As always when gardening in a warm climate in poor soil, problems keep popping up.
I thought I had the parasitic nematodes under control with my system of soil fallowing and crop rotation, but apparently that was not the case. Lately I've had trouble with the containers again...the plants do fine for about two months, then suddenly get sick and die. In some cases okra plants never did bear pods before they started declining.
I pulled an eggplant today that had started dying back and the roots were a mess...totally infested with root-knot nematodes. The plant was wilting in moist soil because most of its root system was just gone. The same thing happened with long beans and okra...roots missing and big lumpy galls from RKN in their place.
A lot of it is this heat. We've had record or near-record heat for nearly a week now, and there really hasn't been any cool weather at all, just a slight moderation of the tropical heat at times in past weeks. Parasitic nematodes aka PPN, thrive in tropical heat. In temperate zones, there are maybe two species of PPN...in the tropics there are hundreds of them.
But there's hope for me yet...some of the container plants are soldiering on and still producing peppers and okra pods. Also, I should mention that the sweet potatoes I tried to grow in the planting beds, including a variety that is supposted to be resistant to PPN, were mostly ruined by them. They make lesions on the tubers and rot infiltrates. Even if they look impressively large, the tubers taste really bad if you try to cook them and eat them. Cutting out the bad parts doesn't work, the tubers still taste bad because they seem to secrete nasty compounds to fight off the infestation and rot.
If the weather finally does cool down, the PPN will be held back, they hate cold soil. So far the pac choy are still growing slowly, at least most of them are. I've had problems like this before and got past them...so maybe I'll do so again. I have some soil that's been fallowed in garbage cans for years so roots can't get to it. Maybe I'll mix some compost with some of that and see what I can grow.
Nothing is ever easy here, especially when the weather is acting weird. Last year in November it was actually chilly, so maybe the heat will break and I'll turn the tide against the PPN.
And the air has been really polluted here lately, most likely from smoke. So I haven't been able to do much gardening. If I try to work in it, I get a lot of chest pain and coughing fits. So I'm biding my time and waiting for the weather to change and the winds to shift.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Getting There
This morning I got very close to finishing the prep work on the first sections of my planting bed of greens. I have seedlings of pac choy and kale ready to go into the bed and a small heap of mulch ready too. All I have to do now is finish amending the last of the reserved soil from the bed with compost and rock powder, dump it into the bed, and rake it level.
I'm really anxious to get some pac choy going in the bed. My container crops are winding down now...the okra plants are dying back, the peppers aren't producing as much, and I'm reluctant to eat any more eggplant. It's looking more and more like I'm too sensitive to nightshade toxin to be eating eggplant and nightshade potatoes. Both eggplant and "white" potatoes contain solanine and chaconine. Those are glycotoxins that can cause a variety of problems for sensitive individuals.
I abstained from nightshades for two weeks, then went back to eating peppers and eggplant almost every evening to see if they would bother me. Apparently they did, I'm currently dealing with several different problems which I think are being caused by the eggplant. Food sensitivities can be hard to pin down with certainty...the effects may take a few days to show up sometimes.
So I thought I would focus on the South Garden for a while. I also have other greens coming along in the little plastic pots...tatsoi, chard, Red Russian kale, etc. Looks like I'm going to be mixing a lot of soil in that wheelbarrow for a while.
I use the intensive method of bed preparation...that involves removal of topsoil and thorough mixing with compost and rock powder before returning it. I've had really good results with this method...just digging in some compost with a shovel led to repeated crop failures. My soil is very alkaline and sandy, this encourages plant-parasitic nematodes and the roots have trouble accessing nutrients in alkaline sand. Mixing in compost seems to solve these problems, but it takes a LOT of compost to do it. As soil humus builds up, maybe I won't need quite so much of the stuff.
As always, we'll see how things go.
I'm really anxious to get some pac choy going in the bed. My container crops are winding down now...the okra plants are dying back, the peppers aren't producing as much, and I'm reluctant to eat any more eggplant. It's looking more and more like I'm too sensitive to nightshade toxin to be eating eggplant and nightshade potatoes. Both eggplant and "white" potatoes contain solanine and chaconine. Those are glycotoxins that can cause a variety of problems for sensitive individuals.
I abstained from nightshades for two weeks, then went back to eating peppers and eggplant almost every evening to see if they would bother me. Apparently they did, I'm currently dealing with several different problems which I think are being caused by the eggplant. Food sensitivities can be hard to pin down with certainty...the effects may take a few days to show up sometimes.
So I thought I would focus on the South Garden for a while. I also have other greens coming along in the little plastic pots...tatsoi, chard, Red Russian kale, etc. Looks like I'm going to be mixing a lot of soil in that wheelbarrow for a while.
I use the intensive method of bed preparation...that involves removal of topsoil and thorough mixing with compost and rock powder before returning it. I've had really good results with this method...just digging in some compost with a shovel led to repeated crop failures. My soil is very alkaline and sandy, this encourages plant-parasitic nematodes and the roots have trouble accessing nutrients in alkaline sand. Mixing in compost seems to solve these problems, but it takes a LOT of compost to do it. As soil humus builds up, maybe I won't need quite so much of the stuff.
As always, we'll see how things go.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
A Little Cooler
At least for a while, the super-hot afternoons have gone away. So I'm thinking of my cool-season crops. Those are best grown in the ground, where the soil is cooler. They tend to wilt badly in the black containers, where the soil gets very warm. That's assuming you mulch, which is a necessity in hot climates.
So I've been grubbing out weeds and roots, and getting ready to plant some kale and pac choy at the very least...eventually I hope, a lot more than that.
I have a fine big stand of Crotalaria spectabilis, a plant from India that's used to purge the soil of root-knot nematodes. It's taller than I am...I should take some pics. I'll leave it grow until I get the first two planting beds ready, then the plants will have to go. I always save seeds of that plant, which just showed up in my garden without being invited.
I also have ground cherries out there, but I'm too sensitive to nightshades to eat them. They do taste delicious, sort of a cross between peach and pineapple. For the time being, I'm giving up eating all the nightshades...potato, eggplant, tomato, pepper. The ground cherries are in that same family, the Solanaceae. I have Physalis longifolia in my garden...which also showed up without an invitation...so tasty and so not on my menu.
The Malpighia did well this year, I had lots of fruit for a change. It's just in a pot, I never did build up a mound of soil to plant it on. It's too wet here for most fruit trees. They are one of my favorite things to eat, and they have far more vitamin C than citrus fruit. Nurserymen sell them as Barbados Cherry or Acerola Cherry.
I know, photos...I'll get to that soon. Right now I'm moving soil around, pulling out weeds and tree roots, and mixing compost with the soil. It keeps me busy.
So I've been grubbing out weeds and roots, and getting ready to plant some kale and pac choy at the very least...eventually I hope, a lot more than that.
I have a fine big stand of Crotalaria spectabilis, a plant from India that's used to purge the soil of root-knot nematodes. It's taller than I am...I should take some pics. I'll leave it grow until I get the first two planting beds ready, then the plants will have to go. I always save seeds of that plant, which just showed up in my garden without being invited.
I also have ground cherries out there, but I'm too sensitive to nightshades to eat them. They do taste delicious, sort of a cross between peach and pineapple. For the time being, I'm giving up eating all the nightshades...potato, eggplant, tomato, pepper. The ground cherries are in that same family, the Solanaceae. I have Physalis longifolia in my garden...which also showed up without an invitation...so tasty and so not on my menu.
The Malpighia did well this year, I had lots of fruit for a change. It's just in a pot, I never did build up a mound of soil to plant it on. It's too wet here for most fruit trees. They are one of my favorite things to eat, and they have far more vitamin C than citrus fruit. Nurserymen sell them as Barbados Cherry or Acerola Cherry.
I know, photos...I'll get to that soon. Right now I'm moving soil around, pulling out weeds and tree roots, and mixing compost with the soil. It keeps me busy.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Correction
I made a mistake in my last post...the eggplant I'm growing is White Beauty, not White Egg. It's easy to lose track of things like this, varietal names are often very similar. I think White Egg is a variety of turnip.
Got some kale and broccoli seed today at a local nursery. I'm growing the same varieties I always grow, they do well for me...Vates kale and DeCiccio broccoli. My garden soil is alkaline, so the cole crops like kale and broccoli are the best choices. But they only grow well in the cooler months here. Beans, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes do OK too.
