I found this pretty eggplant hiding behind a post and some leaves yesterday. I was out collecting tomatoes for my salad, nice surprise. It was added to the evening's menu and eaten last night as curry eggplant, yumm!

These will take a while to put up. Pumpkins keep a long time in a dark cool place; so, we're set till Fall and hopefully another harvest. This was my first attempt at the Cinderella Pumpkin. I love the color and shape of these, but flavorwise the calabaza is far better.

A few of the tomatoes and red peppers harvested for dinner: tomato, mozzarella and basil salad; peppers & steak.

Dinner!

Elderberry Flowers

Elderberry flowers growing in clusters in our yard and all over town by the side of roads. I'll be harvesting the berries for tincture and wine.

pickling day

One of my Rouge vif d'Etampes (cinderella) pumpkins which I love to see every morning and can't wait to try. :) We have five or six of these growing on the vines.

Two Charentais melons... Now I wish I'd planted more. This is another first in our garden. I was hesitant to plant too many in case they didn't do well in our Florida soil/weather. They are looking just fine, and I can't wait to try them. If they taste as good as they look... watch out! We'll have buckets of these next Fall.

Early morning corn shower.

Today's cucumber harvest.

It's looking like a pickling kinda day. Last week we had more than twice this many cucumbers and pickled over two gallons of them, ate cucumber salads, relish... and gave away some too. I used four different cucumber pickle recipes, hopefully we'll all agree on the same favorite. ;)

zukes & cukes

These are only a few of the cucumbers I dared collect this afternoon. The buzzing was so loud in the cucumber patch, I didn't want disturb the bees that were working on the flowers sitting next to any ripe ones... It looks like the effort I made this winter to keep the bees happy is paying off, but I'll have to harvest early in the morning before the they are up and about.
Cukes & zukes - part of today's harvest. Sadly, in the background grows my only dill plant. I've been using it so much, it doesn't have a chance to grow too big. I love dill in cucumber salad, so that's something I'll be planting lots more of next season. On Saturday, Don set up a bunch of t-frames to support vines and climbers this Spring.
Water break... It's getting hot already.
This is one of the last broccoli plants left from our winter garden. We didn't clear out some of the broccoli, kale, and bok choi, but let them go to flower for the bees hoping they would stick around and multiply around our garden. It worked!
Free potato planters... Our Spring '09 experiment.

Is it April already?

In the blink of an eye I've found myself almost one fourth of the way through the year! Most of our Spring garden was planted last month. We are still waiting on our sweet potato slips which are due to arrive the first week of May. That and okra will be most of our Summer crop this year. I have three beds of tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, melon, and the hydroponics planted at this point. The battle goes on against pests. They are out in full force now that the weather has warmed up. We had much needed rain two days ago, and everything looks much greener now. The two killer frosts this winter, with lows in the 20s, left the entire property looking dry and ugly this winter. We lost our mango tree and all the papaya bushes that were growing so beautifully last Fall. Thankfully, the avocadoes are back and so is the beautiful Brugmansia Gabi gave me for my birthday last year, which was burned to the ground by frost. My meadow area is now beginning to grow. I spread wild flower seeds there last Fall. We have seen some color there the last few weeks - cornflower, baby's breath, poppies, and others I'm not familiar with. I'm hoping we'll have some time to dedicate to that area soon...

Baker Creek Seeds

I received the Baker Creek catalogue last week. This is my favorite seed company, and their catalogue is beautiful! All the seeds from Baker Creek are open pollinated - heirloom seeds that you can save after you grow your own vegetables. One of the reasons why I like this company, is that they grown all the seeds they sell themselves. They aren't just a middleman, passing on seeds produced by large seed companies. Since they are located in Missouri, they have some of the same growing conditions we have in the summer, hot and humid. They are aware of the challenges of growing vegetables in the South.

