Not Much Gardening Going On

I haven't been in the garden for more than a few minutes all week.  For one, it's been rainy here and, also, I've got a lot going on inside the house.  I'll get to that in a minute.

I did grab my phone and snap a couple of pics of the garden.

The garlic that I just planted last week has popped up and is growing at an insane pace.  This picture was two days ago and it's almost twice this tall now !  I'm sure the 80 degree + weather has something to do with it.  Daytona Beach tied a record high today.

Lettuce and peas (in the middle) are doing well.  The Lincoln pea seeds floated above ground after a heavy rain, but I pushed them back down and they have now sprouted.

Teeny, tiny Brussels sprouts.  I've never gotten them to grow so we will see if these make it to a size that's edible.

The grocery store gerbera daisy that I used as a centerpiece for my daughter's bday party last spring was planted in a corner of one bed and has been blooming, off and on, all year.

That's about it in the garden.  In other news, my kitchen remodel that turned into a kitchen/bathroom/living/dining room remodel is coming along.  

This is my formal living and dining area as of today:

 

Our close friends own a wood flooring company and they spent the last two days ripping up hardwood maple floors that had been water damaged after the washer leaked through the wall.  All the furniture from these two rooms (well one big room really) is shoved into the great room behind the French doors. 

The guys also semi gutted the master bathroom.  I am so grateful they did all the work before my husband came home from a trip.  Now he can rebuild the shower and tile everything and it saved days.  Until it's done, this is what I have:

The new kitchen is close to being done.  We only replaced the upper cabinets and had matching doors and drawers made for the bottom.  Some were the wrong size so they had to be reordered and the filler pieces and crown and trim moldings still need to go up. We also need to pull the microwave forward so it's flush with the cabinets, not recessed.  Oh yeah, and backsplash tile. Ok , I guess it's not really that close to being done.  Wishful thinking I suppose. 

It's getting there.  We started three weeks ago and I can't wait to have a finished house back. 

All this chaos makes me anxious, not to mention the money being spent.  We have been in savings mode for so long, I feel weird shelling out so much.  Luckily, we have friends who are in these types of businesses and it's saving us a fortune. Another close friend owns the cabinetry shop and, yet another, is a master at painting and tile work.  He even works for a home cooked meal, something he, being an airline pilot and single, doesn't get too often!

 

I'll post finished pictures when done and, maybe, in the meantime, the weather will cooperate and I can finish my late winter planting. 

Time to go and try and find a clean place to sit-wish me luck!

Weekend Planting

The weather warmed up and the temps are supposed to be in the 50's at night for the next several days, so today, I took the opportunity to plant some stuff out in the garden.  I sowed some pea seeds-Sugar Snap and Lincoln, and transplanted a bunch of lettuce-Iceberg, Romaine and Buttercrisp along with Bright Lights Swiss chard.  I pulled up the  broccoli plants that had stopped producing side shoots and replanted more broccoli and cabbage in their places.  I filled six 4x4 beds with seeds and plants and it felt great!  I also got a small amount of my seed garlic planted in some large planters.  Tomorrow, I need to finish planting all the garlic, shallots, leeks and onions. I'm about six weeks late planting the garlic but I kept it in the fridge so hoping it will still bulb up.  

I think I will also plant the potatoes tomorrow.  Last year I planted in mid February, but thinking if I planted a little early, I might be able to harvest before it gets wet in the spring.  I may have to cover them if we get some late freezes, but a lot of locals plant in January (or earlier), so I'm giving it a try.

While I'm out there, I'll have the kids plant carrots and radishes, too.  Busy planting weekend in the Sanctuary Garden!

No pictures today, it was dark by the time I finished so I'll snap a few in the morning.

Have a good night:)

The Florida Freeze

Winter has finally made it to Florida and I couldn't be happier!  It's been so warm here, unlike much of the U.S., I thought we'd have another winter less year.  Last year was so mild, none of my fruit trees or bushes produced except for my Sunraycer nectarine-that tree went from a 1/2" caliper to a two inch caliper in one season and put on almost 10' of growth! It gave me eight deliciously sweet nectarines and is already starting to blossom.  I shouldn't have let it produce since it was in it's first year, but I have a feeling this tree can handle it.

