The Garden Procrastinator

So I am way behind on posting about the garden. The holidays were busy and the boys caught lots of lovely viruses! It was a wonderful/exhausting time! We did plant in November though! We planted seeds straight into the raised garden beds. It has been a warm winter here this year. The rain fall has also been consistent while not overwhelming for the plants.

What we planted.

We planted Georgia Candy Roaster Squash, Brussel Sprouts, Leeks, and Sweet Snap Peas.

The only real information I could find about the Candy Roaster Squash is from the website where I bought the seeds. www.rareseeds.com  I highly recommend using their seeds! All seeds I have bought from them have turned out great! The Candy Roaster Squash was doing wonderful, until we had one day of frost here. We forgot to cover the squash so the picture below shows you what happened. 

This is the only remaining one. Boo! I am so sad about it because it had about 10 baby squash growing on two different vines. This one seems to still be doing okay. It has grown since the frost so I think it might make it! The rest of the vine is all shriveled up as you can see in the picture. 

In the next picture are the Brussel Sprouts.

I have been following a video I found on YouTube to grow these. They are starting to produce little sprouts now. I will try to take a picture of them when they get a little bigger. Here is the video I used from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PilEKvvJHCg. He also does an updated video that I watched. 

And the two next pictures are the leeks and sweet snap peas.

These are Giant Leeks. They are so easy to grow! We just chop off what we want to eat and they just grow right back! 

The Peas are on their way out but are still producing at least 5-10 bean pods a day. I planted 10 plants but only 8 survived. The beans are sweet and the Little boy eats them right off the plant. 

More Planting Coming Soon...

I am planning on putting some seeds in this weekend. We are hoping to get corn started as well as summer squash and cucumbers. The Little Boys have taken over one of my raised beds for their playing pleasure! So we might just plant straight into the ground this year and see how it goes. 

Anyone else planning a garden? What do you have growing??

Future post about making Bone Meal coming up next week!

Beans and Tomatoes!

The Bounty!

We have been collecting lots of beans, tomatoes, and okra!The cucumbers have fallen to these lovely bugs...

Stink bug! 

(The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), an insect not previously seen on our continent, was apparently accidentally introduced into eastern Pennsylvania.) via http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brown-marmorated-stink-bug

Here's a lovely blog about stink bugs and cucumbers and how to get rid of them with Neem Oil! What!!! I had this and I used it, oh wait...you have to do it right.  http://www.examiner.com/article/stink-bugs-wreak-havoc-on-cucumbers-neem-to-the-rescue  Okay, next time!

The bounty! I have been picking tomatoes like crazy! They are doing so well! This is the first year that we have had our tomato plants do so well. I have noticed lately when I pick them that they have these tiny little red spider looking bugs on them. I am not sure they are damaging the tomatoes because they seem fine, but I am monitoring them. A quick Google search says that they are called Assassin bugs. 

Birth, Gardening, And Procrastination...

Fruit of the Womb And Fruit of the Garden

So, little boy #2 is here! We have been enjoying our time as a new family of four as well as getting use to it. He was a healthy 7lb 12oz 20 inch boy! We are so blessed that everything went so beautifully and to have so many family and friends that helped us out. I am so thankful we got the garden in when we did because in those last weeks of pregnancy there is no way I could have done it. 

Get ready for picture over load! I have procrastinated enough after the birth of Little boy #2 so now I am over compensating with a lot of pictures! Those of you who have had a baby can probably sympathize with me in that there is definitely an adjustment period after they arrive. 

 The tomatoes by the lemon tree are growing fantastically...of course! (Because we didn't plant them) I am not sure what kind of tomatoes they are, but they look like a beef steak type. One of the other bushes looks like the ugly tomato type, course it could just be ugly. =) 

We used one on a pizza we made to the right. It was delicious!

The pole bean are flourishing! We are starting to collect beans everyday. My husband prefers to eat them right away raw. The Little Boy likes to pick them when they are not ready to be picked. And I am still trying to collect enough to make a side dish at dinner. Ha! 

  Cucumbers are growing well but appear to be getting some type of fungus or mold. I am not sure and have been researching it. We have this problem every year with cucumbers. Last year I didn't get a single one because of the mold/fungus problem. This year though we have collected four cucumbers already! They are crystal cucumbers. Any one else have this problem?

 

Our strawberries are so sweet! Yep that's right we finally got to eat some of them! We ended up putting a netting over them for about a month and that seemed to do the trick! Now just to keep the Little Boy from pulling the green ones off and eating them. We get at least two strawberries a day now. I am going to plant two more bushes this year so maybe next year we can get even more strawberries! We planted the everbearing variety. They are suppose to bare fruit at least twice a year. 

Little Boy awaiting his berries.

The other side of the garden.     