Here is the list of seeds I ordered. It took me only 10 minutes to place this order, because I had the codes:

AB101 $2.50 1 - Red Rice Bean (asian dry bean)
AML110 $3.00 1 - Ananas D' Amerique A Chair Verte (melon - grown by Thomas Jefferson!)
BN101 $2.00 1 - Royalty Purple Pod (bean)
BN108 $2.00 1 - McCaslan 42 Pole (bean)
CU147 $3.00 1 - Dragon's Egg (cucumber)
EG131 $6.50 1 - Brazilian Oval Orange - 1/ 4 oz (eggplant) I know... expensive, but these look like wonderful ornamentals. I'm planting them as edible landscaping. :)
LG101 $2.25 1 - Red-Seeded Asparagus Bean (Asian long bean)
LT116 $2.25 1 - Little Gem (lettuce)
ML102 $2.75 1 - Prescott Fond Blanc (melon)
OK102 $2.00 1 - Burgandy (okra)

Tomatoes

TK123 $3.00 1 - Millionaire
TM122 $2.00 1 - Principe Borghese
TN112 $2.50 1 - Red Round
TP103 $2.00 1 - Black from Tula
TP114 $3.00 1 - True Black Brandywine

Eggplant & Broccoli

5 lb. of eggplant harvested yesterday. I used to think eggplant only liked hot wether, but I've been getting a bumper crop with lows in the 40s last week.

This is the rest of yesterday's harvest. The broccoli was fabulous last night for dinner. I am starting more seeds today! I never knew how much better broccoli is fresh off the plant.

2009 Seeds

All my 2009 seeds are here. I will begin sprouting seeds for our Spring garden on the first week of January. I still have seeds saved from previous years which I'm not listing, so this is just a partial list of what we'll be planting, and I will be listing my flower seeds in a different post. I have been saving Calabaza squash seeds for a couple of years, and I bought new Calabaza seeds to help diversify our genepool. Most of the seeds I bought for 2009 will be new to us. The ones returning are: Cherokee Purple and Amish Paste tomatoes, Jericho lettuce, China Choi Chinese cabbage, French Charentais - failed once before, aji dulce and alma peppers, and Black Beauty zucchini. I've grown watercress from cuttings before, and I would prefer that if I had a source.

Renee’s Garden
Alpine Strawberries – Mignonette

Lettuce
Summer Lettuce Bouquet, European Reds and Greens
Merveille de Quatre Saisons (H)
Baby Mesclum, Paris Market Mix

Leeks French Baby Leeks, Primor
Watercress, English

Pumpkin, Cinderella’s Carriage (H)

Herbs
Rosemary, French
Thyme, French

Melons, Three Flavors –Galia, Earlidew & Solid Gold

Flowers
Sweet Peas, Color Palette Cupid

Seeds of Change
Corn
True Gold – sweet

Chinese cabbage, China choi

Pepper
Paprika Alma

Tomato
Prize of the Trials, Cherry
Moneymaker

Cucumber
Mideast prolific

Lettuce
Green Deer Tongue
Red Riddinghood, head
Jericho

Squash
Sweet Dumpling, winter

Johnny’s
Broccoli, De Cicco

Tomato
Cherokee Purple (H)
Black Prince (H)

Komatsuna Summerfest, Asian hybrid greens
Turnip, Hakurei, hybrid
Pumpkin, Rouge Vif D’etamptes
Melon, French Charentais, hybrid

Bean
Garden of Eden, pole
Tongue of Fire, American & Italian Shell

Tomato Growers
Tomato
Sprite, grape, 60 days
Gregori’s Altai, pink beefsteak, 67 days
San Marzano, paste, 80 days
Amish Paste, 85 days
Stupice, cold tolerant, 52 days
Glacier, cold tolerant, 58 days
Amana Orange, orange beefsteak, 90 days

Pepper
Aji Dulce #2, 85-90 days
Jalapeno M, 75 days
Carmen Hybrid, Italian bullhorn, 75

