About Me

United States
Belle is a mother of 2 beautiful teenagers aged 19 and 18 years old. She is originally from Bato, Catanduanes. She loves fiddling around with computer on her free time.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Garden and its Surroundings


View from my living room. If only the electric post was not in a way, view would have been better.

Our fig trees are doing well this year as evident by the fruits all over its branches.

This is the pear tree that is void of fruits this year.

Another tree, plum tree, that was caught by early frost. This tree hasn't produced at all and am hoping it will someday otherwise...

This is the garden that my husband was trying to cultivate. I will join him as soon as the danger of early morning frost is over. I have the seeds ready like ampalaya, opo, etc, that I ordered through catalog. Hopefully, they will thrive in our area.


Since I will be pressed for time this week, I might as well take advantage of my Sunday to post as many posts as I could. We will be short-handed at work this week so no day off for me for sure. But then again, I might actually have a day off. Let' see.

The moment I got up this morning, I noticed how pleasant the morning was. I looked through window, and the scenes outside looked so inviting. So, still in my pajama, I came out with my camera. Ohhh, the weather was nice and comfortable. I was hoping I would be able to capture some hummingbirds hovering the feeder in our front porch but no luck. Summer time though, they come in droves and in different species. Fun to watch and they are so cute and just beautiful!

Our trees are doing well although some of them have no trace of fruits at all this year. The frost might have gotten the buds earlier. Fortunately, they bloomed at a different time so some of them, like the bartlett pear and few apple trees, were spared. But the asian pear, my favorite tree, was one of the unlucky ones. Oh well...

My husband has been trying to start a garden this year but some creatures have been nipping the seedlings and it can be frustrating. I told him to cover it with cheesecloth until they are big enough. Let's see if this will do the trick.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow. You have a huge property. It must be nice to have a garden, you just have to pick the fruits and vegetables when you need them. :) I don't have patience in gardening and I don't have a green thumb anyway. :)

Forever59er said...

Omg, you are leading THE life .. the kind i can only dream about. Orchards are the stuff my dreams are made of ... we also had this childhood play when the mosquito nets are up. We -- my sisters and I -- would be picking at imaginary fruits from imaginary trees. You got pears, apples, plums, etc.!! And do you think upo and ampalaya will grow in arizona? Is it semitropical like florida?

Anyway, my langka and atis trees give me so much happiness already. Before, we had avocado (but the little fruits fall before they mature), and star apple (which didn't flower again after one season). Ay kasalanan yata ng brown thumb ko.

Thanks for the coolpics. You can do delightful things with your cam.

Joy-Joy said...

i posted the pics already, as promised. u take care....

Anonymous said...

you're lucky to have such big garden :-) and those fruit trees...delightful!

Heart of Rachel said...

Hi Belle. Oh my, I commented on your previous post about the fabulous jewelry and realized I may have (but not sure) said happy weekend. Funny, I feel as if today is a friday when in fact, it's the wee hours on a tuesday morning. LoL!

Anyway, love the photos. You're lucky to have a wide property where you plant variety of fruit bearing trees and all kinds of plants.

Good luck on your garden and hope the cheesecloth will do wonders.

Take care!

SASSY MOM said...

Hi, got here through rachel...

You do do have a huge property! Good luck on your garden!

Belle TH said...

@niceheart, the property looks huge in the picture but in reality maliit lang iyan. it is actually my husband who starts the garden, and i take it over for TLC. you should try planting herbs on pots and buy the already mixed soil in sacks.

@anna, you and your sister remind me of my daughtes. they liked to play make believe, too, when they were little. jabber, jabber all day long!

i love langka. i bought a ginataang langka for my husband in Catanduanes. he liked it a lot, it has a meaty texture daw..hehe. aratilis? i haven't eaten those in a long time. star apple is so juicy and sweet!

@joy-joy, yup, i saw it. thanks. famous landmark na rin ang Bato church ano? ganda!

@pining, thank you! just hoping that the weather will cooperate this summer so we will have some nice and crispy salad most meals.