First step is making lots of compost, the more the better. I get the best results when mixing in compost at about a one to one ratio with the soil. This seems to reduce the pH to a more reasonable level. It takes a lot of brush and a lot of shredding to make that much compost. But organic gardeners are never satisfied no matter how much compost they have. It's like an addiction with us because the results are just so outstanding when you use a lot of it. Some compost is good, more is better...but the best is just piles and piles of it.
Most addictions are bad, but making compost and regular exercise...those are good ones to have.
Got some kale and broccoli seed today at a local nursery. I'm growing the same varieties I always grow, they do well for me...Vates kale and DeCiccio broccoli. My garden soil is alkaline, so the cole crops like kale and broccoli are the best choices. But they only grow well in the cooler months here. Beans, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes do OK too.
First step is making lots of compost, the more the better. I get the best results when mixing in compost at about a one to one ratio with the soil. This seems to reduce the pH to a more reasonable level. It takes a lot of brush and a lot of shredding to make that much compost. But organic gardeners are never satisfied no matter how much compost they have. It's like an addiction with us because the results are just so outstanding when you use a lot of it. Some compost is good, more is better...but the best is just piles and piles of it.
Most addictions are bad, but making compost and regular exercise...those are good ones to have.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
I'm Back
I've been away from this blog for a long time, I see. Things get really difficult for me in the hot weather, and this has been a hot year.
But the garden keeps going...I need it to feed myself.
The molokhia was a huge success...two large containers of it supplied all I needed. It's very soothing to my stomach, so I've been eating a lot of it in my soups. But now it's got seed pods, so it's time to move on. The okra grew like weeds this year, that liquid feeding seemed to make a big difference...and the larger containers helped too. The pods were definitely much larger and the plants kept going longer too. Fallowing the soil for at least a month helped too. I used to have big problems with root knot nematodes.
The Hannah sweet potatoes did very well too. I like them because they're less sweet and starchier. The flavor is milder, so they blend in well in soups. I got lots of large potatoes and they kept on growing for months and months. They set the potatoes near the surface so I can pull them off the vines and lift them out of the soil without uprooting the vines. I used to harvest sweet potatoes by dumping the pot out and sifting through the soil in a wheelbarrow...about half the potatoes were in the bottom of the pot. But with Hannah potatoes I can just pull the potatoes and let the vines continue making more.
The long beans did well as always, and the eggplant were a big success too. This year I tried White Egg, which is a nice mild-flavored variety. I don't get along well with varieties that burn my throat when I eat them. The bushes are still growing and making more fruit, including some Long Purple that have been out there since the cool weather. The Long Purple quit growing and I thought they were done, but now they're growing again.
The Malabar spinach did well too, I had all I wanted of them. As the vines slowed down, I just took growing tips of vines and put them in a small glass of water. Inside of a week they grow roots and then I plant them in small pots until I need them. They never fail to set roots in the water. I even tried a scrap of vine with no growing tip and it rooted too. They are so very easy to propagate.
I kept going with my hot peppers this rainy season. Varieties like Cayenne don't do well in our hot weather, but I've found that Jwala from India, Baklouti from Tunisa, and Tabasco all grow fine in the heat. Serrano plants stayed alive but didn't produce much until the weather cooled a bit. The Baklouti in particular grew to large size and produced an endless supply of large peppers for soups and stir fries.
The gardening gurus say that Capsicum annuum, the common pepper, will not set fruit under tropical conditions, but that's actually not true at all. Both Jwala and Baklouti set lots of fruit and they're definitely Capsicum annuum. Country of origin is what counts...pepper plants adapt to the local conditions.
I know, pictures...I'll get to it. It's been hard to keep up with things.
But the garden keeps going...I need it to feed myself.
The molokhia was a huge success...two large containers of it supplied all I needed. It's very soothing to my stomach, so I've been eating a lot of it in my soups. But now it's got seed pods, so it's time to move on. The okra grew like weeds this year, that liquid feeding seemed to make a big difference...and the larger containers helped too. The pods were definitely much larger and the plants kept going longer too. Fallowing the soil for at least a month helped too. I used to have big problems with root knot nematodes.
The Hannah sweet potatoes did very well too. I like them because they're less sweet and starchier. The flavor is milder, so they blend in well in soups. I got lots of large potatoes and they kept on growing for months and months. They set the potatoes near the surface so I can pull them off the vines and lift them out of the soil without uprooting the vines. I used to harvest sweet potatoes by dumping the pot out and sifting through the soil in a wheelbarrow...about half the potatoes were in the bottom of the pot. But with Hannah potatoes I can just pull the potatoes and let the vines continue making more.
The long beans did well as always, and the eggplant were a big success too. This year I tried White Egg, which is a nice mild-flavored variety. I don't get along well with varieties that burn my throat when I eat them. The bushes are still growing and making more fruit, including some Long Purple that have been out there since the cool weather. The Long Purple quit growing and I thought they were done, but now they're growing again.
The Malabar spinach did well too, I had all I wanted of them. As the vines slowed down, I just took growing tips of vines and put them in a small glass of water. Inside of a week they grow roots and then I plant them in small pots until I need them. They never fail to set roots in the water. I even tried a scrap of vine with no growing tip and it rooted too. They are so very easy to propagate.
I kept going with my hot peppers this rainy season. Varieties like Cayenne don't do well in our hot weather, but I've found that Jwala from India, Baklouti from Tunisa, and Tabasco all grow fine in the heat. Serrano plants stayed alive but didn't produce much until the weather cooled a bit. The Baklouti in particular grew to large size and produced an endless supply of large peppers for soups and stir fries.
The gardening gurus say that Capsicum annuum, the common pepper, will not set fruit under tropical conditions, but that's actually not true at all. Both Jwala and Baklouti set lots of fruit and they're definitely Capsicum annuum. Country of origin is what counts...pepper plants adapt to the local conditions.
I know, pictures...I'll get to it. It's been hard to keep up with things.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Annual Flood
Every year most of the property goes underwater. It used to be part of a cypress slough, until somebody cut down all the cypress. They're growing back now.
My gardening isn't affected. I'm used to the flooding, so I have all the plants in lowlying areas in pots that are elevated on concrete blocks. The South Garden is on the fill-mound along with the house.
I lost some plants due to waterlogging in the pots. The last roll of landscaping cloth didn't work right, I think it got clogged with mud. So the soil in the newer pots tends to get all mucky when it rains a lot. That was a big roll I bought, and now I can't use it. Normally I use the landscaping cloth to hold the soil back and keep it from leaking out of the drainage holes.
I'm harvesting a lot of good food...okra, molokhia, sweet potato, Malabar spinach, etc. And today I mixed more potting soil as I recycled older pots.
Right now I'm nodding off, not enough sleep and too much work, I guess.
My gardening isn't affected. I'm used to the flooding, so I have all the plants in lowlying areas in pots that are elevated on concrete blocks. The South Garden is on the fill-mound along with the house.
I lost some plants due to waterlogging in the pots. The last roll of landscaping cloth didn't work right, I think it got clogged with mud. So the soil in the newer pots tends to get all mucky when it rains a lot. That was a big roll I bought, and now I can't use it. Normally I use the landscaping cloth to hold the soil back and keep it from leaking out of the drainage holes.
I'm harvesting a lot of good food...okra, molokhia, sweet potato, Malabar spinach, etc. And today I mixed more potting soil as I recycled older pots.
Right now I'm nodding off, not enough sleep and too much work, I guess.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Haven't Kept Up
Sorry I haven't posted more often. The project to replace the damaged underground utility run to my shop turned into a monster. I guess I underestimated how much sand I'd have to move to replace everything.
But it's winding down now...I have electric service and water restored to my shop.
The new container garden north of the house is in full production now. I'm harvesting peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, okra, purslane, and Malabar spinach. Plus I've still got my older container area to the southwest going strong...so lots of good food to eat.
I'm convinced now that I can reach my goal of growing nearly all my own food. I would still buy things like soy milk and margarine, but the basic foods with the exception of flour and macaroni would come from my garden. I'm unsure about grain crops, since whole wheat flour is not that pricey. I buy ten pounds at a time and bake all my own bread.
The big ones are going to be potatoes and beans. If I can grow enough of those, I've basically got it covered.
