What's Growin' On?

About 12 years ago daughter #3 was just a toddler. At that time we didn't have a garden or anything but she instinctively knew what to do with a lemon seed she found while I was making something or another. She stuck that seed into some dirt and lo and behold if a little sprout didn't soon pop up. All of these years we've been growing her lemon tree in hopes that it would produce lemons. Each year went by without nary a trace of a bloom. In fact, we really just kind of forgot about the idea.

Normally each fall before the first frost we drag that heavy old pot into the house and end up poking ourselves with the thorns on the branches that stick out into whatever spot we put it. It doesn't take too long before I have to prune it so that we can walk around it without getting hurt. This past fall though, we had our office in town which has 12 foot ceilings and lots of windows. We decided to load the tree up in our little pickup truck and bring it in here for the winter.

Last week I was walking to the door (in the office) and looked over at one of the branches and noticed this little tiny green lemon sticking out. Then we found several blooms here and there. Everyone was so excited to hear the news!! Now whether that little lemon really matures into a lemon worth eating/using is another story. Thinking maybe we need another variety or something if we want noteworthy lemons.




Beautiful blooms and so very fragrant!!

Other news around our farm is that our Shetland ewe had a little lamb--a ewe. She's absolutely adorible!! She's black like her mom with little white spots on her head. We are trying to make sure that we handle the lamb so she won't be people shy. We have a another ewe that is nearly impossible to get near which makes deworming and shearing a nightmare. And speaking of shearing, we need to get these guys done!! It's getting warm outside.




Aaaww!!







We've been working hard to get yard and garden work done. It had been raining so often that it's been hard to keep up and things look a bit wild around our place. So far we have our potatoes, peas and cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli planted in the back yard garden area. I decided to something fun in the backyard this year--I planted a sunflower house. It's a 12 foot square area with the perimeter planted in tall, heirloom sunflowers. There is a 3 foot doorway for entry and also a "courtyard" (just an extended 12 foot section along each side with the front being left open). When the sunflowers are tall enough we will trellis our pickling cucumbers up the stalks and plant shorter, colorful mixed sunflowers in front of all of the taller ones. This will make a pretty full hedge for the kids to have their own little playhouse. It will also make for a cool spot to pick the cucumbers in the inside. It may well even turn into a nice, quiet spot for me as well. I love to just sit and listen to the bees humming around the sunflowers. I'll post a picture of the progress--providing the sunflowers come up at all. Our soil isn't the best--lots of clay.

In the area next to our barn we have loads of strawberries ripening up and the tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet) and pole beans are planted. I still need to put in a few rows of bush beans. Missed putting out the carrots and onions this year due to the rain though I had planted some multiplier onions in the strawberry beds last fall. They look really nice. And my garlic that I planted last fall looks just gorgeous!!

So that's a bit of what's growin on around our place!! ;-)