What's blooming in my garden...

Some blooming things...

Grazing in my garden...

Some pictures of what's going on in the garden...

A few of my favorite (edible) things...

Primadonna blueberries.

FlordaPrince Peach.

Fast Break cantaloupe.

Final potato harvest...

Not bad for a three-by-three foot area. The Fingerling potatoes are like $5 per pound at Whole Foods.

Raclette

New potatoes... I spent the winter sticking sprouting potatoes into a warm, sunny spot in my garden, and heaping compost, straw, hay and grass clippings on the plants as they grew. They managed to make it through the winter more or less unscathed, getting burned to the ground with each frost (and we had, what, five or six? more?) but coming back with every bout of warmth. Anywho, I mostly expected them to be infested with worms and/or nematodes, so I've been meaning to harvest them and make more room for tomatoes and peppers. I started digging around in the bed, and realized that the potatoes are very happy and healthy in there. I sneaked out a handful. I'll leave the rest be another month.

We're having another very powerful cold front move through today; it entered the area yesterday and is now south of here and the wind is gusty and cold. So, tonight, to celebrate the last cold night of the season (probably), we're making raclette with potatoes, broccoli and onions from the garden. The weather's forecast to be hot and sunny this weekend, so we'll head to the Lagoon and beach to spend the day paddling and camping.

What a treat is April in Florida!

And I do PSAs, too...

Florida-Friendly 101

• Saturday, April 25, all day
• Hillsborough County Extension Office, 5339 County Road 579 in Seffner

Despite a few rain dances in the backyard, the drought continues to be a topic of concern. Residents are invited to learn how to manage their lawns and landscaping at the next Florida-Friendly 101 gardening conference at the Hillsborough County Extension Office on April 25.

For a mere $30 registration fee, residents will hear the best and the latest from University of Florida specialists and local Hillsborough County Extension horticulturists:

• How plants deal with drought
• How to choose the most drought-tolerant plants
• Smart landscape and irrigation technologies
• More!

The conference also includes a “goodie” bag with resources to take home, lunch and refreshments. Space is limited, so register early!

The detailed agenda and link to the online registration can be found on the Hillsborough County Extension website at: http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/HomeGardening/PDFs/FFL101_2009_Flier.pdf

Still have questions? Call the Extension Office at (813) 744-5519 or visit http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu

End of the winter garden.

I still have some carrots, potatoes and broccoli in the garden, but it's transition time: Soon enough, I'll have tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, okra, beans of all sort.

Oh, and I picked my first cuke of the season--the always reliable and tasty Cucino.

Uh oh...

RAIN!

Holy COW! That was some rainstorm... I've lived here almost ten years, and I've only seen a couple like it in FLA. Flash flood worthy. I probably lost a bunch of flower seedlings. Oh, well. Peach tree and established plants are fine.

It never rains, it pours.

My last remaining fruit tree space...

I've decide to plant plum trees, Gulfbeauty and Gulfblaze in the last remaining sunny spot of my garden. I'll have to plant them close, but que sera. I'll have to wait until next winter, when Just Fruits ships them.

A quick update in slides...

An inch of rain...

We need several more to make up for the low rainfall this winter, but the inch we got came slow and steady from 4am until around noon. 

Rain's a'comin'...

Oh, yeah.

Have raised probability of precipitation across the north to 80-90% with convective line
reaching North Lake and Volusia after midnight...probably closer
to 2-3 am. Storm Prediction Center has North Lake and Volusia in slight risk for
severe so there is a chance some portions of central Florida may
be placed in a watch later tonight.


Sunday...ongoing convective line will sweep rapidly southeast across the
forecast area with severe threat decreasing with time. Total rainfall
amounts look impressive across much of the forecast area with one half to one
inch rains expected...but this will decrease to around one quarter
inch across Martin/Saint Lucie counties.

I'm a bit worried about heavy winds damaging my peach tree... but we really need the rain, and an inch of rain would make a real difference.

Well, do you know it?

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,
Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht?
Kennst du es wohl?

I do.

Spring flowers...

Cherokee Rose.

Straw Flowers. Don't they look like fried eggs?

Pretty flowers... wish I could remember what they're called.

I love this red yarrow. Took forever (well, more than a year) to get established, but now it's blooming like mad.

Another fruit census...

I did this last year in March. Some stuff died, some stuff I ripped out... Here's my fruit census for 2009:

• Citrus: Honeybell Tangelo, Hamlin Orange, Owari Satsuma (these all on Flying Dragon), Sambokan Lemon, a Kumquat in a pot, and a kaffir lime in a pot
• Figs: 'Alma,' 'Brown Turkey,'Celeste.' (I planted these in the ground after a year in pots.)
  
• Brambles: Bababerry, unidentified blackberry, unidentified raspberry (from tony_k), and a 'Brazos' blackberry
• Blueberries: Climax, Primadonna, Gulf Coast x2, Marimba, Emerald
• Grapes: Nesbitt, Black Spanish
• Pomegranate (Grenada)
• Pommes: Anna Apple, Dorsett Golden Apple, Hood Pear, Pineapple Pear
• Various pineapples
• Mulberry (Black Beauty Mulberry Tree, unidentified weeping dwarf)
• Carambola ('Sri Kambangum')
• Bananas (four kinds, mostly dwarf, including Oronico & Ice Cream)
• Mango (Cogshall)
• Two peaches (Flordabell, FlordaPrince)
• Fuyu Persimmon

Not bad for a tiny urban yard... Most of these plants are too young to produce, though the peach tree looks to bear heavily this year, and I have tons of blueberries on my bushes. The figs might give me a good crop this year, depending on how they take the transplanting. The Carambola made it through its first winter (a tough one) in the ground, so given the right season, it too might produce this year. My persimmon produced a few fruits last year. The mulberry is the right size to fruit well this summer. Bananas fruit every year, though sometimes too late or early to ripen.

Response to comments: I strongly recommend "Just Fruits and Exotics" for all fruit tree purchases. Many of the things I have bought from Willis have died, and they have very poor customer service (never answered my questions about reimbursement).

Lea--my vegetable and fruit garden is thirty feet by fifty. That sounds small, but I have been very thoughtful about the plants and the organization, use a lot of trellises and pots. You'd be surprised what you can do in a small space.

A quick update in pictures....

It's such a beautiful time of the year. It got into the mid- and upper-eighties last week for a couple of days, but now it's turned cool again, with the low seventies for the next week. That gives my salad crops and especially my peas a reprieve. Been busy transplanting early-season tomatoes into my beds, sowing McCaslan beans (to join the Rattlesnakes, Violettas and Willow-Leaf limas already out there). Dug my first carrots of the spring earlier this week. Started some Red Sails lettuce to get me through May. Culled the peaches from my tree. Mulching things in preparation for a dry spring... It's even better full-screen.

This slide show is worth watching...

Twitter...

I've started a Twitter feed (on the right). It seems like a good, low-expectation, easy way to post updates on the garden. The formatting is a bit ugly and hard to read, but if you tweet, you can always subscribe directly to my Twitter feed... I already appreciate the ability to quickly check when/what was planted, when things sprout, etc. Sometimes that information seems too unimportant to post on the blog, but just right for a quick tweet.

Garden Princess

Scattered...

The girl-child and I (along with my brother) planted spring and summer flower and veg seeds--Coreopsis, Thunbergia, Cosmos, Torenia, New Zealand spinach, cilantro... three kinds of tomatoes (Nepal, Southern Night, and a cherry tomato--forgotten which).