After a week in San Antonio, I finally found my way back home. I was happy to finally get home on Saturday night and see my beautiful wife and my two pups. All three were happy to see me, as was I to seem them.
The trip wasn’t too bad, when we were not at the conference – we spent time at the Riverwalk and for a gardener/plant junkie like myself… it was awesome. 50 ft. Magnolia trees, huge Hibiscus bushes, all kinds of palms… it was awesome in that respect. Not to mention that the Riverwalk kept me slightly inebriated… which for me makes plants & flowers even cooler. 😉
That’s a dude for ya eh?
When I got back, like the nerd I am I wanted to go check out the garden and just being gone a week these days you see so many changes. New sprouts, plants totally changed since last seeing them. It was amazing. We picked up some rain on Friday and there is NOTHING, I repeat… NOTHING like actual rain water to send some plants into hyper drive. I was blown away to say the least when we strolled through the garden.
The first and probably most changed was the cantaloupe. Shala had told me it had bloomed while I was gone, which pissed me off – because it is like missing your child’s first step because you went to grab a beer from the fridge. Pissed OFF! But, getting to see it with several blooms and just an explosion of growth since I left… it made it ok.
Check it out…
See… I wasn’t lying, it has changed a lot since the last time I saw it.
The watermelon had grown quite a bit as well, sprouting it’s first vine yesterday coming off the main plant. Can you imagine when we have a nice 20-30 lbs. watermelon on that thing! We are soooo eatin’ that thing up this summer! Your invited… bring your friends! And beer.
Check the watermelon out…
Pretty cool eh? Thanks – we grew it. You can be jealous now. Go ahead. You can see something dead on the left there… yeah that is a marigold plant… it didn’t make it. We aren’t very good at growing them. IT IS TOO DAMN HOT!
We also had some worries about some Jalapeno plants we had planted a week or so ago, they were so wilted and in shock. Well after A LOT of babying by my bride… and some help from the heavens (rain) – they have perked up again, loving life. Hopefully they will keep with that upward trend and get past this CRAZY heat we are surely to have for a while. Did I mention it is supposed to get up to 106 today. We are excited. Soooo excited. **hi-5**
One last thing…
Remember a million years ago (ok, maybe it was like 3 months ago) but we thought we had got a lil Hibiscus in the bottom of our big Hibiscus plant… we purchased. Remember we took it and potted it and it has been growing. Well… now this past week it exploded with growth and we are wondering if it is really a Hibiscus anymore. We are worried we have been babying a weed this whole time. Maybe someone can give us their feedback of what it might be. It just doesn’t seem like it is a Hibiscus to us. So ask your buddies, use your resources and help us out. I think regardless of what it is… we might just grow it because we are dumb like that. Check the picture below… see what you think. Remember we are in Texas – so it is likely native to this area if it isn’t a Hibiscus like we though.
This was it back in the day when we first got it.
Welcome home.
Welcome back..I know just what you mean about missing
the “first steps”,lol. People keep asking us to travel during the summer…are you kidding? We keep saying..no, you come here.lol
Hi James & Shala,
I’ve been reading your blog all morning (work is slow today). I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you guys. Your posts are quite entertaining and informational. Your plants look great, your pool area looks refreshing and you’ve got 2 very good looking dogs (I’m partial to Labs). I was reading your blog backwards and was wondering about 2 things that I didn’t see. What ever did you guys do with the old gate? A while back, I acquired 2 of those old-timey brass bank teller windows, you know the kind, they actually look like gates that swing open. Anyway, I had hubby mount them to the wall behind our bed, they make a really cool looking headboard. And did Speck ever find a home?
Hope to hear back from you soon!
~Angie~
@deb – thanks, so you think we are growing a weed on that last pic?
@KateinNJ – right… travel in the summer… your kidding me. 😉
@Angie – Thanks for stopping by, glad you have enjoyed it. As far as the old gate, it is in our pool area at the moment.. we want to use it for some kind of vine to grow on. Haven’t took the steps just yet though. As far as Speck – yes he found a home. Forgot about that little guy, had us scratchin our head for a minute. hehe