But you know, plans don't always pan out. I won't break down into tears if it doesn't work...LOL. Still, so far things are definitely on track. My Hannah sweet potatoes have been phenomenonal...huge potatoes in just over 100 days in the 57 cm pots. And I really like them...starchy, not too sweet or strong-tasting. I don't like those mushy, strong-flavored types. I was raised on the yellow kind...most likely Jersey Yellow. You can still buy those at the Baker Creek website. I guess it's one of those regional things...northerners like less-sweet, firm potatoes; southerners like the mushy, sweet kind.
I like the mushy kind, but not as a regular thing. They taste like dessert to me, and I don't eat desserts.
But it's winding down now...I have electric service and water restored to my shop.
The new container garden north of the house is in full production now. I'm harvesting peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, okra, purslane, and Malabar spinach. Plus I've still got my older container area to the southwest going strong...so lots of good food to eat.
I'm convinced now that I can reach my goal of growing nearly all my own food. I would still buy things like soy milk and margarine, but the basic foods with the exception of flour and macaroni would come from my garden. I'm unsure about grain crops, since whole wheat flour is not that pricey. I buy ten pounds at a time and bake all my own bread.
The big ones are going to be potatoes and beans. If I can grow enough of those, I've basically got it covered.
But you know, plans don't always pan out. I won't break down into tears if it doesn't work...LOL. Still, so far things are definitely on track. My Hannah sweet potatoes have been phenomenonal...huge potatoes in just over 100 days in the 57 cm pots. And I really like them...starchy, not too sweet or strong-tasting. I don't like those mushy, strong-flavored types. I was raised on the yellow kind...most likely Jersey Yellow. You can still buy those at the Baker Creek website. I guess it's one of those regional things...northerners like less-sweet, firm potatoes; southerners like the mushy, sweet kind.
I like the mushy kind, but not as a regular thing. They taste like dessert to me, and I don't eat desserts.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Recycling
Today I managed to recycle two of my larger containers. This involves pulling out the non-productive plants, scraping away the mulch and storing it in a bucket temporarily, and amending the soil in the pot.
First I dig about half the soil out into a wheelbarrow. Then I wheel it over to the compost bins and add in a big bucket of compost. Then a small handful of rock powder...I'm currently using glacial rock dust...a little water...and stir it all up with a hoe until it's evenly mixed and moist.
Then fill another bucket with compost and head back to the container with it all. Add the compost to the soil that's left in the pot, water if needed, stir it all up well. Put the soil in the wheelbarrow back into the pot, plant some seedlings or whatever, and put back the mulch.
Job done.
Crop rotation is important, I keep a spiral notebook for that and number all the containers. If there are a lot of root knots on the previous crop, I plant onions. Root knot nematodes do NOT like onions.
Today I planted a couple of Poblano pepper seedlings in one pot, and trained a sweet-potato vine into the other. It will root on the new pot and make lots of potatoes for me in a few months.
I've been having trouble with unwanted strains of eggplant appearing in my pots. I think they're coming from bad lots of seed, since it's only certain varieties that seem to be replaced by these less desirable strains in the pots. The two I'm having this trouble with are Bangladeshi Long and Masego. I ate just a few bites of a dish I made with one of these unexpected eggplant and got a bitter taste, burning in my throat, and indigestion. I'm putting the rest of that meal into the next batch of compost.
The fruit in each case were green and white striped and ovoid in shape. I think they're an ancestral form showing up in seed that might have come from plants that were pollinated from wild eggplants by bees. The fruit were usable when small and immature, but turned toxic when they enlarged and got seedy. Some were toxic at any size. All of them came from seed packets I bought, I don't save eggplant seed.
So it's not a big deal, I just won't plant those varieties again. Currently the variety that seems to suit my needs best is Long Purple. There's also a variety called Louisiana Green that I like too. I think I'll just grow those two from now on.
The weather is unprecedented...very tropical and way too early for that. I've never seen tropical weather like this in April before. Somehow the chard is holding on, but the pole beans have slowed down. It's time to plant long beans, eggplant, okra, bunching onions, molokhia, roselle, Basella alba, etc. Bayam is already growing all on its own...that's vegetable amaranth.
I'm going to try to keep Poblano peppers growing through the rainy season this year...we'll see if that works. So far they don't seem to mind the heat at all. I like them so much they never make it to the skillet...I just cut them up and eat them like salad.
Somehow I've got to plant some blackeyed peas. I've been busy with a project and haven't done much with the South Garden. The 100 liter containers are producing so much food, I've lost my incentive to go digging things up out there. I'd rather put my time in with the big pots and get the bigger returns and better quality produce.
There are three things that are the most important in a garden...the soil, the soil, and the soil. Get that covered, and the rest always takes care of itself somehow.
First I dig about half the soil out into a wheelbarrow. Then I wheel it over to the compost bins and add in a big bucket of compost. Then a small handful of rock powder...I'm currently using glacial rock dust...a little water...and stir it all up with a hoe until it's evenly mixed and moist.
Then fill another bucket with compost and head back to the container with it all. Add the compost to the soil that's left in the pot, water if needed, stir it all up well. Put the soil in the wheelbarrow back into the pot, plant some seedlings or whatever, and put back the mulch.
Job done.
Crop rotation is important, I keep a spiral notebook for that and number all the containers. If there are a lot of root knots on the previous crop, I plant onions. Root knot nematodes do NOT like onions.
Today I planted a couple of Poblano pepper seedlings in one pot, and trained a sweet-potato vine into the other. It will root on the new pot and make lots of potatoes for me in a few months.
I've been having trouble with unwanted strains of eggplant appearing in my pots. I think they're coming from bad lots of seed, since it's only certain varieties that seem to be replaced by these less desirable strains in the pots. The two I'm having this trouble with are Bangladeshi Long and Masego. I ate just a few bites of a dish I made with one of these unexpected eggplant and got a bitter taste, burning in my throat, and indigestion. I'm putting the rest of that meal into the next batch of compost.
The fruit in each case were green and white striped and ovoid in shape. I think they're an ancestral form showing up in seed that might have come from plants that were pollinated from wild eggplants by bees. The fruit were usable when small and immature, but turned toxic when they enlarged and got seedy. Some were toxic at any size. All of them came from seed packets I bought, I don't save eggplant seed.
So it's not a big deal, I just won't plant those varieties again. Currently the variety that seems to suit my needs best is Long Purple. There's also a variety called Louisiana Green that I like too. I think I'll just grow those two from now on.
The weather is unprecedented...very tropical and way too early for that. I've never seen tropical weather like this in April before. Somehow the chard is holding on, but the pole beans have slowed down. It's time to plant long beans, eggplant, okra, bunching onions, molokhia, roselle, Basella alba, etc. Bayam is already growing all on its own...that's vegetable amaranth.
I'm going to try to keep Poblano peppers growing through the rainy season this year...we'll see if that works. So far they don't seem to mind the heat at all. I like them so much they never make it to the skillet...I just cut them up and eat them like salad.
Somehow I've got to plant some blackeyed peas. I've been busy with a project and haven't done much with the South Garden. The 100 liter containers are producing so much food, I've lost my incentive to go digging things up out there. I'd rather put my time in with the big pots and get the bigger returns and better quality produce.
There are three things that are the most important in a garden...the soil, the soil, and the soil. Get that covered, and the rest always takes care of itself somehow.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Lots of Veggies to Eat
Things are going well in the container garden.
The pole beans are bearing heavily now, I can pick enough from just one container of them to use in my soup. I lost a few plants of the Rattlesnake beans, but the Mississippi Skip Beans aka White Half Runner had no such issues. The Skip Beans may be better adapted to the humid climate of Florida than Rattlesnake, I suspect the Rattlesnake plants succumbed to a fungus.
This is the first time I've tried growing Skip Beans in pots and giving them poles to climb, I usually plant them in a bed and let them sprawl. I'm very pleased with the results. The only disadvantage is the need for a stepladder to harvest the beans. I think they're definitely growing better as climbers. I might try giving my sweet potatoes some poles and tying up the vines. That way they won't be rooting in the ground or getting nibbled by my friends the rabbits.
I enjoy the company of the rabbits, they don't seem to mind my walking past them while they're munching on things they find in my weedy lawns. I've never had any serious trouble from them, they don't seem to bother my veggies except for the sweet potato vines. The diggers haven't been bothering me anymore either. Those were unknown animals that excavated the soil out of my pots and planting beds, and dumped out my seedling pots on the ground. I keep the pots mulched now, or covered with chicken wire, and I've fenced in the planting beds with chicken wire. When I first tried gardening at this house, they dug up my garden every night.
