Impulsive Plant Buyer

I am an impulsive plant buyer. I buy plants before I have any idea what I am going to do with them. This muscadine grape was purchased at a big box store after pigging out on local grapes and I discovered that we can grow grapes here. I purchased this plant before I did any research on proper growing methods. It is now living on our porch. Below is a papaya and melon that we “won” at the last organic growers meeting. They too have been sitting on the porch. And finally, today I walked out of another big box store with a petite fig plant that was on sale. This was of course after I watched a gardening show that featured figs. They will live on the porch for at least another week or so but then I will be forced to do something with them. I would like to get them established somewhere before the cool weather sets in.

I have pulled up most of the old square ft garden. Two onions, about 3 carrots, and this homely looking tomato plant is all that is left of the group that started it all. I am keeping the tomato plant because there are two tomatoes just like this one hanging on. I keep hoping that they will ripen and I can say that I got a total of 5 tomatoes before the hornworms ate all of my summer crop. The garden is being simultaneously prepared for fall crops.
This burlap cloth is covering some beans that should start growing any day. In fact, at the time of this blog’s publishing, about 4 have emerged.
Good news is that the second square foot garden seems to be doing great. I had a slight hornworm scare last week but I have since sprayed the tomatoes and plan to continue to spray at regular intervals.

Inventory of the new garden:
2 Winter Squashes
1 Zucchini
4 Corn
? Onion/Chives (sort of just threw a bunch of seeds down)
1 Okinawa spinach (another “win”)
4 green peppers
2 eggplants
4 tomatoes

Garden Failure
I have been wanting to purchase huge barrel like planters for a while for things like peanuts and sweet potatoes. I finally broke down and purchased resin barrels from a big box store about a week or so ago. I took out the plug but ignored the instructions to put rocks at the bottom. I transplanted a very moist sweet potato plant and killed at least two baby potatoes in the process. After one big storm, the result is what looks like a big barrel of crapola. If I am lucky, this thing will dry out and the plant may be salvaged. Barrel number two will have rocks at the bottom to help with drainage.

Garden Savior

Some of you know that I recently returned from a great two week trip to France (I have at least one set of pics from a Paris Garden I can post at a later date). I expected to see all the plants I started for the fall (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil) dead when I returned. Before the trip, I devised an elaborate watering scheme to water the new plants while I was gone. The plan consisted of a soaker hose and a battery powered facet timer. The plan may have worked but I unfortunately tried to set it up the day before we left for the trip and it didn’t exactly work as planned. When the facet was in the “on” position and ready for the timer it continually dripped water onto the ground. If you know Carlos and I, you know that some affectionately call us tree huggers. This leak was unacceptable and I didn’t really have time to deal with it. I turned the system off and placed the plants under the shade of the Okra plant. I secretly hoped they would survive unattended. You might say, why didn’t I just ask someone to water my plants? The thought did cross my mind but I have a problem asking people for help (other than my husband). So I left my plants to take care of themselves for a little over two weeks. However, not all was lost. Before the the trip okra was in full production and tomatoes were expected soon so I told my aunt to feel free to come steal some veggies. During a visit, she noticed that my baby plants were not looking so good and took it upon herself to water them on a regular basis while I was away. So I have to say that my aunt was my fall garden savior. Without her, we would have a lot less fall crops on the way.

Plants that were saved by my aunt Betty

Hornworms
Before our trip, I reluctantly sprayed every tomato plant, young and old, with BT. When I returned from the trip, the plants were not fully stripped of leaves but there are no tomatoes in sight. This leads me to believe that the first treatment probably worked but has since worn off. Since returning home, I have mutilated two small and two big hornworms. I will be spraying the plants soon. I have too many tomato plants planned this fall to carefully inspect them on a daily basis. When I say daily, I really mean twice daily. A large one I caught this morning had done considerable damage in less than 12 hours.

Okra Party

We are starting to like okra now, which is a good thing considering that the okra is non-stop. I am about to start just one more plant so we can extend the harvest into the fall sometime. I just hope I am not too late to extend the okra party.

New Starts
Since returning home, I have started corn, tomato, zucchini, eggplant, kale, and collards. This along with what I plan to start in the next week or so, should hopefully provide nice fall bounty. The official inventory post vacation was about 11 tomatoes (6 good ones), 4 peppers, and 2 eggplants.

