Before and After: Time to Harvest

"After" three years of waiting for the peach tree to grow. It is now a very happy tree and producing like crazy.

Many of you who have followed katiedid for awhile know we have been working on our house for some time. We have most recently been trying to get the back yard in shape. This summer is the first year our yard has felt like a relaxing beautiful place to be vs. a place under construction.

We had begun planting a couple of years ago after amending the hard packed clay soil. The idea for the garden is to make it as edible as possible. We started citrus trees in pots and planted fruit trees along the back of the house: peach, plum, apricot, nectarine and apple. There are herbs everywhere: rosemary, thyme, various sages, and lots of lavender. We have potted a couple of pomegranate bushes and blueberry bushes fill in between the trees. There are also pots of beans and tomatoes. Tim just finished another raised bed so we can put in a few more vegetables.

You may remember this post right after we had planted the peach tree. Ahem....we had not painted the house yet after the house remodel, and it is still in the same state. Somehow pecking away at planting the garden does not seem so expensive as compared to getting the house painted. And yes, we rationalize the garden is paying us back.

"Before". The year we planted the peach tree. It seems like yesterday our tree was just a little twig.

Well....we have been very busy picking peaches for the last week. Tim had covered the tree with netting so the birds and squirrels would not get the fruit. We harvested enough peaches to stuff ourselves into a fructose coma, and enough to pass out to all of the neighbors. We have made two delicious peach cobblers and plan to try our hand at peach preserves. It has been a bountiful harvest.

But those squirrels are pesky little critters and have found a way in through the netting. We are harvesting as much as we can before they get the rest. I guess I can't blame them. There is nothing quite like a peach direct from your own tree. And nothing quite so satisfying as the realization that we had a hand in making it happen.