Sitting at my computer, sipping coffee (with French Vanilla Coffee-mate), gazing out my window thinking of the fruit trees --

Cherry tree is all green leaves (cherries only lasted a about a two weeks, no more until next June).

Pomegranate tree is no longer full of orange blossoms, it now has fruit producing. But won't be ready until late August early September.

Lemon tree is still producing lemons. I pick them when I can and freeze the fresh squeezed lemon juice. Amazing how it produces even during the winter months.

Plum trees are producing tons of plump, juicy plums. I eat a few each day, but am "plumed-out" from last year (still have plum jelly and a couple 2-gal bags in freezer from last year).

White grapes on the arbor are doing well. I really like it since we trimmed the vines to a 30-foot section of fencing by the arbor. Still need to remove wild growing grape vines by the south fencing. Anyone want free grape vines? Contact me and you can come and dig them up. Otherwise, they are going in the green barrel. Again, still have jelly and frozen grapes from last year. Frozen grapes make neat little snacks, but one can only eat so many grapes over time…. LOL.

Concord grapes are doing marvelous!! Last fall I wove one scrawny 5-foot vine (from neighbors’ side of fence) along the fence line and now it is filling out and is producing ten times more grapes that I got last year. (I only got a couple handfuls of concords last year.)

Pecan and almond trees are a moot point. They produce lots of nuts, but the birds get to them before we can. In my opinion, they are only good for shade trees.

Looks like we will not have a garden this year; we never rented the rototiller to work up the ground. Oh well! Guess I will just keep the grass and weeds cut (mostly weeds) during the coming months and hope for a garden next year.

Early morning harvesting.... While I was out trimming new growth from the trunks(?) of the grape vines, hubby was harvesting cherries. Last year we barely got a quart of cherries, this year we are doing better. We now have 2-gallons (I store them in glass jars while picking, this is my measuring technique) of nice, deep purple, plump cherries. Guess pruning the tree and watering it special was beneficial after all. Time to make some cherry pies!! YUMMMM!

The grape vines ran wild last year all along the fence line, guess the landlord did not take care of them as they should, and we had 4 different sections of wildly growing grapes (green seedless grapes)....
Section 1 ran from the garden gate about 20" to the left and down alone the fence line for another 20' and then up the pecan tree. We have since cut and pulled all the green grape vines from this section (except what vine trunks were on the neighbors side of the fencing). I am trying to remove all green grapes from my side of the fence in this section. We cut and pulled what vines we could reach from the pecan tree, now there are no grape runners going up the tree. The neighbors also have concord grapes, so I was able to start one small runner from over the fence onto my side, this way, we will have our own batch of plump, juicy concord grapes. This grape vine I am having run from the corner fencing to the garden gate. I will also be more able to control the amount of concord vines in this section.

Section 2 ran from the right of the garden gate 32' along the fencing and up the pomegranate tree. This is also the section that has an arbor to provide a shaded area on the garden side, this arbor is covered with grape vines (this arbor are I want to keep as is). We did cut and pull the wayward vines from the pomegranate tree and the last 10' of fencing. We also trimmed the new growth from the main trunk of the grape vine. I am finding out that these runners need to be trimmed continuously!! I really do want to keep them contained to the arbor area.

Section 3 runs about 30' past the pecan tree (it looks like they started to build an arbor but never finished it) along the fence line. This section has also grown wild and is growing in the garden area. We do plan on digging up these grape growths and getting rid of them (I can only make just so much grape jelly). We do eat the grapes when they are fresh, at least I do.

Section 4 is further down the fence line, almost to the end of that fencing. We will be getting rid of this whole section, hopefully this summer.

The arbor section will provide us with enough green grapes to last us (not to mention what I will GIVE away). This means that I can make white grape juice (all natural with NO preservatives)and more white grape jelly. The concord section is now filling out nicely and is abundant with grape clusters (more jelly and juice...*sigh).