Eggplant
Rosa Bianca, Italian heirloom, 75 (H)
Florida High Bush, 85

EONS
Zucchini, Black Beauty, 52 days

Lettuce
Four Seasons

Cucumber
Armenian Yard Long, 70 days
Fancy Pickling, (H), “Homemade Pickles”,

Pumpkin
Rouge Vif D’etampes

Flowers
Nasturtiums

Seedman
Brussel Sprouts, Bubbles, hybrid
Strawberry, Everbearing
Watermelon, Dragon Skin
Kale, Siberian
Melon, Amish Muskmelon
Okra, Little Lucy

Squash
Calabaza (H)

Corn
Amish purple popcorn
Gourmet popcorn,

Herbs
Borage

Flowers
Purple Passion Flower
Nasturtium, Jewels of Africa

Others
Red Clover
Luffa Gourd
Parlor Palm, Neantha bella

H= heirloom seeds

Growing a garden from seeds is exciting! :)

Just Planted

Brussel Sprouts - Bubbles
French Baby Leeks
English Watercress
French Thyme

The December Garden

The eggplant in the hydroponic stackers is ready to pick. The plants are bowed from the weight of their fruit. They have done well with the lower temperatures we've had this Fall, better than the one in the bucket. I think that the styrofoam stackers protect the roots from the weather, plus the plants are closer together which may also help.

Our greens bed: bok choi, spinach, and kale at the end. We're planning to make these beds into raised beds come Spring.

Our first strawberries of the season, perhaps ready for a Christmas treat?

My very first success with broccoli. In the past, I've grown giant leafy broccoli plants with just a tiny little sprout of a head that bolted as soon as it emerged. What changed? The soil and planting time. The broccoli is now growing in our first raised bed.

This was our harvest on Saturday: romaine lettuce, tomato, radish, and thinned carrots - yummmm!

My cucumber experiment continues. At this point, I have this one lonely cuke growing. The plants themselves are smallish but healthy. I will harvest this one today, maybe they will grow another one if this one isn't there sapping the little bit of energy they have. I think the cold snaps and fewer hours of sunlight have stunted them.

Brave Chickadees

The kids are doing a science experiment, observing what kind of seed the birds prefer. Michael made these inexpensive bird feeders recycling old juice bottles. It looks like the winner is plain, black sunflower seeds. Cocoa (the cat) has shown great interest in this experiment. Sadly for her, she just can't reach those brave chickadees.

Every morning, I walk over to the garden either to turn on the irrigation, let loose chickens, spray neem or foliar fertilizer, and more. Today, I noticed the dew on these fig leaves glittering in the sun. Lucy met me on the path, patiently waiting for her morning petting.
Above me were these autumn leaves, and Bonaparte gave me his usual stare. He is our least friendly chook, the kids stear clear of his evil bantam ways; but the hens seem to feel safe with him around, even though he is half their size.

Mountain Aires Christmas

I received the Mountain Aires Christmas CD in the mail last Friday. I've been listening to it over and over. It's good for the soul!

George Grant has a description of it in his blog.

To order a copy, go to the Mountain Aires website.

From the Garden to our Table

Part of our dinner tonight came from the garden. I harvested tomatoes, eggplant, romaine lettuce, and aurugula. We have another cold front moving in tonight. They are predicting a low of 40 in Tampa, which usually means in the mid 30s for us.
Also some kale just harvested a few minutes earlier
curry eggplant in the making...
and fresh eggs from our chickens...
kale mushroom omelett coming up...
plus salad = dinner!

Thanksgiving Weekend Seed Sale

Seedman.com's 50% sale started today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the Ground Up

This morning, I was sitting on the bricks by the raised bed pulling weeds and admiring the vegetables from that perspective, thus the title. :) I love this mesclum lettuce. I will come back out this evening with my kitchen shears and cut some for our salad. I've been doing that for a few weeks now. Mesclum grows back to this height in about a week after trimming. Yumm!
In spite of the cold snap of last week, our basil is growing well. I'm making some homemade tomato/basil spagetti sauce for dinner.

