Spring Came Early

It's been about two weeks since I have updated. I had envisioned updating more frequently, but, as you know, life happens. There has been outstanding weather here in Denton for weeks, so disc golf, spring cleaning, and back yard drinking have reentered the repertoire of activities. My income tax return afforded me new plants, and things are looking up for the backyard garden.

Driving home with a lemon tree wedged in with me was not entirely unpleasant.
Luckily, Meador Nursery is located near the homestead.

 I bought a lemon tree for $50. It was quite an investment! I've never bought a plant so expensive in my life, but I believe my skills are up to the task.

The fig tree came from Four Seasons Nursery.
At the time, they were waiting on a shipment of everything else.

I also bought a fig tree. This was only $30; again, it was quite an investment, but I think I'm up to it.

 I also threw $25 at a grape vine. It looks like a stick in the ground, but the guy at the nursery assured me that it would grow. I'm going to make some sort of trellis or use a tomato cage and plant this in the large metal planter I dug up in the last post.

The triumphant arrival at home.

In addition to the plants, I bought some rooting hormone for propagation from cuttings and molasses for encouraging beneficial microbes in the compost. There's an old guy who I see at work just about every day who listens to a radio show called Dr. Dirt, and he had been telling me for weeks to put molasses on my compost. I saw it at Meador, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was only $9.

Basic instructions for composting can be found here.
A more detailed guide for composting can be found here.

With the compost conditioned, the new items at home, and spring in the air, it was time to start getting everything situated.

I can't wait until the lemons ripen!

Chloe being good

Lemons, figs, and grapes require full sun, so I put them in the sunniest spot in the yard

Luckily, one place in the yard gets plenty of sun- even when the leaves come back to the trees.

I pulled off about half of the lemons because the branches were hanging low.
It probably would have been best to have pruned all of them off, but I want lemons soon!

Something you may not know about lemon trees: the flowers smell great!

I'm going to wait until early April to re-pot everything so that it will be a less cumbersome task
if I have to take them in from the cold. Big if.

I like the look of citrus and cacti

I checked the 10-day forecast and saw no danger of frost, so I moved everything back outside

Keeping plants indoors for the winter was challenging, but bringing them back outside has its own set of challenges.

I built a trellis for the Swedish ivy by jamming posts into the side of the pot and using twine to hold it in place

All of the plants

Too much sun was shocking for a few leaves on the Swedish ivy

The ficus cuttings got a little burned. I have since moved them under the porch.

The crown of thorns got a little burned

Burned aloe and pothos

These cacti seem to be doing ok

Lonely snake plant. Kelly moved a table over here and set the plant on it

I thought it would be shadier here. I thought wrong.
The aloe turned brown, but after a few days out of the sun, it's greening back up

This pineapple looks rough. I'm not sure what I need to do to get it looking better, but I'll investigate.

Cabbage!

I buried this rose in the planting bed, and didn't expect to see from it again.

All it needs are some plants

Ye olde garage. We just finished cleaning it out and turning it into a hangout spot and workshop!

Hanging plants

The porch roof is translucent enough for these plants to thrive

Spider plant

Wandering Jew

Cucumber Cactus

More wandering Jew

Whiteface and Chloe investigate the Christmas tree we got from the neighbor

The back yard is especially cool at night

What's this?

Bonfire!

Yes. It was bright and hot.

Also fleeting.

I can't wait for the next fire!
Neither can Chloe

Kelly brought these foreign drinks, both very good, for our afternoon enjoyment

Last year's elephant ear bubls

This year's toilet garden

Good dog?

We made the brooms accessible. I think it has decorative value as well.

The white-faced cat

Wal-Mart bird feeder. I don't' expect it to last too long.

Scat enjoys garden-fresh catnip!

They look kinda bad in this pic, but they look better already

I liked the idea of a cat perch, and I also needed to get rid of the shelf bracket.
Win-win!

The plant stand

Kelly planted onions here 2 years ago and they're just now sprouting!
Patience pays off

The herb garden before

The herb garden after weeding

From left to right: Vera Jameson stonecrop, wild onions, rosemary, mint, and catnip

Rosemary, mint, catnip

Wild onion

Overall, the past two weeks have been great! Though some of my plants retained some sun damage, more have showed growth and I have not lost any. Today it's raining hard and I fertilized my cacti so that the fertilizer would soak in better and so that I didn't risk over-watering. Though I should have probably started some seeds already, I'll be doing that next. With the garage pretty much clean, there are just a few more organizational tasks left before everything is in order and ready for the coming season.
There are still no freezing temperatures in the extended forecast!