Oak Leaves, Compost and WORMS!

I spent the day at my mom's house yesterday.  She has huge oak trees, and I'm in the market for organic matter to add to my compost pile, so I took some trash bags and started filling them with the fallen leaves.  After scraping up the leaves on the side of her house I noticed the most beautiful, black compost underneath.  Years of shrubs combined with fallen leaves naturally created compost!  Knowing I want (and need) organic compost I started scooping it into the bag along with my newly collected leaves.  Two or three scoops in, I noticed the biggest, squirmy worms I've ever seen!  Of course I tossed as many as I could find into my compost and leave bin.  This morning I dumped the whole bag into my compost pile.  I hope the worms I got will help decompose the pile faster.  Eventually I would like to build (or buy) a worm bin, but am not confident I will be able to keep them alive.  You see, we tried worms in the past with not so good results.  My worms hated their new home and kept escaping.  I would find their dried up bodies all over the house.  It was like a worm murder scene.  I hope these beauties stay in the compost bin and reproduce.  :)

Lettuce Harvest

Feeling motivated after my radish harvest yesterday, I decided to harvest some of the Grand Rapids TBR lettuce I've grown.  This will make a great addition to a salad!

Radish Harvest

Today I harvested 12.4 oz of fresh, homegrown, organic radishes!  Mmmm!

How to Store Harvested Vegetables

Specific harvest and storage information for some commonly-grown vegetables. Expected shelf-life times are only estimates.

Vegetable	When to Harvest	How to Store	Expected Shelf-life	Comments
asparagus	third year after planting when spears are 6-9 inches long	cold and moist	2 weeks	keep upright
basil	when leaves are still tender	at room temperature	5 days	keep stems in water; will discolor if kept in refrigerator for 10 days
beans, snap	about 2-3 weeks after bloom when seeds still immature	cold and moist	1 week	develop pitting if stored below 40°
beets	when 1.25-3 inches in diameter	cold and moist	5 months	store without tops
broccoli	while flower buds still tight and green	cold and moist	2 weeks	-
brussels sprouts	when heads 1 inch in diameter	cold and moist	1 month	-
cabbage	when heads compact and firm	cold and moist	5 months	-
carrots	when tops 1 inch in diameter	cold and moist	8 months	store without tops
cauliflower	while heads still white, before curds "ricey"	cold and moist	3 weeks	-
corn, sweet	when silks dry and brown, kernels should be milky when cut with a thumbnail	cold and moist	5 days	-
cucumbers	for slicing, when 6 inches long	cool spot in kitchen 55°F in perforated plastic bags; storage in refrigerator for a few days okay	1 week	develops pitting and water-soaked areas if chilled below 40°F; do not store with apples or tomatoes
eggplant	before color dulls	like cucumbers	1 week	develops pitting, bronzing, pulp browning if stored for long period below 50°F
kohlrabi	when 2-3 inches in diameter	cold and moist	2 months	store without tops
lettuce	while leaves are tender	cold and moist	1 week	-
muskmelons (cantaloupe)	when fruits slip off vine easily, while netting even, fruit firm	cold and moist	1 week	develops pitting surface decay with slight freezing
onions	when necks are tight, scales dry	cold and dry	4 months	cure at room temperature 2-4 weeks before storage, do not freeze
parsnips	when roots reach desired size, possibly after light frost	cold and moist	4 months	do not wax or allow roots to freeze; sweetens after 2 weeks storage at 32°F
peas	when pods still tender	cold and moist	1 week	-
peppers	when fruits reach desired size or color	like cucumbers	2 weeks	develops pitting below 45°F
potatoes	when vine dies back	cold and moist; keep away from light	6 months	cure at 50-60°F or 14 days before storage, will sweeten below 38°F
pumpkins	when shells harden, before frost	cool and dry	2 months	very sensitive to temperatures below 45°F
radishes	when roots up to 1.25 inches in diameter	cold and moist	1 month	store without tops
rutabagas	when roots reach desired size	cold and moist	4 months	do not wax
spinach	while leaves still tender	cold and moist	10 days	-
squash, summer	when fruit 4-6 inches long	like cucumbers	1 week	do not store in refrigerator for more than 4 days
squash, winter	when shells hard, before frost	cool and dry	2-6 months, depending on variety	curing unecessary; do not cure Table Queen
tomatoes, red	when color uniformly pink or red	like cucumbers	5 days	loses color, firmness and flavor if stored below 40°F; do not refrigerate!
turnips	when roots reach desired size, possibly after light frost	cold and moist	4 months	can be waxed
watermelons	when underside turns yellow or produces dull sound when slapped	like cucumbers	2 weeks	will decay if stored below 50°F for more than a few days

source

A Walk Through My Garden (Week 10)

Today marks the 10 week mark since I planted my first seeds.  The garden sure has changed!  Here is a virtual walk through my garden. 

