Oh My! What a garden!

And OH! What a Gardener! Silvia is a gardener that I have known via the Internet for several years now, and she graciously opened her home to several of us lowly wannabe gardeners to come and marvel at her work.

Her home is beautiful, and her gardens are astonishing! She makes me want to rip out every square inch of turf and start over. That won't happen so I'll just keep on trucking. Meanwhile I'll show you some of what I saw. But, you'll have to forgive me. At the half-way point her lovely hubby(? OK that is an assumption) rang the dinner bell and I tossed the camera aside for a chance at a slab o' beef and then we started actually trading seedlings and she gave me some sweet potato slips, and well the camera stayed in the car after that. Sorry!

This is Silvia's unassuming front yard.

But if you look closely enough you'll see that she does have a few edibles tucked in neatly. An apple here, an avocado there.... beautiful blooms from the apple tree

She, like me lives within the confines of a Homeowners Association. Though, apparently she gets along well enough with hers. Mine seems to hate me for some unknown reason. Maybe one day I'll understand, but at this juncture I doubt that very much!

Anyway - enough about me, this is about to knock your socks off. Don't say I didn't warn you! Please try to stay away from all power tools for the next 24 hours.

THIS is Silvia's back yard. It makes mine looks plain silly:

So, Where is that back hoe? I'm ready to get started ripping everything up now! No, not at her place, at MINE! I want my home to look like this. It quite literally takes my breath away. Every. stinking. time. I. look. at. the. picture. *sigh*

OK - so I'll show you EVEN MORE. That's right, there is more. 'Cause she's like a gardening rock star this woman!

A sweet little breakfast nook for two?

How about....

The perfect area for some bocche ball?

Or maybe a place for kids to play, but what you don't see is the beautiful vine behind me, or the wall that has a planter on it... shameful photographer I am getting sidetracked... I'll have to be better next time. Oh yes - there will be a next time! LOL

So, going back to give some of the beds their dues... The lettuce bed, and the nasturtium's, with the zucchini just in front of me and farthest out in front are the kale, papaya, lemon grass, and off to the far right the citrus trees (mostly in pots so she can drag them into the green house in the winter)

A close up of one of those zucchini - and don't let this picture fool you. This 'little' zucchini was the size of my arm, and bigger around! A monster I tell you. One I'd be proud to call my own. This one was not alone, either. It was simply the one begging to have it's picture taken.

Tomato tower...

and cucumber trellis'

You would NOT have believed the size of the onion bulbs......but again I got side tracked, but the sapodillas, that fig tree (HOW did I not get a photo of it???) sage, tarro? and other wonderful goodies to look at over here.

Oh, and get a load of the size of these greens. Talk about impressive! I'm really starting to feel like I'm doing something wrong at my place. Oh, wait. I know what it is. I don't really grow greens. That might have something to do with it. But something tells me if I did that they wouldn't look quite like this!

This beautiful squash is one she brought back seeds from Italy. Thanks Silvia for sharing seeds! The vines were impressive I hope that mine can be half as healthy as yours. Keep me posted on how many fruit you get!!! I have to give a serious thumbs up to her Brogdon Avocado. That tree is massive and just covered in tiny fruit. I'm always trying to get my trees to maturity and this tree reminds me of exactly what it is I'm fighting so hard for. Someday I hope to have one just half this size.  It would make my heart sing to have that many fruit gracing my table.

Here is Nancy walking through the bananas and kale. I did try not to put peoples picture on here, but she's my Stepmother so I figured I'm safe with this one. :-D I am so thankful that everyone welcomed her so warmly. I had a wonderful time with her and I don't get to spend much time with her without all of the family around.  It was so great to get to see so many friends face to face and she didn't even think I was weird for meeting 'computer people.' My Mother would have had a conniption and told me I was insane!

Now, as a 'THANK YOU' to Silvia a small parting gift - I realize that you see your precious 4 leggers every day, but I thought you'd enjoy a visitors view of them. I couldn't get Tiny outside so his picture is a bit blurry. It tends to work better if the owner helps, but I think I did OK considering that I'm not a blue plastic ball for Nikki, and that Blondie warmed up fairly quickly. ;-) Email me if you'd like a full size printable file.

 

Thanks again Silvia for a wonderful day in your home, and gardens!

 Oh, and lookie what she sent me home with, Sweet Potato slips! These are for a bush sweet potato (porto rico) and she also sent me home with 2 regular sweet potatoes I didn't catch the name of, but I'm still happy to have. :-D

So, now that you wish you were with hanging out with me this weekend I'll let you get back to your regular old lives, but remember that I failed to take pictures of half her yard!!! EEEEK! There is still the plum tree, the herb garden, the raspberry/blackberry brambles, the...OK, OK I'll stop teasing and just try to remember to keep snapping pictures next time.

Because there WILL BE a next time, Oh yes, there will...

MUHUHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

'Till next time!

Barbie~