Right now, my kitchen breakfast nook is filled with plants waiting out the cd weather.  The cats love it- it's like their own personal jungle!   Here's the oldest cat, Phoebe, checking out some tomato transplants that are, patiently, waiting for warmer weather so they can go outside.  

These were purchased from HD after the last freeze a few weeks ago.  They were marked down to .50 each.  Guess the store thought they wouldn't make it.  A little TLC and sea kelp fertilizer and they are good to go!

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Making Progress

I'm checking things off my garden project list!  I've got new hardware on my fence gate that serves the garden (thanks to my hubbie and Little Man), the new beds are all stained to match the old ones, the new beds are all filled with garden soil, tomato and pepper seeds have been started and I cleaned up the apple tree area.  I feel so accomplished...till I look at all the stuff still left to do.  

Speaking of filling the beds with garden soil...

I have, historically, used Mel's mix to fill my beds.  It's wonderful and I have no complaints about its ability to grow great produce.  My complaint is, it is expensive.  Since I started with one bed and added one a season for the last year or two, it wasn't a huge hit to the wallet all at once.  The issue this year is that I added five 4'x8' beds and filling them all with Mel's mix was gonna cost a fortune.  A friend of mine started a garden two years ago and filled all of her beds with garden soil she had delivered.  I called and found I could get "good, black garden soil" for $18 a yard!  The woman on the phone assured me it was perfect for raised garden beds and growing vegetables.  I am not one to change something that's working great already, but for that price, I would be a fool not to try it.  It looks pretty nice; it's loose and rich and looks a lot like my compost.  No sand at all, which is great because all the bargain brand soils and compost I have purchased have contained a lot of sand.  My whole yard is sand so I don't need any more.  Since I had already purchased several bags of vermiculite and peat moss over the winter, I amended the garden soil with these.  I will add worm castings, Azomite and compost to each bed prior to planting to end up with a hybrid Mel's mix/black garden soil.  I'm crossing my fingers that I'll have similar results as I have previous years.  Friends of mine use garden soil exclusively and grow tons of produce so it should work well.  

Here is Little Man playing on the pile of garden soil.  It looks like a small pile in this picture, but I ordered six yards.  It was enough to fill all the beds, top off the existing ones, fill in all the area beneath the apple trees (I'm planting my garlic here this week-it gets a lot of sun and is supposed to be a great companion planting), fill my old fire pit (another garlic planting area) and still have a huge pile left over.

I used it to create a new landscaped area in my front yard.

First, I dug up the sod and covered the area with cardboard.  Then I watered the cardboard thoroughly and added the soil (and photo bombed my own photo with my shadow).

My daughter, the Girly Girl, usually could care less about helping in the yard or garden; my Little Man is the one who loves to help out.  I was surprised when she asked if she could help and then filled a full wheelbarrow full of dirt and spread out several loads after I dumped it.  I suspect it was an attempt to put off cleaning her room, but I will take it.  I love when she wants to hang out with me and I know that the time is coming soon when I won't be cool any more. (Let's face it, I was never cool, I'm a total nerd and kinda proud of it).

I ended up with what I affectionately call "Fish Island".

Its still not planted, but we have freeze watches for the next two days so it will be this weekend before I feel it's safe to add some plants.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but a storm was moving in and I was lucky to get the dirt covered with landscape fabric and my garden tools put away just as the rain started.

Well, that's it for today.  Stay warm!

Garden Goals 2014

I was just reading another garden blog and it had a list of garden goals in the sidebar.  I like that idea, something told keep me in check and accountable.  I am very good at making plans and saying yes to things but I usually get myself in over my head.  It has never stopped me, though!

I have lots of garden goals/projects that I'd like to accomplish this year and I will attempt to list them here.

First the projects:
Finish staining new beds to match existing ones.
Cover walkways with landscape fabric and add gravel
Fix garden gate
Cap off reclaimed water sprinklers and finish installing fresh water irrigation
Remove blood orange tree that hasn't given a single edible orange since planting it several years ago
Work on fruit tree area along fence-remove sod and weeds and make it a proper garden area
Remove dying magnolia in the front yard and replace with a peach tree
Build a moveable trellis/row cover system that is interchangeable and can be moved from bed to bed
Move jasmine vines to west side fence and plant potted muscadine grapes on pergola

Wow, I'm exhausted thinking about all that work!

