Whoa, Blackberry (Bam-A-Lam)

When you move into a new house there often accompanies moments of exploration and discovery. You wonder why the previous owner did this or that. You spend hours trying to figure out exactly what each light switch does. You devote time and effort into unraveling the mystery and history of your home.

Well, of course, unless your home is new construction then please disregard my ramblings.

Old houses, like ours, are quirky. We've lived in it over a year and still don't know what all the light switches actually do. We have two closets that lock from the inside (I imagine them to be his and hers panic rooms). And since we've been discussing a remodel, we're a little nervous about all the treasures we'll soon discover. For starters, we're pretty sure there's a hidden window built into one of our walls.

Sometimes I love all of those interesting details. Sometimes I'd rather not have to play Sherlock Holmes.

But with it, comes the occasional fun and exciting discovery like the one we came across this week. Our home's previous owner was a compulsive gardener. So with each season's change, we find something new we'd never noticed before.

I was thrilled with this week's find.

A week or so ago, I'd noticed a bush at the foot of our driveway with beautiful pink and tangerine blooms on it. We were discussing what to plant in the backyard, and I wanted to see if our landscaping friend knew what the plant was. We walked down the driveway to see the blooms and instead found this:

Where were all my beautiful blooms and what were those knotty, thorny things all over the bush? Then I saw something familiar.

Holy smokes, we have blackberries! Our bush is covered in emerging blackberries that I'm just waiting to ripen and turn into cobbler.

It's a little embarrassing how excited I was.

We have a lot of plants like that. Even some that we're still trying to figure out. Some of you are better gardener's than I ... admittedly, that's not saying much. So, I would love to put your detective skills to the test as we try to figure out some of these trees and plants. 

We figured this one out last summer when our bright orange flowers started turning into these small, green bulbs. For most of the warm months, this tree bears small pomegranates. They never get very big and they never ripen to that deep purple color, but I think we might be the only people in our neighborhood with pomegranates growing in their backyard!

Still not 100 percent sure on this one, but we think it may be a bay leaf tree. The leaves are the right shape and texture, but the tree isn't as full or the same shape as the bay leaf trees I've looked at online.

We're almost certain this is a fruit tree of some sort. We have two of these in our yard and think they're probably grapefruit or lemon, based on these massive thorns that scrape my arms every time I mow around them. They're lethal.

Sorry this isn't the best picture. Sometimes my camera takes after me and has a hard time focusing. But look at those thorns. They hurt like the dickens!

I really, really, really wish these were lime trees. On our honeymoon, our resort's courtyard had four gigantic lime trees, their branches heavy with fruit. I can't imagine how much better my Corona Light would taste with fresh lime from my backyard.

OK, I just decided I'm going to move there permanently.

I'd be interested to hear the exciting things you've discovered in your home. And I always appreciate your help with my backyard mysteries!