Welcome to the Farm

We bought the house on Walford Dr. in September of last year. It had a large backyard, shade in the afternoon, a covered porch, a garden shed, and a small orange tree of unknown cultivar. When spring came around this year, we began to look into building flower beds and planters around the porch.

It all started with a bag of pecans my grandmother gave me. She has several pecan trees, and I thought I would like one too. I picked one up at Walmart, planted it, and then realized I knew nothing about pecans. While researching fruit and nut trees, I happened across Urban Harvest's website one night, and agricultural hell broke loose. I purchased Dr. Randall's book at the Arbor Gate in Tomball, and began planting fruit trees and plants like a man possessed. As of this writing, the roster includes:

• 1 Desirable Pecan tree (Walmart)
  
• 3 Kiowa Blackberry vines (purchased bare root at the Arbor Gate)
• 1 Okitsu Satsuma (Arbor Gate)
• 1 Repubic of Texas Orange (Arbor Gate)
• 2 Pong Koa Mandarins (Mercer Arboretum & Botanical Gardens)
• 1 Cara Cara Pink Navel Orange (Arbor Gate)
• 2 Everhard Navel Oranges (Plants for All Seasons)
• 2 Moro Blood Oranges (Plants for All Seasons)
• 10 Muscadine grapevines (bare root from Ison's and potted from Plants for All Seasons)
• 24 Chandler Strawberry plants (bare root from Ison's)
• 6 Dorma Red Raspberry vines (bare root from Ison's)
• 1 Garnet Sash Pomegrante (Arbor Gate)
  
• 2 mystery orange trees (were there when we moved in)

Blueberry bushes, Apple trees, and another pomegranate are on the way.

In the raised beds, we planted tomatoes and peppers given to us by Plants for All Seasons (thanks for the freebies Victor!), and I planted two rows of pole green beans from seed packet I got at Lowes.

It's not all edible. Dr. B has really increased the landscape value in the front of the house. She planted flowering perrenials all along the border of the raised beds, and three Endless Summer Hydrangeas in the back yard. In the front, we cleared out all the ivy/jasmine from the bed, and planted Encore Azaleas. Last weekend I ripped out the bushes by the front door, and she planted four more Endless Summer Hydrangeas. All along the border of the front bed are Gerbera Daisies. In hanging baskets above the door she has been keeping red, pink, and white Impatiens, which are doing very well after their near fatal stint hanging off the back p0rch. Impatiens don't like too much sun.