- Paddling close, she saw wildebeest, buffalo, gazelles.

(gentle instrumental music) - I'm Lisa Lamb.

- I'm Shane Lamb.

- And we bought our house in 2013 and we always wanted a garden, so as soon as we moved in we kind of started putting in fruit trees and some of the long term things.

I mean, the main goals in our yard I would say are growing food for ourselves, but also kind of creating a wildlife habitat.

- I can't be picky about where I plant things.

I'll try to dig a hole, if I hit a shelf of limestone I move on and try somewhere else because it's very poor soil.

I'll amend with some some compost and try to mix it in when I plant fruit trees, give them a little bit more nutrient.

- And even with the landscaping, a lot of our pathways are lined with limestone because we went to dig a garden bed and we ended up with rocks, and so we used it to border that bed.

- And the tarantulas love all the limestone, actually, we have a lot of tarantulas that we see often.

- With both kids, we recently did a botany book with them, and they've been learning how to ID the plant families.

And then as we garden and hike, we've been teaching them kind of what all the different plants are, and they know which ones are edible and enjoy snacking.

- They enjoy foraging in our yard- - Endlessly, yes.

- Our neighbors have, like, last year at least, there were like a million sunflowers in the front.

- We just chop them once they're- and then get dried- - Dormant.

- And then we can just use them like bamboo.

- I think being outside just inspires creativity.

They have some fairy houses they've been building, they've got another fort that they have in the back.

They play with their friends all the time and just, they got so many hiding places for hide and seek and just- being outside inspires the imagination.

- They also enjoy catching butterflies and other insects, and putting them in this little mesh enclosure, temporarily, and then pulling up a little book to ID what it is and then they'll release them again.

- We wanted to grow as much food for ourselves and our family as possible, and we started researching what would grow in our area and started learning about things like persimmons and paw paws and loquats that we had never had growing up, and just filling our yard with as much as possible.

This year we had wonderful grapes, we just had tons of black Spanish grapes.

And so we made jam and we were just eating them fresh every day, but this year the squirrels ate pretty much all of our peaches and persimmons so it changes year by year, what we'll get an abundance of.

- We had one greenhouse but that wasn't enough 'cause never enough, so now we have two greenhouses with most of our tropicals, like the mangoes and guavas and that kind of thing.

- We've grown quite a few pineapples over the years and a number of guavas and gin berries, and Suriname cherries.

We haven't had mangoes or avocados yet, we're still hoping to one day get some of those but we find certain things do better in pots and are happier in greenhouse culture than others.

I just also like seeing what the plants look like.

I'm always curious, like, "What does a lychee plant look like?"

So I plant the seed and then it grows and I see it, and it's a beautiful plant and it's got these nice leaves.

So I know the greenhouses haven't been- - Not super productive.

- ... super productive but it's a fun collection, so that's less productive.

The raised beds and the vegetables is really what's given us the bulk of our produce.

We get a lot of sweet potatoes, green beans, snap peas, greens, lettuce, all there at the end in the spring, usually, we're not having to buy any vegetables.

We're feeding ourselves pretty much from our garden for a few months, (laughs) until summer dries everything up and then we have to wait till fall to start getting good harvests again.

- A lot of it, we just go to the Asian stores and buy interesting things and just plant the seeds.

- We also collect seeds anytime we travel, we'll bring back seeds that we collect during our trips and then plant them here.

Some of the weeds that pop up are the tastiest things, I make a chickweed pesto every year in the spring and we like it better than basil pesto.

- It's super good.

- We always wanted a pond, it was always kind of in our plan, and then with the pandemic we were spending even more time in our garden than normal.

And so, fall of 2021, we went ahead and did the pond.

- We contacted Hill Country Water Gardens and they helped design and we had them dig out the pond, 'cause it was going to be too much limestone to move by hand.

So they put in the pond and then we did all the planting in and around the pond.

- And then when we had the pond installed we kind of said we also want limestone around it, we want to look as natural as possible and we want the limestone, as well, to tie in with everything else.

- We have a variety of salvias on the berms and some lavenders and like silver ponyfoot, and some- - Woolly stemodia- - Woolly stemodia mixed in.

And then in the pond itself to either sides of the spillway, we have a big clump of horsetail.

In the back, in the bog, up above everything is the papyrus and hibiscus.

- So we went with kind of purple in general for the whole berm in the back, at least to kind of have a unifying feature.

We wanted to make sure we could see it from the kitchen when we're eating, and so it's nice watching the wildlife when we're eating our meals.

And then for us when we're outside, we're not the type of people ever really just sit and relax.

We always are working actively, but it's just really nice hearing the sound of water and having that peaceful spot while we're working in the garden.

- We have a lot of hawks that like to bathe in the bog.

We go out at night with flashlights with the kids, and go to see all the frogs and toads.

- I would say with music, as musicians, we're always making something that's ephemeral.

It doesn't last unless you're doing a recording, so it's kind of nice having the garden as always changing but it's something visual- - More permanent.

- ... that you can see and is more permanent, even though it's always shifting.

- I often also, just in the garden, I often have music in my head kind of coming up.

I compose music so I'm often kind of brainstorming new ideas or playing around with ideas as I do my work.

There's always so much to do, and I enjoy the work.

I mean, it's peaceful, it's meditative for me.

The weeding and the harvesting and caring for everything, so I don't mind.

That's my rest, is working in the garden even though physically it's a bit demanding at times.

- "What are you growing in the garden?"

she asked.

- "Almost all grasses have edible seeds," the Guardian explained, "but many are small and difficult to harvest.

I only plant grasses with big seeds like wheat, oat, corn, rice."

(bright upbeat music)