  The plum tomatoes which are called Amish tomatoes are doing really well. There are several tomatoes on each plant. I am really excited about these because I don't really enjoy just sitting down and eating a raw tomato. I like them cooked or as a sauce, and Amish tomatoes are suppose to make a great sauce or paste! In the picture above the tomatoes, are the herbs I planted. The dill is starting to flower and will soon seed. It has seeded well in the past and made it to where I didn't even have to plant any. 

The picture to the right shows our okra! Size wise it is small. But it is producing okra already! It is small because we have not had enough heat yet. They love that summer Florida sun. I am hoping as summer goes on they will continue to grow larger and keep producing okra for us. I may go ahead and plant a couple extra just in case. 

  

One last picture! These are our carrots. Yes they are too close together, yes you are suppose to keep them well weeded, and yes they were planted better. This is what happens when a Little Boy helps you plant your carrots. =) I am sure they will taste great! 

HAPPY GARDENING!

Seedlings are in the ground!

Here are some pictures of how we planted the seedlings. 

In this bed we used the square foot gardening method. The green fencing is for the cucumbers that we planted.

Close up of the cucumber seedlings.

In this bed we planted the corn and beans. Corn and beans grow very well together. In fact, Native American Indians would plant corn, beans, and squash together. They called this method "The Three Sisters". The beans produce nitrogen which helps the corn, the corn provides a place for the beans to grow on, and the squash help protect against pests. 

These are my herbs! They seem to be doing pretty well so far. We used the trash bag method on them. It helps protect from weed over growth and it helps to retain moisture. 

Above is some of the tomatoes and the okra. 

Every year that we have planted lettuce, we have planted it in a pot. It seems to be the best method for us because it can stay on the porch and have more shade. Here in Florida sometimes it's easier just to put plants in pots and move them in and out of the shade, because the sun can be so intense. A lot of time plants that say they are full sun, we will actually plant in a spot that gets sun for only half the day. If we do place them in the full sun they have to be watered morning, afternoon, and evening. 

How is your planting and growing going?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So, how does your garden grow?

Any body got anything growing out there? One thing that has always bothered me about myself is that some times I plant things that we don't really eat very often. I think maybe that might be why watering is forgotten or procrastinated and maybe not as much attention to detail has been done. If we relied more on what we planted instead of what is in the grocery store, we might do better a little better at gardening. This year I have also tried to plant only vegetables that we eat consistently. 

How is my garden growing??

Well...it's going well. So far the cat has eaten every new asparagus plant we have gotten, the Little Boy has helped her by breaking the asparagus ferns that have grown. I started seeds for okra with red okra seeds and a green variety. The red seeds never sprouted, the green are doing great though. Corn seeds have also been planted and are growing nicely. Although the boy did kick them over a couple of times, but the corn seedlings survived.  

In some exciting growing news, the area around the newly planted lemon tree has a few plants growing extremely well around it. It's so fascinating how that happens. The area where we planted the lemon tree use to be where we kept the compost box. There are now about six tomato plants, two squash plants and another plant that I have no idea what it is growing around the lemon tree. They are growing better and faster than any of the seedlings I have planted. See the photo below. 

This brings me to how much soil matters!

 Soil matters!  Luck has a lot to do with it too! Your plants are only as good as your soil. Having a good soil base will also make your plants healthier and more resistant to pests.   Composting is so important; note the beautiful healthy plants growing around the lemon tree. Compost usually consists of dirt, straw, old fruits and vegetables, sticks, dead leaves, paper, coffee grounds, and most organic matter. Here is a good post about how to compost in more detail http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/how-build-compost-pile. Another really good method is using a worm farm. You can make your own worm farm or you can buy one. They are listed on amazon for about $100 http://amzn.com/B002LH47PY. You may choose to make your own like we are doing by following the video to the below. It will save you about $80.

The worms will make you a lovely liquid that you will collect, then dilute, and feed to your plants. Gardeners call it liquid gold. I am anxious to get our worm farm going. When we visited the Worm's Way store they suggested using a specific kind of worm, a Red Worm. You could just get earthworms from Walmart, but I have read they are not as good as getting the Red Worms. Luckily for us there is a guy who sales them locally.

I will post some pictures soon of how we planted the seedlings.  

Breaking Ground and Managing Pests!

   Ground has been broken.....

                 

 ... it has been hoed, squared, and garbage bags have been placed.












So your probably wondering, "What is the white stuff?". Our neighbor asked the same thing. It's called Diatomaceous Earth (aka DE). It essentially is organic bug killer. DE is fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton and when it gets on most bugs it will dehydrate them.  Here is a nice post describing more about it. http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp I prefer to use it because it is safe for animals and people to ingest. Our Little Boy has been ingesting a lot of dirt recently due to us working in the garden more so DE makes me feel more ok with him eating dirt. In fact, a lot of people will buy the food grade DE to consume as a way of detoxifying. People claim and farmers that DE helps with parasites and carrying heavy metals out of the body. http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2014/01/diatomaceous-earth-homestead.html

So lets talk pests!