The Swiss Chard has been really outstanding. The flavor and texture of the leaves seems to be better in the large containers than when I grew them last time in the planting beds. I'm growing Ruby Red, same variety both times. Though it's interesting, I got one plant of some green variety of chard that was very tasty and tender...must have been some other seed got mixed in, or it was just due to a lack of separation between seed crops by the people who grew the seed. I wouldn't mind growing more of the green variety again.
I've tried growing chard from some of the major seed houses here in the US, but I didn't like that chard at all. Years ago I grew some seed that someone brought back from Europe and that tasted so much better. Not all chard is the same. I've been staying with Ruby Red for a while now.
The eggplant is doing very well too. I like them stir-fried or in soup. I'm growing Bangladeshi Long, Florida Market, Long Purple, and some unknown Asian variety that's somewhat long with green and white striping. I only have one plant of the green and white variety, it showed up from a batch of Bangladeshi Long seed I planted. I think I like it the best of the four, though I've only harvested one fruit so far. Maybe I'll move it to a bigger container, southeast Asian eggplant are perennial here in my climate. I might even try air layering it to produce more plants. With only one plant, I can't very well expect to save the seed and have them breed true. Some plants are very amenable to air layering, you never know until you try.
With oregano and sweet potato, all I have to do is set a new pot next to the old one, lay a vine over the new pot and hold it down with something. After it roots, I clip the connecting vine and I'm done. Propagation can't get much easier than that. I've got oregano and sweet potato I've been growing that way for years. If you live in a temperate climate, you would have to take a plant of your favorite varieties indoors for the winter, of course. We didn't get a killing frost this year, so no need for me to do anything like that.
The unusually warm weather continues, so I've been setting my alarm and getting up at first light. I don't deal well with tropical sun anymore, have to avoid getting too much of it. But as far as the garden plants go, all I have to do is switch crops and keep right on planting and harvesting. It will soon be too hot even for most peppers, I'll probably switch to growing only Caribbean Red and Tabasco before much longer. They're a different species of plant from the usual hot pepper and bell pepper varieties, and they like the heat. The pole beans will be replaced with long beans and blackeyed peas too. You have to grow the right varieties of veggies for your climate or you're working against yourself.
The pole beans are bearing heavily now, I can pick enough from just one container of them to use in my soup. I lost a few plants of the Rattlesnake beans, but the Mississippi Skip Beans aka White Half Runner had no such issues. The Skip Beans may be better adapted to the humid climate of Florida than Rattlesnake, I suspect the Rattlesnake plants succumbed to a fungus.
This is the first time I've tried growing Skip Beans in pots and giving them poles to climb, I usually plant them in a bed and let them sprawl. I'm very pleased with the results. The only disadvantage is the need for a stepladder to harvest the beans. I think they're definitely growing better as climbers. I might try giving my sweet potatoes some poles and tying up the vines. That way they won't be rooting in the ground or getting nibbled by my friends the rabbits.
I enjoy the company of the rabbits, they don't seem to mind my walking past them while they're munching on things they find in my weedy lawns. I've never had any serious trouble from them, they don't seem to bother my veggies except for the sweet potato vines. The diggers haven't been bothering me anymore either. Those were unknown animals that excavated the soil out of my pots and planting beds, and dumped out my seedling pots on the ground. I keep the pots mulched now, or covered with chicken wire, and I've fenced in the planting beds with chicken wire. When I first tried gardening at this house, they dug up my garden every night.
The Swiss Chard has been really outstanding. The flavor and texture of the leaves seems to be better in the large containers than when I grew them last time in the planting beds. I'm growing Ruby Red, same variety both times. Though it's interesting, I got one plant of some green variety of chard that was very tasty and tender...must have been some other seed got mixed in, or it was just due to a lack of separation between seed crops by the people who grew the seed. I wouldn't mind growing more of the green variety again.
I've tried growing chard from some of the major seed houses here in the US, but I didn't like that chard at all. Years ago I grew some seed that someone brought back from Europe and that tasted so much better. Not all chard is the same. I've been staying with Ruby Red for a while now.
The eggplant is doing very well too. I like them stir-fried or in soup. I'm growing Bangladeshi Long, Florida Market, Long Purple, and some unknown Asian variety that's somewhat long with green and white striping. I only have one plant of the green and white variety, it showed up from a batch of Bangladeshi Long seed I planted. I think I like it the best of the four, though I've only harvested one fruit so far. Maybe I'll move it to a bigger container, southeast Asian eggplant are perennial here in my climate. I might even try air layering it to produce more plants. With only one plant, I can't very well expect to save the seed and have them breed true. Some plants are very amenable to air layering, you never know until you try.
With oregano and sweet potato, all I have to do is set a new pot next to the old one, lay a vine over the new pot and hold it down with something. After it roots, I clip the connecting vine and I'm done. Propagation can't get much easier than that. I've got oregano and sweet potato I've been growing that way for years. If you live in a temperate climate, you would have to take a plant of your favorite varieties indoors for the winter, of course. We didn't get a killing frost this year, so no need for me to do anything like that.
The unusually warm weather continues, so I've been setting my alarm and getting up at first light. I don't deal well with tropical sun anymore, have to avoid getting too much of it. But as far as the garden plants go, all I have to do is switch crops and keep right on planting and harvesting. It will soon be too hot even for most peppers, I'll probably switch to growing only Caribbean Red and Tabasco before much longer. They're a different species of plant from the usual hot pepper and bell pepper varieties, and they like the heat. The pole beans will be replaced with long beans and blackeyed peas too. You have to grow the right varieties of veggies for your climate or you're working against yourself.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Moving Along
The new container garden is coming along nicely. I've already been picking Swiss chard for steaming and soups, and the pole beans are just now getting little pods on them. Those are Mississippi Skip beans aka White Half Runner beans. I have several big pots of those and also some Rattlesnake beans in different locations around the property.
Today I had to quit work setting up another pot due to smoke. I think there might have been a brush fire upwind, heard a helicopter circling for some time around noon. Seems as though I'm getting smoke every morning around 1000 hours EST, so I'd better set my alarm for 0600 to stay ahead of it. I don't observe Daylight Savings Time, it makes no sense to me whatsoever. I recently learned that the principle opposition to it came historically from farmers, then for some unknown reason the media reversed that and said it was for the benefit of farmers. So in the end it benefits no one, yet we do it anyway.
They said today that we tied another record for heat yesterday. My mizuna looks awful, it just lays down like it's exhausted. Turnips are not known for their heat resistance...mizuna is a variety of turnip greens. I won't be growing so much of it next year, it's too sensitive to heat.
I decided to plant all three varieties of sweet potato in the big pots...the 100 liter size. Nothing wrong with a little variety. I don't get along with the high sugar content, but I've found that cutting the potatoes into chunks and parboiling them lowers the sugar considerably. Then I can store them in the fridge and use as needed. I currently have Porto Rico, Liberty, and Hannah growing in the garden. They're each very different in their flavor and consistency...Porto Rico is high in carotenes, moist and sweet; Liberty is cream-colored, dry, and nutty-flavored; Hannah is cream-colored also, dry and starchy. I like them all. I would love to find a sweet potato that's very starchy and very low in sugar, but I'm not sure such a thing exists.
The sweet potatoes are being stimulated by the hot sun, they love this weather. It's always best to pay attention to these seasonal changes...I'm going all-out with sweet potatoes from now on. It's time to plant the long beans too, they also love warm weather. That would be Vigna sesquipedalis. They always do well for me and produce loads of those long, tender string beans.
Now that I'm used to working with the big pots, I really like them. They don't desiccate as quickly as the 34 cm pots, so it's easier to keep up with irrigation. I would really like to get my plumbing issues taken care of before the rains come...I've got a buried pipe out there that's leaky and I need to find the leak and fix it before that area goes underwater again. It's a hundred foot run past a lot of big pines, so the digging isn't easy...lots of thick roots to chop.
As soon as I get the rest of my big pots planted and producing food, digging up that piping is next on my list.
Today I had to quit work setting up another pot due to smoke. I think there might have been a brush fire upwind, heard a helicopter circling for some time around noon. Seems as though I'm getting smoke every morning around 1000 hours EST, so I'd better set my alarm for 0600 to stay ahead of it. I don't observe Daylight Savings Time, it makes no sense to me whatsoever. I recently learned that the principle opposition to it came historically from farmers, then for some unknown reason the media reversed that and said it was for the benefit of farmers. So in the end it benefits no one, yet we do it anyway.