I have to say that the thing I like best about our raised bed is how easy it is to weed. I never thought I would say that I am enjoying weeding. Sitting on the bricks makes all the difference.

Fall Colors, Oranges, and Bees

After a week of colder temperatures, we finally have a little fall color in our yard. The maples are the only trees on our property that turn red and drop their leaves in the Fall, if we have colder temperatures. I think they're lovely.Our best looking orange tree. I took this picture as a 'before' picture. We are in the process of getting a couple of beehives. I hope the bees will help increase our orange crop next year

The oranges are not quite ripe yet. We all look forward to fresh OJ at the beginning of the Advent season every year. It's looking like this will be our smallest harvest yet. The two lemon trees are a sad sight with only a few lemons near the top of the trees. I think the reason is the development that went up on the west side of our property. There used to be a large orange grove there. I think our trees just didn't have enough bees pollinating them.

Our tomatoes survived the cold weather well. The lowest temperature we had was 37 degrees on Tuesday. I definitely think the tomatoes are sweeter after a cold snap. :)

First Tomato Harvest

Our first tomato harvest (Sweet 100) picked this morning. I can't wait to have these in our salad for dinner. The low this morning was 42, so I'm hoping for sweeter tomatoes. Tomorrow morning is another story. They're predicting a low of 29. Since all the tomatoes are in pots, we're going to try to set up our pop-up greenhouse to protect them. We could still have another month of tomatoes before the next cold snap. It would be a shame to loose them when they just started to produce.

Looking Forward

Spring planting for us begins in mid-February. It always seems like the months of November and December just vanish with the holidays, and then gardening is upon us in a rush.

Building a chicken tractor was one of the first things we did when we got our first flock of chickens. They are very efficient at cultivating a garden bed, eating weeds and bugs, and dropping nitrogen-rich manure as they go. Their digging and scratching will incorporate this manure into the soil, so that it's not laying around on the surface.

Since we are hoping to expand our garden next year, the chickens are now working on clearing the grass and weeds for our new beds. We will be moving the tractor around during the next three months. Given enough time, they will clear the beds of all weeds and seeds. If you have chickens, you can put them to work. They will be happy to work for you for just a little water and grain. :)

Still Growing and Blooming

The peach tree is blooming. I've never understood why it puts out a few blossoms in the Fall. They fall off without leaving any fruit behind. It is the lone survivor of our peach orchard, the rest were lost to hurricanes a couple of years ago. It was barely a stick after the storms. This year, it gave us six peaches; and it doubled in size over the summer.

Lantana, a Florida native wildflower. This variety grows wild on our property, and the butterflies like its nectar.

Walking Iris - a Florida invasive. Walking is what it does, spreading itself all over planting areas. They are easy to pull though, so not a problem. I think the flowers are interesting, somewhat alien.

The mango we planted in September is showing new growth again. I'm glad it likes its location.

The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is in bloom. Its flowers aren't very showy; but I noticed their lovely, sweet, subtle scent as I walked past them this morning. My children look forward to loquat season in March. They aren't alone. Every year, the birds and squirrels eat about half the fruit before we even realize it's ripe.

At the foot of this red hibiscus grows a Spanish Needle, considered a weed in suburban yards. I think it looks pretty here. They are food for many butterflies - Gulf Fritillary, Orange Long Wing, Zebra Long Wing, Pearl Crescent, and others.

Milkweed, not my favorite from a distance. It lives for the Monarch butterflies whose caterpillars make those ugly holes on its leaves. Most of the time, it's a bare bundle of sticks. We enjoy the butterflies, so it earns its keep.

The weatherman predicts a high of 86 for today and maybe some badly needed rain tomorrow with the cold front. We haven't seen a drop of rain in weeks. Mr. Weatherman is also predicting a low of 43 on Sunday, so that's what we'll have to keep an eye on. I still have cucumber plants in the garden which I will cover up. We'll be harvesting all the Calabaza squash/pumpkin tomorrow. For now, can you say 'humuggity'?