My dad’s garden gets plenty of sunlight since it is located in the middle of his backyard, and his house sits on a higher ground. We used to live here before we sold the house to him and this very spot used to be Lee’s playground.
I keep referring to this garden as my Dad’s garden, some credit should go to my second sister for planting and tending to the garden. Since it’s so dry and when she does have time, she will water the garden morning and evening.
My dad inspects and makes sure that the plants are healthy. He is tying his string bean plants to the poles, this trellis is by the deck area.
The string bean trellis in the garden.
You can’t tell the types of cucumber by looking at the leave, flower or the young fruit, at least I can’t tell anyway. I planted a pickling cucumber and my dad planted the big variety and the leaves, flowers, and young fruits look exactly the same.
Last year I bought him the young pickling cucumber plants. It was actually the first year that he planted them and he didn’t like them at all. So he planted a regular cucumber this year.
The young Asian corn plants are growing so fast. They won’t get as tall as the regular corn, and the ears are very small. I got the seeds from my Hmong co-worker last year and my dad has been growing them 2 years in a row.
Technical note on the image below, the sky portion is overexposed. If I had a gradual neutral density filter on top I think this will help correct the exposure of the sky. I’m not a fan of filter and most likely will not buy one. I had 3 for my old lens and hardly use it.
The Thai eggplants take a growth spurt from the North Carolina hot and humid weather.
He still has problem with the black little bugs.
Thai chili peppers.
As for the mystery tomato plants that my sister didn’t know what she bought, they are the big variety. It’s definitely not the kind that she wants.
Now this is a cherry tomato plant but she didn’t plant them, two came up on their own from last year seeds. The pine-needle came from my sister Bee’s backyard, so it’s organic and safe to use around vegetables. I used hay several years back and it works well also.
I thought they were Thai basil at first, but after seeing the leaves they are Holy basil or bai kaprow.
In the back rows are dills.
These are her Thai basil. My sister was confused when she planted the seeds.
There are plenty of Pomegranate flowers but it’s a fruitless tree.
The Jasmine flowers are budding and should be blooming by next week. I see one bloom already.
Crab apples
He has been having problem with one of his pear trees and so far this one is safe from the fungus.
One of my dad’s neighbor stopped by to talk to my sister several weeks back. My sister mentioned about the old Mimi flew away and this lady said that she heard one of the neighbors took him in. She’ll asked around and my sister has not heard back from her. I think she was just saying that to strike up a conversation, but that’s kind of cruel to give someone false hope.
This is Lily, s/he’s big for a lovebird.
My mom’s orchid is in the 19th week of blooming.
Lee has been waiting for several weeks for fly flies season. I first saw them several days back while watering my garden.
Nye Noona 
Wow, that’s some garden! Someday. when I am retired and living in Laos I would like to have a garden like that.
Jeffrey, you already have a great spot waiting for you. It’s nice to grow your own food and my dad loves to spend his time out there.
Love the first picture… Your dad and sister sure have some green thumbs.
seeharhed, I was testing out the long exposure and glad that the sun rays showed on the image. I’m not too crazy about the lens flare though and even after using the petal lens hood it didn’t help much. It’s a lot of work for them, my sister doesn’t enjoy gardening like me, so it’s not exactly a labor of love for her.
These are great photos of a delicious looking garden. Thanks for sharing.
I have a slow connection, so putting so many photos on one page does make it very slow to load for me, but the wait is worth it.
Have a nice day, Boonie
Hi Boonie, I’ll show 3 posts on the homepage instead of 5 posts and hope this will help. Normally I would hide some of the images for easy loading but some of my sisters are not computer savvy and miss seeing the hidden photos. The fresh herbs and vegetables are indeed delicious. 🙂
Thanks
Boonie, you are welcome and thanks for letting me know. I will also post a video link to youtube in case you can’t watch Vimeo video since I plan to post HD video and I’m not sure if you can play with slow internet connection.
Wonderful garden series, I enjoyed them much. Fire flies??? You have those around your place? Interesting, We saw mnay in the jungle in Borneo on our trave earlier this year.
Hi truels, we have many in our backyard in the month of June. They are a beautiful sight but harder to capture in photo. It must be real pretty seeing it in the jungle, especially if you see it for the first time.
Your dad’s garden is looking beautiful and healthy!!! I haven’t spotted any fireflies in my area yet, at least I haven’t been outside at dusk. cannot wait to see them!!
Hi mozemoua, I think they should be out in your area also. I usually water my garden late in the evening and it’s really pretty to see their tail lights flashing.
The green crab apples are making my mouth water. I’d love to eat them with some salt & pepper. And the rest of the garden is so full of healthy stuff! 🙂
As for the pear fungus, our friend’s pear tree had some branches with curled leaves. They just chopped off the fungus part and the tree grew back fine. I tried that with my mom’s peach tree but it didn’t work. Oh well sometimes things just don’t work out.
Cambree, the fungus look very scary and spread pretty fast. My dad has been cutting off branches and throwing away fruits, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
I still have the pickled crab apples from last year and it’s very good. The green crab apples on the tree are very sour, it’s definitely good with salt and pepper, makes my mouth water just talking about it. 🙂