They said today that we tied another record for heat yesterday. My mizuna looks awful, it just lays down like it's exhausted. Turnips are not known for their heat resistance...mizuna is a variety of turnip greens. I won't be growing so much of it next year, it's too sensitive to heat.
I decided to plant all three varieties of sweet potato in the big pots...the 100 liter size. Nothing wrong with a little variety. I don't get along with the high sugar content, but I've found that cutting the potatoes into chunks and parboiling them lowers the sugar considerably. Then I can store them in the fridge and use as needed. I currently have Porto Rico, Liberty, and Hannah growing in the garden. They're each very different in their flavor and consistency...Porto Rico is high in carotenes, moist and sweet; Liberty is cream-colored, dry, and nutty-flavored; Hannah is cream-colored also, dry and starchy. I like them all. I would love to find a sweet potato that's very starchy and very low in sugar, but I'm not sure such a thing exists.
The sweet potatoes are being stimulated by the hot sun, they love this weather. It's always best to pay attention to these seasonal changes...I'm going all-out with sweet potatoes from now on. It's time to plant the long beans too, they also love warm weather. That would be Vigna sesquipedalis. They always do well for me and produce loads of those long, tender string beans.
Now that I'm used to working with the big pots, I really like them. They don't desiccate as quickly as the 34 cm pots, so it's easier to keep up with irrigation. I would really like to get my plumbing issues taken care of before the rains come...I've got a buried pipe out there that's leaky and I need to find the leak and fix it before that area goes underwater again. It's a hundred foot run past a lot of big pines, so the digging isn't easy...lots of thick roots to chop.
As soon as I get the rest of my big pots planted and producing food, digging up that piping is next on my list.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Seasonal Change
Looks right now like the cool weather is finished. Predictions are for continuing temps higher than average...at least for the next week or so. Beyond that is anyone's guess...I've seen frost on my garden mulch in April here.
But a gardener, especially one who's dependent on his garden for a lot of his sustenance, needs to make educated guesses so he knows what to plant. I'm going to lay my money on warm weather.
Current plans are for lots of pole beans, onions, sweet potatoes, and long beans. Got to watch out for those drooping vines on the sweet potatoes, though...I spotted a big rabbit contentedly devouring all the leaves he could reach on the sweet potato vines I have growing in big pots. It's OK, he'll keep them from setting potatoes in the ground. I want the potatoes to stay in the pots where the burrowing beasts are less likely to find them. I discovered years ago that sweet potato vines will set potatoes deep in the ground when the soil is sandy and dry. I happened to dig a deep hole for something and there were potatoes more than a foot below the surface of the ground.
My biggest problem with sweet potatoes is the roaches. They have the run of things here, my neighbors use a lot of pesticides. That has decimated the normal population of predatory insects, and pesticide-resistant roaches have taken over the whole area. Such are the hazards of living in an urban area. The only thing that seems to prey on them is Cuban frogs. Maybe when the rains start to come regularly, the frogs will deal with the roaches. It's depressing to harvest a nice big sweet potato, then cut it open and find a bunch of roaches have hollowed it out and made a home out of it. I don't care for roaches, especially when they show up on my kitchen counters like that. I think these are Asian flying roaches in the garden....they suddenly showed up here in the eighties.
Fire ants and roaches are inescapable here, the entire neighborhood is infested with them. Both are virtually immune to pesticides. I use a compound called spinosad on the fire ants now, and it seems to be working very well. It's non-toxic to humans and other insects, so it's approved for organic gardeners and farmers. It's also much more effective than the stuff they sell in the hardware stores and home improvement stores. It does take a while to work, though...you have to be patient...and it costs twice as much. But then you don't have to use nearly so much, because it works so much better. It interferes with the ants' growth hormones, so the colony can't expand. Eventually it dies off from natural causes.
The pole beans are doing very well. The first big wave of them is about done now, and subsequent plantings are almost ready to set pods. I like to keep planting them so I have a continuous supply. I'm planting Rattlesnake and White Half Runner mostly, but I have seeds for other types as well. I tend to go overboard when I have a new seed catalog in my eager grip. But I'm running out of time. The common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, won't set pods here in the heat we get from May to September. So I'll be switching to blackeyed peas and long beans. Those are in the genus Vigna, which is more tropical. I got a really fine crop of peas last year from the West African variety Ologwe. Nothing produces as abundantly for me in the ground as blackeyed peas. When other gardeners are quitting until November, I'm gearing up for my most productive season.
I do love my blackeyed peas, freshly harvested from the garden.
But a gardener, especially one who's dependent on his garden for a lot of his sustenance, needs to make educated guesses so he knows what to plant. I'm going to lay my money on warm weather.
Current plans are for lots of pole beans, onions, sweet potatoes, and long beans. Got to watch out for those drooping vines on the sweet potatoes, though...I spotted a big rabbit contentedly devouring all the leaves he could reach on the sweet potato vines I have growing in big pots. It's OK, he'll keep them from setting potatoes in the ground. I want the potatoes to stay in the pots where the burrowing beasts are less likely to find them. I discovered years ago that sweet potato vines will set potatoes deep in the ground when the soil is sandy and dry. I happened to dig a deep hole for something and there were potatoes more than a foot below the surface of the ground.
My biggest problem with sweet potatoes is the roaches. They have the run of things here, my neighbors use a lot of pesticides. That has decimated the normal population of predatory insects, and pesticide-resistant roaches have taken over the whole area. Such are the hazards of living in an urban area. The only thing that seems to prey on them is Cuban frogs. Maybe when the rains start to come regularly, the frogs will deal with the roaches. It's depressing to harvest a nice big sweet potato, then cut it open and find a bunch of roaches have hollowed it out and made a home out of it. I don't care for roaches, especially when they show up on my kitchen counters like that. I think these are Asian flying roaches in the garden....they suddenly showed up here in the eighties.
Fire ants and roaches are inescapable here, the entire neighborhood is infested with them. Both are virtually immune to pesticides. I use a compound called spinosad on the fire ants now, and it seems to be working very well. It's non-toxic to humans and other insects, so it's approved for organic gardeners and farmers. It's also much more effective than the stuff they sell in the hardware stores and home improvement stores. It does take a while to work, though...you have to be patient...and it costs twice as much. But then you don't have to use nearly so much, because it works so much better. It interferes with the ants' growth hormones, so the colony can't expand. Eventually it dies off from natural causes.
The pole beans are doing very well. The first big wave of them is about done now, and subsequent plantings are almost ready to set pods. I like to keep planting them so I have a continuous supply. I'm planting Rattlesnake and White Half Runner mostly, but I have seeds for other types as well. I tend to go overboard when I have a new seed catalog in my eager grip. But I'm running out of time. The common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, won't set pods here in the heat we get from May to September. So I'll be switching to blackeyed peas and long beans. Those are in the genus Vigna, which is more tropical. I got a really fine crop of peas last year from the West African variety Ologwe. Nothing produces as abundantly for me in the ground as blackeyed peas. When other gardeners are quitting until November, I'm gearing up for my most productive season.
I do love my blackeyed peas, freshly harvested from the garden.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Garden Tour
I do keep up with the garden more or less in spite of all that goes on here. Here's a brief walking tour of the containers...as you can see there are a lot of growing plants in these various locations around the property.
The first pic is the new container garden north of the house, almost done setting it up.
The weather has changed drastically from cool, including some freeze damage, to very warm. Last time I went outside it was 27 degrees Celsius on the carport. We're expecting warmer than normal temps for the rest of this week.
So the lettuce is all bolting, for one thing. Tried making a salad with some at lunchtime, but it was bitter and left my mouth feeling dry. So into the compost it goes. I tossed out some mizuna this morning too, it's starting to bolt as well. Sometimes the seasons change suddenly here, looks like the cool season is winding down rapidly.
So it's time to switch to the heat-tolerant veggies like long beans, blackeyed peas, molokhia, and sweet potatoes. I usually plant okra in April and May, but maybe this year I'll get some seed started this month. I do love my okra...it's so soothing to my digestion and I love the way it changes a rice dish into a real treat. Looking forward to using molokhia in soups, it makes a really excellent soup. Lately I've been using a lot of mustard in my soups, that's also good. I'm talking about the greens, which are very nutritious and tasty. I grow Florida Broadleaf, been using that variety since the seventies. I've never found anything better in mustard. It's fairly mild, resists RKN, and grows like a weed.
