Radishes, Lettuce, Onions, Oh My!

Super salad with fresh grown veggies from our garden...radishes, lettuce, onions, and spinach. I added craisins and slivered almonds too. A refreshing lunch on this warm day in Florida. The lettuces are growing healthy, strong and lots of it. No rabbit problems lately...Hooray!

Toilet Paper and Beet Seeds



Yes, this is Scott's toilet paper with beet seeds glued to it.



My ever resourceful DH is using toilet paper to plant beet seeds. He mixes flour and water in the cap of a gallon milk jug, lays out the TP on the table, dips the beet seed into the flour glue with tweezers and then sets the seed in a row. After they are glued on, he gently folds the paper over, digs a trench in the garden soil, and places the strip into the ground and covers.

This method of planting beets is certainly easier on the back and knees. He also plants radish seed this way now too. He experimented this summer in our Michigan garden using newspaper, but the little roots couldn't get through the newspaper. The TP is perfect for the roots to establish themselves.

My DH also mentioned that after the seed sprouts, remove extra sprouts in order to make a nice size beet.

Florida Garden Update Fall 2010



I am happy to report that our Florida garden is growing very well. The plants that were a snack for the bunny are continuing to grow and look very healthy. Hmmm. maybe rabbit saliva is good for plants??

The garden consists of three raised beds each measuring 6' x 10'. In the foreground are the hardy, cold crops of Winner, Golden Acre, and Charmant cabbage, Gypsy broccoli, Snow Crown cauliflower, Early Vienna kohlrabi. My DH planted Red Derby lettuce and Romaine, Ruby Queen beets, and spinach.

In the background is a bed of plants which are not so cold hardy and can be covered when the frosts come this winter. And yes, nights get cold north of Tampa in December and January. Last year was a disaster. You can see the green, red, and purple bean plants looking so healthy now. The Crista tomato plants are taking a set back, so keep your fingers crossed. My DH also planted German radishes.

He reports that about half the garden is planted.

The weather has been very warm for a week into the 90's during the day and only cooling off to the low 70's at night. This is unusual weather for this time of year and has broken records for the high temps. Maybe that's why everything is looking good and popping up quickly.

Here we go again planting with high hopes for a successful growing and harvesting season.

Planting the Florida Winter Garden 2010-2011

I have missed posting to this blog because we were on the road to Florida where we spend the winter. Endeavoring to keep my DH's dream of gardening twelve months of the year, he again started the plants for the FL garden while we were in Michigan this fall.


Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce plants ready for planting in FL Garden. Cover crop of perennial rye growing in the MI garden in the background.



The day after we arrived in FL, my DH put the plants in the ground. The soil in the garden is so improved after all the horse manure he dumped in before we left this spring. This is the third season for our FL garden.  He brought the electric fence along to string around the garden after laboring on the small plot.

They snatched the heart of the Romaine lettuce right out of it.

 Just as the rabbits in Michigan loved his plants, so it goes with the Florida rabbits. Not even the electrified fence stopped the hungry bunnies from eating the delicious broccoli and Romaine lettuce plants.

Rabbits munched on the broccoli plant.

DH added a fence, but again the bunnies got over or under the fence and around the electric fence to get their evening meal. He is going to raise the wire and try cayenne pepper to stave off the attack.

Do you, dear readers have any suggestions? Keep your fingers crossed...



Community Gardens

More and more people are discovering the pleasure of gardening because of the opportunity to grow vegetables in a community garden. Gardeners enjoy harvesting, preparing, eating or preserving the fruits of their labor. Many gardens are planted to help feed the hungry. Often, low income people work the gardens too with the help of the experienced gardeners. It is fitting that we can share our knowledge and skills with others, because in this land of plenty, there is no excuse for people to have to go hungry or to be unhealthy.

The cost of fresh vegetables at the grocery store are out of the reach for those who are low-income or on a fixed income. Poverty can lead to obesity because moms can feed their families cheaply with the fast food value meal. If community gardens are established, they can provide healthy vegetables inexpensively when those income folks are taught how to garden and raise their own food.

I would like to share an article with you about the difference made in a community that operates a community garden. In this example folks pay $5. to become a member, then they work at the garden, and receive the delicious vegetables wrought from their labor.

Is anyone involved in such a community garden? How did you start it? What is your source of funds? Are you having success or failure? Are you interested in establishing a community garden? With just that small bit of hope and vision, great things can and DO happen.

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.

Happy Fall Season

This fall centerpiece is made of a pumpkin from our garden and pumpkins-on-a-stick grown from seeds our daughter collected last year from an arrangement at her workplace. We don't know the official name of the small pumpkin-like fruit, so we call them pumpkins-on-a-stick

Tonight at 11:09 pm is the official time Fall arrives. Of course Mother Nature doesn't always go according to our calendar...yesterday was 81 degrees in Michigan...more summerlike than fall...and another 80 degree is forecast for tomorrow.

Fall brings mixed feelings to gardeners...a sense of loss for food production, but a sense of joy that the work and responsibility for tending a garden is coming to an end. If the harvest has been preserved through canning or freezing, then winter days offer the opportunity to continue enjoying the fruits of the labor.

Wishing you all happy Fall season!

Plant Rye in Your Garden

My DH planted rye last week in the garden. It will winter over and grow again in the spring. He will turn it under next spring to add nitrogen to the soil. Rye is such a fast grower. Plant it and it seems it pops up green in a couple of days. Try and plant it when you hear a shower is forecast so you won't have to water it in the ground.

A reliable weather man/woman is a gardener's best friend. Not only do they help you know when to water or not water, but also to alert you to when the first frost and killing frost will occur so that you can get your veggies in before losing them to the cold.

Rye in the foreground, broccoli on left and strawberry plants for next spring.

Rye. tomato plants, sunflowers weighed down with seeds

Pumpkins look lonesome in this corner of the garden.