I spent several hours in the garden this morning, picking fruit.
I picked Mission figs, Royal apricots, Apache blackberries, Red Flame Grapes, Dorsett Golden Apples, and white alpine strawberries.
Tonight I’ll pick more apricots and blackberries, towards the end of the day when the sun is going down.
I love the fruit we receive from the garden in June.
Would you like to see my garden? I will be having a tour on Saturday, March 14th, from 10 a.m. to noon. The weather should be beautiful. The tour is a 2-hour class, where I’ll teach about gardening in the desert, including soil, drip irrigation, choosing fruit trees, pruning, thinning, what grows well for me,…
Spring and fall are the best time to plant fruit trees in a garden. They’re also a great time to find fruit trees on sale at your local nursery. If you’re ordering from a catalog, you will most likely need to order in spring, as most fruit trees only ship in spring. First, you’ll…
The white garden is very green right now. In a few days it will be full of flowers; even as I write this, several tulips have opened, and there are roses that will open within the week. Here are some scenes from the garden from a couple of days ago: The Katy apricot tree…
It’s been a long time since I shared pictures of the backyard garden. It is so incredibly beautiful right now. The fruit trees are in bloom in the garden, and if you stand still, you can hear the bees and see them work. The birds have been enjoying the garden, too. I’ve…
When I told my neighbors I was planting thousands of flowers in my small front yard, they looked at me in disbelief. Most people put in a few flowering perennials here and consider their yard done–if they have any flowers at all. Annuals are rare here, and bulbs are almost complete strangers in our rock-landscaped…
Before we started We are making progress on the front yard. We waited a long time for the HOA to approve everything, and once they did, we got started right away. So far it’s been a lot of moving dirt. The tree and bushes were chopped up and taken to the dump in…
So abundant! I’m sure your family will enjoy it all.
I’ve only picked a few strawberries so far, but our local fruit isn’t in season yet. I am waiting impatiently…..
We’ve had so much rain here in TX that my peaches and plums are tasteless. The last storm knocked what we had left on these 2 trees off.
I have 4 apples on one tree. The other apple tree dropped all of the fruit.
The pear tree seems to be okay.
The strawberries did nothing.
My tomatoes have 3 tomatoes on one of 4 plants.
The grapes…well…I haven’t seen them in a few days. There was some fruit there, but I don’t hold out much hope.
*laughing* It is a sad state of affairs, but there is always next year.
Your fruit looks wonderful.
Great pictures.
The birds have gotten to several of the grapes, and they’re on the other fruit, too. My tomatoes are about the same as yours but I’m hoping from some improvement with them over the next couple of months.
Are you still harvesting your peaches and plums? You can always freeze them to add to smoothies with store-bought fruit.
I picked squash, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers from my garden today!! I also bought 50lbs of squash and 50lbs of cucumbers for $40 from a local farmer. All of this was because of you Brandy!! You have taught me so much. Now I have lots of work ahead of me making bread and butter pickles!!!
I’m envious! Love seeing the bounty of your hard work. Beautiful composition, too, as always.
Wow, what a deal! Have fun making pickles!
We are headed to southern Utah tomorrow for 2 weeks and I’m excited to see all the produce and chicken eggs at my sister’s farm! These pictures make me realize how wonderful and gracious God is!
I live in northern Illinois so my garden is just getting going. I have been able to harvest lettuce and green onions. i will be planting more seeds this weekend. In a week or two we will have black raspberries and mulberries. Your fruit looks delicious!
I pitted 3 gallons of tart cherries today. We’ll have 20 pints of jam, and more cherries for the freezer. There are still more on the tree. Those will be I’m the freezer. I’m glad things come in just a few at a time so I have time to put them up!
Beautiful!
Tonight we ate some blackberries from last year that I froze to make room for this year!
Strawberries would normally be starting about now in this area. I have not seen any on the stands yet, and I’m usually the first one in line! Strawberries and peaches are my favorite fruits. My husband prefers blueberries, which he is eating daily on cereal, but they are not local ones yet. I am getting poor germination from my garden seeds, and I’m just hoping the two inches of rain we had last weekend didn’t wash them all around the garden. There are things coming up, but some of them are a grassy weed–despite the Preen I put on the garden before I planted. The rest are still too small to identify. The morning glories in the porch boxes are doing the best. Still have a package of zinnas from seed I hope to plant this weekend. Just not enough time to go around this time of year! I was also thinking about bread and butter pickles this week. I just love them, although I’m supposed to stay on low sodium. Wondering if one small batch spread out for the next year would do me much harm? I won’t have to decide quite yet, as there are no cucumbers ripe yet anyhow.
