorful blooms. Since then, it's been a vegetable garden a few times. Other times, it's lain fallow because no one has put forth the effort to clear it out for veggies and/or flowers. This has been one of those years. Summer cleared out the garden for veggies early in the spring, but things changed when she injured her knee and scheduled surgery.

I walked behind the garage a few weeks ago to several of these puffy pink poppies. There they were, standing tall and proud in a jungle of weeds! They look like they're made of pink tissue paper -- very showy. I waited until they went to seed and sprinkled HUNDREDS of seeds in the "naked" spot in the flowerbed next to the house. I wonder if they'll grow. Guess we'll find out next summer!

loony bin

That's Luna's nickname. She is a bit loony, so it suits her. Especially when she gets that Siamese "cross-eyed" look.

I've probably posted a picture like this before, but I can't help it. So cute! She's sleeping in my potted Asian pear tree on the deck. The tree is dropping its tiny undeveloped pieces of fruit, which makes me sad. I wonder what's going on.

sun, sun, glorious sun!

Well, our little neck of the woods nearly made it into the record books this spring. We have had the wettest, coldest, dreariest spring I can remember! As you can imagine, almost everyone spent the recent sunny weekend outside. 70F felt absolutely divine. I couldn't wait to plant flowers!

Erich made new flower boxes for the deck. The old ones started rotting, and a couple of different types of bees were making their homes inside them. He designed the new flower boxes to be larger and deeper so the flowers would develop strong, deep roots.

(photo credit: Erich)

I didn't realize how much dirt these babies held until I had to go back for potting soil not once but twice. I thought I had plenty for the flower boxes and flower pots. A bag containing 2 cubic feet doesn't actually go very far. Trust me.

I washed all of the flower pots, had plants waiting, but had no dirt. Bummer.

Check out the curly wurly grass in the middle! Isn't it a scream? My mom has a big one in her garden, and I have always admired its whimsical quality. I'd love to plant it in the ground, but for now I want to enjoy it on the deck.

 

 

mother's day

We went out to my mom's for a barbecue on Mother's Day. It was a great day of visiting, resting, and feeling loved and appreciated!

Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Mom. I know exactly where I'm going to plant them in our yard!

Lily and Elizabeth wore matching dresses and matching hairstyles to Grandma's house. So cute!

is it spring yet?

So I work 5 days this past week, and what do I do on the weekend? I work outside in the yard! There's only so much time on the weekend, and if it isn't raining (or snowing, or hailing, or blowing 60 mph), you have to take advantage!

Everyone worked outside. It was a beautiful thing! Erich pruned the apple tree. Jay and Lily cleaned up the branches. I cleaned up the flowerbeds and pulled weeds. I also divided two perennials that were getting way too big. Erich's mom gets half of the white astilbe. One friend has spoken for 1/3 of a purple aster-type flower. (I wish I could remember the name!) I have another 1/3 to give away to an interested party!

Summer decided to plant a vegetable garden this year. Last year she didn't feel like it, and it turns out we ALL missed having a garden! She spent the entire afternoon pulling weeds, and I helped her dig up the sod that had overtaken several square feet. I'm excited to have fresh home-grown vegetables this summer!

jekyll and hyde-rangea?

I know it doesn't look pretty now, but this hydrangea produces a profusion of gorgeous blue flowers in the Summer! It has gotten leggy and lanky over the past few years. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't know how to trim it back. One year I trimmed it back and it didn't bloom at all. So, I just left it to do its thing for several years, only cutting off the actual flowers when they died.

This Summer it almost overtook the entire flowerbed on that corner of the house. It lounged on my lilies and engulfed my astilbe! Something had to be done, so here's what I decided to do.

The lowest branches that were laying in the dirt got completely hacked off. Where I saw very full branches with several shoots, I thinned them out (especially if branches were crossing others). Any skinny branches coming from the rootball, even if they had produced a flower, were also hacked off.

I'm wary about doing any more chopping. Some of the branches are still really leggy, but I can do more trimming next season. If I do too much, it might not bloom again! I told my neighbor that I had no idea what I was doing, and hoped I wouldn't have a strange monstrous hydrangea next Summer. Since it's the beginning of October, the name Mr. Hyde-rangea seems fitting!

Here's a shot of the loony lemon tree. (Mr. Hyde-rangea is in the background.) It's doing very well outside, but we're not sure how it's going to do once it gets cold! If I weren't so frustrated with this crazy tree, I'd be tempted to bring it indoors until Spring. I'd be willing to bet money that it will drop almost all of its leaves if I bring it indoors. So OUT IT WILL STAY!

 

american beautyberry

Today I worked in the yard doing Fall cleanup. I put the fountain in storage for the Winter, pulled a few weeds, and cut back dead/dying foliage. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well my American Beautyberry is doing!

 

In July, this little shrub is covered in small purple flowers. It's cute, but not spectacular or anything. As Autumn approaches, the flowers turn into bunches of pretty little purple berries! Even when the leaves fall off, this plant will hold onto its colorful fruit, which will feed hungry birds during the Winter.

 

Aren't the berries pretty? I first noticed an American Beautyberry on the walk to/from school in our neighborhood. I thought it was such a neat idea to have something that held onto its color for the Winter.

Thank you to my mother-in-law for my beautiful beautyberry!
  

pear-fect

Our little grafted pear tree is producing a little more fruit this year. We have about 5 Asian pears (3 or 4 varieties) and 2 Bartlett pears.

 

See that little green plant next to the tree in the planter? I saw a peanut half buried in the soil, and as I picked it up the shell came off. Lo and behold, there was a peanut plant growing! (Thank you, neighborhood squirrels.) We are letting it grow to see what happens. Has anyone ever grown a peanut plant before?!

Here's a photo of one of the Asian pears:

 

It's fun and satisfying to grow fruit. Well, as long as no one steals it. I put a little sign at the base of our peach tree again this year, pleading with passers-by to not pilfer our peaches. It's working! We are already enjoying some of our tree-ripened peaches. YUM!   

doing just peachy

Our peach tree is doing just peachy! I'm watering it often. It's been so dry this Summer! I hope the water plumps the fruit up nice 'n juicy.

 
There's another Frost Peach tree in our neighborhood, and it looks much more lush than ours. I wonder why our tree doesn't have many leaves this year. Maybe it's because we didn't use fertilizer stakes. 

Here's hoping passers-by keep their paws off our peaches... *sigh* Peach poachers are the pits!!

*update* Our neighbor saw a squirrel stealing peaches this morning! Apparently the poachers of the furry variety aren't even waiting for the fruit to ripen.