Backyard Flower Co.

I love the glittery leaves! The silver freckles of this are iridescent. Don’t think I’m too weird, but sometimes when I’m standing at the sink I just pet the leaf a little. It has such a cool texture. It’s loving being right next to a daylight colored lamp in the window in my humid kitchen.

The muscadine grape harvest keeps coming! I’m so proud of my vine. Of the three vines I have, this is the one that keeps giving. It is also the one that took some serious abuse this year when my neighbor’s dog dug under the fence many times and exposed its roots at the base of the trunk. I feared it was dead. But it came back and has given me lots of super sweet thin skinned grapes. Can’t wait to see how it does next year with better care.

Happy plants and my little dishwashing buddy. I think everyone should have one 🐠

My plant corner got a new friend! Thanks

Congrats Jessica on making the cover of Homesteading Monthly magazine! So excited to read what you have to say on “Making Homesteading Attainable Again.”

Bring on the Ice Cream Bananas!

My first muscadine grapes. It has been years, and years of investing in my vines, accidentally hitting the purple “Southern Home” vine with the w**d whacker then having to regrow it, and protecting my fruits from squirrels and birds.
The first fruits were sweet. I’m thrilled. It’s hard to express how it feels to have worked for years to grow something then finally see your first fruit.

I have three varieties: Southern Home, Carlos, and Noble. (I’m fairly certain of the last two varieties).

My first mango! Tree ripened, organic, magnificent! It was worth the wait. Malika variety: fiberless, complex, sweet flavor; thin skin, skinny seed that maximizes fruit.
Check back next year for grafted plants.

Tucking plants into every corner of my house 💕

Uh oh. The plant inspector has arrived. Thankfully, these baby Mulberry trees got Tiny’s stamp of approval.

The grapes are on the vine! I am so pleased. This is the first year they have held fruit. There are three varieties. One is supposedly bronze, the other purple. The last vine has the largest fruit and clusters and is called Southern Home. I’ve been anxious to taste that one for nearly 10 years since I learned of it. A hybrid muscadine variety, its fruit are said to be the closest to a table grape but with full muscadine flavor.

I’ve carefully bagged all the fruit to keep birds and squirrels and bugs from stealing them.

I have the best memories of picking sun ripened grapes from my great grandfather’s vines and listening to him tell us about all his different varieties. We ate them fresh, turned them into jelly, and he made wine with them. There is nothing that mimics the taste or rich fragrance of muscadines in the summer.

Had to snap this photo of these Oklahoma zinnias while I was florist-ing. I am head over heels for them! I was a whole garden row of the ombré pink. What is neat about zinnias much like roses is that while the overall plant can produce flowers of uniform color, they can also throw a “sport”—a flower that is unique from its siblings. In roses, this is one of the ways new varieties come to be. Cuttings of the “sport” are taken and rooted to make a new variety. There ya go! Your lesson in horticulture for the day paired with a pretty picture 🌺 🪴