My Garden

I had jury duty today--but by some fluke, all the trials were settled and the whole group got to go home by 10:30, making for a  bunch of happy people (at least I think everyone wanted to somewhere other than the courthouse).  So now I have time to write a bit about my garden!

I'm from Colorado, and no matter how long I live here, and like it, I will always consider Colorado my true home. But it is hard to grow things in Colorado. It's the dirt, the altitude, the weather...so when we moved south I was amazed at how much stuff grows here with little effort. Plants that were houseplants in Colorado, grow easily outside down here. My biggest problem is pulling up anything that is green and thriving-hence I have a somewhat overgrown yard!
When we first moved in I began planting roses. The heirloom, "found" variety, and I love them. They are relatively easy to care for and are beautiful. Of course I hate to prune them for fear that they won't grow back--they do. They bloom pretty much all year and attract the butterflies.

I also got into vines and have found that once you stick a vine in the ground it is pretty hard to get rid of it, they just keep popping up around the yard. I thought the passion vine was gone since the bamboo was providing so much shade, but it is growing  up the bamboo to the light, full of beautiful purple flowers for the Gulf Fritillary butterflies.

A few years we planted a Meyer Lemon tree. Every year we have gotten 6-8 lemons. I don't know what happened this year, but the thing is loaded with lemons! I'm actually going to have to cook with them this year. I'm seeing lemon souffles and lemon bars in my future.

This is my tin goat. He is probably as close to a herd of goats as I'm going to get (I love goat cheese)!

And this is one of the many critters living in our yard. This little one is so cute! 

So that is a brief rundown of my garden. We put a  couple of tomato plants in, and although they have blooms, I haven't seen any tomatoes yet. The basil, parsley and thyme are doing well,  and I must say, I can REALLY grow oregano!