The whole garden bed

Swiss Chard

Ghost Pepper Plant.  Looks bad because the frost got it, but it's still productive

Radishes ready to harvest?

Turnip peeking through

Onions

Beets

Broccoli

Salad greens (Bottom to top: Bibb lettuce, Grand Rapids Lettuce, Mesclun Mix, Spinach & carrots above)

Carrots intercropped with Bibb lettuce

Carrots

Garlic

Kohlrabi

Sarah's Radish bed

Broccoli

Flat leaf parsley.  I'm harvesting quicker than it's growing.  Must plant more.

Little Ghost Pepper

Strawberry planter the girls bought me for Christmas

Back to the land & other ramblings...

After what seemed like an eternity of not planting things, I finally got back to planting yesterday. I had some peat pellets so I soaked them and started seeds of cherry tomatoes, green beans and zucchini in hopes of planting the transplants out in February. I also planted my strawberry roots and will hopefully have some delicious berries to munch on later in the season. I put 6 roots in the hanging strawberry planter and 3 in the garden. I can't wait to see which one produces better.

Today I planted out several of the red onion bulbs I bought. I hope these grow much more rapidly than the onion seeds I started, which after a promising start don't seem to be making much progress in the way of growth these last weeks. I wonder in our crazy weather has anything to do with that. Day to day, this winter has gone from 50 degrees to 80 degrees. My plants must be confused.

In the past I've grown vegetables, but I am always discouraged when the garden doesn't produce as much as I would like it to. At the end of every year I give up and tell myself it's not worth the hassle, I decide to take a year off, and within a couple months I regret my decision. However this year I'm going to stick to it. I'm going to amend this soil until it's beautiful and black. I'm going to practice succession planting (instead of over planting and having months between harvests). I'm reading up on companion planting and will put my knowledge to good use.

I've been on the lookout for the 20 cent seeds from WalMart again. I figure until I know more about what I'm doing I shouldn't invest too much in the garden. And if I want to try a new variety of something, 20 cents is an investment I can make without feeling guilty afterward.

I have located a source of free manure and composted manure, but now I have to figure out how to get it to my house. I don't want to stink up the van with horse poo, being that my kids will be with me and all. And there just isn't room in my husbands sedan to fit what I need.

Items I need:
A way to transport compost and manure
Potatoes to plant
More Pots, Buckets, Bins, etc. (Anything I can plant in.)
A Pitchfork.
A metal rake for leveling the soil.

Next steps in the garden:
Harvest all of the spinach, then pull the plants. For the time and space Spinach requires, the plants are small and not overly productive (and they are getting eaten by something - there are little holes all over the leaves, but no bugs/worms/caterpillars that I can find) so I'll use the space for other crops.
Plant the yellow onion bulbs.
Fertilize existing crops (compost tea foliage spray?)

On a final note, I have been able to harvest about 2 lbs of salad greens so far, which fed my family salads for 5 meals! I've got a couple radishes that look like they may be ready to harvest, but I don't want to jump the gun and yank them out if they aren't ready. Tomorrow I think I'll do it and share my bounty with my Mother.

Have a wonderful day!

2012 Homesteading Goals

I have no idea why I named my blog "The Florida Homestead". Maybe "From Urban Plot to Food Plot" would have been a better name because my vision of a Homesteader is someone who lives off the land - 100%. I don't think I'm even working this land 1% yet, but in time I'd love to be 100% self-sufficient...so I guess I've answered my own question about the name. Forward thinking much? Lol.

In order to reach my goal of becoming self-sufficient I need to make attainable goals for myself. Here's my list of goals for 2012.

Plant 1 edible tree I'd prefer a dwarf variety of something tropical like a mango, or banana, but I'd be happy to plant a Fruit Cocktail tree (that may be a front yard tree for space reasons) or a citrus tree.
Find a local source of free manure
Make lots of compost
Amend my soil with organic matter

Onions, More Onions and Strawberries Too

Earlier this week I went to WalMart and found they have just started putting out seeds and bulbs to plant. While I didn't get any seeds (I'm holding off for the $0.20 packs) I did pick up 10 strawberry plugs and a bag each of red and yellow onion bulbs. I have a hanging strawberry planter the girls gave me for Christmas so I'll be using 6 plugs in that. I haven't quite decided if I am going to plant the remainder in the ground or in containers, although I'm leaning towards containers. I already have tons of onion sprouts I planted from seed several weeks ago, but can't wait to get these bulbs into the ground to see how much more quickly I get onions.

Companion Planting

I found these great companion planting charts online today.

Pest Control
Good Neighbors
Bad Neighbors