latest Johnnys seeds order

Winterbor (F1)-Packet Vegetables > Kale & Collards > Green Kale

Conquistador (Pelleted)-Packet Vegetables > Celery & Celeriac > Celery

Bolseno (F1)-Mini Vegetables > Tomatoes > Indeterminate > Traditional Italian

Fortex-Packet Vegetables > Beans > Beans, Pole

Arcadia (F1)-Packet Vegetables > Broccoli > Hybrid

Gonzales (F1)-Packet Vegetables > Cabbage > Early Green

Jade-Mini Vegetables > Greens > Corn Salad/Mache

Tasty Jade (F1)-Mini Vegetables > Cucumbers > Specialty

Navarino (F1)-Packet Vegetables > Carrots > Early

Unwin's Striped Mix-Packet Flower Seeds > Sweet Pea

Cassius (F1) (OG)-Mini Vegetables > Cauliflower > White

Suyo Long-100 Seeds Vegetables > Cucumbers > Asian/Burpless

Stainless Harvest Machete - 6" Blade-1 Unit Tools and Supplies > Hand Tools > Harvest Tools

Green Forest (Pelleted)-Packet Vegetables > Lettuce > Romaine/Cos > Green

Seed order

I like Swallowtail. Good selection, great prices, fast to ship. Here's my latest order. I'm a little late for geraniums this year, but they'll still bloom for a few weeks this spring if I get them germinated before Christmas. I'm surprised more people don't start geraniums from seed. I've found them very easy, and they're perennial here in Florida if you can nurse them through out hot and rainy weather--I put them in a shady, mostly covered spot and let them go dormant. I had a couple that were many years old, but died last winter in the cold. 

I dug up some goldenrod last year and planted it in my front bed, where it's very dry and sunny. It did OK this year, but not great. I was amazed at the number of bees it drew in October and November, so I've decided to put a bunch of them in one of my butterfly beds. 

--  --------  ------------------------------------------------  -----  -----
  1  AN9014A   GERANIUM, MAVERICK ORANGE 10 SEEDS                $3.29  $3.29
  1  AN10320A  GERANIUM, MAVERICK SCARLET 10 SEEDS               $3.49  $3.49
  1  AN9197    GERANIUM, INSPIRE SCARLET 10 SEEDS                $2.97  $2.97
  1  AN11580   ZINNIA, ZAHARA RASPBERRY LEMONADE MIX - 25 SEEDS  $3.25  $3.25
  1  VG221     TOMATOES, ARKANSAS TRAVELER - 30 SEEDS            $1.99  $1.99
  1  PR11292   HIBISCUS, LUNA MIX - 10 SEEDS                     $4.49  $4.49
  1  PR875     GOLDENROD, GOLDEN BABY - 100 SEEDS                $2.49  $2.49
  1  PR105005  YELLOW TRUMPET BUSH, MAYAN GOLD - 10 SEEDS        $4.49  $4.49
  1  HR57      EPAZOTE - 200 SEEDS                               $1.49  $1.49
  1  HR83      RED PERILLA - 1/2 GRAM                            $2.65  $2.65

Craziness...

So, I've concluded that this winter will be as warm as the last was cold... so, today I planted my spring tomato plants. Tomande, SunGold, a couple others. And my Sweet Spot peppers. These tomatoes aren't actually my first choice for spring, but they're what I had on hand, so... good enough. And if we get a freeze and I forget to bring in the tomatoes, no real loss. I used up the last of each packet. Time for reupping.

Peas began flowering yesterday. Everything is going gangbusters in the garden, what with abundant sun and warm temperatures. I've been irrigating daily in my vegetable beds, but only for a few minutes with my micro-mister system.

a quick winter update in pictures

Warm and sunny weather this November... I don't think I've ever had such a fine winter garden. Peas, potatoes, tons of salad (especially Bronze Arrow, my current favorite), chard, broccoli (starting to head already), cauliflower, long row of sweet onions, turnips, radish, carrots, parsnips, beets, Brussels sprouts, collards...

Detroit Red beets

Snow Crown cauliflower

Sweet Treat carrots

Blue Wind broccoli

Bronze Arrow, Apollo Rocket...

Sugar Sugar Snap peas

Florida Winter Garden Pictures

Hakurei Turnips. I'll have to thin these, but they can be grown very close together. Small, sweet, tasty turnips. Very quick to mature--very like sweet radishes.

Some heading lettuces growing in window boxes. you can see how I use the spaces between rows here to squeeze in window boxes. When I need to weed or harvest, I just move the window boxes aside. You can grow a surprising amount of food in one of these cheap windowboxes--carrots, beets, turnips, lettuce. I've done it all. I use a mix of about 5::1::1 pine fines, peat, and perlite, with added micronutrients and high-end slow-release fertilizer. I supplement that with monthly feedings of liquid fertilizer. Essentially growing hydroponically in soil.

Tabasco peppers.

You can see these chard plants below, from the beginning of October, when I had just transplanted them. They're almost ready to harvest. Grown in a circle, cut from an old barrel, filled with very rich organic compost. 

Onions and peas. I should have planted these peas much earlier than I did. They really appreciate a blast of heat at the start--I think I could plant them as early as mid-August.

Cutting salad greens. The two top producers for me are Bronze Arrow (Southern Exposure, I think...) and Apollo Rocket, a hybrid arugula that I love.

The Florida Winter Garden

I didn't put in a fall garden this year--no time in July to start tomatoes and peppers for November and December harvests... This summer was so busy, last winter so cold, that I decided it didn't merit the trouble. What's more, it's hard to work up an appetite for tomatoes and eggplants in December: My Midwesterness rebells against it. Winter is for greens, onions, potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. All things perfectly suited for my Florida winter garden.

We've had the first major cold front blow through last night, bringing much needed rain and a drop of twenty-degrees or so... I ran the AC a bit yesterday to bring in the cooler outside air into our over-warm kitchen, but I'll probably have to run the heat tomorrow morning. The high mid-week was 90°... the low tonight is forecast for 38°. The front brought about more than an inch of rain, which doesn't erase our debt after a rainless October, but is surely appreciated.

Let's see... The carrots, beets and turnips are all growing well. Broccoli and cauliflower are large, but no heads yet. The cold weather will slow them down and I probably won't get heads until Christmas.

Lettuce is still a week from when I can regularly harvest it. Peas are growing well, but only a foot. Potatoes and onions are up. Oranges are oranging. Roses are loving this cool, dry weather.