Should have all the chard I want soon, that also makes a very fine soup...and it's good for stir fries too. I'm growing Ruby Red this year...again. Chard will keep going into the warmer days, assuming it doesn't get super-hot. The really hot days generally start in May...cool season is over when that happens. Even the peppers will need some shade from the sun after May. The soil in containers gets really warm in the afternoon sun, so things like lettuce and mustard will simply sicken and die under those conditions. It's one of the disadvantages of using black nursery containers...maybe I should try painting them white or silver.
We got 2.11 inches of rain in less than an hour last evening...went from bone dry to standing water just like that. My excavation project to repair a damaged water line will have to be postponed, the hole I dug is 2/3 full of water now. It's unusual to get that kind of heavy rain in February or March.
Everything seems unusual in the weather these days.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Turnips All Harvested
The turnips were definitely a success this year. The variety I grew, Golden Ball, didn't give me indigestion and produced a nice heap of turnips in just one planting bed. I'd say as a guess I got twenty pounds of them altogether. They had some RKN on the roots, but they grew anyway. RKN stands for root knot nematodes.
So if I need to increase my calorie production in the garden, turnips would be a good choice for the cool season. I've been growing them since the seventies, and they're always very reliable. They're nutritious too, it would be hard to find a greens crop with better nutritional analysis than turnip. Next year I'll plant even more if possible.
The cool weather quit at just the right time, when the turnips were done. They don't like heat. If we don't get more chilly weather, I've got to start thinking about switching to the heat-tolerant crops like molokhia, Vigna, and sweet potatoes. We haven't really had any significant frost this year...so far. I have sweet potatoes in the South Garden that just keep right on growing. If it stays warm, I can start new potatoes by snipping off the growing tips and planting them in new pots and beds. The coldest temp I've seen this cool season was two degrees Celsius on the flagpole next to the South Garden. Right now I've got Hannah, Porto Rico, and Liberty potatoes growing out there. I used to wait till the frost killed most of the vines before digging, but the past few years they just kept growing. If we keep getting frost-free years like this, I might have to change the name of the blog from subtropical to tropical.
The new container garden is coming along well. I'm working on the second row of pots, and I've been harvesting loads of salad greens from the pots with lettuce and mizuna. Haven't really kept up with things well lately, had some difficulties that kept me busy. But I'm almost done with setting up the final compost bin with shredded landscaping waste, that will give me a tumbler, three bins, and an open pile going at once. With that amount of compost, I'll be able to set up lots of larger pots for the new container garden...and maybe a planting bed in the South Garden too.
Been harvesting lots of eggplant and hot pepper, two of my favorites. The turnips are done, the radishes almost finished...time to start some new seedlings of peppers and maybe some molokhia...it makes an outstanding soup. But I think I'll wait till April 1 to plant okra and Vigna. They'll grow now, but not vigorously. I like to plant crops that really grow well, not just survive.
So if I need to increase my calorie production in the garden, turnips would be a good choice for the cool season. I've been growing them since the seventies, and they're always very reliable. They're nutritious too, it would be hard to find a greens crop with better nutritional analysis than turnip. Next year I'll plant even more if possible.
The cool weather quit at just the right time, when the turnips were done. They don't like heat. If we don't get more chilly weather, I've got to start thinking about switching to the heat-tolerant crops like molokhia, Vigna, and sweet potatoes. We haven't really had any significant frost this year...so far. I have sweet potatoes in the South Garden that just keep right on growing. If it stays warm, I can start new potatoes by snipping off the growing tips and planting them in new pots and beds. The coldest temp I've seen this cool season was two degrees Celsius on the flagpole next to the South Garden. Right now I've got Hannah, Porto Rico, and Liberty potatoes growing out there. I used to wait till the frost killed most of the vines before digging, but the past few years they just kept growing. If we keep getting frost-free years like this, I might have to change the name of the blog from subtropical to tropical.
The new container garden is coming along well. I'm working on the second row of pots, and I've been harvesting loads of salad greens from the pots with lettuce and mizuna. Haven't really kept up with things well lately, had some difficulties that kept me busy. But I'm almost done with setting up the final compost bin with shredded landscaping waste, that will give me a tumbler, three bins, and an open pile going at once. With that amount of compost, I'll be able to set up lots of larger pots for the new container garden...and maybe a planting bed in the South Garden too.
Been harvesting lots of eggplant and hot pepper, two of my favorites. The turnips are done, the radishes almost finished...time to start some new seedlings of peppers and maybe some molokhia...it makes an outstanding soup. But I think I'll wait till April 1 to plant okra and Vigna. They'll grow now, but not vigorously. I like to plant crops that really grow well, not just survive.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Permaculture?
I've been reading a lot about permaculture lately. I like sustainable gardening and living, but after studying permaculture for some time, I'm not buying into it.
The problem I have with it is this idea that disturbing the soil damages the soil structure and its biota...especially the mycorrhizae. Those are fungi that grow in symbiosis with plant roots and help extract minerals from the organic matter in the soil.
In my garden, the dominant mycorrhizae are likely to be those associated with pine roots, which grow everywhere here. I don't want those in my planting beds...I'm trying to grow vegetables, not bigger pine trees. By digging the beds and remixing my potting soil, I distribute compost throughout the soil horizon and make it more available to the crop roots and THEIR mycorrhizae.
I know how fast fungi grow...they have no trouble recovering from soil disturbance as far as I've seen. In fact it seems to stimulate them to have compost mixed into the soil. So I suspect that many permaculture devotees are simply people who don't like to get all dirty and sweaty when they garden...to each his or her own.
I'll try to keep an open mind, but my methods work and I'm staying with them.
Currently I'm worried about brush fire season...so gardening dropped down a notch on my priority listing. This morning I cleared out a lot of deadwood and dry brush near my house to protect it. That will get shredded and composted, so in a way I'm still growing food when I'm clearing brush.
Lots of good things to harvest lately in the garden...mizuna, chives, and red romaine lettuce for salads, pole beans and mustard greens for stir fries and soups, loads of radishes and turnips. Tonight I think I'll dig another turnip and cook it up with some potato. I bought a few red potatoes in the supermarket the other day, I think I'll plant some in containers to see how things go. The red varieties seem to grow better for me. I hope they haven't treated these things with chemicals to suppress sprouting...maybe I'll plant the eyes in smaller pots to see if they grow before I put them in bigger pots. Usually I use organic potatoes, but they wanted something like seven dollars for a little bag of them in Target. And my local market didn't have any organic reds. So I'll see what happens.
And eggplant...got a lot of those coming along. They really seem to like that liquid feeding I give them every few days. These are the healthiest-looking eggplants I've ever grown. The hot peppers are doing well too...I'm growing Poblano, Jwala, and Serrano. Some kind of pepper disease hit me hard a couple of years ago and I haven't had luck with bell peppers ever since. It's ok, I like a little spiciness in my peppers...and hot peppers have more nutritional value than bell peppers anyway.
The air has been poor quality lately...lots of burning going on. That holds me back, I often cancel plans due to smoke. But those chemical odors are gone, pretty sure it was from somebody cooking meth...the cops were at that house recently and now the odors have stopped.
Things do get done around here...one way or another...air pollution notwithstanding.
The problem I have with it is this idea that disturbing the soil damages the soil structure and its biota...especially the mycorrhizae. Those are fungi that grow in symbiosis with plant roots and help extract minerals from the organic matter in the soil.
In my garden, the dominant mycorrhizae are likely to be those associated with pine roots, which grow everywhere here. I don't want those in my planting beds...I'm trying to grow vegetables, not bigger pine trees. By digging the beds and remixing my potting soil, I distribute compost throughout the soil horizon and make it more available to the crop roots and THEIR mycorrhizae.
I know how fast fungi grow...they have no trouble recovering from soil disturbance as far as I've seen. In fact it seems to stimulate them to have compost mixed into the soil. So I suspect that many permaculture devotees are simply people who don't like to get all dirty and sweaty when they garden...to each his or her own.
I'll try to keep an open mind, but my methods work and I'm staying with them.
Currently I'm worried about brush fire season...so gardening dropped down a notch on my priority listing. This morning I cleared out a lot of deadwood and dry brush near my house to protect it. That will get shredded and composted, so in a way I'm still growing food when I'm clearing brush.
Recently Harvested Turnip...Ruler is 12 inch/30cm.
