In The Garden: October 2011, Plant Now!

Fall is the beginning of our cold crop planting season in South and Central Florida. Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Basil and Beans that were started in August may be getting ready to fruit, and may ripen fruit before our first frost. If you are starting those plants now you will have to protect them from the Continue reading →

Tags: Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Lasagna Garden, No Till Gardening, South Florida Vegetable Gardens

Environment: It’s Raining

I become a believer around rain. We Floridians have been in a long and exceptional drought since winter (ours is not the only state in an exceptional drought). All anyone here talks about is rain. No conversation ends that someone doesn’t speak of needing rain, with agreement all around. It’s raining and I am grateful. Continue reading →

Tags: Rain, Weather Extremes

In The Garden: Summer Crops For South Florida

For many years I let my gardens fallow over the summer all the while feeling quite sure that there were crops that we could grow here in South Florida in the summer time, but I couldn’t figure out what they were, and I didn’t know who to ask. In order to save you the same Continue reading →

Tags: Bitter Gourd, Grow Food At Home, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, South Florida Vegetable Gardens, Summer Crops For South Florida

In The Garden: When It Is Cold, Sheets & Straw To The Rescue

Even with expecting cold weather, choosing our warmest spots for our most tender vegetables, and growing lots of brassicas, onions, and carrots every where else, we need lots of great strategy for protecting our tender and often favorite vegetables. Local farmers are losing millions of dollars in tomatoes in these low temperatures. There isn’t much they can do for a field of tomato plants in 20 degree weather, but we gardeners having far fewer plants to protect, can afford to put lots of effort into just a few plants.

Tags: Cold Weather Vegetables, Protecting Vegetable From Cold Weather, South Florida Vegetable Gardens

In The Garden: When It Got Cold

The fall of 2009 was very hot and humid. We didn’t have night time temperatures below 70 degrees f. until it was officially winter time. By the time New Years Eve rolled around we had begun to have extremely cold weather and it continued well into February giving us very few warm days in between Continue reading →

Tags: Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Summer Vegetables, Winter Vegetables

In The Garden: Growing Legumes

Many growers have forgotten about legumes as nitrogen fixers, or have forgotten how to use them to help build garden soil. This would be unforgettable information except that it is easier to buy a bag of fertilizer. The bag of fertilizer method is easier for sure, but it is more expensive, hard on soil, and is a potential pollution threat to our water ways. Legumes lock up nitrogen for future use. Plants know how to tease nutrients out of soil, and how to attract and make deals with bacteria, fungi, and protozoa for the nutrients they hold in their bodies. Growing legumes enriches the soil and the microbes in the soil with nitrogen that plants are able to use.

Tags: Feeding Soil, Grow Food At Home, Home Grown Vegetables, Legumes, Nitrogen Fixing Plants, No Till Gardening, Soil Building, Soil Organisms

In The Garden: What To Plant In April In South Florida

It is April in the South Florida garden, and the winter vegetables are loosing their shine. It is time to pull out the last of the carrots, and as the broccoli spears get longer and begin flowering it is time to harvest the leaves for the cook pot. The dill is flowering, the cilantro too, and the onions are putting on some serious size. My last crop of lettuce is nearly picking size, and the older crops are all bolting. The peas and tomatoes are ripening fast now, and the eggplant and the peppers are flowering.

In The Garden: Creating Support For Your Vegetable Plants

In the garden it is important to create support for your climbing vegetable plants. Pole beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes benefit from good support systems. In the case of tomatoes, and for our region specifically, a tomato support system should be designed to also support coverings like tarps or sheets, in case of a frost Continue reading →

Tags: Bamboo Vine Supports, Climbing Vegetable Plants, Cucumbers, Pole Beans, Sisal, Sisal Rope, Sisal String, Vegetable Plant Supports, Vining Plant Support

In The Garden: Growing Bitter Melon

In previous posts I have mentioned growing bitter melon in the garden. For many years I have enjoyed eating this unusual asian bitter gourd. While working in Chinese restaurants I had the good fortune to eat food that Chinese chefs do not make for their American clientele. Each day the chef made something traditional for Continue reading →

