Garden Update

Ugh.  What an ugly garden.  We're winding down here in this zone and mentally getting ready for the next seasons spring crops.  When a garden is at the end of it's cycle it's not a pretty sight.  All the way to the left are the 2 cherry tomato plants that have merged into one hot mess.  Delicious though and that's what ultimately counts, right?  The broccoli are the low dark green plants below the tomatoes then the scallion/onion and garlic section.  The spiky plant up front is one of my pineapple plants.  As I take out an expired plant, I'm filling in the blank space with the spiky plant to deter the cats from coming to poop play.

Here's the second bed.  All that light green equals 3 brussels sprouts plants, only 3.  Still going strong but producing near nothing of any quantity.  All the way to the left is a large variety of tomato that has performed really well for us.  Just one plant has produced enough to make a huge pot of tomato soup and another huge pot of spicy spaghetti sauce.  Which reminds me, if you haven't tried shakshuka, you really must. Really.

Fall Garden 2012 - 2013

Although there was a gap in the blogging, we actually did plant a fall/winter garden, so there was no gap in the gardening action around here. This is the bed to the right.We started out with 1 large variety tomato plant (maybe Big Boy or Better Boy), 2 eggplants, 9 brussel sprouts, a row of boc choy from seed, 2 red pepper plants, a row of scallions from seed, a row or two of Chinese broccoli from seed and peas running up the trellis, also from seed.

What's left?

Well, neither of the eggplants made it which is so weird since in the last garden they were OUT OF CONTROL. The plants got woody stems about 2 inches thick at the base and actually got so big that they bent the heavy duty tomato cages used to hold them up.  Now?  Nothing, the plants hardly grew at all before just wilting away.

There are only 3 or 4 brussel sprout plants left out of the original 9.  A bunch of 'em were dug up early on by some wildlife looking for a good time, we think maybe cats. 

Those are our major casualties, everything else is just plugging away.

Here is the raised bed on the left. It was planted with 2 cherry tomato plants, cucumbers, onions, garlic and broccoli.

 Everything is still here and growing except the cucumbers, they got white powdery mildew early on and didn't make it. They barely got half way up the trellis before fizzling out. That mildew is just too much to keep on top of!  It attacks early and never really goes away, you can just try and control it. One little slip up though and BAM, the plant is covered.  Seems like cucumbers are just too much work down here in this zone and I doubt that I'll be planting them again.


Overall, this garden is super exciting for us because we have new things to grow! I love to watch how plants grow and vegetables form, so it's been fun. New to us are the broccoli, Chinese broccoli, boc choy, brussel sprouts, onions and garlic.

Garden Update

Garden update, yeah!  It's currently in the 40's in zone 6a. Yikes! And that's actually unseasonably warm for up there.  And down here......we're growing tomatoes!  You can see a few peeking out from in there.  That mass to the left up there is the hot mess I mentioned in an earlier post. It's one cheery tomato plant, two big beef tomato plants and three mini bell pepper plants. They've merged into one big mass of greenery.  There are two huge stakes that are five feet high, 4 tomato cages and three smaller 3 foot stakes in there somewhere. The mini bell peppers are loaded up on the plants but they're not ripening, I think the hulking mass behind it is throwing too much shade.  To the right is the lettuce bed which shows no sign of stopping.  The only sign of decline is that all of the marigolds along the front had to be pulled out from the last frost.

 This is the second raised bed that has 2 banana pepper plants, 2 jalapeno plants, 1 big beef tomato plant, six strawberry plants with assorted runners and a bunch a peas climbing up the lattice. Yeah, that is one tomato plant there, just one. It has completely outgrown it's cage and is leaning heavily on the trellis next to it. 

Here's a close up of the one tomato plant that shares the strawberry bed. It's completely loaded with fruit, they just keep coming. We're a tomato success....in January!

December Garden Update - All Caught Up

Some things still growing, some things not

Up until this point, the posts have been more of a catch up since we started the garden in September and it is now December. So here we are, all caught up! This picture was taken at the very end of December. And you can see that some changes have happened. There are some bare spots and some new pots. The pots contain some side projects that I've been working on, more on that later.

watermelon missing, cucumber on the way out

One of the first things to go was the watermelon. It actually started to grow really well, considering it looked so weak to begin with. It had flowers and tiny little fruits that set. The fruits got to the size of marbles and they would fall off. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong, but having no experience with ever growing watermelon, I just figured that all of the fruit would not make it and just enjoyed watching the vine grow.  I then started seeing some of the leaves curling inwards and turning black, only a couple though so I wasn't very concerned. Again, another clue that something was wrong but I didn't get the hint.  Then almost overnight all of the leaves were turning black and the very tips of the vines were wilting. Uh Oh. Now I realized something was wrong and started to Google it up. So, what was it? Downy Mildew. Characterized by a "cupped hand" appearance which was exactly what the leaves looked like when I first noticed them starting to go black. The plant could not be saved since I waited WAY too long and had to pull the whole thing out. Ouch.

A wayward pea in with the strawberries

The replacements

Once the watermelon vines were pulled out, I planted a row of peas from seed along that same trellis. The peas seem to like the cooler weather. We could not get them to grow very well in the very first garden during the summer months. The few plants that actually did grow more than a foot were shaded by other plants, so we figured it was the heat that kept the rest so small. 

Another big change in the garden is with the cucumbers. After the first big harvest, the vine got some powdery mildew which again, I was not very good at identifying until too late. It got so bad, I had to just start cutting the leaves off willy nilly. There are still some cukes on there and maybe the plant will stay with us long enough for those to mature.  We got a good initial crop out of it so it won't be such a hard loss if it has to go. I don't recall ever seeing these mildew issues in my Dads zone 6a garden, he might get some vine borers every now and then, but not mildew.  This transplanted northern girl had no idea there were even this many types of garden mildew. Lesson learned.

Garden Update

Grow baby grow! This is a picture of the garden from early December. The marigolds are going crazy and you can see the tomatoes staring to blush. The marigolds were planted to bring in the pollinators and keep out the buggers. Not so good at either one. I've only seen a bee here and there, but things are getting pollinated and the fruit is setting so maybe we just keep missing each other.  I actually read that ants are a primary pollinator in Florida. Add that to the list of things I never heard of. The tomatoes have been having a go 'round with some type of fungus. Small brown spots on the leaves, the leaves then turn yellow. The damage starts on the older leaves at the bottom and works its way up the plant. That's why the tomatoes have naked legs in these pics.   I think it's either septoria leaf spot or gray leaf spot. I thought it might be early blight but there are no concentric rings in the brown spots.  I swear  you need a masters in vegetable science to decipher the difference in some of these fungal diseases. Regardless, a fungus is a fungus and they all  seem to be treated the same way, so no need to nit pick about it, right?

In an organic garden, copper spray is used to control the fungus. So I go out and spray each plant in all directions, all over. I soon find out that copper spray is a rain magnet. You need rain? Go tediously spray copper on the top and bottom of tomato leaves, and BAM, rain within 24 hours. Guess what the directions say? You got it, spray again after it rains. Ahhhhh!  So I gave up on it. I see that the plants are not going to immediately expire, so I figure it's strong enough and no longer needs my help.