Onions!

Gardeners! Lowe's has onion sets in right now... For their ease, and given how expensive sweet onions are, onions are among the best things to grow in the Florida garden. Plus you can eat the onions at any stage, from just swollen to huge.

I often come across old onions in the fall during my cleanup. They last,what, a week in the pantry? Or six months in the garden....

Just be sure that you buy southern onions, those that are marked "day neutral." Otherwise, you'll end up growing scallions... In the past, I've grown onions from seeds. This year, I got a batch of bad seeds (need to figure this out) that never germinated, so I don't have the long row of red onions I have had in the past...

Never tried this in Florida, but seems appropriate: A way to avoid our poor soils & nematodes.

(HOO-gul-culture) meaning hill culture or hill mound. Instead of putting those branches, leaves and grass clippings in bags by the curbside...build a hugel bed. Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, petroleum-free newspaper, manure, compost or whatever other biomass you have available, top with soil and plant your veggies.

Much more here...

An incomplete list of open-pollinated seed sources in Florida...

Mary's Heirloom Seeds http://marysheirloomseeds.com

They offer all organic, open-pollinated, non-gmo and non-hybrid seeds. All the seeds that you order will be "Free shipping" and will be delivered within 24 hours except for holiday. You can contact them thru the online form in their website.

Crispy Farms http://www.crispyfarms.com 

They sell homegrown meat, dairy produce, pantry items and non-GMO plants and seeds. Contact them thru the online form in their website or Email: crispyfarms@earthlink.net

Eden Organic Nursery Service Inc. http://www.eonseed.com

They offer organic and hybrid seeds for vegetables, tobacco seeds, medical and healing plants and many more. Contact:(954) 382-8281

Grower Jim's Plants and Produce http://growerjim.blogspot.com/p/buy-seeds.html

They are a small sustainable farm selling fresh produce, plants and seeds. Their seeds are hand-picked, open-pollinated, non-hybrid, non-GM, and heirloom types grown chemical-free in a natural environment. Their selection includes both edible and ornamental varieties of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Contact them through their website or Facebook page.

Florida Backyard Vegetable Gardener http://www.growincrazyacres.com

All of their seeds and plants are non-GMO and open-pollinated. Contact:352-650-7343 and Email: desiree@growincrazyacres.com

Healthy Harvest Seed Company, LLC http://www.healthyharvestseedcompany.com

Healthy Harvest Seed Company is a small, family owned and operated, seed company located in Central Florida. They sell different kinds of vegetable, herbs and many more. Contact: 855-340-3451 and Email:customerservice@healthyharvestseedcompany.com

Organic Sanctuary http://www.organicsanctuary.com

Organic Sanctuary seeds are Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid, and grown in a Honey Bee friendly Open-Pollinated environment. You can contact them in their online form.

QR Seeds Inc. http://qrseeds.com

They offer non-GMO vegetable garden seeds. They have signed "The Safe Seed Pledge of The Council for Responsible Genetics" Contact:352-345-7387

The Pepper Gal http://www.peppergal.com

The Pepper Gal sells many kinds of non-GMO pepper seeds including hot pepper seed, sweet pepper seed, ornamental pepper seed and many more. Contact: 954-537-5540 and Email: peppergal@bellsouth.net

Self Reliance Strategies, LLC http://selfreliancestrategies.com/hub/

They are selling 100% non-GMO and non-hybrid of a large varieties of seeds. Contact: (321) 348 - 4113 and Email:info@selfreliancestrategies.com

Two Seeds in a Pod http://www.twoseedsinapod.com

They have a large varieties of non-GMO and heirloom vegetable seeds. They have signed "The Safe Seed Pledge of The Council for Responsible Genetics" Contact: contact@twoseedsinapod.com

Spring cleaning...

Yeah, I  know... I need to get back to the garden blogging. I pulled a banana clump out (never easy), and cleaned out from beneath it, and found these humdingers. Also: SPRING! Tomato & pepper seedlings... A week or so behind, but, hey, they're up.

Starting from scratch...

I harvested the sweet potatoes, peanuts, and Southern peas from my garden this weekend, leaving this bed more or less clear. A rare enough thing in the Florida garden, so I took the time to dig it deeply (without bringing up too much sand from below) and added a few hundred pounds of a compost/peat mix from the local landscaping yard. I also scratched in some 10 10 10 fertilizer and removed a bunch of roots that had infiltrated. This bed only gets OK sunlight in the winter, but I've always had plenty of luck with cabbage, beets, salad greens, broccoli, onions, peas, etc... The usual winter crops.

