Gulf Fritillary Butterfly loves to lay eggs in my Passion Vine

Carrot Thinning is Brutal....But Necessary

Okay, I admit it.  I hate to thin carrots, turnips, beets, lettuce...you name it.  Every time I have to pull up a plant it just hurts.  Other years I have done what I needed to do.  This year something happened inside of me and I could not bring myself to thin them.  I talked myself into believing that they would have enough room.  I knew better.  So what happened?  A bumper crop of "baby carrots".  Not bad, but not really what I was after.

Tomato Still Life

There is just nothing like a nice basket of fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Tomatoes

I planted Better Bush, Better Boy, Cherrie Sweetie, and some unknown variety that I bought at a garden store. It was sold to me as a Better Boy set, but the fruit sure is not a Better Boy tomato.  I wonder if this has happened to other people.

Wasps and Peas

I do not have many honey bees showing up these days, but carpenter bees and a wide assortment of wasps makes up for it.  The wasps love my crowder peas!

Mississippi Silver Crowder Peas Going Crazy

Gardenias - The Aroma of Magic

Scarlet Runner Beans Beautiful and Tasty

May 8th. My Mother's Birthday

Spicebush SwallowTail - Papilio troilus

Great crop of Yellow summer squash

Dragon Fly on Pineapple Guava

April Garden Video

Clck here

Thursday Night's Storm Damage

The wind took down a big oak tree. Fortunately there was no injury to us, the main part of the house or the garden.  In fact the tree falling opened up a new sunny area for vegetables and flowers to grow.

Pictures of the tree damage - click here

Springtime in My Lake Helen Garden

 Snapdragons, Dianthus, Gallardia

 Cabbage from the winter

 Lettuce in the strawberry pot

 Spinach, Red Majesty and Butter Crunch Lettuce

Late February

 Mississippi Silver Crowder Peas in foreground

Late March

Late February

 Blue Lake Pole Beans

Late March

 Nothing more hea

venly than orange blossoms

 orange blossom time

 the fragrance of The LORD

 Fairytale Eggplants in pots this year

Late February





Late March

 L to R: Moctezuma cucumbers, Cherrie Sweetie tomatoes still in pots, Better Boys up and going

 Imperator Carrots

Late February

Late March

carrots with Yellow Crookneck Squash in the back 

Bumper Crop of Turnips!!!!

White Hakure Turnips did great for us this year.  Taste is superb.  Dug the final ones yesterday. All these you see and more were grown in a 4' x 4' area of a raised bed.  Planted in September.  Been munching on them all winter.

Camellia in February

In some ways it looks like not much is happening in the garden in February.  Most things are happening behind the scenes.  Seedlings are growing, soil is being prepared, and brown stuff dead is being cleaned up little by little.  But we have one bright spot early in the month.  Our Camellia by the back door endures all of the January cold and shows off all by itself.