SPRING HAS SPRUNG BUT SUMMER IS NOT FAR BEHIND

CowHorn Pepper

 Well, Spring is definitely upon us.  The weather has been beautiful, warming up and the garden is loving it.   It won't be long before 90 degree days are here which makes spending time in the garden a challenge.   The heat, humidity and summer rainfall brings a variety pests to every garden.  It's a good idea to start  preventative maintenance now.  Spraying your plants with an organic insecticide soap, BT, Neem Oil and fertilizing regularly will help keep those summer pests at bay.  Live and learn and never give up is my motto.  So far this growing season, I have had minimal damage from insects.  A few caterpillars here and there, that's it.  Preventative Maintenance is the key!

I have a critter living under my deck.  At first, a rabbit was suspect but when my harvest of onions drying on the deck disappeared with only a trace of one peeking out of a burrow, I knew it was something else.  Rabbits don't eat onions!   I had previously noticed damage around the yard; tomato seedlings eaten, strawberry plant mowed down in one night, little things like that.  Thank goodness, whatever it is, has not made it into my beds that are surrounded with chicken wire.
So off I went to Ace Hardware and bought a live trap.  The associate also sold me a "Rat Trap" as after my description of the damage, he told me we probably had Wood Rats and said I'd better deal with it now before they start breeding.  Oh My Goodness!!! 

 I set the trap, baited and the next morning, bait was gone but no critter.  It must be too small to trip the trap....  next step was borrowing a wildlife camera from a friend.  I set the camera up, scattered bait but no pictures.

Otherwise, all is going well in the garden.  I harvested sugar snap peas, cow horn peppers and the rest of the romaine lettuce.   Tomatoes are starting to form as well as cucumbers and squash.  Still no sign of blooms on the pole beans.

Happy Gardening and Happy Mothers Day!
Mary

Pole Beans

Romaine Lettuce harvest

My kitty "little bit"

Live trap to catch critter

Nastursiam

Spinach

VIDEO UPDATE - EVERYTHINGS GROWING - 4/24/14

EVERYTHINGS GROWING - APRIL 24, 2014

Hi All!  It's been over a month since I've posted any blog updates or videos.   Usually in the beginning of the growing season, there's not much to see but dirt and possibly little green specs peaking out of the dirt.... not very exciting stuff and I wouldn't want to bore anyone!    However, now things have really picked up in the garden.  I took a lot of pictures and if you look at the previous postings, you'll definitely see progress!

I will start with this carrot on the left.  It came out of a pot that was growing since last year!  It is HUGE!  I had planted carrots so sporadically last season that I really couldn't tell what was ready to harvest and was was not as I had them coming up all through out the garden.... Luckily, Carrots are the one vegetable that the size doesn't affect taste at all.  Smaller is usually better for Cucumbers, squash, zucchini, etc.

As far as my other early plantings, Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Broccoli, Kale, Spinach and Lettuce, they are all growing only with some issues.  Most of the onions have started to bolt due to serious fluctuations in the weather; freezing to hot and back again so I guess the onions were a little "confused".  I am going to start pulling them to use before they rot.  The Kale, Spinach and Broccoli have been very slow growing but are starting to flourish.  The Romaine lettuce is a winner! I'm glad I thinned them out.  There's about 8 to 10 heads to harvest and they're Delicious.

I transplanted all of the summer vegetable seedlings, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and peppers and only purchased one Big Beef tomato plant and a few cowhorn peppers.   The cucumber seedlings did not grow at all so I had to buy a few plants.  One day, it would be nice, to grow everything from seed, less expensive too.

All of the potato seeds have sprouted and are doing fairly well.  I noticed early blight on a few of them and have treated with organic insecticide also have seen evidence of bugs eating the leaves.  I will keep my fingers crossed that when I finally harvest, there will actually be potatoes.

I got a little carried away with my spring flower planting and bought too many as usual.  I decided some of them would really perk up the garden and hopefully bring beneficial insects around to pollinate.  I really like the color they bring.  So pretty.
Enjoy the rest of the pics.  I will be posting a video update soon.

Happy Gardening!

Mary

Garden Upate - March 21, 2014

Here are a few pictures of what's been happening in the Garden.

Garden Video Update - 3/14/14

Spring Garden Update 3/14/14

Romaine Lettuce, Carrots, Green Onions

Potatoes in pots

 We are anxiously awaiting the warmer weather to come to North Florida.  Our last frost date is March 22 and it can't get here soon enough for me.

I have many things thriving in the raised beds that are frost tolerant thank goodness as we just had a light frost a few nights ago.

The potatoes in pots were a bit damaged from the hard frost we had a few weeks ago but seem to have recovered and are growing nicely.

The onions, shallots and garlic are really taking off and I am hoping for a big harvest.  I had a bunch of onion sets left over so I decided to plant them as they were sprouting in the bags.  I will have lots of onions hopefully!



The green house turned out to be the best investment of all!  I am so pleased with how the seedlings are doing, even with the cold weather we've had.  On the cold nights, I put a drop light in it and it keeps it toasty warm, the plants just love it.

Shallots

 So far I have tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers, peppers, eggplant, zuchinni, zinnea, nastursiams, and more growing from seed in the green house.  The soil temperature must be at least 60 degrees or higher for these.  When I checked the soil temperature this morning, it was barely 52.  We need warmer days to heat the soil before any of these can go in the ground.  I am hoping by March 22nd, I can start transplanting.. Yay!!

Happy Spring Gardening!!!

Mary

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Green House Seedlings

Tomatoes Etc.

Cucumbers

Sunflower