Garden Tour- Grandpa Blad

Garden envy?  Guilty as charged. 

This past weekend, we sneaked a visit in to see my grandparents who live in a very small, rural town in the middle of Utah.  We were spoiled like crazy, and we very much enjoyed our time with them.  One of the highlights of our trip was going on Grandpa Blad's garden tour.  His garden is amazing!

From nests in trees...

And snap dragons literally growing from the rocks...

We were in garden heaven! 

In Utah, veggie gardens are generally just sprouting in early June, but not Grandpa's garden.  His garden is in full swing and he's been harvesting those cool weather crops for some time now- lettuces, spinach, asparagus, and the like.  Grandpa does the amazing and is a true gardener in every sense of the word.  Daily he cares for his plot, and it shows.

He has canes, bushes, and vines that produce currents, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and grapes (did I forget any?)...

Getting a close look at the raspberries.

 He's got close to 30 fruit and nut trees...

Pretty cherries!

There's the old freezer basking in the shade of the fruit trees.  The concrete guys that came last week moved the freezer there so that they could pour the new walkways, but when they were done, they never moved it back.

And a veggie patch that, well, simply put, "shows off."  Seriously.  Where we live, we just past the average last frost date like 2 weeks ago, so his patch really raises my eyebrows!  I know a patch like that takes a lot of hard work and plant-caring.

He has a nice set up for his tomatoes using black plastic which both warms the soil and keeps the weeds out, and tires that hold down the plastic when the wind kicks up.

And all his squash and melons are off to a good start, too.

I love his garden.  It's inspiring, really.

Oh!  I almost forgot his flourishing perennial herb patch.  Take a look for yourself.

Cool horseradish plants!

There was lots of mint and lemon balm.

 Every rose has it's thorns, and every great garden deals with pests and tragedy.  Grandpa showed us how the aphids are at work on his cherry tree.  He also had a few fruit trees lost limbs when they got hit hard this winter with a storm that dropped a good 15 inches of snow.  His almond tree died, one of his apple trees got crushed and split almost in half, and another tree strangely got it's branches all smashed out of the middle.

When aphids attack!

Looking at a maimed fruit tree

 That's the wonderful thing about gardens- there will always be something to take care of.  

Many thanks to Grandpa Blad for being our garden tour guide (and Grandma Blad for spoiling us with food, love, and laughs).  And many more thanks for sharing his garden with us (we got tender fresh lettuce and cilantro to bring home)!  What a garden!  And what a gardener!  We sure look forward to our next visit!

Sharing At: Green Thumb Thursday, Fishtail Cottage, Tuesday Garden Party, Wow Us Wednesdays