[speaker001:] well do you have a lawn
[speaker002:] yes we have a house with a big backyard for the kids to play in and a pretty good size front yard
[speaker001:] oh good so who cuts the grass
[speaker002:] my husband it's not a job that I enjoy at all
[speaker001:] well I used to own a home and when I owned my house I had a small yard and a small front yard and a small backyard then I cut the grass but I sold it so now I live in an apartment
[speaker002:] so you don't have to fool with any of that anymore
[speaker001:] so I don't have to fool with any of it no
[speaker002:] well I'm big into the plant I like the the flower beds and plants a lot better than I do the lawn
[speaker001:] oh then my wife and you would probably get along well um-hum
[speaker002:] so yeah I had used to have a garden until the kids got older and we don't have any more room in the backyard so now all I've got is flowers instead of vegetables
[speaker001:] yeah we talk about um Laura talks about growing uh right right now she's interested I think in a herb garden she mentioned this morning that she could grow just you know flower box
[speaker002:] hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and I think that's but I think uh after after we um after I finish school and we're ready to you know settle down someplace and I get a decent job then we'll look for something probably with a nice size yard that we can have a garden
[speaker002:] yeah it's nice to have nothing is better than going out there and picking your own tomatoes or different vegetables and things to eat
[speaker001:] yeah yeah that yeah that and that's the big problem with being in an apartment is we've talked about it and even uh Laura even said you know as a wedding present we should ask for these big pots you know that we could put on the front porch and because the apartment complex actually we have the whole front porch and somebody else lives on the other side so we thought about you know having putting it in pots and putting the pots just on our steps
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and growing maybe tomatoes or flowers like right now it would be beautiful in in Maryland you know daffodils are just all blooming so it would be really pretty
[speaker002:] um yeah container gardening is really pretty easy because I've done some of it before
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you just need to get the you need to get the right mix of soil so that it doesn't dry out
[speaker001:] yep yep
[speaker002:] and so that your plants because and then you have to you still have to water them a lot of times once a here in Dallas you have to water sometimes twice a day because it gets so hot in the summer
[speaker001:] yeah well we wouldn't have to worry about that right now we're going through we just it just rained all day today or it's been raining most of the morning drizzling off and on but yeah
[speaker002:] um well we've got a beautiful day and there are people out everywhere all of our neighbors are out scalping their lawn for the first time
[speaker001:] oh really this is what is it I guess your growing season's just about to begin oh
[speaker002:] yes we hit our we'll hit our last spring freeze it snowed here as late as May before but that was really unusual our our our last freeze is usually about April fifteenth
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah yeah that's a
[speaker002:] and so we're all everybody's out planting and buying and
[speaker001:] yeah see we're a little bit later than that but that's right that's about right about the same yeah
[speaker002:] seeing what died um-hum
[speaker001:] but I think um I think you you though must have much warmer weather through the winter so that's
[speaker002:] yeah it makes it nice for gardening when it's when it's like that because we can grow a lot of things even through the winter that uh y'all can't grow we can start I can start a garden in July I've done that and and plant some of the uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] sturdier crops broccoli and things like that you have to really water it a lot when it's when it's young like that and it's in the heat but then
[speaker001:] yeah yeah and then July and August yeah
[speaker002:] then as the fall comes on you get a you can get a really beautiful second crop of a lot of the cooler weather vegetables and sometimes that's the only some peas and different things like that that's the only time of the year you can grow them
[speaker001:] um-hum hum
[speaker002:] because otherwise it's too it gets if you start them when it's cooler in the spring then it gets too hot in the summer
[speaker001:] right yeah that jeez I never thought of that because see here our growing season is basically done by um well you might have some tomatoes still blooming in uh in October the begining very begining first week of October
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but normally everything's done by September end of September means you're basically done growing anything
[speaker002:] yeah um yeah but it gets a lot colder up there a lot quicker because we can grow sometimes there have been times when when I've grown stuff out I've grown broccoli up and through November
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah because it oh gee that'd be nice
[speaker002:] and still have it producing and okra okra will grow real okra will grow to be six foot tall it's just
[speaker001:] um-hum we don't even grow okra up here
[speaker002:] yeah you probably don't have the right temperatures and stuff probably not too many people eat it up there either it seems to be kind of a southern delicacy
[speaker001:] yeah we don't have the right whatever yeah well I think it it it it's getting um a little bit more popular because see there's a lot of the um first you know first the big wave of Tex-Mex food came by you know and so we're we're big into tacos and stuff up here now and and taco salads and things
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] which they probably Mexican people don't even know what a taco salad is but I think it's now it's moving up too because uh just a change you know just something different
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] plus it's a little bit more vegetable oriented and I think the uh the mid Atlantic states have been a long time holdout for beef and potatoes
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I think it's our Irish descent
[speaker002:] maybe so
[speaker001:] yeah but I think it it's changing now yeah so I so we do know what okra is I wouldn't have known what it was when I was a teenager though
[speaker002:] um-hum oh well what's your favorite plant if you were you know you were talking about your containers maybe you were going to get those started what would you like to put in them
[speaker001:] well we were going to probably just going to start well because we're going to be moving we're talking about just putting throwing tomatoes in
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know and then uh but also things like tulips I think uh I would have liked to had flowers like daffodils blooming right now you know
[speaker002:] yeah tulips is just kind of late because you have to you have to force them
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] if you were going to do that you might put some strawberries in there around the edges
[speaker001:] yeah we we talked about that too in fact um our sister-in-law Laura's brother's wife you know was talking about you know putting strawberries uh moving their strawberries because they just moved
