New blooms and new aloe

 My phal that I've had for 3 years now bloomed for the 4th time and John Meyer is chugging along too!

My friend Lisa came down to visit and gave us an aloe. I hope I don't kill it. For some reason they never seem to last with me.

Back Splash

Yippeee! Thanks to home improvement gift cards from Christmas and late wedding gift cards we're finally getting back splash for our kitchen :)

First 2014 Post

Already making changes starting with remounting the Staghorn Fern. I found the piece of sliced tree trunk from Michael's for $10 and used a 50% off coupon... $5-SCORE!
I got it back in September when he was a wee lad. He's gotten bigger since, 2 new leaves and a growth mount or "frond". Here he is from September on a piece of cork mount.

Eames Lounge Chair

Hubster bought our dream lounge chair so we rearranged our living room to accommodate it to its fullest potential :) LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

A successful John Meyer season

It's been a full year since I got this bad boy at the Southern Christmas Show. He produced 5 hearty lemons. I found 3 recipes to make with them. First was a creamy avocado pasta dish:

Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Poundcake:

And the grande finale Cod baked with meyer lemons, shallots and dill. SO SO GOOD.

I hope next season I'll have 6. Hubster thinks we'll get 9. As for the key lime tree… He produced some buds and there is one out of the bunch that is standing. I'm not expecting much of this guy. He wasn't in good shape from the beginning. It would be a miracle if we get at least ONE from him next season. He'll need a good 2 years to recoup from the rescue. Here are the two side by side under sun lamps indoors now that it's a bit nippy out. 

Storm door installed!

Backyard bed

We expanded the bed around our deck and planted another leyland cypress where the fig tree was. We moved the fig tree to the new bed because it was not doing well in the spot it was in. It only produced one itty fruit that later snapped off from a big rain storm we had :( I planted a few lily bulbs and iris as well. It looks a bit empty for now but it'll look fuller once Spring comes around so I'll be planting new herbs in the empty spaces.

Ignore the weird blob the hubster caught during the pan of the cypress trees. I have no idea what that is. It could be Fiona running.

Has it been that long?

Here's an overdue quick update on GRK. We have tons of new neighbors. The hood is filling up quick. We became friends with a couple, Allison and Zach. See... that's their house, photo taken from our deck.

The cool part is that they're also a Leo couple. Allison and I share the same birthday :) Zach and Tyler are 1 day apart.  No wonder we clicked immediately. She also started at the same yoga studio I attend. In other updates...
Hubster and I went to Home Depot a couple of months ago and scored a Fiddle Leaf Fig tree for HALF the price I got my first one. The plant on the floor is a Zamioculcus, aka ZZ plant. Supposedly they are indestructible. So it's a great plant for those who think they do not have a green thumb!

 

John Meyer is doing quite well. 5 fruits and a lot of new foliage. Right now they are in the ripening process.

  

I  picked up a Key Lime tree at a nursery about 15 miles out. I'm not so stoked about the tree. It seems very frail and not as hearty as when I bought my Meyer Lemon tree. I should've waited but I get so antsy and impatient sometimes. I guess I'll see how a year goes with this one. I don't even have a named picked out. Bleh.

 

At the same garden nursery,  I got a heavily desired Staghorn Fern. The owner gave me a few insider tips/tricks on how to mount it instead of using fishing wire. 

 

We ordered a storm door for the front door. That should be arriving and installed sometime in early October. Had to get a couple of things cleared with the HOA first. 

 

Golf balls

The first crops are doing well and getting bigger :) Can't wait!

Bigger than a quarter

So far I am having better success with a meyer lemon tree this time around *continuing to cross fingers*. The two big ones on top you see are bigger than a quarter coin. A few weeks ago they were the size of a finger nail.

Updated morning room

Went to IKEA in search for a new house plant (Monstera) but they were pretty much wiped out. IKEA has the best and cheapest selection out there and I think people have caught on. Poop. So instead, we found a cool walnut anatomy print :) Then we hit up Home Depot to get some new succulents.

They be poppin' off lately :) The bigger bulbs are about 1 centimeter. *happy dance*

Grow Light

 

*crossing fingers*

We have buds!

 

We also ordered a grow light to help the little guy while he's still inside since he only gets about 3 hours of FULL sun directed towards him everyday. *crossing fingers*

Sister's SIL's Meyer Lemon

My sister's sister in-law bought a Meyer Lemon tree from Lowe's 2 years ago. She lives down the street from my sister's house which is about a mile from where I live. If her's can grow and produce fruit, so can mine! :)

Tree Fort

 

 

We planted more evergreens (Leyland Cypress) since our neighborhood is growing and we want to keep our future neighbor across the way from being too nosy when have our garage open and while we're in hanging around in our driveway.

Meyer Lemon Tree: Take Deux

I've been thinking about getting another Meyer Lemon tree but couldn't find them at Lowe's or Home Depot this summer. Something about the local nurseries breaking out in disease. *shrug* So I took that as a sign not to get one, not even from online. Fast foward... Hubster and I went to check out the Southern Christmas Show this weekend and saw an old man carrying what appeared to be a lime tree (totally a sign for me to get one). I got really excited knowing there's a vendor in there selling citrus and tropical plants. We rushed to the exhibitor and gladly bought a Meyer Lemon tree for a whopping $12.95 :)  A gazillion $$ less than what I paid for when I ordered one online for the first one that eventually died before I could even get any full grown lemons out of. The exhibitor was a local nursery that get their citrus trees from Florida. I asked many questions making sure I was confident in successfully growing one this time around. Since it's winter season they advised me to keep it indoors during the cold months and bring it out in full sun sometime in March/April or when the weather gets spring season warm. Which I didn't do the first time. I kept it inside the whole time so it didn't get the right amount of warmth, sun and pollenation. However, it is possible to grow it indoors year round but I just didn't have that luck. So wish me luck this time around!

Privacy trees

 

In addition to the Fig and Japanese Maple, we also planted Leyland Cypress Evergreens to have some privacy (eventually when they grow up to 50'x15') when the new home owners behind us moves in.

It's gloomy and wet today

But our new trees are LOVING it! We planted a Tamukeyama Japanese Maple and Celeste Fig :)

$5 Come Up

The neighborhood next door to ours had an estate sale and we scored a Keith Haring 'American Flag' print with frame for $5. S C O R E !