So far this year my biggest pests are actually pretty big and hairy or feathery. My cat has already eaten the leaves off of four of my bean seedlings. The ones with feathers are the actually strawberry thief! We caught them red handed! (We are going to build a cage to cover the strawberries) I really just need a green house...no really I do! 

Last year the biggest pest we had were caterpillars and ants. Now ants can be beneficial to a garden but ants also really like aphids which are not good for your garden. Ants love these little aphids because they secrete a sweet liquid that the ants eat. They will actually make their own little farm of aphids and "milk" them. Yep, that's right they milk them. We had quite a few little aphid farms in our garden last year as well. One good treatment I found was to mix a couple drops of dish soap, a tablespoon of vinegar, about 10 to 20 drops of peppermint essential oil, in a spray bottle then fill with water and shake. You can also use citronella essential oil with lemongrass essential oil. Then I would spray this mixture on the plant directly on the aphids. It worked really well as long as I remembered to spray it every three days or so.  

The ants go marching everywhere! 

It seemed no matter how many times we would destroy an ant bed they would show up somewhere else. There are a plethora of methods you can use for getting rid of ants. Still working on the best one. DE is pretty effective. Also, constantly bothering them works too. We also tried essential oils on the ants which helps but you have to keep adding it pretty much every other day. They do not like the smell. We also would just shovel them out of the bed. I do not recommend the shoveling method. (The husband gets bit) =) Some people claim pouring boiling water down their ant hole works. We never tried that because they were always too close to my plants. I wish you the best of luck if you have as many ants as we did last year! 

We are trying a new method of pest control this year!

I have been searching Pinterest and YouTube for an organic pest control method that is easy, sounds reasonable, and has good reviews. I think I have found one! It sounds easy any way. Please watch the video below to find out details on this method. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Q0uP4odh4

If you don't want to watch the video, here is the basic gist of it: Mix Sol Suds (Dr Bonners brand), with Neem oil and water. Then place in a fogger atomizer and spray your plants weekly. However, he explains you should be careful to see that your plants do not get a build up of oil on them. I will report on the method as soon as we start. Feel free to send me or comment about any other methods that you may know about on keeping pests out of your garden organically. It's hard work and I have a little better understanding why organic produce costs as much as it does. 

Here is a picture of the seedlings they are almost ready to put in the ground!  

It is getting exciting around here!! 

We have sprouts!

Growing has commenced...

What is growing you ask?  

Purple Pole Beans, Snap Bush Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Amish Tomatoes, Salsa Tomatoes, Romaine Lettuce, Cilantro, Parsley, Dill, Sage, and Sweet Peppers. We chose to sow these seeds by following the Backyard Harvest book I mentioned last post.  (http://amzn.com/0756671639) Next month we will sow more plant seeds suggested by the book. 

Now all we have to do is finish getting the beds ready. We are borrowing a tiller from a friend of ours so we can make sure the soil is all nice and airy. The beds will get a bag of Black Kow dirt (I know this is not organic and may contain some GMO residuals from any corn they were feed), I am still looking for a source of clean poop. The soil is sandy here and the Black Kow really helps the plants that like a little more nutrient dense dirt. The beds also will get a bag of organic gardening soil. Then my lovely spouse will dig some more dirt out of the swamp if we need it. Hopefully without ants in it! We had an ant problem last year....but we will talk about pests in my next post. 

This post is about how I have been procrastinating about getting the raised beds and pots ready for the plants that are so beautifully doing their job and sprouting. Being pregnant has really slowed me down this year especially with the Little Boy running circles around me. 

In two of the raised beds, you may have noticed that there are already some plants growing. In the first one we have asparagus, and in the second we have two strawberry plants. 

The Strawberry plants are doing great! They have tons of blooms and baby fruit. Only problem is we have a raccoon problem! What do you recommend for getting rid of raccoons? My husband says that we have to kill one and hang it's tail on the fence. Nice, huh? I want to make a fence for the raised bed any way to help keep out other unwanted creatures.  Robert (my husband) says that the raccoons are too strong and will break through the fence any way. So, I guess there might be hunting in my future. :(.....

The photo to the right shows the asparagus plants. Only one of the four crowns seems to be producing right now. I am going to give them a little more time before I dig them up and start over. Asparagus is suppose to be really easy to grow. All the YouTube videos and Pinterest pages I pinned said so! (http://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-asparagus/ for example). Welcome to my world of gardening! Ha! It never seems to turn out how they say! Oh well. They still have some time to prove themselves. 

...And speaking of things blooming that are easy to grow, here are a couple of pictures of our recently moved Meyer Lemon Tree. 

Meyer Lemon Trees are suppose to be very easy to grow here in the Sunshine State, I guess very easy is a relative term. We put it in a beautiful pot my mom bought, and it did produce fruit. The tree later on became unhealthy. Probably my fault. So that is why we moved it. As you can see in the picture below, there are tons of blooms on it. I even captured a bee in the photo pollinating it for me! Bees are great, no, they are essential for a good garden!          

More on bees next time. Time to go dig in the dirt!