Bamboo
This past weekend I traveled to my co-workers house to get some bamboo. I felt a little guilty about buying the perfect little bamboo sticks from the big box store when my co-worker had uncontrollable bamboo growing in his neighbors yard. Since the bamboo is pretty much invasive and will eventually take over his yard, he had no problem using the machete to cut the heck out of some of it for me. It was a very hot morning and we were all sticky and sweaty after gathering the bamboo. I plan to use the stalks to stablize climbing and leaning veggies. The left over leaves will be used as mulch. Don’t pay any attention to the dead grass in the backyard. We are in the process of replacing all of it with a florida native plant called Mimosa strigillosa .

Harvest and Death

I am going to rename my garden the okra and tomato garden since that is all that will grow right now and the tomato part is a stretch since they have yet to fully ripe. The garden overall is not doing well. Problem number one is the nasty Florida heat. Plants burn to death during the day in the direct sun. Problem number two is lack of or too much water. I can’t seem to get the watering correct, things either dry out or get too much water which leads to a moldy death. Problem number three is I went away to California last week and wasn’t keeping a close eye on things. I had my husband looking over the garden but it isn’t the same and to his defense, much was already dead before I left.
I had high hopes of a late summer of zucchini and summer squash, but they have all died. I think their demise is the result of mold and possibly a pest such as the vine borer. The garden has produced one summer squash and one spaghetti squash (see pic above) before the collapse of the squash empire. Next season I plan to use insecticidal soap or the equivalent and see if I get different results (I used nothing this time).
The bean empire is also slowly collapsing. I attribute their death to lack of sun due to the okra shading the whole bean square and the lack of timely harvesting. To keep beans in constant production, you are supposed to harvest frequently. I have been neglecting them. The harvest you see in the picture above is probably the part of the last group unless I am lucky.
Okra on the other hand is doing magnificently. This figures since I don’t really care for okra and didnt really care if it grew. I did learn today that the extremely large okra that I harvested is practically inedible. It is supposed to be harvested while young or it gets woody.
On a positive note, there is still hope for the cherry and juliet tomatoes. I have seemed to keep the catepillars and other pests at bay. I will keep you posted on those.
My visit to California reinforced my envy of their climate. They have half the problems we have here, at least in the San Diego area. The only downfall is the dryness and the fact that they are still waiting for tomatoes because of the unusually cold summer.
In the future, I have a trip planned to Provence. I cannot wait to view to lovely bounty produced there. My only hope is that my garden does not die while I am gone. My timing is pretty lousey for all this traveling if I wanted to produce a bountiful fall season. Wish me the best!

First Official Harvest

Harvest Day
This week I had my first official harvest. What I mean is this is the first piece of food that I have grown from seed that I will be able to eat. We have picked cherry tomatoes before, but those don’t count since they came from a plant we purchased.
The harvest this week is a yellow squash accompanied by some thai basil. I picked the squash at 5 inches, I probably should have let it grow to 6 but I wanted to get it before a bug tried to ruin it.

Butterfly Garden
The second part of the butterfly garden is done. I have been diligently nursing the new flowers to make sure the summer heat doesn’t cook them before they become established. A few rains lately have seemed to stabilize them. Hey Butterflies, have you noticed the vacancy sign?!? Move in specials!!!

Coming soon to a future harvest:

Juliet and Cherry tomatoes
Beans
Okra

Happy July!

My dog Anastasia gives my garden one nose up. So if she approves it must be good. She likes wandering around the yard while I am checking on my garden.
Here is the latest full shot of the garden. You will probably notice first the huge Okra plant on the right. It is growing fast but still yet to produce any flowers. The beans in the center are nice and bushy but the pods are not growing large enough to use at this time.

The “unidentified” squash still has not been fully identified. Signs point to it being a spaghetti squash. There is one large squash growing. All other female flowers have died rotting deaths before they get to ripe. I suspect I need to do more research on what is happening. I think I will be happy if I can just get the one squash to ripen.
Here is a view of the tomatoes and you can see the squash in the distance.
Found this guy hanging out on my beans the other day. I wanted to kill him but then I realized he is a parasitic wasp (I think it is a paper wasp). He kills all the little buggers that like to destroy my plants. He is my friend – as long as he doesn’t sting me.