Harvest Monday 6.11.12

This is the last large harvest for the Summer. The rest will be the drabs and dribbles that happen due to the heat. That is until the cowpeas start setting in large numbers. That won't happen until I'm ready to start my fall garden late in the year when everyone else is already turning under and ending their gardens for the year. The cycles are wacky here for sure.

To clear the way for the summer crops a lot of the beds needed cleared the bush beans,  the allium bed (and carrots with them) both had to be cleared:

before....and after.....

It was so steamy out. It even fogged up the camera!

*note the now completely covered trellis~!* 

Green garlic, and red and yellow onions - sorry y'all get the dirty pics - they are still drying on my kitchen table. I had to run out right after ripping all this out. I had a birthday party to go to, and no time to purty up the pictures.

 

But I did get a great harvest this week. Unfortunately it's all the carrots until winter unless there is a stray hiding somewhere. I still have about 20 onions in a planter, but I don't expect them to do anything. I'm only leaving them because I didn't find time to do anything with them and I sure don't need 'em. If I run into a neighbor or a friend who would use them I'd give them away.  I also pulled the leeks in the above photo. Wrong time of year for them but I'm not arguing. They are a good size and they cleaned up really nice. They just got knocked down when I took out one of the old less productive broccoli plants. I've got 3 that produce for me still and a few that haven't been so I was getting rid of the ones that don't.

Here are the tomatoes that were harvested a little green -boy did they turn! And a single cuke.  A day's picking of the concord grapes and the rest of the carrots.

*WHEW*  What a week. Unfortunately I won't have much to show for a while, and now I have a lot of planting to do. I still need to get rid of the big old zucchini plant and start those tomato seeds for fall. It may be sweltering out now, but that is just the time to get things ready for fall!

Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions. Don't forget to stop by her place and see what people are harvesting all over the world. Thanks Daphne for being our ever present - FANTSTIC hostess!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Day 5.29.12

It's not Monday. So, I'm late - again. Hey,  it was Memorial Day so I had plans. Plans that got blown away by Sir Beryl. Good thing we decided not to go anywhere. Turns out that there were a much greater number of downed trees and my parents had no power up in (North of) Jacksonville for 24 hours at last count.  No fridge or freezers and that also means that their 7 (yes, SEVEN) dogs that have the invisible fence to keep them on their five acres would have been roaming free out in the storm without someone there to start up the generators. Not to mention that the picnic and all the other outdoors activities like camping we had planned wouldn't have been so fun in 45 mile an hour winds. We were only planning on going to Ocala after all. Not all the way to Jacksonville. Silver Springs State Park is what we had our eye on.
Oh, Well. Next weekend we'll have a condensed version of the same thing.

Instead I welcomed a gardening friend over to see my mess and our kids enjoyed some watermelon while we enjoyed some conversation. It was a good distraction from thwarted plans and picnics gone awry. I sure hope their plans held out and Illuminations was still wonderful for them! Thanks, Tina for stopping by. Next time hopefully the lawn mower will be up and running and my grass won't be trying to attack your ankles! Troy found a treat for Nick and is waiting to see him again, too. :-D  The pool is back and ready for action. ;-)

I spent yesterday evening cruising the garden not really expecting to find much to bring in but to my surprise I did. And, I found quite a lot!

I had a roma and a bush tomato damaged from the storms, so those came out. There are a few of the tomatoes in this picture, but most of them didn't make the cut. I don't think they'll ripen so they aren't here to be represented. If they do I'll show them later. But these four all were starting to blush so they are here. A few more carrots - that large one weighed 6 ounces! The first eggplant of the season (THANKS RICK- that is from your baby long purple plant from the swap) 2 cukes some broccoli, strawberries, purple podded beans and dragons tongue.

This is the haul from earlier in the week. A key lime, a few carrots, cucumber, zucchini, green garlic, broccoli, and below 4 pounds of onions out of the main bed of alliums, I pulled them because they were starting to multiply by division more and more. It's getting hotter out and that means less likely to bulb at this point and I don't need this many green onions for my cooking. I do after all still have this many onions in the garden still. Bummer year for the onions. But, again Florida is a huge give and take State.