Now for the goals:

Grow with the intention of eating as much fresh as I can.  Large quantities for putting up can be obtained from the farmers market. Exceptions are potatoes, garlic, onions and cucumbers.
Create a list of recipes and preservation ideas for everything I grow/purchase at market.
Keep an actual garden journal that tracks planting dates, varieties, pests, harvest, etc.
Create a calendar with dates for planting, fertilizing, planting, etc.
Grow a good slicing tomato!
Keep the garden area as neat and orderly as possible.  Put away tools, pots, etc as soon as I'm done.
No shortcuts on projects!  I always end up redoing it at a later date.
Learn as much as I can and enjoy every step along the way.


Anyone else have goals for this gardening season (or year, if you live in the south, like me)?

Seeds Are In!

My mail carrier was good to me today.  She brought three seed orders and some nice sugarcane.  Last week. She brought me lots of onion starts and my seed potatoes so I better get working.

I added another two beds and I am waiting for the weather to cooperate so I can stain them to match the others.  Once that is done, I can have the soil delivered and, then, the gravel for the pathways.  I've been going back and forth on the gravel.  I can't decide between brown and white.  I believe brown will be the lowest maintenance, but I really love the idea of white.  It seems so orderly to me.  I had white stones when there were only two beds and loved it.  I only changed to brown mulch because it was so inexpensive.  I hate having to add more a few times a year, though.  We also are still planning the pool and gravel would be much better once that's in.  

What do you think-brown or white gravel?

I really have to stop worrying about appearance and get peas and carrots planted and tomatoes and peppers started.  Like...today.

Has your mail carrier been good to you, also?

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

Fall Crops are Falling!

Falling prey to caterpillars!  They are everywhere and the Bt I have been spraying just makes them stronger.  I got some spinosad in the form of Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew but we've had rain every evening so I haven't been able to spray.  The rain is gone today and the forecast is clear for the next week so I will spray tonight in one last ditch effort to save what's left of the butternuts and cocozelles.  The spaghetti squash and pumpkins are done.  One pumpkin and no squash on a dozen plants and the one pumpkin was attacked last night and has holes all over.  All but one butternut was attacked, too.  The butternut holes are tiny so I'm hoping I can still save them and just cut the wormy part out.  They won't store, but I could cube and freeze.

The biggest butternut, not looking too good.

Spaghetti squash covered in powdery mildew and chewed by caterpillars which have made their way into the vines.

The last cantaloupe.  Starting to see a theme?  Yup, the caterpillars feasted last night!

 

The good news is that only a few of the cucumbers have been hit with bugs and no powdery mildew yet so I get to keep those for a few more weeks, or so.  Also, all the winter veggies like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, etc. are doing great.  The caterpillars only seem to like the cucurbits.  If I pull them now, I free up a lot of space to plant onions, garlic, leeks, carrots and greens, among other things.  I am somewhat sacrificing the cucumbers because, once everything else is gone, they will be the feast of choice.  Hoping to keep spraying and keep them from moving onto winter crops.

The sweet potatoes are curing nicely, and I cooked with the ones I harvested early, about a month ago.  I made scalloped potatoes at gratin.  They started out as scalloped potatoes, but them I covered the top with cheese so, technically, they are au gratin.   I think.  Never was really sure of the difference.  Whatever the name, they were the best sweet potatoes I've ever eaten.  Ever. In my life.  Even my daughter loved them and ate two helpings.  I didn't follow a recipe, just sautéed an onion and garlic in butter, added salt, pepper and crushed cayenne pepper and wondra flour and made a paste.  Then I poured in some heavy cream and added chopped chives and the sauce was done.  I mixed in the potatoes and poured it all into a baking dish, covered it with grated asiago and baked at 400 till potatoes were soft and the top was brown which took about 30-35 mins.  Everything but the flour and dairy came from the garden-love that!  I didn't get a picture because they were gone before I even thought of it.  

We had the potatoes with a salad and a crock pot roast.  I even made an apple slab pie for dessert.  Used this recipe from King Arthur Flour.  I had a store bought crust and was short on time but it worked great.  I will attempt to make the crust from scratch next time.  Oh my, it was a great dinner.  I will have to run a few extra miles today, but it was sooooo worth it.  