Over the past year I have started planting fruit trees and bushes. Thank you for the inspiration. 🙂 Every day this week I have picked a handful of blackberries. The other blackberry bush I planted last year has berries all over it but not ripe??? We planted another blackberry bush today. Hoping next year to have enough to make jam. The birds are eating the blueberries. Any idea how to keep them away?
We picked about five plums this week, but they are so small. About the size of a ping pong ball. Strawberries aren’t doing so well. I guess the first season isn’t a good time for harvest. Grape vine planted last summer. Nothing from it yet. I DID get 5 squash today.
Your fruit looks so good. One of these I hope to gather like that.
Did you thin your plums? If not they will be small. Also, some type of plums are pretty small, even if you’ve thinned. Mirabelles are tiny plums–good, but almost like cherries in size.
You can net your blueberry bush. Even some tulle would work.
Strawberries are better the second year.
Grapes take 2 to 3 years to start producing–usually three, but it depends on how you train it.
I’m glad you’re getting squash! They are so difficult for me. I have had years with 5 plants and only 3 squash. I just replanted since I don’t have any plants in the garden anymore; the zucchini died/didn’t come up, and the butternut squash were eaten as soon as they came up. All of the seedlings I started indoors for squash died.
The blackberry bushes may not ripen at the same time. That’s okay,
Those are beautiful pictures. I know that will make some wonderful meals for your family. My husband picked some squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers last night. I have some work to do with that today as I know there will be more tomorrow. Our tomatoes are so big this year we had to make some new tomato cages to hold them up. We are having a good tomato year this year because we have been blessed with extra rain and it has not hit the high 90’s yet. Normally by now we would be in the 98-100 degree weather and the tomatoes just quit. I hope to make some good salsa and some sauce with the tomatoes this year.
We lost a peach tree to the bad weather. It was a large tree over 15 foot tall, it had peaches on it, but they were not ripe yet, and the wind picked that tree up out of the ground and laid it on the side of our garage like it was a tooth pick. The peaches are like rocks still. My husband will cut the tree up for using in our bbq pit. At least we will get some use from it. That leaves us with 1 tree. I will have to replace it.
I checked my Lady Banks white rose yesterday. I think it drowned in all the water we had. It seems dead, but I will hold off on it before I pull it out of the ground. I got it at Red Barn here in town and they will replace it with in 2 years if I have the sales ticket and return it. (I keep those things) I was sure wanting that rose bush to grow on our garden shed.
Enjoy that fruit. My neighbor has a fig tree in her back yard. I may visit her and offer a trade of some tomatoes for a few figs. Your figs look yummy.
What a beautiful harvest! I love your baskets! Where did you get them? We are just getting our garden in this weekend. It will be our first one at this house. I’m not expecting too much from it since it will be brand new this year but we shall see. A little is better than nothing!
Wow! What an amazing harvest! I hope one day to have a garden as beautiful and bountiful as yours. Right now I have just a few green tomatoes on my plants and I am trying so hard to let them ripen rather than making fried green tomatoes!
I have had lettuce salads 2 times now from our garden. Because the peas have done so poorly, due to slugs eating the plants when small, we have just eaten the peas raw off the bushes when the few that are left ripened. However, much of what I planted last week should poke up soon. It rained a bunch, then is going to be sunny and warm today! Now, if the birds and slugs leave that alone…..The slugs have killed most of the marigolds I planted. I went out there one day, saw seriously up to 5 slugs devouring each little plant, and put down a lot of slug bait, but the damage was done. Hopefully my baby sweet peas made it through the night!
Although I’m fascinated with pioneer life, there are times I’m very thankful that I don’t have to be as self-sufficent as they were!
Add me to the jealous list lol!!! My mouth was watering over those apricots. I haven’t had one since we moved from California. We had a tree. Once you’ve tasted homegrown, there’s just no going back to store bought.