There is no guarantee when you garden here. The sun is extremely low, extremely hot and it makes for quick crops, and that is good and bad. The downpours and humid conditions are hard on the plants and certainly perfect for making mold and mildew. It's an evolving process and an ongoing experiment. I'm always faced with the next question. These onions are one of the prime examples of how gardening here changes every year. Some years I get great big onions and some years it fizzles. But this year I got great lettuce and some years I get none. Go figure. Same with the carrots. I'm still getting them and it's already 90 degrees out regularly. Normally the carrots are done and gone by late March. Here it is going to be June and I'm still pulling and picking them. :-D 

I roll with the punches as every gardener does. My garden looks bear right now to me. I'm waiting for some cowpeas to come up and the old spring tomatoes will be going out - while the new fall tomatoes will be growing and waiting their turn to get into the garden. I still haven't found a good determinate/semi-determinate variety for me/this area. I feel like this is a struggle I will always deal with in some form or another. Maybe I'll just go by a crate of the suckers! Maybe, like the carrots I'm just missing something that i haven't found yet.

Oh, I did learn something kinda new this weekend while I was cleaning up around the place. Will share tomorrow. ;-)

Gotta get ya back here some how!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

HARVEST? MONDAY 5.21.12

I don't have much to share. But, linking into Daphne's Dandelion's to share it! Thanks Daphne for always being a great hostess. Don't forget to stop by her place and say hi!

 The last week has been about the summer change.  Here is the one basket I remembered to take a picture of.

These carrots have changed my mind about how I'm growing carrots from now on. I loved growing them in with the onions all willy nilly. It worked out well - and this giant type also worked out well. They took no longer really than the smaller types and I got so much more! Look at the normal sized on in there next to the larger ones. Wow! What a difference. Considering how MANY carrots this family eats....I'm thinking go BIG or go HOME! er... OK I am home- but you know what I mean.

The biggest honking carrots, and nice sized green garlic (I'm begining to think I'll only get green this year) a good cuke, some okra, berries, zucchini, broccoli, a few beans, a young red onion. A decent haul. I got a couple chilis and 2 small romas this week as well as a few more okra and broccoli- but that is about it. I really was concentrating on getting things changed over.

More sweet potato slips went in. 6 more - so 12 total. I won't be breaking a record with that number, but I have so many other things i want to grow that I don't have space for much else. They are all bush type of course. The peanuts are all up, the soybeans didn't germinate very well. I'm quite disappointed. I think I'll risk moving the plants and distributing them so that they can at least benefit from the area given to them rather than leaving them crowded to one side, as it seems the ones that did germinate all were together. (figures) There wont be any more slips going in now. I used the butt of the potato to generate the last of these. They had some great roots though! Awesome for not having transplant shock. LOL

The last stand of sweet corn for summer is up. I'll try again in fall. I don't know what my failure is with it all the time. Like carrots I just keep trying. I'll figure it out at some point! ;-) The last batch from a few weeks ago was delicious, just miniature. I'll plant popcorn in the heat of the summer. Funny- the corn always grows up in the plots in Alabama. Humph. Guess the clay holds the nutrients better and longer. Even with all the amendments and how wonderful things are doing (compared to how they USED to do) I still can't get corn to grow. Oh, well!

I also cleaned out the rest of the non vining green beans, so any green beans you see now until fall will be non green, flat Italian, or for the first time ever, POLE! Speaking of - it seems to me that I may have stumbled upon something. My dragons tongue beans are not very, uh - 'poley' they are much more bushy. They are also not holding up well in our humidity. :-( They have loads of beans that isn't the problem at all. Its that the poor little plants have already gotten mildew. *sigh* Can't win for losing 'round here I suppose. You should see those beans here next week.

Hopefully the growth of the seedlings will be good this week and I can do some update shots soon. Right now it would just look like a blank garden and then a lot of the same old stuff you always see. (the allium patch, the blueberries, etc)

Summer is here officially - we have our first Tropical storm off the coast of Florida and it's 'officially' hitting 90 each day this week. Yikes!

