Lets talk gardens.....
Mine is coming along as well and about to be busy with it. Beans, peas and squash are blooming, Have peppers and maters on the bush, cukes and okra are a little behind. Tilled it up yesterday and added fert. So how is yours doing??
Common Sense can't be bought, taught or gifted, yet it is one of the few things in life that is free, and most refuse to even attempt to possess it. - Miguel Cervantes
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Starting to harvest Big Boy tomatoes and some grape variety I got from a friend who got them in Mexico. They are yearly tasty weeds now. The Rutgers are not far off.
Purple Ichiban eggplant are prolific to the extent of needing to batter and fry some for the freezer.
Poblanos and Cubaniel peppers are coming along nicely (make good salsas and rellenos) and the Carabian Hots are almost ready.
Have sever different kinds of mints (spear, pepper, lemon, chocolate) that are doing well and helpful in making sauces/salsas, mohitos and juleeps and to stick between your cheek and gum.
Thyme (lemon and Italian), rosemary and lavender, oregano and sage are all doing well and eaten regularly in salads, sauces and meats.
Chives and garlic chives are used in salads, dressings, sandwiches, etc.
Cucumbers are still tiny, yellow squash and Seminole pumpkins still just flowers and Florida speckled butter beans still just vines.
Sweet potatoes in their infancy.
That's it for now.
A couoke weeks ago I planted some strawberrys, grapes, watermelon, and bought some cilantro.
Everything is growing suprisingly well given my absolute lack of garden knowledge.
I have been watering with only collected rainwater off my roof. I have only a couple plants, nothing like micci
Any tips?
Do I need to germinate anything?
I saw a ladybug on the strawberrys the other day, I let it be
All sorts of good info, what to grow and when and how, how much per person, etc.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021
Cat- if you don't have the space to plant in the ground several samll raised beds will produce really well and so will "bucket gardening". Building/making compost and adding it to your growing area really helps things along as well.
I started this compost last spring and it is looking goot! All this pile is is leaves, mainly oak.
Yea I put them in 5gallon pots for now, but my plan is 100% to build some raised beds.
Since ive only got a couple plants I am using miracle grow "organic" topsoil bags.
The sand at my house is almost pure sugar sand...
The water melons are kickin **** and takin names, growin about an inch a day
tomatoes yet to turn red, or yellow, beans still bumper crop, cukes doing ok, zukes still producing, as are the peas
still waiting for the cantaloup, eggplant, and peppers to do something
had to pull the lettuce, got bitter from the heat, and planted watermelon in it's place
how often do you have to water them?
Every other day or so. In fact, this reminds me I need to fertilizer them again.
The tomatoes started out great on the patio in pots till worms got the best of us. Tried spectracide, dish soap, and sevin dust. Nothing, but picking them off worked and there were so many that Rhonda pulled 'em up and fed em to the cows. It was a small black/gray worm that I've never had before. I'm guessing they came in soil in the pots.
Tori and Toni are supposed to be digging five 50' rows of potatoes today.
Some were that small, most were around 1 1/2" long. I've never had this type of worm before. Nothing we tried worked on them. We would pick them off and there would be 20 more on each plant the next day.
It was frustrating. The plants were doing well and were loaded with tomatoes. Oh, well. At least she picked the green ones and fried 'em up for me.
They pop when you squish em.
The patio is full of worm stains. We popped 'em till we finally decided it wasn't worth the battle. I'll just buy tomatoes at the flea market this year.
I lost the battle last year, but manged to stay on top this year. Shock and awe early can keep them in check, once they spread, things get dicier.
Nothing wrong with flea market tomatoes.
Hornworms? Thurbicide spray. Gotta catch them early though, they march on like Sherman through Atlanta.
They are tinier than horn worms and more prolific.
No, I've never had these worms before. Hornworms/tomato worms/tobacco worms have never been a problem. You can see the quickly because of the droppings and pull 'em off.
they looked a lot like army worms.
I know what you are talking about, had some last year. Thurbicide kills them too.
There are no farmers, only evil corporations.
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334
Back to the garden, we have harvested most of our spring crops as we planted very early to try and beat the bugs. We were pretty successful with that but had to deal with the cold weather so late in the spring.
Right now we have tomatoes, peppers, zipper peas, sweet taters and okra for summer crops.
Still growing from winter/spring are a few carrots, collards, kale, GA sweet onions, speckled limas and corn.