GARDEN VIDEO BLOG - FEBRUARY 21, 2015

FIRST GARDEN UPDATE OF 2015

Last harvest of fall carrots

Happy New Year!!!  It's been relatively quite in the garden since my last post in October 2014.  My fall plantings of carrots, kale, lettuce, spinach and onions was very prolific.  To the left was my last harvest of carrots. I'm having a bit of an issue with the soil turning grey and hard about 3 inches down so a lot of the carrots seemed stunted in growth.  I will have to research this problem because I am having to replace whole squares with new soil.  This should not be, as the beauty of the Square Foot Garden is only having to replace small portions with new compost, not the whole square.

I finally harvested the Kale and made a nice soup using the carrots and onions from the garden also.  It was really good but I'm not too crazy about Kale and will probably not grow it again.  For anyone who does like it, it is an extremely easy plant to grow so give it a try.

A few weeks ago I set up the greenhouse and started some seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, various flowers and green onions.  They have all sprouted with the exception of the black beauty eggplant and I have reseeded them.

Two types of potatoes are now in large containers and I am hoping to see sprouts very soon.  We've had some really cold weeks here in North Florida so we'll see if it has affected my spuds.

I am also trying asparagus for the first time this year.  I have designated a permanent spot for these Delicious spears, as they will hopefully produce

for many years to come.  I will need to be patient though, these baby's need a few years before you can reap any harvest. I will keep you posted. 
Artichokes are another beauty I will be trying once again this year.  I am going to plant a few seeds in large pots and keep my fingers crossed.  :)

Other than the above, there's been a lot of needed clean up, mixing batches of soil containing various composts, peat moss and vermiculite (Mel's Mix), it's a winner!  I also added a new raised bed - 2 x 6' and will use for the Cow horn peppers, tomatoes and some herbs.   I'm thinking about adding one more 4' x 4' this year also to use just for squash and zucchini as they take up the most room of any other veggie.

Almost forgot to mention, the Brussel sprouts planted last fall are just now producing sprouts.  I'm sure there's a reason for this.  I don't know how long the sprouts take to develop and when to harvest but I am babying them now, again praying they continue to thrive and I can harvest yummy sprouts!

Wishing you all a very successful spring season.  Happy Gardening!.
Video coming soon.

Mary

New raised bed

Potatoes

Celery

Brussel Sprouts

Aspargus bed

VIDEO UPDATE - OCTOBER 26 2014

FALL 2014 GARDEN UP

Last Eggplant

Well I harvested the last of the Eggplant.  Sad to see them go, they were so delicious and we had so many of them.

Most of the seeds planted are coming up; carrots, radishes, broccoli and a few brussel sprouts along with escarole, which is a first.  I'm also trying celery, although it may be a bit late, I'm going to see what happens.

White Onion sets are looking good and I also planted large yellow onions.

Carrots and Radishes

I grew impatient and harvested the sweet potatoes.  Not a bad harvest for my first time.  If I had left them in a few more weeks, chances are they would have grown a bit larger but I just couldn't wait to see what was there.  The bad news is that I had left them on the porch and low and behold, something ate all but the 3 large potatoes.  I'm sure the culprit is another RAT! 

I was totally heartbroken as I wanted to use them for Thanksgiving!  Live and learn!

Broccoli

The 4 x 4 sweet potato bed is cleaned out and ready for planting.  I haven't decided what's going in yet but will most likely plant potato tubers early next year.  It's hard seeing an empty bed and refraining from planting.  I've learned the hard way, that pre-planning for future crops is key to success!

Happy Gardening!

Mary

Sweet Potatoes!!

FALL PLANTING AND STILL HARVESTING SUMMER VEGGIES!

COWHORNS

What a beautiful weekend!  Temperatures in the low 70's, just love it!  There's nothing better than working in the garden all day and not even breaking a sweat.  :)

I can't seem to harvest the cowhorns fast enough.  The plants are healthy with lots of blooms even still.  I'm guessing they will keep going until at least our first frost.  There are also red bell peppers that have finally bore fruit, just waiting for them to turn red along with the eggplant which is also still putting out fruit.

SWEET POTATO VINES

The sweet potato vines are hanging in, bug damage which I can't seem to get under control, I only hope there are actually potatoes growing and they are not affected by the bugs.  There is also watermelon vines that are beautiful and healthy but have not produced anything.  It should probably come out to make room for more fall/winter veggies but I don't have the heart to remove a healthy plant.

So far there are seedlings coming up, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale and radishes.  This weekend, I succession planted more of the above along with different varieties of lettuce.   It may be a bit late for some, but as with everything in the garden, if it grows, it grows.  ;)

SWEET POTATOES

Enjoy the photos, video coming soon.

Happy Fall and Happy Harvest to all!

Mary, The Ambitious Gardener

COWHORNS

PERIWHINKLE

WATERMELON VINE

WATERMELON VINE

BELL PEPPERS WAITING TO TURN RED

CARROTS

RADISHES

Add caption

CAULIFLOWER

EGGPLANT

AUGUST VIDEO UPATE

AUGUST GARDEN UPDATE- BOUNTIFUL BOUNTIFUL!

Cow Horn Peppers/Eggplant

 What a wonderful summer season for gardening.  I can hardly wait to get seeds in the ground for the fall!

The most surprising of all were the eggplants.  I have tried over the years to grow these Delicious beauties with little to no luck.  This year, I bought a few plants late in the season to replace the last of the lettuce and onion plants that were spent, thinking, "if they grow, they grow".  Well they grew!!! The 4 or 5 plants took over both of the beds and left room for little else.  Not complaining because they put out more eggplant than I could have ever hoped for!  The were very

Peppers

 healthy up until a few weeks ago.  Caterpillars were the culprits.  I sprayed with Safe Caterpillar killer and they held them at bay for a bit but I finally gave up and harvested the last of them last night.
The cowhorn peppers are still producing like crazy.  There was one plant that I did not harvest, waiting for them to turn red.  I've never done that before, you have to be patient, it takes time.  I harvested the whole plant, about 14 peppers, beautiful red.  Can't wait to try them.

Watermelon growing

 The tomatoes finally succumb to blight last week but I still had a nice harvest.  They kept producing all summer, very happy!   The horn worms were a problem but I was able to control them.

Today was clean up day in the garden.  The hardest thing to do is removing plants that may still have a chance of putting out more fruit.  When you need to make room for the next seasons planting, you have to do what you have to do.  I took out all but two eggplants and left the peppers and watermelon, at least for a few more weeks.

Basil

 Now is the time to Carrots, radishes, lettuce and spinach seeds.  By the time October rolls around, the rest of the summer plants will be done and time to plant more fall crops.

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Sweet Potatoes

 The sweet potatoes are doing OK.  There are roots producing, small, but they're there.  Harvest will be the end of October beginning of November.  Just in time for Thanksgiving! 

Enjoy the photos, video coming soon.

Happy Gardening!!

Mary

Eggplant

More Eggplant

Bush Beans/Eggplant

Clean Up Time

Cleaned bed-more room for sweet potatoes

Eggplant gone, ready for Fall planting

Saved 2 Eggplants, room for fall planting