One last thing, but it's not garden related.  Hope no one minds.  Here's a somewhat grainy (pulled it from a video on my phone) of my son riding his bike for the first time without training wheels!  

So proud of him.  Go Little Man, go!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Farmer's Market Finds

I brought my husband to the weekly Farmer's market yesterday.  Usually, I only look at edibles and plants and bypass the flea market junk, but there was some kind of event inside the fairgrounds (that may, or may not, be the fall fair) so all the vendors were in the parking lot and they were not in their usual spots.  We ended up going through all the aisles looking for the plant guy (never found him) and, low and behold, I ended up bringing home some of the flea market junk.

First, I got this cool looking level.  The guy wanted $5 and my husband offered $3.  The guy said no so we walked away.  I couldn't stop thinking about it, it just spoke to me, so I went back and offered $4 with a very nice "Please?".  That worked and now I have a wood and metal level that is currently sitting on my fireplace mantel.  Not your usual formal living room mantel decor, but I love it.

Next to the level guy, was a true junk table.  It had Coke glasses and assorted "antiques".  It also had this window.

It's not antique, but for another few bucks, I knew it would be perfect in my future garden shed.  In this case, the glass and plastic frame construction will work great out in the elements.

The last thing we picked up was this tool box/carrier.

Doesn't it look adorable holding some herbs and gardening supplies?  I pointed it out to my husband as we walked past the vendor's table and he loved it and said I should get it and use it in the garden.  It was the most expensive thing we bought at $15 and it pushed the total over my $20 budget.  The guy who sold it to us made us promise not to paint it and ruin the charm.  Not a problem.  I love it just the way it is.   I wonder what it says about me when I go shopping and come home with a level, window and tool box?  I'm definitely my father's daughter!  He builds clocks in his retirement and is a wonderfully gifted carpenter.  The smell of freshly sawn wood is one of my favorites.  

We actually did get some produce - a bag of red pears.  In all of my 42 years, I've only eaten a handful of pears and never had a red one.  I am not sure why I don't eat them more often.  They were delicious!  Very sweet and crisp and juicy.  My husband and I ate a couple while we walked around.  When my daughter and her friend came home from school, we made them each try some slices.  Neither one had eaten a pear, ever.  I love introducing people to produce they normally wouldn't pick.   It was funny because, the day before, my daughter said she wanted to try a pear since she loves apples so much.  She said it was good, but didn't finish the portion given.  I guess she's more of an apple girl, after all. 

Thanks for reading,

Jen

The Final Sweet Potato Harvest

I harvested the last bed of sweet potatoes today.  This bed was the first one I planted back in early May.  It was one of a few new ones installed in late spring and I didn't realize that it only got partial sun in the afternoon.  Sweet potatoes like it hot and these slips got a slow start.  Ironically, the bed produced almost as many as the others (in full sun) and the size and shape were much better than the crazy twisted, giant ones I harvested yesterday.

I harvested 12lbs which brought my total to 45lbs!  Not bad for my first time.  We definitely have enough for our family to eat all winter and spring until the regular potatoes are harvested.  I will also get to bring a big dish of them to the family Thanksgiving dinner!

I upgraded my phone and I now have a cool panoramic feature so I played around a little with it this evening.  I need to perfect my technique.  Evidently I cannot follow a straight line so it looks a little wonky but I like being able to see so much at once.

The mini pumpkins, spaghetti squash and Christmas Lima beans are to the right of center and I just planted broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts in the beds in the middle.  The empty bed near the flag may become a perennial onion/leek bed.  All the way to the right are the four new beds I added a few weeks ago.  They still need soil and at least one will be for garlic/shallots.  I think the others will hold sugar snap peas (climbing up the trellis) and shelling peas.  I'm training the spaghetti squash to climb the other side of the trellis.

The Tabasco peppers (on the left) are, officially, over six feet tall!  My butternuts were coaxed up the trellis on the right of the bed this morning and a few vines reached the top.  My fall planting of Kentucky Blue pole beans are too shaded behind the peppers so they aren't filling in the back trellis much but they are starting to flower and may give me a few pods.  If they aren't producing much, I'll pull them and plant peas in their place.  I'm still debating on overwintering the Tabasco peppers.  There are two plants and I may leave the front one (the biggest and more prolific) and prune and pot the back one to take in on cold nights and see how it does in the spring.

