Garden time

Who would have thought that I would ever write about digging holes to plant trees? Even more amazing, I actually dug the holes and planted the trees.

Last weekend, my landscaper removed the last of the loquat trees from the back yard. No worries - they will return because about a million loquats dropped into the soil over the years. The landscaper also cut both bunches banana trees to the ground. These too shall return. Banana trees are like cockroaches - you cannot make them go away. But that's OK because I like the banana trees. They just need to be cut down periodically so that they can grow some more.

Now that my tropical foliage is gone, I had to start new growth. Last night I planted two thornless blackberry bushes, a pear tree, a second grapefruit tree, five tomato plants (all different varieties), and a jalapeno plant. Now we just need lots of rain to make the garden grow.

I picked 190 satsumas from a single tree in late 2008. Hurricane Ike knocked the lemon tree over (see photo), but we propped it up and I'm having a lemon in a vodka/soda right now. The grapefruit tree produced about 10 fruit this year, and I'm eating them as they fall to the ground. A banana pepper is on last year's plant; I need to pick it soon.

While I'm a city girl through and through, I do love my home-grown fruits and veggies. And I enjoy being in the yard working on them now. When the temperatures top 90F and the bugs return, it will be a different story.