Early July Garden

It’s the 4th of July and the garden is doing fine.

We finally have a watermelon growing. The bees are no where to be seen so I have been hand pollinating these as I can.

We also have a great crop of plum tomatoes. I noticed some signs of caterpillar damage (but saw no caterpillars yet). I want to spray them but the rain is every day lately. Hopefully I can spray BT sometime soon.

In the distance you might be able to make out the corn plant that is hanging on. No corn yet but I am hoping for something.

I am doing a much better job at training the muscadine grape vine this year. Last year the weight of the vine made the trellis slant forward. The extra support I added this winter is holding up.

For the first time we will have grapefruit this year. I counted at least five that are growing. The leaves are still falling off though. I found a spray that may help with this but I am having a hard time applying it because of the constant rain.

Key limes are back again too. They have the same issue as the grapefruit tree.

I butchered the heck out of the viburnum in the backyard. I was trying to locate a lost sprinkler head and finally found it behind the middle bush. I will be replacing that sprinkler head with drip irrigation to provide better water to one of the square foot gardens. I would like to train the bush on the right to grow as a small shade tree to open that area for some shade plant opportunities…..we will see what happens.

Flowers doing well in one of the whisky barrels.

And finally the aloe plant is reproducing again this year. I might transplant some of the babies. We don’t take advantage of this plant as much as we should.

Hopefully I will have an update at the end of the month to see what makes it.

August Garden: Summer Cleanup and New Arrivals

Some old friends are still in the garden and some new have recently joined. This is what is enduring the August heat for now….

New Citronella plant and marigold. Trying something new to fend off mosquitos.

It was time for some thyme to be added back to the garden. Purchased a thyme plant so we had fresh herbs on hand.

Summer crop of pinto beans sprouting while the garden waits for fall crops.

Spinach is still doing well. Now that the squash is removed it has room to grow.

Tomato seedlings preparing for the fall.

Now that the squash is gone, the collards have room to thrive. They do love those semi-shady days though.

Needed some fresh basil so I put another store bought plant in the garden.

These chives keep on kicking year after year. This is their best year yet. Can’t wait to throw them in various recipes.

We have a few of these sickly kale plants spread throughout the garden. I can’t seem to pull them out yet though. Part of me thinks they will beat the heat and the bugs.

Butternut Squash

Squashes have always proved difficult for me to grow. I have tried growing them from seed many times and many times I produce nothing.

The first challenge I face is that the leaves die off and rot away before anything can even be produced. Usually some bug attacks them or the Florida humidity molds them to death.

If I get past that stage, it will start flowering but no fruit fully develops. This is due to the lack of successful pollinators for the squash (bugs and bees) and the fact that they require both the male and female flower to bloom at the same time to produce the final product.

This year the plants grew. Squashes leaves traveled in all directions. Finally I had enough blooms to attempt to hand pollinate the squash fruits. The end result was two butternut squashes (the nicest and tastiest one is above. To pollinate, you find both the male and female flowers. The female flowers have a green undeveloped fruit attached and the flower has an opening of sort. The male flowers have no fruit attached and a stamen (long yellow stick). I break off the male flower and clear room around the stamen. I then rub the stamen all around the female squash stigma. If things go well, a tasty squash will grow. This method seems to work for me 70% of the time.

The bugs and heat are once again attacking the squash in my garden. I will be pulling the plants out soon. When it works, they taste fantastic. However I don’t have the real estate available in my garden to sacrifice to only produce 2 squashes for the season. I think this will be my last year growing them. They crowded out all the tomatoes so I have no tomato crop this summer.