I finally got a chance to turn the compost from one bin to the other.  I also sprayed everything down with a generous dose of neem.  I have some aphids and, just today, found the start of powdery mildew on every single squash and pumpkin plant, ugh!  All the humidity really takes a toll on the fall garden.  Hopefully, I can harvest a good crop before I have to pull everything. 

Have a great night!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Harvest Monday-September 30, 2013

Another harvest Monday!  As usual, I had an assortment of peppers:  Tabasco, serrano, fajita bell and Yummy Snacking.  Tabasco and Yummy Snacking peppers are really loaded with fruit and have grown over five feet tall!  The others are starting to wind down for the season, I believe.

 

 

 

I also dug up two of three sweet potato beds.  One bed was filled with Beauregards and the other with Vardamon.  The Vardemons are a bush variety and I did notice that the vines, although they looked the same, were not nearly as long as the Beauregards.  What was so different, was that the Vardemon sweet potatoes dug deep down into the soil.  Most were found at least six inches down and quite a few had made it through the landscape fabric that lines the raised beds and were growing underneath.  Although I only weighed the total crop and not by type (yet), I would say they were, roughly, equal.  All in all, today I harvested 33 pounds of sweet potatoes.  Some were tiny and some were...

 

not so tiny!

 

 

Most were average in size, but odd in shape.

 

 

 

I found this little guy hanging out in the shade of the leaves. I moved him to another bed to

continue with his bug destroying work.

Hope everyone else had a great harvest and thanks to Daphne's Dandelions for hosting Harvest Monday every week!

Thanks for reading,
Jen

Butternut Blues

This is what I'm finding on my butternuts.  About half the little squash are rotting and I suspect blossom end rot or blossom blight.  I grow in raised beds filled with a mixture of compost, peat and vermiculite (Mels mix).  I've never had this happen before, but I've never had my soil tested, either.  This just started showing up on new fruit following heavy rains over the last few weeks.  I plan to give the plants a dose of calcium (blossom end rot spray for tomatoes) and see if that helps the next round of squash.  I also just got a bag of worm castings and want to give it a try.  I put in a couple of inches of compost before planting this bed, but haven't given them any fertilizer since planting.  I need to get better with fertilizing and using preventative organic sprays.  This time of year, it isn't a case of if bugs or disease invade the garden, but when.  This keeps many Florida gardeners from planting a fall garden.  Some just feel it isn't worth the effort.  I disagree.  You just have to be diligent and organized.  I'm working on the organized part. 

The plants, in general, look great and are growing like crazy with all this rain.  I have several healthy looking squash on the vines.  Hope to keep them.  This is my first attempt at butternuts and first successful attempt at winter squash.  Last year's August planted winter squash got powdery mildew and squash borers and died before giving me any usable fruit.  

In the front is a cocozelle (zucchini) squash and the early butternuts are climbing up the trellis in the corner, behind the cocozelles.  They are planted pretty close together, so I think they will benefit from a mid season feeding.  I'm using the zucchini plant to shade some broccoli seedlings and a basil plant while I prepare their planting areas.  At the far left is a glimpse of kohlrabi.  My first time planting those. They were requested by my five year old who saw the photos on the seedling tag and thought they looked cool.  How could I say no?  After looking up the plants on my phone and reading they are a brassica from Germany, I grabbed two packs of nine-a purple and a white/green.  I've never met a brassica I didn't like and my maiden name is about as German as you can get so I'm excited about these odd looking little veggies.

Well, it's time for me to say "gute Nacht!"

Thanks for reading,

Jen

An Apple A Day

Although our local farmers' market was a bust this week due to the rain, I did run across a big apple sale and grabbed a bushel.  I've never canned applesauce before, but it is one of the very few things everyone in the family likes.  

