Man, I wish I could grow berries here. Last time I tried, it looked like a scene from Hitchcock in my yard. And the birds won. If I can rig up some protection, I’ll try again. I’m jealous of everyone’s fruit trees, too. Why must they take so long to grow?! And carrots, broccoli, and the like. Why must they need more temperate climates?! I was looking at a Pasta Primavera recipe online this evening to use zucchini and squash. Need bell peppers for it. Think I’ll plant some bell peppers in pots this weekend.

Ten days later... First proper squash. Yea! And that jalapeño is 3” long!! Last pic of pumpkin on vertical trellis. So if you had one gorgeous squash to eat all by yourself, how would you prepare it?

Thought y’all might enjoy a peek at the veggies. Start pic and 6wks pic. Battling blossom end rot on squash and zucchini already, but it’s early for those. Trying to beef up calcium and find patience. 🙂 Lots of tomatoes, jalapeños, squash and zucchini (though not in good shape). Pole bean vines already twined up to top of trellis. I followed the square-foot spacing advice for everything but squash and zucchini, which I am greatly regretting (4sqft vs 9sqft). Such is life. Still fun.

GThis is what I did to it for staging when we sold it. Imagine Toys R Us exploded all over it, 4 pairs of my husbands shoes strewn about, 5 remotes inexplicably for 1 tv and 1 cable box, too many books, a couple of toddler rocking chairs, a giant cloth bin of blocks and duplo legos, and a couple of snuggle blankets all in that much-too-small-for-all-that-stuff space. Take away the “stuff” and that was what was left. But it did look nice cleaned up, which only happened when my in-laws visited and staging. 🙂 ETA. We did put those floors in. My favorite. And I did love that brown couch.

This was our couch. It’s the color of brown beach sand. I think it showed up a little lighter in the pics. I personally don’t mind brown sofas although this one is gone (bit the dust), and I now have a light gray and navy-ish blue sofas.

I love hostas. I found a tiny, and I mean tiny, spot for one slightly heat/part shade variety. It lasted 3 seasons, which was more than I expected. Alas, winter was mild, and they are gone. 😞 I had one more in a pot on the front porch hidden from the sun for last 2 years, but it didn’t come back either. I’m bummed. My hostas in Dallas were stunning. My Houston yard—not so much.

Lol! Some of the Amazon reviews and questions were about their suitability as costume gloves. They would definitely work for that!

Goodness! Storms were brief and uneventful. I worked in the yard through them. So sorry y’all got the worst of it! Off to check on relatives in that area. Must be unscathed or I think we’d heard by now.

I also wanted to highly recommend these nifty gardening gloves I bought this season. They’ve been great for weeding and raking up leaves in the beds. I usually wear leather gloves because I hate the feel of mulch, which makes it hard to dig and scrape. These are perfect! I also added a pic of my jasmine and bamboo. Have I told y’all about my love affair with bamboo?

That is so cool and exciting!!! Wish we could do that here, but these burbs freak out at the mention of bees and cats. Grrrr. Thankfully my Bottle Brush and Mexican Heather are full of bees again after a 2 year hiatus. Neighbors know if they can’t deal with bees in the bushes (from real or perceived threats), don’t visit my yard. We don’t kill bees here. Only critters that get killed around here are fire ants (my nemesis), veggie pests, and wasps if they get aggressive (and they do get aggressive when it starts to heat up but I try to let them go as long as possible). ETA: A new one for me-Yellow jacket was attacking the monarch caterpillars! I’ve got to find that nest because this poor butterfly seemed to be doing its best fluttering around with the wasps. Wasp had a caterpillar on the ground attacking it! I had to swat it away and run! 😳

WOW!!! Yikes! I’m shocked!

It has been our experience that HOA fees were highly dependent on the number of houses in the neighborhood as well as amenities/services. Smaller neighborhood, ~$1000/yr, one pool, landscaping at 2 entrances vs neighborhood 4-5 times bigger, ~$1000/yr, 6 pools, 2 splash pads, 4-5 playground/parks, 2 dog parks, athletic center with gym and indoor courts, tennis courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, extensive landscaping. Lots more amenities but lots and lots more houses to contribute to the pot. Gated sections have higher dues to maintain streets and gates. Streets without gates are county owned.

That’s interesting! Must read up on that!