The next few days are sunny and warm, so I'll wait until mid-week to set out the many transplants I have ready for the garden. They're forecasting plenty of rain for the end of the week...

Peanuts!

Green!

Green is the color of the Florida late-summer garden. Solid green. Peanuts, southern peas, sweet potatoes, scallions, lima beans, some "sweet" peppers that long ago turned hot, and some struggling oregano, basil and parsley. Lots of okra rising from the waves of green...

Persimmons are ripening! Looks like I won't get any bananas this year. Banana hands that emerge this late in the season won't beat the frost. 

Beginning of autumn!

Onions, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, rocket, and various asian greens are planted in their containers. I also direct-sowed some Fortex green beans, hoping not to have a problem with rust this year. The first day of autumn (hah!) is duly marked. By the way, we got 1.5 inches of rain here in DeLand last night. Another weird storm--so much energy in the atmosphere at 8pm. Adding... Since there wasn't any of that excellent coir-based seedling mix at Lowes, I got a bag of perlite and am mixing it about 3 parts peat::1 part perlite. That seems to absorb a lot of water while still having the right looseness. Seedlings need water, filtered sunlight, and gas-exchange at their roots. Whatever you use, make sure it doesn't smother the roots. I hadn't noticed that the moss had a little slow-release fertilizer mixed in. No biggie. Generally I hold off on the fertilizer until I know the root structure has formed, and then I prefer to add it very often, but highly diluted. Miracle-Gro is a great product... I love that my moss bag recommends 9 parts moss::1 part perlite, while my perlite bag recommends (predictably) a 1::1 ratio.

High summer...

Let's see... High summer is upon us. Here's what I've got going on in the garden... eggplants, four or five kinds of hot peppers, lima beans, several kinds of field peas, lots of peanuts, so many sweet potatoes, many large and still productive small-fruited tomatoes, okra. and there's always fruit--my brown Turkey and Alma are still producing a couple fruits a day each, awesome citrus crop in the making, grapes are ripening, bananas may fruit this year, the #%^@$ coons have been messing with my persimmons, but there are still a couple dozen fruits out there.

Bees

Poor bees. With the rain over the last few days, they were getting feisty. I made hay when the sun was shining and I checked the hive yesterday... We'd removed the only super last month when harvesting. I found the hive thriving yesterday, sticking wax everywhere, clearly begging for more space. I put the excluder and super back on.I'd be surprised if I don't get another harvest at the end of summer, though I guess we'll see.

I'd forgotten to get some extra foundation, and so I'm a few frames short up top, but I'll rectify that later this week. I did find some dead bees stored away in between the inner and telescoping outer cover. They looked freshly dead. Dunno what that means, but it was only perhaps a score.

Looks like I have a happy and productive queen, in any case.

What should I plant now?

I get this question all the time. I revisited this guide that I wrote a few years ago. It's pretty good...

Gazpacho season has arrived...

Despite the near absence of sunshine the past week... my full-sized tomatoes have ripened (especially the determinate Celebrity), my peppers are ripe, onions big, and the cucumbers are ready... It's gazpacho time.

Honey harvest 2013

We do it old-school, low-tech... The honey is, to say the least, minimally-processed. Never warmed to more than, say, 90* (the ambient temperature). A good thing in my book.

Foraging...

My figs are really late this year, but there's an abundance of them hanging in the tree, probably more than a hundred. They ripen suddenly, going from small, hard and green to swollen and chartreuse over the course of a few days. I like them best when very, very ripe.

In the past, because it was immature, the tree--an Alma--has dropped most of the fruit. This year it's not dropped any, and every day brings another couple of ripe figs. I assume at some point a larger crop will mature. Interestingly, it continues to set new fruit. This is my only fig, so I don't have a framework for expectations... I guess we'll see.

The blueberry crop this year is pretty good, too. Very late--typically mid-May marks the end of the crop. I recently visited a large blueberry farm in Yalaha. The bushes there were huge and so healthy--I decided I need to take better care of my bushes, so I piled on some pine bark, added some sulfur, and once they stop fruiting I'll fertilize them appropriately. The bushes are tough and get by with little care, but I think if I devote some TLC on them, they'll repay the attention.