I have to say, applesauce was way easier to make and can than the tomatoes I did in the spring.  Basically, the apples were quartered, (with bad spots removed), heated up on the stove till soft and crushed.  I used my KitchenAid grinder with the strainer attachment and it was smooth sailing!  I fed in the hot pieces and the machine churned out beautiful applesauce with no seeds or skins.  The sauce was very sweet and I added a little citric acid to keep the color and it gave it just the right amount of tanginess for my taste.  I added cinnamon to half and canned it all.  I ended up with 14 quarts of sauce and just over a half gallon of juice (and a burned hand-applesauce explodes out of the pan as it gets hot).  Because I cooked the apples with the skins on, the juice is a light pink color and delicious.  I am planning to boil down some of the juice to make a syrup.  Not sure what I will use it on, but I'm picturing it poured over vanilla ice cream, yum!

Since I had the canner going, I decided to finish up the salsa and pizza sauce I had been planning to make all summer long and then picked enough hot peppers to pickle a few pints.  I also chopped and froze a few bags of sweet peppers.  All in all, not a bad day's work.

In garden news, I have decided the bugs on my Tabasco pepper are not beneficials, but dreaded stink bugs.  I was able to remove all visible ones and will keep checking to make sure I got them all.  

My butternuts and cucumbers are dropping tiny fruit.  The larger butternuts (over a few inches) look fine, but many of the tiny ones are turning yellow, then dark on the end and the flower rots so I'm guess blossom end rot.  I didn't test my soil this fall, but the weather the last two weeks has been wet, wet, wet.  It had rained every day for the last week and we just came off of a three day flood watch.  I have some blossom end rot spray I got for tomatoes but never needed it so I'm wondering if I can use it on the squash and cukes or is it too late to correct the deficiency?  I need to get a little better with the preventative stuff so I'm not trying to put out fires.  An ounce of prevention, and all that.

The mailman brought me a package today and I now have something new to plant.  I just love deliveries for the garden!  I think I've said, at least a dozen times this year, that I am not adding anything new to the garden.  Well, I can't resist a good deal and, perennial veggies are a great deal.  Plant once and harvest over and over.  I am now the proud owner of 25 sets of Egyptian Walking Onions.  I read about them, and other perennial/wild aliums, in a book on vegetable gardening in Florida.  When I was younger, we had wild onion or wild garlic in our yard and I loved eating it.  My friends always thought that was so strange.  "She's eating the grass again!"  I was so happy to find the walking onions online along with wild onion (I was unable to find perennial leeks, everyone was sold out for the season).    

I'll have to figure out a place for them-that's quickly becoming the story of my life-but I have a few ideas.  I should have some space in the garden opening up this fall.  I was given the ok by my husband to move my potatoes, garlic and annual onions to a piece of land we own in the neighboring town.  I'm very excited about this and am hoping it will also become home to other "larger" crops like corn or grains.  Looks like I need to get out the garden plan and start working.  My kinda fun on a Saturday night!  Oh boy, I'm pretty sure I'm too young to say stuff like that, but its true.

Hope you enjoy your Saturday night!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Name This Bug...Please!

I'm pretty sure they are stink bugs of some sort and, therefore, not a beneficial.  I've looked through so many bug pics but cannot find an exact match.  

These have been on my pepper plants lately.   Only on the peppers, not on anything else.  They are always grouped like this.  The plants they are on are starting to get some yellow leaves but nothing major and the fruit seems to be fine, though some of the neighboring peppers have dropped most leaves and slowed or stopped fruiting so I pulled them this morning.  I have seen aphids and carpenter ants on these plants, too.  Today I found one dark red lady bug.  I think that's what it was.  Didn't get a great look as it started raining hard and I ran for cover on the porch.

It looks like they start off orange then turn more green/gray as they get bigger.  I crushed one and smelled a smell but it wasn't horrible and I thought stink bugs really stink, hence the name.  My hand does smell a little, even after washing.  

Maybe I'm in denial, lol.  I really want this to be a parasitic bug that is cleaning up all the plants like a death vacuum!  I've got cabbage loopers on the squash so I sprayed everything with Bt last week and planned to do a round of neem this week.  Just waiting for a rain free forecast.  Today, there is a flood warning, and 80% chance of rain tomorrow, so looks like Thursday might be a spray day.  I'd hate to accidentally kill good bugs, though, so I try not to spray too much.  I always use organic methods, when needed, and find that Aug-Sept are the "bug months" in my garden.  

