Drowning in Strawberries

I'm not complaining about having too many strawberries..nope. I love them. Today we put a tray of the June bearing berries in the freezer, then when frozen, we'll bag them for use later in the summer. I've made strawberry pies and topped ice cream with the delicious sweet berries. Next I guess I'll have to try baking a strawberry cake. If it's good I'll share the recipe. I've never done that, have you?

Cutting gorgeous heads of broccoli now. Fresh broccoli is so much better right from the garden. I have a friend who says "fresh is best." So true.

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.

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.

Recipe--Cream of Broccoli Soup Will Warm You Up

This cream soup made of fresh broccoli from our Florida garden mixed with carrots and onions (from our Michigan garden), and celery gently simmered in a cream base certainly warms the tummies this crazy cold winter. If you have been reading this blog you know that even Florida is suffering this winter. How about snow in the panhandle this morning?? I know it doesn't compare to the bitter cold and snow and blizzards experienced in other parts of the country. Hang in there. Spring will soon be here and we will all be outside getting our hands in the dirt and toiling under bright sunshine.

Cream of Broccoli Soup Recipe

4 T. butter or margarine

1 1/2 c. chopped broccoli

1 1/2 c. chopped carrots

1 c. chopped celery--Add more if you like a lot of celery taste

1 medium diced onion

20 oz. chicken broth

1/3 c. flour

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

2 1/2 c. lowfat milk--you can replace evap milk with lowfat and use total 4 c. milk

salt and pepper to taste

Melt margarine in Dutch oven. Add vegetables and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes or till veggies are tender. Add chicken broth and allow to begin to boil. Stir in flour gradually, then slowly stir in milk. Salt and pepper to taste.

You can add more veggies to make a heartier soup and you may want to add ham and cheese too.

Enjoy this tummy warmer.

THINK FALL CROPS NOW

My hubby was planting tiny little lettuce seeds into the sectioned flats this morning at coffee time. Yes, instead of talking to me, he was planting, and I was talking...LOL. He had to concentrate on picking up the seed with a tweezer and carefully placing it in the soil. In a couple of weeks, the plants will be ready to put in the garden for mid-September lettuce salads. He plans to put the broccoli plants in soon.

I usually just take for granted that the crops are ready to eat at the proper time during the season. Writing this blog makes me more aware of the timing that is necessary to hit the optimum growing times for the plants to get the best production. It is like preparing a meal. The meat, gravy, potatoes, biscuits, vegetables, and salad all have to be ready at the same time so they will be tasty. (It's also easier to put it all on the table at one time rather than hopping up to get an item when it is cooked, then the next, then the next, etc. I learned this in high school in Home Ec 101 !!!)

Gardening in the Southern states requires the same optimal timing so you don't bake your plants in the summer or frost them in the winter.

Perhaps I should have titled this post, Timing is Everything.....

Broccoli Heaven

Broccoli plants in our garden taken a couple of weeks ago. The heads are now mature and ready to eat.

We have had steamed broccoli, boiled broccoli, with cheese sauce and without cheese (I prefer cheese of course). Now I am into making broccoli salad.

Broccoli is a cold crop which means we can start this plant early in the spring in Michigan. It can survive 20 degree temps. Optimum temps are between 50-70 degrees. Once the summer heat starts, the plants will bolt to seed. It takes about 6 weeks from seed to transplant, so plant seeds now to have a delicious fresh crop in the fall. Or if you want to buy plants, put them in the ground in late summer.

We keep an eye out for the little green worms that sometimes attack broccoli. They are so hard to see since they are the exact color of the leaves. I always soak the head in salt water for a few hours since that will get the critters off the florets. I have heard, but not tried, sprinkling cayenne pepper on the leaves before the head forms will deter aphids and caterpillars. This is a tip to use if you are into organic gardening.

The Taste of Spring

Woo Hoo! It's beginning to look like a garden now. In Michigan most folks wait till after Memorial Day to the first week of June to plant due to crazy frosts. Tonight, June 2, a frost is predicted in our area. Yep, DH just planted the tomatoes and peppers.......Wouldn't ya' know?

We have had delish salads from our lettuce decorated with home grown radishes. I am anxious to try a new leaf lettuce that is red and spotted, Freckles. There are so many colorful lettuces available. I know, I know. The deeper the green, the better for you. But, um, how about red??

The broccoli has little tiny heads on it now. Onions are lookin' great. And oh, those strawberries are full of blooms. DH started the corn in the greenhouse and it is standing tall right now.

Just a reminder that broccoli and lettuce are crops that can be planted later this summer and harvested in the fall. However, in our area the seed cannot be found when it is time to plant again, so be sure to buy enough seed for fall plantings now. These cold crops grow better in cool weather and the flavor is milder. It seems as the weather heats up, the flavor turns bitter. Enjoy that fresh spring taste while you can!