The Beginnings of a Garden

Hello there! Happy Thursday! :) Guess what? My lime tree is now BLOSSOMING! Yep! Check it out:

It also has lots of new growth!



Today I went out with the cinnamon and the aphid annihilator to ensure that there weren't any new invaders. There was some new growth, which did have some of the little buggers attached, but I did away with them, as well as putting more cinnamon around the base. Overall, the tree is doing nicely. :) As you see above, the buds are now blossoming, and it's so exciting to think that I actually kept this tree alive for a full year, and now it's happy enough to adorn itself with Spring's finest! :)

I also have a few other little seedlings in my home right now, alongside a nice and fat aloe plant, and an avocado tree that supposedly will never bear fruit. (It might if I grew another next to it, but I'll save that for after my garden is established, when I have a spare avocado pit and nothing else to do.) It's not exactly a garden fit for a self-sustaining expert, but considering that plants don't normally do well with me, I'm pretty impressed with myself. :)

I tried trimming some of the branches of the huge flower bushes that were already in place when we came to live here, but those things are TOUGH! I'll have to get some serious pruning shears to deal with that mess.... those, and perhaps a man to do the work. B-) Also, I have plans for many more seedlings, but of course, I'm still waiting on the seeds that I ordered. Apparently there was some mistake with our order, so it was cancelled, so we had to order again. I have two packages waiting at the post office, so hopefully one of them contains my seeds. :)

Stay tuned, because soon, Epiphany will have passed, Christmas will be taken down (boohoo!), and I'll be brainstorming for Valentine's Day. :)

A Few Plans for 2012

Well, happy (late) new year! I'm sorry to say that I've not worked on anything that I can really post, but never fear! I'm sure most of us have gotten a "whole lot of nothing" done this week. ;) I CAN tell you, however, that I did get a Pinterest account, and am already getting excited for Valentine's Day! I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason, Valentine's Day has always given me this perfect vision of sitting warm on the couch, next to your honey, sipping hot cocoa and watching snow drift fluffily from the sky. That isn't to say that I've ever experienced this picturesque situation, and there's no way it's happening this year where  I'm located, unless Love has a surprise trip planned to someplace--dare I say it?--EXOTICALLY snowy. ;)

All this aside, one good thing about living somewhere warm is that I can already start working on my garden--I have already noticed buds on my lime tree--its first buds ever, I should add--and with that, have already battled ants and aphids. ;) What I did was combine veggie oil and dish soap in a spray bottle, and copiously spritzed the little monsters on a cloudy day. (If you do this when sun is directly on the plant, it will scorch the little guy.) I then sprinkled enough cinnamon powder around the base of the tree to make it look as though it's surrounded by reddish-colored dirt. The cinnamon keeps the ants from getting close enough to the tree to climb up, and since ants farm aphids, it seemed to be the best course of action. I did this right after Christmas, and as of two days ago, the tree seems to be doing much better. Of course I'll keep checking it; the last thing I need is for something to have survived and started making babies on my tree.

Just as a side note, of course I've also started planning the rest of my garden, because right now, the entire thing looks mostly like a waste land, save for the aforementioned lime tree and a brand new patio. I'm already growing peppers and exotic vine fruit from seed, and have ordered plenty more seeds of different varieties. I'm hoping to get the yard looking decent enough to hold a Cinco de Mayo party this year, which means that Love and I have a little bit of work ahead of us! Wouldn't it be perfect to hold our first ever Cinco de Mayo party in a garden with it's first crop of limes just beginning? :)

For now, however, here are two photos of my lime tree's buds! I hope they actually last and produce something that at least looks like lime babies this year.

I have other things planned for 2012 as well, obviously, but for now, these are first and most important on the list. What do YOU have planned so far for 2012?