Last fall, I lost quite a few plants this time of year due to bugs and disease, and I don't want it to happen again.  Im determined to have a four season vegetable garden.  Even with the presence of some bugs, all of the plants look very healthy, which I take as a good sign.  Ironically, I didn't see a single bug (other than the ever present snails) in the garden all spring/summer.  Guess they were just biding their time and waiting for the perfect storm of heat, humidity and rain.  

Wish me luck, and thanks for reading,

Jen

Harvest Monday-September 23, 2013

Not too much in the way of a harvest today.  It is a transition time in the central Florida vegetable garden with fall veggies still a ways from harvesting and the last of the spring/summer ones slowing production to almost nothing.  Most of the pepper plants planted in March are looking haggard and will be pulled this week.  Gonna leave some in to try to overwinter in the hopes they restart production in the spring.  In this part of the country, peppers and tomatoes can be kept growing year round, for the most part, although they aren't in fruit production the whole time.  I just pulled a Mountain Magic tomato plant that I planted in the tower garden (an aeroponic setup) last summer.  I, absentmindedly, let the reservoir get low on both water and nutrients while we were in England and, coupled with the heat, it just couldn't recover properly.  This year, I plan to leave two Tabasco peppers, three Yummy Snacking peppers and, possibly, a jalapeño.  All six have grown very tall and lush and are covered in blossoms.  Other than some carpenter ants on the Tabascos, I see no signs of disease or other bugs.

Does any one else keep peppers going throughout the year?  I wonder if pruning and potting them would help or is it better to just leave them and see what happens?  Sounds like another experiment, and I love a good garden experiment!

Here's the small harvest from this rainy Monday morning:

Hot and sweet peppers, many of which were picked as they started the transition from green to red and are, therefore black.  Could have left them to ripen more, but the snails are back in full force and I didn't want to risk losing them.  

Two key limes

Various herbs- from left, clockwise:  chives, oregano, sweet basil, purple basil, Greek columnar basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, and bay.  My tiny bay laurel is looking very rusty, have to look into spraying it.  I'd hate to lose such a beautiful plant.

I apologize for the lighting in these photos.  I picked in a light drizzle of rain and natural light was hard to come by this morning.

I am chomping at the bit to dig up my beds of sweet potatoes but the wet weather is making it impossible for me do that.  If I had planned well, I could have done it Saturday afternoon.  We had a dry day before, but the lawn sprinklers came on and soaked the beds once again.   They say it's best to stop watering prior to digging.  Dry potatoes means less chance of damage to the skins I suppose.  It poured yesterday afternoon and all night last night so, looks like maybe later this week will be my best chance.  Look for a big (hopefully) harvest next Monday!  

As always, harvest Monday is sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions.  Check out her blog and see what everyone else is harvesting this week.  Hope others fared better in their harvesting.

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Banana Bread Recipe

I got absolutely zero done in the garden today.  I did, however, finish the plans for the tiny garden shed I'm building this winter.  I need a place to store empty planters, tools, organic fertilizers, etc.  It is based on plans I found online for a garden shed made from 2x2s and cedar fence pickets.  The original plans can be found here.  I'm following the guts of the plans but cutting the size, roughly, in half.  It's not built to last an eternity, but perfect for my needs and budget friendly.  It will be placed up against the fence in the back of the garden.  Being clad in the same fence pickets will help it (hopefully) blend in and not catch the attention of anyone (cough-HOA) who might also know that the bylaws state any outbuildings must be pre approved and match exactly the same materials and colors of the house.  I'm sorry, but a 2'x4' concrete block with painted stucco finish and architectural asphalt shingles seems a bit ridiculous.  Rather, I would love it to have the cedar picket siding, a little stained glass window with flower box and a blue door.  Definitely a blue door.  Like a tiny English cottage.  Guess I was inspired by all the beautiful places I saw in Wales.  A lot to ask from an 8 square foot garden (closet) shed that needs to blend in, but I'm sure I can make it work.

So, in addition to taking a few minutes to resize the plans, I finally got the banana bread done that I planned to make on Friday.  I had extra bananas so ended up making three loaves and sending one home with my mother in law.  My house smells so yummy!  

