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…
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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,…
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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
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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
Right now Black Eye Peas are coming up next to Okra, Collard Greens are hanging in, bush beans are still producing, and pole beans are beginning to kick in. Biter gourd is coming up now, and the garden is mad with small native cherry tomatoes. They don’t seem to mind the heat one bit. It is summer crop season and time for building and planning next fall’s gardens. I am psyched!
Organic gardening is not about doing nothing to help your garden thrive and wishing for results while accepting unreasonable losses. It is about employing naturally occurring systems present in our environment so as to eat without doing damage to our ecosystem. It is about fostering interdependence with our world rather than conquering and ultimately destroying it. This is not mumbo jumbo new age magic, it is solid science with practical applications, it is stuff we knew once and forgot along the way. You can do this too.
A month later when my brother and his eldest daughter came to visit Florida they packed Lettuce the frog into a bag of organic lettuce, put the lettuce bag into her backpack, and that night Lettuce the frog was release back into the garden from which he came. He had traveled a total of 2,000 miles, spent several weeks in a terarium in a zone 5 town in February, and survived to return to the land of his hatching.
Greenbrier, Catbrier, Horsebrier, Smilax from the family Smilacaceae is edible. Not just edible for my rabbits, it is also edible for me. Better than edible it tastes great. I have heard it called wild asparagus, and I have found pieces so vigorous and large that they resembled asparagus tips a little. Like asparagus the part…
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I have a very small Queen Palm or Cocos Plumosa in some of the whitest soil on my property. That poor palm has been yellow for as long as I can remember. Over the course of many years I have done very little for it. I am sure that at least once I have put…
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Over the course of this year we have had the good fortune to harvest and eat swamp cabbage, or the heart of the Sabal Palm three different times. The first tree fell casualty to our new shed. We had to do some clearing to get the shed in. That was the only tree other than…
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It is December, just before the shortest day of the year. Here are some pics from the gardens including the new box gardens. This so far has been a good season for South Florida growers. There is lots to eat in the garden. Here are some pics from the last 30 days or so.
This growing season has been fabulous so far. Great food has been coming into my kitchen from the garden everyday, and there has been lots of surplus to sell off or share. We are deeply grateful.
I killed the Seminole Pumpkin vine. It had taken over three 50 sq. ft. sections of my garden and ran around the fence blocking five sections and two out of three gates. It was cathartic to get that thing out of my garden. I am working quickly now to prepare those sections for replanting. I…
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In an effort to quickly bring forth new gardens for this planting season I have completed and planted my second No Dig Garden Box. It is a little different than my first box mentioned in The No Dig Garden Box I built this latest box with heavier lumber and it is wider and longer. I…
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I chose the no dig style of gardens for my new gardens so that I could get my extra planting started right away. The no dig garden box is a quick and easy way to get an excellent outdoor garden started right away. You don’t dig this garden you simply build it up. This No Dig Garden is often called a Lasagna Garden. It is built up in layers.
In July I put a few seeds in a 50 sq. ft. section of my garden. No one bothered to warn me about how large this plant gets! It has taken over three 50 sq.ft. sections. It wants two more, but I am pushing it back. It has taken over the fence around 4 sections, and I have to keep cutting it away from the last two of three gates. It keeps growing them shut. I have put in 4 bamboo teepees. The pumpkin monster has swallowed them up.
I was checking into Joel Salatin, well respected practitioner of sustainable farming when I found this video. I have been agonizing over whether I have space enough on my property for more than gardening. Now I feel certain I do. Check this out, no matter how you feel about your garden this […]