Monarch caterpillars eat my huge milkweed in 24 hours when they start showing up. Sure you don’t already have caterpillars?

@Pen Years ago I pinned a site growbetterveggies.com that talked about growing large crops of tomatoes. They had a formula that they sweared by. In the past I’ve had a tough time keeping the plants disease-free. I’ve found lots of recommendations for adding aspirin but usually forget when it comes to planting. As mentioned above, it’s supposed to boost the plants natural immune system and ward off fungus and bacteria in the root system. I hope it works!!

Trellis up just in time! This is first year I supplemented tomatoes with fish meal, bone meal, egg shells, and aspirin in the holes when planting. I normally have a great crop for burb-farming, but they have exploded this year. I’m going to have tomatoes coming out my ears!!! Salsa, baby, salsa!!!!!! 🍅

Maybe, just maybe, spring has sprung around here despite the annoying cold snap for a couple of days at the start of the week. I am so very, very thankful we don’t have snow like some of you!!! Growing tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, pole beans, snap peas, corn, watermelon, pumpkin, and peanuts in the beds. We love homemade salsa all summer and fall. 🙂 Lemon and lime trees in half barrels produced for first time last year, so hopefully we will see an even bigger crop this year. Added a Mexicana Avacado tree in a barrel that won’t produce for at least a couple of years. Added a Texas Mountain Laurel that I wish I had a picture of in bloom! It smells like grape bubble gum!! Bottle brush, gerber daisies, red yucca, night jasmine, and the starts of oleander are the only things in bloom thus far. I’m ready for everything to get going. I’ll be building trellises for the veggies this weekend between baseball games. The plants have tripled in size in the last two weeks. small but plenty of work Forgot to add that I’m starting cilantro, basil, and 3 varieties of lettuce in the aero garden this weekend, also. I loved having fresh lettuce all summer and fall last year. It went well with the garden veggies. Someday I will grow onions and garlic in the winter to have for that summer salsa.

Hit up hobby lobby with a 40% off coupon (I use one from app). Target good option too. Michaels good too but HL can use coupon. Can usually find Joann’s coupons too.

Oh my! Those tomatoes are gorgeous! I'm jealous! We are not traveling this spring, so I intend to throw my energy and money back into the veggie beds. I can't wait! Plus I'm going to add a Mexican Avocado tree and maybe a Granny Smith Apple. I need something to help pollinate the Fuji Apple I've had a couple of years. My lemon and lime trees have finally taken off and started producing, so I am INSPIRED this year. DH and kids teasingly won't let me hit the nurseries alone because I cannot be trusted. I also had a stroke of genius in the shower this morning about where I can throw in some grapes. :)

We've owned our own business for 13 years, and this is exactly my advice. Heed the above advice. Seriously. I would add to educate yourself on business taxes (federal, state, and local) even if you use a professional. We were burned early on by professional CPAs and lawyers who were highly recommended. Our self-employed friends and family have also had this problem. Tax publications are not hard to understand. They really aren't. There is tons and tons of info on the internet from which to learn. Don't let your spouse be the only knowledgeable one on business matters, especially financial.

Thank you! It seems like 3 years ago it came from Ballard’s? But I can’t find the email order now so maybe not.

And this is our real holiday obsession! Next year we want to add a music show!

This has all been out since Dec 1, but tonight is the first time the room hasn’t looked like a tornado blew through. 😉 We’ve had a hot pink tree and royal blue tree for several years. But when we moved a few years ago, we invested in a 12’ artificial pre-lit tree that I found a killer deal on about 4 years ago. We’ve also had plastic ornaments since oldest child’s second Christmas. 🙂 I bought the iron tree for our annual traditional family ornaments to ensure their safety. 🙂

Zone 8b-9. We currently have clumping bamboo (Green Hedge, lots of maintenance to keep it pruned up-4x per year cutting tops/crooked stalks/branches from bottom third to highlight stalks, no problems spreading where we don't want it, my favorite in the yard, best screening), bottle brush (tons of butterflies and hummingbirds, extreme low maintenance, super fast growing), oleander (fast growing, freeze took it to the ground but didn't kill it, no maintenance), wax myrtle (super fast growing, extreme low maintenance, goes really well with bottle brush).

I'm so sorry. Cancer sucks. Hoping for the best possible outcome. You are in our thoughts.