Lots of good things to harvest lately in the garden...mizuna, chives, and red romaine lettuce for salads, pole beans and mustard greens for stir fries and soups, loads of radishes and turnips. Tonight I think I'll dig another turnip and cook it up with some potato. I bought a few red potatoes in the supermarket the other day, I think I'll plant some in containers to see how things go. The red varieties seem to grow better for me. I hope they haven't treated these things with chemicals to suppress sprouting...maybe I'll plant the eyes in smaller pots to see if they grow before I put them in bigger pots. Usually I use organic potatoes, but they wanted something like seven dollars for a little bag of them in Target. And my local market didn't have any organic reds. So I'll see what happens.
And eggplant...got a lot of those coming along. They really seem to like that liquid feeding I give them every few days. These are the healthiest-looking eggplants I've ever grown. The hot peppers are doing well too...I'm growing Poblano, Jwala, and Serrano. Some kind of pepper disease hit me hard a couple of years ago and I haven't had luck with bell peppers ever since. It's ok, I like a little spiciness in my peppers...and hot peppers have more nutritional value than bell peppers anyway.
The air has been poor quality lately...lots of burning going on. That holds me back, I often cancel plans due to smoke. But those chemical odors are gone, pretty sure it was from somebody cooking meth...the cops were at that house recently and now the odors have stopped.
Things do get done around here...one way or another...air pollution notwithstanding.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Turnip Weather
The warm weather has left the premises for a while, which is good news for my cool-season crops. The mizuna tastes better, and the greens aren't wilting like they were. It's always a gamble planting crops that like cool conditions when you're this close to the Tropic of Cancer. You can be in the tropics with just a few hours in a fast skiff.
Had more turnips cooked with potato, and no stomach upset. So either this variety I planted is milder or I'm tolerating them better this year.
Today I overhauled one of my 57 cm pots by digging out a half-wheelbarrow of soil from the pot, mixing it with compost and rock powder, then mixing a bucket of compost with more rock powder into the remaining soil in the pot. It didn't take long at all to do that. Then all I had to do was shovel the mixture in the wheelbarrow back into the pot, plant some pole-bean seeds, cover the pot with wire to protect against digging animals, and give it a little sprinkle of water.
Actually it's easier to replant one of these containers this way than it is to refurbish a planting bed in the ground. There's less bending and stooping, and I don't have to redo an entire bed all at once.
The first of the season's pole beans are covered with little pods...won't be long now before I'll have lots of string beans to pick for my stir fries and soups. This year I'm growing White half-runner and Rattlesnake. This is the first time I've used poles with the White half-runner beans and they've really taken to it. If you don't use poles, they form bushes and short runners. But I guess they're still pole beans at heart. I suspect I'm going to get more pods by letting them climb.
I have a good feeling about the pole beans this year. I think I'm going to get a really good crop by growing them in 57 cm pots with a teepee of large poles around each pot. The only crop failure I've had with pole beans was when something ate all the young plants on me. They went right down the row and ate every last one of them...never did find out what did that. I suspect squirrels, I have a lot of those here. I've had the same trouble with peanut plants, something likes to eat the plants when they're young. And it only happens in certain areas...the bean plants out in my southern container garden aren't bothered at all. Out there it's the diggers...some beast likes to dig in my newly set-up pots. So I mulch with wood or cover the pots with chicken wire now. When the pole beans are tall enough, I'll remove the wire and mulch around them with rotten wood.
Rotten wood is my favorite form of mulch. The crop roots grow right into the wood and it seems to help them to be able to do that. Whenever I cut down a tree after it's been killed by lightning I stack the wood on the ground somewhere. Within a few years the sapwood turns soft and I can break it up and use it for mulch.
I would love to try hugelkultur here, but with all these pine trees that would be impossible. I have to dig out my beds and tear out pine roots between crops. Hugelkultur beds are supposed to be left for years. I've learned that crops don't do well at all if they have to compete with pine roots in their beds.
The compost operation is going well now. I've got two open piles, a large bin, and a tumbler going right now. Most of it is getting good and hot...I love to see the steam rise out of compost when I turn it in the coolness of the morning. After I cut back more palmettos and clear more brush, I'll shred it all and fill up two more bins.
If my compost gets hot, and I've got a lot of it going, I'll have lots of good food to eat. It seems to come down to something as basic as that. Whoever called compost "gardener's gold" knew what they were talking about.
Had more turnips cooked with potato, and no stomach upset. So either this variety I planted is milder or I'm tolerating them better this year.
Today I overhauled one of my 57 cm pots by digging out a half-wheelbarrow of soil from the pot, mixing it with compost and rock powder, then mixing a bucket of compost with more rock powder into the remaining soil in the pot. It didn't take long at all to do that. Then all I had to do was shovel the mixture in the wheelbarrow back into the pot, plant some pole-bean seeds, cover the pot with wire to protect against digging animals, and give it a little sprinkle of water.
Actually it's easier to replant one of these containers this way than it is to refurbish a planting bed in the ground. There's less bending and stooping, and I don't have to redo an entire bed all at once.
The first of the season's pole beans are covered with little pods...won't be long now before I'll have lots of string beans to pick for my stir fries and soups. This year I'm growing White half-runner and Rattlesnake. This is the first time I've used poles with the White half-runner beans and they've really taken to it. If you don't use poles, they form bushes and short runners. But I guess they're still pole beans at heart. I suspect I'm going to get more pods by letting them climb.
I have a good feeling about the pole beans this year. I think I'm going to get a really good crop by growing them in 57 cm pots with a teepee of large poles around each pot. The only crop failure I've had with pole beans was when something ate all the young plants on me. They went right down the row and ate every last one of them...never did find out what did that. I suspect squirrels, I have a lot of those here. I've had the same trouble with peanut plants, something likes to eat the plants when they're young. And it only happens in certain areas...the bean plants out in my southern container garden aren't bothered at all. Out there it's the diggers...some beast likes to dig in my newly set-up pots. So I mulch with wood or cover the pots with chicken wire now. When the pole beans are tall enough, I'll remove the wire and mulch around them with rotten wood.
Rotten wood is my favorite form of mulch. The crop roots grow right into the wood and it seems to help them to be able to do that. Whenever I cut down a tree after it's been killed by lightning I stack the wood on the ground somewhere. Within a few years the sapwood turns soft and I can break it up and use it for mulch.
I would love to try hugelkultur here, but with all these pine trees that would be impossible. I have to dig out my beds and tear out pine roots between crops. Hugelkultur beds are supposed to be left for years. I've learned that crops don't do well at all if they have to compete with pine roots in their beds.
The compost operation is going well now. I've got two open piles, a large bin, and a tumbler going right now. Most of it is getting good and hot...I love to see the steam rise out of compost when I turn it in the coolness of the morning. After I cut back more palmettos and clear more brush, I'll shred it all and fill up two more bins.
If my compost gets hot, and I've got a lot of it going, I'll have lots of good food to eat. It seems to come down to something as basic as that. Whoever called compost "gardener's gold" knew what they were talking about.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Harvesting Turnips
Harvested the first turnip of the cool season...it was OK mixed with mashed potato...good flavor, and not so strong that I couldn't enjoy it. I also boiled some of the greens...they were pretty good too.
I still have almost an entire bed of these things out there, and the weather is expected to cool down for a while. That's very good for harvesting turnips, they taste better in cooler weather. You can't wait too long to pull your turnips, especially if the weather is warm. I'll probably pull them all soon, at least the ones with big roots, and store them in the bottom drawer in the fridge. Turnips do keep well, that's for sure.
So I can still produce my own food, even if the soil here is poor. Turnips are very nutritious and they're a traditional part of German cooking, which is part of what I grew up with. My grandmother was a good cook.
I've been growing turnips for a long time now, and apparently I haven't forgotten how to do it.
So I can still produce my own food, even if the soil here is poor. Turnips are very nutritious and they're a traditional part of German cooking, which is part of what I grew up with. My grandmother was a good cook.
I've been growing turnips for a long time now, and apparently I haven't forgotten how to do it.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Photo Tour
Finally got around to taking some pics.
Here's the new container garden just getting started with Red Romaine lettuce and pole beans.
Here's the new container garden just getting started with Red Romaine lettuce and pole beans.
Pole Beans, Red Romaine Lettuce
The turnips are almost ready to pull.
Turnips Golden Ball
Eggplant are now bearing fruit...very nice meals from those.