Tags: Bitter Gourd, Bitter Melon, Growing Bitter Gourd, Growing Bitter Melon

Late September In The Garden

It is late September in the garden. The new moon has just passed. The last day of summer is past, and it is snowing in Colorado. It is still wicked hot here in South Florida, but fall weather is right around the corner. This is a good time to put seeds and transplants in the Continue reading →

In The Garden: Companion Planting

I have been studying companion planting in the garden. With a single google search you or I can come up with myriad charts for companion planting, so I see no reason to repeat that arrangement of information. Rather I am going to write about how I am grouping the vegetables I am planting this year Continue reading →

Tags: Companion Planting, Growing Organic Vegetables, Home Garden, Home Grown Vegetables, organic insect control

In The Garden: Summer 2009

Here’s what’s going on in the garden this summer of 2009. I am growing okra, black eye peas, peanuts, green peppers and sweet potatoes as well as my perennial, asparagus. Long Beans have just quit, and new long beans are in the ground. It is perfect timing for some new seeds, so I put in Continue reading →

Tags: Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Home Garden, Home Grown Vegetables

Today In The Garden

Today when I got up and went outside it was barely light, and getting darker. As I worked through my morning chores the darkness closed in, the wind blew and thunder shook the sky. It was a strange morning in the garden, they don’t usually start out like that, and in that strangeness, because it Continue reading →

In The Garden: Growing Yard Long Beans

In The Garden: It is nearly planting time and Pole Beans make a great hot weather crop and a great way to start out in the garden this August. There are several types of beans that grow on poles. The Yard Long Bean, Vigna ungulculata is my favorite so far. Yard Long Beans look like Continue reading →

In The Garden: Growing Sweet Potatoes

This is a great time to be growing Sweet Potatoes in the garden. They don’t mind the weather this hot,and as long as they are in well drained soil they can take whatever rain we are getting. Sweet Potato slips planted now (July) here in S. Florida would be ready in time for Autumn dinners, Continue reading →

Tags: Grow Food At Home, growing sweet potatoes, Home Grown Vegetables, Organic Sweet Potatoes

In The Garden: What Else Is Blooming

This site is primarily focused making soil and growing natural food, however the ecosystem we hope to make of our yards is dependent upon diversity. It is therefore appropriate to post some pics of what else is blooming in the garden this summer. Enjoy

In The Garden: Starting Out

South Florida in the garden: It is July now and you have decided that you want to be ready to grow vegetables for your family when our first planting time comes NEXT MONTH!?! Yes, some of us will start putting seeds in as soon as August. Don’t worry you don’t have to. September and October Continue reading →

Tags: Grow Food At Home, Home Garden, Lasagna Garden, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening

Hey, In The Garden Straw Ain’t Hay!

When ranchers, farmers, feed store keepers and those of us in the garden talk about Hay and Straw we are talking about two very different commodities. When I say it is good to mulch with Straw I do mean straw, and not hay. Hay and Straw come from the same plants. Hay is the top Continue reading →

June In The Organic Garden, S. Florida

It is June now and everything in my S. Florida organic garden is changing with our weather. The rainy season has commenced, and that means high temps and high humidity. Rain brings some wind and cooler temperatures and if the sun doesn’t come out again it will stay comfortable outdoors. If the sun comes out Continue reading →

Direct to Garden Composting for Busy Organic Gardeners

Your preparations for the organic garden do not have to cost you a lot of time. One excellent way to save time and build great soil for your garden is to compost directly into the vegetable garden. This requires that you expect to have a fallow season for at least some part of your garden. Many South Florida gardeners do put their beds to rest when the rainy season starts, so this will probably work great for you. The beauty of this backwards planting season (growing in the winter, fallow in the summer) for us is that while our summer is so extremely hot and wet that our bedding plants will rot it is perfect weather for the fastest compost possible. Here’s what you do.