The Fall Garden

Now that summer's brutal heat is on the way out my guy is working on planting for fall. Here we have cucumber already sprouting, and two types of onions.

We managed to save two pepper plants, but the one tomato we thought might survive is probably toast. The parsley also went to herb heaven, but we still have chives and oregano.

Our pole beans and radishes have sprouted, too. My guy added two long beds on either side of the boxes and planted corn in one of them. In the other we're hoping to grow some things from the seeds a friend sent to us. We've also got a container prepped for watermelon.

Mom's grapefruit tree is loaded with fruit, but we probably won't be able to eat these until next year.

I'm glad we planted fruit trees on our property, and I hope the next owners of our house will keep them. Long after we're gone these grapefruit will brighten the breakfasts of others.

Dad's orange tree didn't flower this year, but after almost losing it last winter I'm simply glad it's still alive.

It's showing signs of new growth, so maybe next year we'll have some oranges to try.

Thanks to advice from a friend on Twitter we nipped the first flower buds off the lemon tree to encourage it to root and grow a little more.

Since this variety produces fruit year round I'm hoping we'll have some homegrown lemonade next spring.