Garden Update

Because we have yet to have a freeze, the garden is flourishing. Around the time I am supposed to be starting seeds for Spring crops, I am getting ready to get a winter tomato bounty.

We are expecting cold temps in the next week or so but so far no threat of frost. Crossing fingers!!!!

Another area in the garden flourishing is the mint area. The mint was planted in a wooden container a couple years ago and has since been neglected. Although mint is best contained (since it can take over a garden with its minty-ness) you can see from the photo below that the container fell apart and the mint is free to spread. It looks so pretty and I love the taste of mint so I don’t want to mess with it – for now.

The key lime is not as fortunate. We will most likely lose this one in the year. Luckily it gave us one last crop of limes before its demise. The citrus greening is too much work for me to try to fight. After the key lime we will still have the Persian Lime and Grapefruit trees. I fear that these won’t last past a couple of years unless some easy treatment exists for the greening.

Trouble in Tomato Land

It almost feels like deja vu again. A couple years ago I had a bumper croup of tomatoes in the winter that experienced a freeze before they started to ripen. Soon after the freeze some tomatoes did finally ripen but most were too destroyed to enjoy.
Today I have about 6 very large tomato plants with many tomatoes just waiting to ripen. I have finally realized what the problem is. I have been monitoring the sun exposure for the two gardens for the past couple of months and have found that they are simply not getting enough sun exposure to ripen the tomatoes this time of year. The gardens are perfectly placed for spring, summer, and fall crops but not for winter; which is our prime tomato season. The only thing I can hope for at this point is that the plants hang in there and we avoid a deep freeze this season (highly unlikely). The sun patterns will change and they will get light again. I have some choices to make about next year’s crops. Summer is brutal so I really should be set up for optimal fall, winter and spring gardening. For now we wait.

Not sure if you can tell but I used vines from the now dormant muscadine grape to contain the tomatoes while I was running low on string. Pretty good re-use of the garden if I do say so myself.

It is tomato season

Tomato plants are doing well. They love the cooler weather and occasional rains. We could be expecting either Roma, Juliet or Cherry tomatoes soon.

Did I tell you about the beans?

Did I tell you I planted beans at the end of the summer? Well did I tell you that I had bunches of them to pick but neglected them and now they are all gone?

Citrus and Kale

The key lime is not doing well. While we do have some key limes growing this season, the leaves are falling off just like they did with our lemon bush (the lemon has since been removed). At first I thought it was a nitrogen deficiency but fertilizing doesn’t seem to help. Then I thought the problem was mites, but pest control measures seemed unsuccessful. I am now thinking it has a problem that citrus gets in central Florida – Citrus Greening. From what I have been told and what I have read, there really isn’t much I can do to treat it. Our local hardware garden guy recommended just trying to keep that and other citrus around it healthy so it can fight it off. So that is my new plan – try to keep my plants healthy.

The spring kale is still lingering around. I pull up about one a week. We aren’t eating it and it looks sad. I don’t know why I don’t just pull it all up and throw down new seeds. My garden still needs some cleanup work for the fall.