Summer

Summer is in full swing here in St Pete, FL.  They nights are hot and the days are hotter.  We've only had one or two days of rain in the past 5 months.  The garden is definitely taking a hit.  I can't seem to water enough to keep the soil moist.  The plants shrivel up and die.  I got 3 or 4 bean pods off of my black eyed pea plants before they gave up and died.  Harvests are few and far between, with the few foods I am getting not worth weighing or taking pictures of.  (Really, who wants to see a picture of a TINY strawberry and one cherry tomato?!?!)  This is the time of year I get really discouraged and throw in the towel.  I've decided that instead of focusing on what I can and can't grow right now I am going to primarily focus on improving my soil.

There is always compost to improve soil...and with my compost tumbler I'm hoping to pump out barrel after barrel of rich compost.  I'm also looking into trench composting, biochar, hugelkultur, and vermicomposting.  Even if I had all of these practices in place I imagine it would be a long process to get the garden beds amended enough to provide that beautiful hummus I desire.  Still, ya gotta start somewhere, right?

I hesitate to buy compost because I have been told by the master gardeners in Pinellas County that in order for compost to be effective it must be alive, and bagged compost is dead.  Besides, I'd prefer to make my own compost to know exactly what goes into it.  I'm also looking forward to switching from "affordable" seeds (aka: CHEAP & CRAPPY) to good quality, non-gmo heirloom seeds.  I have all my heirlooms on hand already and can't wait to switch when planting starts up again!

I really want to get moving on creating a community food forest in the front yard!  I've got 1660 sq feet of plantable land out front (that doesn't even include the 5' utility area by the street) and just don't know where to start!  Of course I realize I need to start building my soil out front also, but that's harder said than done.  I've planted a Moringa tree out front and can't decide if I want to pull out the oak tree before it gets big to make space for an edible tree.  (There's a family down the street from me that sells Mango trees and I think I'd like to swap the oak for a mango.)  Ideally I would be able to get the community involved in creating this space because I have no idea how I'd get it done all by myself.   Then I have to think of a name for the community garden.  I'm not great at coming up with happy, clever names for things.  If anyone in St Pete is interested in helping create, establish and maintain a community food forest please let me know!  I'm grateful for any help I can get!

My First Zucchini

I've been trying to grow zucchini for years now and have never had any luck.  Today I finally got to harvest my first zucchini!  I had plans away from home yesterday so I didn't get to pick it, and it doubled in size overnight!  Amazing!  1 lb 0.4 oz.

A Walk Through The Garden

Finding lots of these little caterpillars on my tomato plants.

Caterpillar damage to tomato plants

More caterpillar damage to tomato plants

Heirloom Bush Tomatoes fruiting

Heirloom Tigress tomatoes fruiting

3 oz of fresh green beans.  Cooked them up and they were SWEET and DELICIOUS!

Ghost Pepper and Jalapeno Pepper harvest

Found what I thought were tiny white beetles on many plants.  Turns out they are Aphid Mummies!  Yay!

Bibb Lettuce going to seed

Tall Bibb lettuce plants going to seed

First strawberry flower!

Another picture of Aphid Mummies

Peppers we gave to a friend

Lettuce seeds getting close to harvest

Tomato plant tucked under a christmas palm doing well. 

Head of Bibb Lettuce

Broccoli flowering

Chocolate Mint and Papaya(?) rooting and taking off

The most successful of the MANY cabbage seeds I planted

Tiny cucumber

2nd tiny cucumber

The onions in the right bed growing like crazy!

Variegated Nastrum  

Not everything in the garden goes as planned or hoped for.  This is one sad looking green bean plant. 

Green bean plant with a couple carrot sprouts around it.

Potatoes in the ground doing well.

Potatoes in the container doing better than in ground.

Flowers (marigold and dwarf zinnea) with Seminole Pumpkin and Butternut Squash.

Basil is growing well, but other herbs look pretty sad.

Swiss Chard

Ghost and Jalapeno Pepper plants.

Golden Amaranth FINALLY sprouting.

Possible Borage sprout?  Maybe it's a weed.  Too early to know.

New Zealand Spinach finally sprouting.

Blueberry bushes, Japanese Cucumbers and 2 heirloom tomatoes waiting for their spots in the garden.

Blueberries!

Best looking zucchini plant with it's first female flower.

Random shot of the garden.  Cukes, squashes, onions, cabbage, corn and broccoli can be seen here.

The left side of the garden (herbs, beans, squashes, tomatoes and watermelon)  all doing well.  You can see my little helper was with me this morning.

Topsy Turvy Tomatoes doing well.

Huge Cauliflower and Lettuce plants (they stand about 4' tall!)

Strawberries

Kohlrabi and herbs 

Herbs next to Kohlrabi (Dill, Chives, Basil, Parsley in ground, Apple Mint and a small tomato plant in pot).

Small Harvest of Beans and Peppers

Went out to the garden and picked a small handful of green beans, 1 jalapeno and 3 ghost peppers.

Horse Poop, Garden Update and A Harvest

I visited the horse stables and scooped a bunch of composted manure for the garden.  I came home and amended the main garden bed with the compost.  I planted out the rest of my seedlings (basil, cabbage, peppers (I think they were mini sweets, but am not sure), artichoke and nastrums.  I added it to a side bed and planted herbs (basil, dill and chives).  And I added scoops around some of my sad looking veggies.

I decided to make a seed mix and sprinkle it over the newly composted bed and see what happens.  My seed mix included:

• Artichoke
• Beans, Bush, Blue Lake
• Beets (Detroit Dark Red)
• Bibb lettuce
• Boc Choi
• Cantaloupe
• Carrot (unknown variety)
• Carrot (Danvers half long)
• Carrot (Nutri-Red)
• Cucumber
• Datil Peppers
• Kohlrabi
• Okra
• Peas (Little Marvel (Dwarf))
• Sweet Corn
• Swiss Chard (Fordhook Giant)

I have a huge broccoli plant from the small head I harvested (just realized I didn't post about that) and it's put off two tiny side shoots.  I mean very tiny, as in smaller than the size of a dime.  I think I'll pull the huge plant and put it in the compost.  For the space it's taking up and the amount it's producing it's not really worth keeping.  

Without further ado, here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

36 4 oz jars of Loquat Jam

Herbs in a garden bed

The entire main garden bed

Seedings, Seed scatering and Amended with Horse Poop

Left side of the bed with beans, peas, herbs, tomatoes, onions, cukes

Tomato and Pinto seedlings

Peppers gone wild

Swiss Chard recovering from last harvest

Potatoes

Salad container

Herb container

Lettuce going to seed

Potted plants - I have to figure out why the leaves are yellowing

Poop added to sad looking veggies 

Tomatoes

Tomato

Squash flower peeking out this morning

First little green beans

First cherry tomatoes making an appearance 

Cukes and green beans

Kohlrabi harvest

1 of the 3 baskets of loquats we harvested

I apologize for the blurry pictures.  I guess that's what happens when you've only slept 2 hours and haven't had any coffee.