Irrigating Your Garden

Greetings from Florida. We found our garden in good shape when we arrived this fall. My DH couldn't wait to get the plants he started in Michigan into the ground. They were packed in the back of the truck at least four days...no water either. They seem to be okay, no worse for the travel. Of course the sun and warm weather perks up everyone...even plants!

The first thing after planting the lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, he rigged up his irrigation system through out the garden.You can see from the pictures he uses pvc pipe and spaghetti style tubes. Each plant has a tube to water it. With one flick of the faucet, the garden gets watered. No more hanging onto a hose. It's fast and easy.

As you can see, this is a raised garden. I like the look of it with the deep green metal sides. We have two 6' x 10' planters with ten inch sides and a walkway between them.

Garden Tip: Our neighbor across the street decided to irrigate his garden like this too. He found window spline from the aluminum retail store makes a great tube to use.

To read more about this garden, click on the raised garden label in the list at the right.

Vegetables in Our September Garden This Fall

Fall gardens can still produce good eatin' for your family. Just because the weather is cooler, does not mean you have to give up on gardening until spring. Today I share a picture tour of our fall garden. (The last post tells you what we pulled out of the garden. This one tells you what is still growing and producing for us.)


Please note, since the last post, we have no more sweet corn or zucchini. 


The strawberry plants are in the garden. Click on the previous post for information and photos of our new strawberry bed.


Now join me as we check out what delicious veggies we DO have!!

We have been very pleased with the Kentucky Wonder pole beans. Yes, they grew very tall and my DH had to add more concrete re-enforcement wire to make an eight foot support for them.

Pole beans are long, thin, and tender. Not what I imagined. A happy surprise for me.

Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are all good growers in cool weather.  


 Garden Tip:  Sprinkle one teaspoon of ammonium sulphate (21-0-0) around the base of these plants after they have been growing in the garden for four-five weeks in order to promote growth. (The numbers indicate the amount of Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium in the material.)






Broccoli is tasty again in the cool weather and no worry about finding the green worms on the plants with cold temperatures.

We are already digging up the sweet potatoes, but leaving some to grow larger. 

Tomatoes are flourishing on the vines. We have fantastic crops of these versatile red fruits.


We also have cauliflower, peppers, beets, carrots, sugar snap peas, and onions in the garden. 


I hope you are enjoying some good eatin' from your garden this fall.

Vegetable Garden View--Florida Garden

Close up of beets, cabbages, lettuce in our Florida garden



Here are the latest photos of our Florida vegetable garden. We have an abundance of lettuces, beets, and cabbage shown here.

Notice the tall broccoli spear in the foreground of the photo. I thought my DH had really missed cutting this sprout, but he tells me he is letting it go to seed so he can collect the seeds for planting up north.

It has been a very cool winter in Florida. But this garden seems to have come through pretty well for us. We were amazed at how the lettuce leaves would actually freeze practically pure ice, then when the day warmed up, the lettuce would come back crispy. My DH placed pine needles under the lettuce plants. It really kept them much cleaner, no sand or dirt to speak of on the leaves when harvested.

One of the wonderful perks of having a garden--the joy of sharing the produce with friends.

Cold Resistant Crops in the Florida Garden

Sorry I haven't posted much on the Florida garden lately. That's because the cold, freezing nights are taking a toll on the garden. We have definitely learned to grow ONLY cold resistant crops. All the beans were bit, but we did manage to get twelve Jade green beans before they were completely done in. No beans next year.

We are amazed at how well the lettuce holds up. Of course my DH covers the garden on those cold nights. Usually Florida doesn't have the hard freezes lasting five hours or more. But not true this year! The lettuces have taken the freeze and actually are growing very well and producing tasty greens. We have romaine, Mighty Joe, Devil's Tongue, and a red bibb that are providing delicious salads for us.

Onions and radishes are producing. The beets are not growing very fast as you can imagine, but big enough to pull and eat. We have also enjoyed cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli...all cole crops and hardy in cold temps.

Our winter garden is not a bust this year, but we have learned only cold resistant crops are suitable for Florida winter gardens in our area.

It's the end of the season for vegetable gardening and about time to button up the garden until spring. We still have some green tomatoes which we will pick, then wrap in newspapers to ripen. Broccoli and cabbage and lettuce will be good because they can stand the frost.

I wrote an article on End of Season Vegetable Gardening Tips for Life 123. I have no idea why it is formatted with capital letters starting each word...Not my formatting. Click here to read it. I hope it helps you put your garden to bed for the year.

