How Does My Garden Grow Chapter 2

Yesterday we pruned our lovely apple tree which had not seen pruning shears for many years. A fruit tree(s) would be a wonderful addition to our front yard but as you can see from the picture we don't have a lot of room in our front yard or the back. Friday I went to the garden center with great plans to buy a peach tree. Instead I walked away with a nectarine, apricot, plum and peach tree. Yep, just one tree. It has four branches grafted onto the main trunk. I was so excited to plant it that evening but had to wait for Joe to help me. You might be wondering why the logs are on the lawn. I want to move the sidewalk so by putting the logs out it helps me to visualize how the new sidewalk can look.
The planters in the front of the house were full of weeds which I have removed most of. I planted pansy's along with onions, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, oregano and English lavender. It is so fun to see their bright cheery flowers. They make me happy.

I planted 4 kinds of lettuce and peas on the east side our house. They are up!

Taking out the old galvanized metal swing was a big job. Joe has a reciprocating saw which made the job easier. As you can see in the two pictures we still have some of the pipe to remove and plenty of clean up.
So begins chapter two of How Does My Garden Grow for 2010. I love seeing my garden grow and eat the yummy food!

One tree down and one to go!

Our yard was very messy and had not been taken care of for a long time when we moved in. We spent a lot of time just cleaning up all the junk laying around and raking lots and lots of leaves this spring. Can you see the big topless Blue Spruce in the back corner? Well....

We got a bid to remove this tree and the large walnut tree. They wanted $900. I know you think we are crazy for cutting the trees down. The problem is the pine tree did not provide any shade and takes a large part of the back yard. The walnut tree is not in very good health. And the branches spread over the house and invite unwanted guest. (More on that later). We want to put in several fruit trees along the back fence. So Joe started cutting a little at a time with the bottom branches.

You can see that he can now stand up and cut the branches out one at a time.

I thought about keeping our Northern Palm Tree. . . . for about a minute.

All gone! Now we get to haul out all the branches.This is a little over half the branches. I thought it would take 5 trailer loads. Boy, Joe sure can pack things in!

A shot of the back yard this morning. Much better.