A few full-size tomatoes, lots of cherries. I have many tomatoes on the vine, but they're ripening very late this year. I'm a little nervous, as the later the harvest, the greater the predation by bugs and various wilts and mildews.

Broccoli and beans are slowing up their production and what they're producing is lower in quality. Typical for this time of the year. I'll probably pull the plants in the next week or so... Eggplants are fruiting, cucumbers are producing (though succumbing to mildew).

Some quick shots from the excellent you-pick called Green Acres in Yalaha, just minutes from the excellent bakery... 

These trees are just two years old!

Kerry, the owner of Green Acres, tells me that they picked eighty-thousand pounds of blueberries last year. I've never seen such healthy plants!

My Chioggia beets meet my pressure cooker...

My wife's amazing blueberry pie...

Chioggia beets

I have a long row of these. I've grown all sorts of beets, but these are the best, especially as their greens are perfect for cooking.

Parsnips, carrots, & turnips

Making room for tomatoes...

Sugar snap peas...

From the comments... something I wrote responding to someone who wanted to know more about sugar snap peas. They're easy, and as you can trellis them, they make a great "between the row" crop in small spaces like mine. It's hard to see in the pictures below, but I have four crops growing in what is essentially a single three-foot row: Broccoli right next to a trellis full of peas, which is itself right next to a row of hybrid, multi-color carrots, and then, mixed alongside the carrots, a few dozen parsnips. So long as you have a lot of compost and a lot of water in play, you can plant this densely. Probably everything is slowed down and there's some compromise for each individual plant's optimal production/size, but maybe not... I get a LOT of broccoli out of this row, and as you can see, a lot of peas. The carrots (there's a picture of them, too) are about ready for harvest, but will continue to grow happily for at least another month. I don't know why I grew the parsnips... I've grown them in the past. They do OK here in Florida, but not as sweet as the ones from up North. I'd be better off growing more carrots, but parsnips make a nice change, and they grow well enough here... 

OK, anyway, I don't have time to write this entry, so, here's what I said earlier about peas...

hmmm... well, let's see:
1) i use a hybrid, super sugar snap. i like them. sometimes i grow them out to have peas, sometimes we just eat them as snow peas.
2) plant them anytime in the late fall/winter. they get nipped by frost but usually always bounce back.
3) plant them DENSE... i mean, like, three peas per inch, in a zigzag. then, oversow as they grow. the ones hanging on the support you see in the picture below are the result of three distinct plantings, about a month apart.
4) use a lot of compost but little or no fertilizer. mine are growing between carrots and broccoli. really dense planting there--lots of crops in about a 2' wide row. so, you need lots of organic material. but peas don't produce well if there's too much nitrogen, so here, in this case, i just fertilized on the outside of this triple row, along the rootline of the broccoli and carrots. right?
5) water generously.
6) be sure to pick them before the peas get too big and then dry... i think that makes the plant 'turn off' and stop producing, but maybe that's just superstition.
7) full sun, ideally with a little afternoon shade, which will buy you a week more fruit.
8) they burn out eventually, when it starts to get too hot. but until they do, they're really easy and tasty.

Broccoli

Since someone asked... from the comments:

lgj... i put out two sets of broc, and the second set is still producing. i think the second set is blue wind, but i don't recall for sure. couple observations about broccoli:1) it has a long life, but not forever.2) if you put out a late set (say, good seedlings before march 1), you can harvest through april and into may.3) when the plants are winding down, the florets get really small. treat it like berry picking. they remain perfectly tasty, but if you don't pick them very small (thumb-sized, smaller), they'll flower.4) if you have the room and no other inclination, leave them to bloom. brassica blooms are probably a bee's favorite bloom. and they're kinda pretty. in europe they grow big fields of rape (aka canola) and leave them to flower all early spring. it's beautiful. then they plow it under for green manure or harvest it for silage. maybe they do it here in the states, but i've never seen it. 5) if your broc goes to flower quickly, even if it's young and the weather's not over warm, then YOU ARE NOT WATERING ENOUGH. generally, few people in fla water enough. in for a dime, in for a dollar, right?

The late-March Florida garden...