Our Garden

    Our yard has two new additions to it- plum trees!  Our side yards get sun, but they are somewhat useless to us, so mom decided to get some fruit trees to fill in the space.  So she and Dad went to Lowe's and brought back the two trees.  (Note: when buying fruit trees or bushes, you usually need two or three different types for pollination.  How the flowers can get cross-pollinated and the plums themselves come out the same as always, we have no clue.)  Jessica cut down two small trees from the backyard to serve as stakes.  Hopefully pear and peach, and maybe nut, trees will follow.  We've got two huge nut trees in our backyard, but we don't know what type or if they are edible.  The squirrels, though, love them. 
     Yesterday dad got out our new rototiller and tried it out.  Jessica and mom took turns on it too.  It works slowly, but was able to dig up our yard.   Next year we hope to turn up the whole back yard and plant a big garden.  Now that Jessica doesn't have to shovel the whole thing by hand, a big garden doesn't seem so impossible.  Think of the possibilities- strawberries, blueberries, lettuce, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, herbs, grapes, and pumpkins.  We aren't very big vegetable eaters, so our garden will have to be primarily fruit-based, so that all the work will not go to waste.  We are also hoping to have a big flower garden, or butterfly garden. 
    But just because the weather has turned chilly doesn't mean our gardening has stopped.  Jessica's marigolds are still blooming.  Even though it's late in the season, she planted a bed of peas and they have come up big and healthy.  They aren't growing as fast as they would, maybe, if it were warmer, but they are the healthiest pleas we have ever grown.  It might get too cold for them before they get big enough to produce pods, but at least we will have more gardening experience.  Then, next spring, we will know what to expect and how to keep peas alive.  They seem to be very delicate plants, and we've never successfully cultivated them.  But fresh peas, Mom and Emily say, are better than store-bought, so we'll give them, and everything else, a try.