Corbin's Cabbage

Corbin deciding how to go about cutting the behemoth cabbage.

Today is the day Corbin cut his cabbage. On July 5 I posted about the cabbage growing contest sponsored by our local high school FFA (Future Farmers of America) and Bonnie plants. He (and all of the family) have been watching this cabbage take over the garden. It dwarfed our cabbages. Needless to say we were all excited to see the final product.

 I have had readers interested in his project, so here is a photo of the nearly fourteen pound cabbage with its proud grower. Even if it doesn't win the contest, it was a lot of fun this summer with our grandson.

Fremont FFA Partners with Bonnie Plants Cabbage Contest

The Fremont FFA (Future Farmers of America) of Fremont High School, Fremont, MI is partnering with Bonnie Plants and their "Bonnies Crazy Cabbage" program to supply third grade students across the state with an O. S. Cross cabbage plant. Students will be responsible for growing the plant throughout the summer. In August students from West Michigan will send their applications to the Fremont FFA and then the FFA will select third grade class winners and send the apps onto Bonnie Plants. One student from Michigan will be chosen to receive a $1000 scholarship from Bonnie Plants.

Needless to say our  grandson, Corbin, is all gung-ho to grow the biggest cabbage and win this contest. Little did we know that this small cabbage plant in May would grow to be this monster in the garden. It makes the rest of the cabbages look like miniatures and it isn't done growing yet!

The literature that came with the contest states that the Giant Cabbage can grow to 40 pounds or larger. It is named O. S. Cross which stands for Oversized! Corbin is very proud of his cabbage, especially that it dwarfs the rest of the cabbages in the garden.

He will cut the cabbage in order to show it in the Newaygo County Fair Aug 7 and hopefully win a ribbon. Only size matters I guess since nothing is said about tasting the monster. I'll be anxious to test the flavor. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and no pests!

Freezing Florida Temps and Gardens Update

It will be weeks or months before the orange farmers will be able to assess the extent of damage done to the Florida orange crops by 13 days of freezing temperatures.

In our garden the freezing Florida temperatures killed off the sprouts of carrots and radishes and mature cabbage heads. We have been enjoying broccoli, a bit discolored, and onions and radishes, and nice heads of cauliflower. Many of the large leaves were burned, but evidently the heads were protected enough not to be ruined.

Enormous sinkholes opened up as result of the farmer's watering their strawberry crops. The wells are now dry in the surrounding property. They had to water too long. Never have the farmers had night after night of spraying their crops to keep them from freezing. The freezing temps lasted all night, so the farmers kept the water going every night. This was an unusually long cold spell. Now the farmers may be liable to replace all the dry wells in their neighbors' property---a very expensive proposition.

I must tell you the cold snap froze our enthusiasm for gardening this winter. My DH lost cabbages that he had started the seeds in August. At the end of the season, as you all do, we will have to re-visit the gardening experience here and the timing for crops. I know this is an unusual occurrence, but right now it is very disheartening. I am sure I will feel better when I bite into the cauliflower and cheese sauce tonight.

Camping with Cabbage

The photo on the left shows the cabbage heads forming. (Everytime I look at cabbages I think of Peter Rabbit in Mr McGregor's garden in the children's story. It must have been an image I saw when I was a kid.) The photo on the right is a freighter passing through the Muskegon Channel that connects Lake Michigan to Muskegon Lake.

We cut our first cabbage to take with us on our camping trip last week. Mmm...roasted hot dogs over the campfire and fresh cole slaw. I shredded the cabbage at home, not in the camper. We had a fantastic time at Muskegon State Park parked in the channel cammpground. Fun to watch sailboats, yachts, the Lake Express ferry, and a huge freighter go in and out of the channel connecting big Lake Michigan to Muskegon Lake. Weather was fantastic!

We have found the easiest way to shred cabbage to make slaw is to use the blender. Chop the cabbage into wedges, add water so the swirl will help to distribute the wedges for chopping. Drain in a colander. Try different settings on your blender till you find the right "shredding" you like. Throw in some carrots too to chop in for color. I like to cut up green pepper to make the slaw even more colorful.

For dressing, I toss some sugar on top of the chopped cabbage in the bowl. Let it sit a minute, then just spoon on Light, yes light, Miracle Whip and mix it in. Add celery seed for a flavor boost.

My friend fries cabbage and onions in butter. Then she adds cooked wide noodles. It is so delicious when she makes it. What are your favorite recipes that call for cabbage? We are going to have a lot of cabbage to consume in the next weeks to come. My DH plants them so that they all don't come on at the same time, but are spaced out over the harvest time.