Eggplant Florida Market
Lots of salad greens now, they like the cool and cloudy weather we've been having.
Lettuce Red Romaine, Mizuna
I'm trying some Poblano peppers in my containers, they seem to be doing well so far.
Pepper Poblano
It's a little hard to see it, I suppose the light could have been better. But that's a nice big pepper center frame. Poblanos are variably hot, but not too hot to put in salads. In a stir fry I usually add some Tabasco or Jwala to season the dish, Poblanos are too mild to be noticeable in a stir fry. They have a nice flavor, it's a little like apple. In Mexico they grow thousands of acres of these and sell most of them dried as "Ancho Chile". When the fruit ripen they become a very dark red color, almost black. They're hotter when they're ripe.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Moving Along
I don't get things done quickly, but I do get them done.
I've got two pots set up in the new container garden north of the house...pole beans and lettuce. These pots are a hundred liter capacity, I'm way too fed up with all the various nuances of the obsolete British system of gallons and cubic feet to deal with it anymore. It's called the American system here, but it's a relic of the days when we were a British colony. The British have abandoned it mostly, some diehards still cling to the old ways of doing things as you might expect.
From now on when I shop for things like pots I'll look for the liter capacity and ignore the rest. There are four different gallons in use, but only one liter. Most writers seem to regard these big pots as #25 pots, but actually I think they were originally designated as #20 size, since they really only hold about 20 gallons of soil...which would have to be measured in dry gallons, not liquid gallons as everyone seems to be doing lately. But as I said this is only historical info for me, I'm done with gallons and cubic feet...also with rods, furlongs, cubits, hands, or whatever archaic systems people still use in places that are disconnected from the rest of the world.
I should point out also that the reason I don't get a lot of work done in the garden relates to my disability, which I would rather not bring into things in this blog. Gardening is my escape from all that.
So anyway, my first batch of nursery containers...100 liter size...should show up any day now. What's holding me back right now is the compost, it's going a bit more slowly than I expected. But I should have enough to set out a nice row of pots in the new section soon. I have two piles going and they're both getting warm. The newest one is steaming in fact...go microbes! It takes me about five or six weeks for a batch to run...if I shred it first.
I've also set up a bunch of 34 cm pots recently. Those hold about 23 liters of potting soil. I keep recycling those by dumping them in a wheelbarrow, mixing with compost, and shoveling the soil into a fallowing barrel where the soil stays for about a month before I reuse it to set up pots. This gives time for the soil microbes to work for a while and time for pathogens to be devoured by the high level of microbial activity.
The turnips will be ready to pull soon. They're starting to make nice fat roots and all my worries will soon be over with that crop...assuming they're edible...LOL. I never seem to get around to photographing them...too bad I can't just give them a camera and ask them to do selfies.
I'm also harvesting my eggplant...they're absolutely delicious. I thought I'd developed a sensitivity to eggplant and I would have to give up eating them. But it turned out to be a bad batch of seed that produced plants with inedible fruit...awful stuff that burned my throat and gave me indigestion. They tasted OK, but they were definitely toxic...they probably had back-crossed with some wild eggplant in Thailand where the seed originated. Eggplant do grow in the wild there, I've found out.
So watch out for bad batches of seed...it can happen. I currently advise buying seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at rareseeds.com or from Southern Exposure at southernexposure.com. But I'm sure there are many other good sources. I don't want to name my source for that bad seed...I noticed that variety...Masego...has been discontinued in their catalogues. So they must be aware of the problem. Nobody's perfect...everything else I bought from them has been excellent quality.
I've got two pots set up in the new container garden north of the house...pole beans and lettuce. These pots are a hundred liter capacity, I'm way too fed up with all the various nuances of the obsolete British system of gallons and cubic feet to deal with it anymore. It's called the American system here, but it's a relic of the days when we were a British colony. The British have abandoned it mostly, some diehards still cling to the old ways of doing things as you might expect.
From now on when I shop for things like pots I'll look for the liter capacity and ignore the rest. There are four different gallons in use, but only one liter. Most writers seem to regard these big pots as #25 pots, but actually I think they were originally designated as #20 size, since they really only hold about 20 gallons of soil...which would have to be measured in dry gallons, not liquid gallons as everyone seems to be doing lately. But as I said this is only historical info for me, I'm done with gallons and cubic feet...also with rods, furlongs, cubits, hands, or whatever archaic systems people still use in places that are disconnected from the rest of the world.
I should point out also that the reason I don't get a lot of work done in the garden relates to my disability, which I would rather not bring into things in this blog. Gardening is my escape from all that.
So anyway, my first batch of nursery containers...100 liter size...should show up any day now. What's holding me back right now is the compost, it's going a bit more slowly than I expected. But I should have enough to set out a nice row of pots in the new section soon. I have two piles going and they're both getting warm. The newest one is steaming in fact...go microbes! It takes me about five or six weeks for a batch to run...if I shred it first.
I've also set up a bunch of 34 cm pots recently. Those hold about 23 liters of potting soil. I keep recycling those by dumping them in a wheelbarrow, mixing with compost, and shoveling the soil into a fallowing barrel where the soil stays for about a month before I reuse it to set up pots. This gives time for the soil microbes to work for a while and time for pathogens to be devoured by the high level of microbial activity.
The turnips will be ready to pull soon. They're starting to make nice fat roots and all my worries will soon be over with that crop...assuming they're edible...LOL. I never seem to get around to photographing them...too bad I can't just give them a camera and ask them to do selfies.
I'm also harvesting my eggplant...they're absolutely delicious. I thought I'd developed a sensitivity to eggplant and I would have to give up eating them. But it turned out to be a bad batch of seed that produced plants with inedible fruit...awful stuff that burned my throat and gave me indigestion. They tasted OK, but they were definitely toxic...they probably had back-crossed with some wild eggplant in Thailand where the seed originated. Eggplant do grow in the wild there, I've found out.
So watch out for bad batches of seed...it can happen. I currently advise buying seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at rareseeds.com or from Southern Exposure at southernexposure.com. But I'm sure there are many other good sources. I don't want to name my source for that bad seed...I noticed that variety...Masego...has been discontinued in their catalogues. So they must be aware of the problem. Nobody's perfect...everything else I bought from them has been excellent quality.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
New Garden Site
Just got started today on a new site for containers north of the house. I decided to go ahead with plans for more large pots, and this spot gets more sun than the others at this time of year.
I'm using #20 pots on concrete blocks, this seems to be the most efficient way to garden at my location. My native soil is all burned out and sandy and it gets bone dry in the cool season. That makes it so hard to keep garden beds moist. My neighbor has a watering system and just floods his garden with water every evening with a timer. That's not my way of doing things. In containers I can more efficiently use my irrigation water.
The first pot at the new site is going to be pole beans. Those are tried and true producers of nourishing food for me. They're not as fine and tender as the "green beans" they sell in markets these days, but they're highly productive and they taste good to me. I've always liked pole beans. Usually I grow them in planting beds, but this year I'm trying them in the big pots to see if I get more pods in the better soil. Next pot is going to be Romaine lettuce, they're overdue for transplanting...and I could use something mild for salads. My digestion has been put to the test lately with all these radishes and the mustard greens I've been gobbling up. The radishes did very well this year, as they usually do.
I've been trying to figure out which gardening method works best...containers large or small, planting beds, etc. So far it looks like #20 nursery pots on concrete blocks is the winner for efficiency and healthy plant growth...plenty of room for roots to expand, no root invasion from trees and shrubs, easiest to set up, better grade of soil, better control of plant-parasitic nematodes. In the planting beds there's no getting away from PPN, they live in the surrounding area and just migrate in again if you deter them. But with a lot of fallowing, I've been able to reduce their numbers in my potting soil.
At ten bucks a pot delivered, plus a few dollars for the block, you can't beat the price in my opinion...not with the prices they charge these days for produce. If all goes really well, who knows?...maybe I'll be able to grow a substantial portion of my food and greatly reduce my grocery bill. It sure would be nice....I always remember one of the rules of business management...reducing expenses is the same thing as raising income. I consider my gardening as my job now...no reason not to consider it as such. I do work for food.
The turnip plants have filled in the row now, and they're starting to make turnips. This is a milder variety of turnip, so I'm looking forward to those. I've never grown a whole row of them before, due to the way they give me indigestion at times. So it's a gamble, and I'm hoping for the best...as gardeners always do.
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