As promised, here is the recipe.  If you are looking for a healthy, low fat, naturally sweetened banana bread, I can assure you, this is not it.  This version contains both oil and real butter, both white and brown sugars and sour cream to boot!  It's a combination of a few recipes I saw online along with my own tweaks.  Hope you like it.  As you can see from the picture, I prefer big chunks of walnuts and bananas in my bread, but you can mash and chop more finely, if that is your preference.  You can also use all butter or all oil, and all white sugar or all brown sugar.  I findthe combinations of each give it the texture and color I like, but, hey, it's banana bread and almost impossible to mess up.

 

 

 

Sour Cream Banana Bread

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup oil

¼ cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour bottom only of a loaf pan.  I use a one pound pan.

In large bowl, beat together: sugars, butter and oil.

Add eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla; blend well.

In separate bowl:  Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off.  Sift flour, baking soda and salt.  Make sure salt is mixed in well.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Add walnuts, if desired, and stir to incorporate.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (adjust time if using a smaller or larger pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely, or eat warm. Makes 1 loaf.

I have read to wrap it up and store in the fridge, but it never lasts long enough, in my house, to put away!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Saturday in Pictures

Top row, left to right:  strawberry plant runners, cantaloupe, chili pepper

Middle row, left to right:  sweet potato vine, crepe myrtle, knock out rose bud

Bottom row, left to right:  salvia, avocado, pumpkin squash

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Not much got done in the garden today; I actually had to work.  I'm pretty fortunate to own my own business and work from home.  I get to set my own hours and can work from my kitchen table in front of the windows that overlook the garden.   The problem with that is I, sometimes, get distracted by the view beyond those windows and I end up putting the work aside to play outside.  That was the case this week.  A combination of nice weather and a vacation mindset (even though we've been back for over a week), kept me from completing the stuff that actually brings in a paycheck.  

I got a late start after school drop off because I stopped to help a turtle cross the road and then help a little white dog find his owners.  Poor thing was so scared, but very sweet, and his owners drove by calling for him about ten minutes later.  It must be wayward animal day in my neighborhood. 

So, today was a day to hunker down and get everything finished.  I used the dining room table (not much of a view out that window) to keep me on task.

Luckily, I had help (she says sarcastically).

This is my daughter's kitty, Princess.  When my daughter is at school, Princess follows me around.  She tries to pretend like I am her favorite, but she drops me like third period French as soon as my daughter walks in the door.   When I'm working, she tends to sit on my work and get in the way.  Today was no different.  These construction company logos took twice as long as usual because she kept attacking my hands as I worked.  I did have a good laugh or two at her expense when she backed up while playing with a balled up wad of discarded vinyl and fell off the table.  I am pretty sure laughing at the kitty used up all the good karma I built up this morning, but I couldn't help myself!

I did take a few minutes to snap a couple pics of the garden:

I found lots of little butternuts.  This is Early Butternut grown from seed planted directly in the garden on Aug 19.  There are at least a dozen of these little guys. 

Cucumbers.  My favorite variety Alibi-an almost sweet, small cucumber great for fresh eating or pickling.  They always are the first to bloom and they produce well.  These were planted the same day as the butternuts.  There are not many things cuter than baby cukes!  Mixed in with them are some watermelon that self seeded.

Here is my two sisters bed consisting of squash and beans.  On the back trellis are the Christmas Lima beans that have grown over my head (and I'm 5'9) in the three weeks since planting the seeds!   Everywhere there are squash plants, there are beans in the same bed.  The pumpkins are Lil Pumpkemon; a small, early decorative variety that are white with green and orange stripes.  The description said "strong, vigorous, early maturing vines" so I planned to train them up and over the trellis, but they look distinctly bushy.  The spaghetti squash description said "plan for 5-6 foot vines" so  I planted in two spots and planned to let them fill in the bed.  They look VERY vigorous and I have a feeling they are gonna travel.  Good thing the beds to the right are empty until garlic goes in this winter.  I'll let the vines travel in that direction.  The squash should be harvested just in time to plant garlic.

Tomorrow is a busy family day so I probably won't get out to the garden until Sunday.  I plan to add some worm castings and Azomite to all the fall beds and, weather permitting, harvest one of the three remaining beds of sweet potatoes.  I also hope to bake banana bread and make some broccoli cheddar soup.  I may get one of those things done, lol!  Look for the banana bread recipe tomorrow.  It's my favorite and oh so good.  

Thanks for reading,

Jen