@rach, ahh, i also get mixed up with days. don't worry. those cheeseclothes are very helpful. i like to leave them on my lettuce plants the whole time.

@sassy mom, thanks. our place is not really the best place for gardening so we'll see.

Anonymous said...

Oh, so that's a fig tree. I've only read about that in the Bible. I don't know what's a plum either. Good for you and your husband to be growing fruit trees and other plants. That's really great! :)

NursyE said...

Looking good!!!

I downsized my garden because I get so busy nowadays. I do miss it but it will have to wait...

What is left is 2 half a barrel, one for my herbs and one for mini veggie garden, just enough to get my hands dirty once in a while...

Belle TH said...

@toe, i had no idea about figs until my husband introduced it to me. the fruits are actually delicious. plum fruits are like big giant grapes but they have hard pits.

@nursyE, those two barrels are enough to supply you with herbs and fresh veggies, am sure. i know what you are capable of growing in your yard with your green thumb.

Anonymous said...

Belle, admittedly, I like the laid-back kind of place, a country side or just away from all the busy streets - but then I realized, I'm such a city person.

Man, you have a BIG property that you can even plant trees and a garden. Are you the person who really maintain all of that?

Belle TH said...

k, i was never a city person. i prefer to be in the outskirts away from the hustle and bustle of the city, away from pollution, away from the noise.

the property just looked big but in reality, maliit lang iyan.

auee said...

you have such a nice view... kelan kaya kami magkakaroon ng ganyan?
:-)

I wanted to put a bird feeder & bird bath in our garden but hubby doesn't like the idea. He said they might roost in our roof, which they do anyway! Ah men.

re: your husband's garden
That's a common problem here. I heard there are pellet-like tablets you can spread around your garden which can repel some critters. Kaya lang baka pang-pusa lang. But hey it's worth asking lalo na when you start planting your ampalaya!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ate Belle,
I love fruit trees. Your figs looks so tempting. My husband just put in our tomatoes. He tried to plant Okra last year, they didn't grow. He is trying again this year. It's really rewarding to have a backyard garden. I have yet to get bitten by the gardening bug this year. I plant flowers for the most part. I used to think I was brown thumb, it just takes patience to try and try.

Anonymous said...

Pahabol pala. The figs that we get here at the store. lamog-lamog. That's why I'd like to pick one right of the tree and see how it's like when it's not beaten up.

Anonymous said...

an orchard! what joy! it must be fun, Belle, and therapeutic to be tending a garden.

Belle TH said...

@auee, we used to have bird feeder in our yard. it was nice at first because we got to see birds of different species. drawback is those creatures were nuisance to our garden. we still keep our bird bath though.

when we looked for a property, i chose one with a view and oriented the house in a way as to maximize the view.

@kk, do you know that you can grow figs in your area? if i am not mistaken, you live in a state right next to my sis-in-law. she planted brown turkey and celest (sp?) figs. you may try planting it. it isn't that hard to grow and you might even get some fruits for the first year.

figs don't have long shelf life that is why you seldom see it in the market. it is better if you pick it right off the tree.

@sexy mom, you got it right, therapeutic is the word. however tired you are, once you set foot in the garden, it seems to go away.

hope your okra does well this year. i will try bitter melon, and upo.

Belle TH said...

@sexy mom, no matter how tired your are, once....rather

Anonymous said...

Hi Ate Belle,
I will try to look for a fig tree to plant. The peach tree that we planted died so we are scratching our heads what we did wrong.

When we were helping out a bachelor friend go house hunting, we saw one house that had 3 fig trees. He didn't buy it because of the condition of the house, but it just goes to show that we can also grow them here.

Belle TH said...

@tina, when you plant a tree, dig a large hole, loosen the bottom soil so the roots have a place to go, open the root ball and loosen it up and then you position the tree in a hole a little deeper that it is in the pot. don't use any fertilizer for the first year. when you tamp the soil in use the water and tampering stick to force air out of the roots. you don't want any air pockets around roots or it will die. sometimes, you have to stake the plant up so the wind will not blow it over for the first year.

feel free to ask more questions..i have my gardening guru available 24 hours a day..hehe.