Friday, June 20, 2008

The ??? That Jack Built


It's under construction....here's a peek! What is it? Um, I'm not sure, but he's the mastermind and has a plan, so it should be great :) There is an eight foot box of something-or-other leaning against my living room wall and is destined to be part of this structure, so this should be interesting!


Someday these will be spilling over neat, orderly raised beds (ideally...) But for now, these buckets will continue to do dual duty...to grow and to transport to the homestead, when we have one.

The citrus part of Bucketville...Meyer lemons, key lime, persian lime, more meyer lemons...


This is Bucketville's beginner herb garden. The balm is trying to jump the wall ...the grass is always greener...


The very messy but quite tasty collection grows...

closeup of the lemon again...mainly because I can't believe we actually have real lemons on those little baby bucket trees...



Here is one of the two surviving grapevines...two bit the dust. These were just sticks a few weeks ago, but some hot sun and a lot of rain, and off they went!

This is another of my husband's serendipitous finds...a carambola, or starfruit tree! I'm always as tickled as he is when he stumbles across these discoveries...this one was a fraction of its original cost, and was the last good one at the store!

The herb we ordered and received recently...it has really taken off. Glad to see it thriving in this heat...it's been HOT out. It's showing no sign of stress and looks better than many of the other plants that are better established.


Jack brought this little Kiwi tree home today. He was at a favorite plant nursery (without ME, ahem...) and said the plant called to him when he walked by. He answered the call. Good thing I wasn't there because usually ALL the plants call to me, and he won't let me answer ;-) Or should I say, the answer is "see ya!"
I'm not posting here as frequently as I have recently, mainly because of the new job schedule. It may be a bit sporadic, but I'm not gone for good :) It's been physically demanding, but in a good way. There is also a whole different level of heat exhaustion, and many times I just want to sit in the cool and sip cold water and just chill out a bit longer.
Tonight's shabbat will be simple...we'll both likely be asleep quite early...we're bone tired! I've been up since 8 or so last night, and Jack's worked so hard this week both at work and around the house, mostly outdoors. There's homemade soup in the crockpot, and a roast in the oven, and now I'm calling it a night...and a week.
I hope everyone has a wonderful and restful evening and day tomorrow! I'm so grateful for that great feeling of having worked hard, and now getting to rest and spend time with family. I hope you have that same cozy feeling tonight as your week comes to a close, and rejuvenation begins :) To all my friends in the blogosphere, I hope to catch up with some much-missed and long-overdue blog reading in the next few days...I appreciate my friends here so much!
The blog's now closed till Saturday sundown....Shabbat Shalom!









6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, t-h-a-t lemon! I can't believe that lemon. Of course I've never had a lemon tree. But I have had many herbs. And they are the hardiest of creatures. Can't hardly torture them to death. Take it easy and retreat into well-deserved peace...
Brenda

Country Girl said...

Your plants look great! Have a great weekend! ~Kim

Anonymous said...

I love your photo of the single lemon in the bucket. xoxo, Joanna

Carolyn said...

Looking good!

How much do you water your containers and how often? I wonder if I am watering to much or not enough with mine.

Have a good day!
Carolyn

~plantain~ said...

What a great variety. The star fruit tree is cool.

Robbyn said...

Brenda, I'm surprised they'll make lemons and limes at this small stage...what a great surprise! Herbs are great, arent they? They really make a big difference in foods.

Kim, thanks! hope you had a good one!

Joanna, thanks! it's neat how it looks naturally waxy and the rain beads up on the surface...cool :)

Carolyn,
We water most of them every day, unless it rains (which it's been doing, thankfully!). Some of them need to dry out a bit more between waterings. We're new at this, so you have to guess based on how the plant's looking. They need feeding, too.

Plantain Patch...thanks! We love starfruit but seldom buy them since they're pricey. There's a neat sustainable project called the Florida House that has fruit trees incorporated into their regular garden, and their starfruits are big healthy garden trees, with LOADS of fruit. Can't wait to see if this one makes it to that point :)