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I it's this problem with being in school you know they just moved and they took their strawberries that they had out in their yard and put them all in containers and they're going to decide what they're going to do with them I think but they're going to let them bloom this year in the containers
[speaker002:] yeah they'll work that way and they're they're kind of pretty they've got little white flowers and
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum would you have to stake them up do aren't they do they grow along the ground strawberries
[speaker002:] long as you no they'd grow kind of like a vine they they put out little feelers kind of like an ivy would
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] and and along those is where that's where the strawberry grows and it will eventually take over an area you plant them when you plant strawberries you plant them like six to eight inches or more you can even plant further than that but to cover an area so you cover you put them eight inches apart all through a flower bed
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] and by the next year you'll have pretty much a solid bed of strawberries
[speaker001:] oh see I've never grown strawberries
[speaker002:] they're real simple that's why I like them I just put a bunch out because you just put them out there and you water them
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the bugs don't least here at least here the bugs don't particularly bother them and they don't require a lot of fertilizing or care you know during the rest of the year
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum just water
[speaker002:] yeah and then about every five years you have to dig them up and throw them away and start over again they don't last forever
[speaker001:] um-hum well they say aren't maybe you're supposed to cut them back cut them and
[speaker002:] it that can help but you just get to a point where they're just not productive anymore
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] it's just a kind of uh just the way the plant is
[speaker001:] yeah rotationary thing
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] oh that's interesting see because I've never really grown strawberries lot of tomatoes but never really strawberries
[speaker002:] yeah I like tomatoes but I always end up with when I've grown them I I end up with the little cherry tomatoes
[speaker001:] uh yeah
[speaker002:] just thousands of them and I can't figure out what to do with them all
[speaker001:] hundreds of thousand you can't even give them away
[speaker002:] yeah because everybody else is growing
[speaker001:] I can remember as a kid growing up my whole family all my family grew strawberries grew excuse me grew tomatoes
[speaker002:] the same kind of thing
[speaker001:] so whenever somebody would come over your house they'd always bring some tomatoes well but you grew your own tomatoes
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so if somebody brings you half a dozen tomatoes it doesn't do you any good because you already had a half a dozen you know pulled that day
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it's really funny
[speaker002:] yeah some other things that'll grow good in those containers and you can you can mix and match the flowers with your your vegetables and grow around them marigolds and impatiens
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh yeah
[speaker002:] they do real good especially impatiens because you tend to get shade when you're on a porch area part of the time
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I mix all all my flower beds are mixed up I've got onions behind the irises and
[speaker001:] well that's makes sense though
[speaker002:] all back and forth and around yeah because they're going be they'll grow now from now until the about middle of June then I'll have all the onions and they'll be out and then I'll put in some flowers
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] some annuals for the rest of the year and some color
[speaker001:] um oh you are a big gardener huh
[speaker002:] yeah I like getting in the dirt I just don't I hate mowing
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] it's just too hot and it has to be done too often
[speaker001:] yeah I guess the more you plant the less you have to mow
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because that's a when I had my yard it was you know it was it was really a hassle uh cutting grass was just a terrible just the thought of it was a terrible thing oh I used to hate it
[speaker002:] yeah with ours it wouldn't be so bad we had a self propelled mower but the self propelled part broke
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and so it doesn't and then and then it weighs a ton
[speaker001:] yep because it's when it's self propelled it's heavy yeah
[speaker002:] because it's yeah and it's so it's supposed to pull itself along and my husband it doesn't bother him and he I'm got out and mowed for him one day just to be nice so he wouldn't have to do it when he got home and I said what is with this mower I can't even push it around the yard
[speaker001:] yeah that
[speaker002:] and you know he's like well I get more exercise pushing it around
[speaker001:] my uh my brother went out and bought a mower used you know he was looking for a lawn mower and he he just had bought a house he lived in an apartment before
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and he bought a used mower it was a real big heavy one and he said that that you know basically they they sold it on him because you know it was a macho thing
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] the bigger and heavier the lawn mower the more macho the guy behind it so you know of course he wouldn't couldn't buy one of those little little tiny skinny ones that you can get at one of the uh one of the Aames or
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] the the fast mowing places you had to buy a big one you know because it meant something for your macho same reason why you have to drive a big truck with four wheels you know with four wheel drive
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it was a macho thing he had to use that but then after he used it one year he took it back to where he got it used and he sold it back to them and traded it in for another one that was smaller because he said it was just too dang heavy
[speaker002:] yeah too many trips around the yard with that thing huh for sure
[speaker001:] yeah plus I think he lives at a small hillside too so
[speaker002:] oh gosh
[speaker001:] yeah cut trying to cut it sideways on an angle and turning around you know without it tipping over was a pain
[speaker002:] oh yeah that's the other thing with my husband he gets he he's one of these people he didn't care about the flower beds and stuff we I guess we divide it pretty well that way but he he gets real picky about the grass he wants to get out there and he cuts it on diagonal
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and goes all this back and forth and you know and gets the weed eater out and trims all the little bits around the flower beds and all the little bits around the trees that he did n't get
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] he'll go out there and spend four hours on the lawn
[speaker001:] uh-huh well it's probably his his his personal time while he's cutting the grass he's probably thinking about something else
[speaker002:] I guess
[speaker001:] it's probably and plus no one bothers him you know you walk behind a lawn mower making all that noise no one ever talks to you you know you're on your own
[speaker002:] no nobody's going to bother you