I tried a small garden this year, just to get my feet wet. I planted romaine & kale. I’ve already used both & plan to make a big salad with them this weekend. I also have cherry tomatoes in whiskey barrels so we’ll see how those will go. After way too much rain, they finally flowered in the sunshine this week.
We have a you-pick blackberry farm up the road a couple of miles. I’m thinking that if they grow that well here, I’m gonna try a couple of those bushes next year. Brandy, do they need supports or a trellis? I’m in central KS, if that makes any difference.
I’m so happy for you! What an abundant harvest and what a blessing! I am really looking forward to being in a permanent place so that I can plant trees and vines and bushes, etc. Right now all we have is a few tomato and pepper plants and some blackberry bushes. Our garden is at my mom’s house. But one of these days I will be able to grow what my family eats too. 🙂
your pics are gorgeous Brandy! Enjoy your harvest!
Beautiful harvest!
I don’t think you can use preen till after your seeds have sprouted. I think it stops the (weed) seeds from germinating. Maybe it is preventing the good seeds too.
Preen stops germination…
What a harvest! I was able to pick a bowlful of lettuce this morning and a handful of radishes. We are always excited with our first harvest. I think though if I had yours I would fall over! Have a great morning.
Wow…What a harvest! This is one area that you inspire me so much. I would LOVE to put in a bunch of fruit trees and berry bushes, but I have to wait until I have my own place. My mom’s property has too many mature trees to even consider trying it here.
We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of strawberry season, which should start sometime this month. The harvest you have doesn’t come until August/September. I’m looking forward to making more jam!
We are harvesting asparagus, radishes, lettuces and greens. That is just about right for this time of year in our location, so we are quite happy. 🙂 Late frosts have probably ended our fruit crops for this year.
Your figs look wonderful. What do you do with them? When I’m lucky to find them I just eat them as is.
Looks like a bountiful year for you, Brandy! Right now all we have to harvest in our garden is greens, rhubarb and asparagus. But judging from the amount of blossoms on our fruit trees, it looks like it will be a good year for fruit. Except the grapes and blackberries that had a severe setback from the last two frigid winters.
This is beautiful! I can’t wait for our blackberries to start ripening, though it won’t be for another month or so. We’re enjoying pesto with our basil right now, and we’ve begun harvesting sage and blackberry leaves to dry for cooking and tea.
our peach tree has 3 peaches on it..and it has been infested..next year i have to see what i can do for whatever attacks it every year…my apple trees (5.00 each a few years back) are now over 7 ft tall…and one flowered..so i’m anxious to see what happens…i have access to neighbours blueberries…at least 20 gallons of them these year….we just ordered 4 bushes of the same (we hope) and we’ll plant them on our side since they like that area (at some point new renters will want them for themselves) , also ordered, dwarf, lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, and pomegranate…(i already have the large pots to plant them in…and 4 “sand” cherries… and another rhubarb. Groundhog got all 100 crowns of asparagus…grrrrr…sorry ONE survived…lol…so we’ll be looking into that next year with a “cage” over them….the strawberry bed that has been ignored for the last 3 years…is doing great amongst all the weeds..so that will get moved…and found some heat tolerant tomatoes..so we’ll see how that goes. the wild blackberries are PROLIFIC this year….so if i can beat the birds i’ll pick them, then rip them out….i was so excited a few years back to see them growing and now they are killing everything.. Learning to garden in Virginia is way differnt than gardeining in northern ONTARIO..but i’m getting there…
have you made white alpin jam with those berries..and when do you know if they are ripe??? do they produce LATER than their counterparts??
Thank you for your response. I don’t remember the name of the plum tree. We planted it last year and only got those 5 plums.
I used to think squash was the easiest to grow. NOT . since moving from KY to MS, we haven’t had much luck.
Tulle. didn’t think of that.
Garage sales ad thrift stores. I saw another like this for $2 at the thrift store yesterday. I’ve also received a few as gifts.
Seeing your blackberries reminded me of this recipe. I haven’t made it myself yet, but it sure sounds good!
Berry Butter
Put 1/4 c. berries, 1/8 t. salt, and 1/2 c. softened butter in the bowl of a food processor. Process until well combined. Refrigerate the mixture in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Delicious on bread, scones, bagels, or English muffins.