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Sunday, July 29, 2007

One Last Glimpse

The desert rose I brought back from Vietnam two summers ago is blooming again. I'm actually really surprised it's doing so well since I only had a stem cutting from my cousin's plant. No roots. No leaves. That's the only way customs would allow it into the country.

I stuck it in a pot and here it blooms.

One last glimpse of my former garden. :(

The orange crocosmia started as a few bulbs I uprooted from my mom's garden in Oregon. She got hers from the Oregon coast. My absolute favorite crocosmia photo though is this one from last summer.

On the far side are my ba noi (paternal grandmother)'s cannas and bac ha (taro stem).

I'm still getting small crops of strawberries. It pays to buy everbearing varieties! What started as three small plants has grown to more than a dozen.

This handful was sweet and warmed by the sun.

I don't eat much sorrel but it flourishes so easily.

My hollyhocks have grown to about 10 feet and started tilting over.

And the bougainvillea made a fabulous comeback from January's cold frost. I didn't do a thing, it revived on its own.

When I planted the lemongrass, it was in an isolated corner. Now the ice plants have taken over. They're like weeds!

Even though this tree is only about three feet tall, can you guess what fruit is growing?
They're longans! Oh man! I wish I was around to pick longans straight from the tree!

Bye-bye my little garden. That was two years of a lot of work. But I'll miss walking along your paths each day to see what flowers or herbs or veggies or fruit are growing.

7 comments:

  1. What beautiful strawberries! I find the home-grown kind are far superior to the supermarket variety. They are just sweeter, softer and easier to work with.

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  2. A most unusual plumeria - is the fragrance similar to other plumerias? So... no more garden visits?

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  3. holy cow! how did you grow the longan? man, i would LOVE to be able to do that! was that from a seed?

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  4. When I first saw the picture, I gasped out loud and said, "Are you growing lychee?!" (I was close hehe) That is too cool!

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  5. your strawberries look so beautiful!! and i can't believe that you grow longan. i love eating longan!

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  6. Kelly,
    That's because if they're home-grown, you can pick them at the peak of ripeness. Most market fruits and veggies have to be picked before ripeness or else they'd rot by the time they get to the stores.

    Nikki,
    No fragrance at all. I'm not sure about the garden visits. My new "garden" is just a few plastic pots and what I have on my porch.

    Jaden,
    Thanks.

    Vickie,
    The longan tree was bought at Mimosa nursery in east L.A. They've got lots of other Asian fruit trees as well.

    Amy,
    Good guess!

    Tania,
    There's longan trees in the back of our second-youngest uncle's house. Have you forgotten?

    ReplyDelete

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