Stay cool my friends!



'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.30.12

April is on it's way out. This is the last Harvest for April, and it seems like it just got here. This Spring is nearly done here. The bugs are out in full force by 10 am yelling up a storm announcing that it's too hot to be out. Yet if it's the weekend I'm braving the heat sweating my booty off in the sun. The nights are still strangely cool thanks to the cold front that came through last week, but the highs in the daytime are hitting 90 religiously now and there is no more turning back I'm afraid.

The garden is starting to show the heat stress already and the humidity is in full force now. Fun times the next few weeks!

This weeks harvest:

Mulberries continue to come in at 2 cups (1lb 6oz)every day or two,  or whatever I feel like picking at the time. 3lb 5.6oz green beans, 3lb 2oz onions, 1lb 5oz carrots, 4lb cabbage, 5oz parsley,  6oz broccoli, 4oz strawberry, 5oz blueberry.

a bucket of parsley for drying and chimichuri sauce...

A few zucchini blossoms, I only get these on the weekend when I'm there to go out in the morning.

Oh and the best of all- a pool that is FINALLY ready to swim in... Did I show you this already? I apologize if I did - but it is VERY exciting news around here!

This is probably the best news so far. It gets the kids approval for sure! ;-)

Off to check my seeds and see what type of cowpeas I'll be trying this year....

'Till next time!

Barbie~

*ETA* Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions - I'm so embarassed that I forgot!!!! Don't you forget!!!

Harvest Monday 4.23.12

Hey hey hey! It's Harvest Monday again. Well, What do ya know? Monday's tend to roll around pretty quickly around here. Joining in over at Daphne's Dandelions once again. Don't forget to stop on by her place and see what people are harvesting from all over the world!

This weekend was a rain filled one. It started Friday and didn't end until last night. It was certainly good for our parched Floridian soil. Most of our local wildfires are out, but I haven't heard yet about statewide. Hope to hear from other bloggers soon. At my house we got only a little over  a quarter inch Friday, 1.5 inches Saturday and close to another inch yesterday. You'd think we'd be drowned in that, but our sand wicked that up lickety split and it was dry as a bone this morning. Windy and cool with a high of only 74 today. It actually feels like Spring! Woah - weird for us. This whole weekend is strange for us. The temps never got very high and it is always odd when the skys don't turn blue after a rain shower. Normally rains only last a few hours tops. Even the times when I report several inches of rain it is typical that that accumulates extremely rapidly.

This week was a good week for me again. I pulled the rest of the beets and turnips so they are done for Spring. The green beans turned on production this week, Some broccoli, strawberries, the potatoes of course, some carrots, a green garlic some green onion as well. But, some how the tomatoes (just a couple romas) blueberries and cucumbers keep slipping out of my pictures. I'm not sure how I manage that! Here are the pictures I do have:

 

 

Ah, I do love living in Florida this time of year. Soon I'll be cursing the okra, and cow pea - lucky to have a watermelon posts - but for now I'm still loving it!



'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.2.12

Welcome back to Harvest Monday! :-D

It seems to be always Monday here. I guess that is a good thing because it means I'm usually sharing my gardens bounty. I love that! Linking into Daphne's place for the party. Don't forget to stop on by and check out what people are harvesting all over the world!

This is April and true to nature it started just as it should have. I got rained out of my garden, and gladly so. It was a real toad floater. If I'd have had my camera (and I'm so glad I didn't because it would be ruined now) because I really had a toad float up in the pea patch that I had just turned. I'm glad he wasn't hurt! We were in pretty desperate need of rain so I was glad for it, but my cucumber trellis fell and took out my cukes so I'm not happy about that.

Well, with no further ado - Here are the pictures that I remembered to take this week.

 Haricots Verts  & Cherokee Yellow Wax Little bitty strawberries now and great big blueberries, and they are finally starting to come in handfuls instead of drabs, just as the strawberries are fading into the background. Good timing! A beet, cabbage, onions, rosemary

 More wax beans, cukes, mulberries, snap peas, broccoli, strawberries, blueberries, My! What a week!

A Alittle shirtvesting went a long way, but is unfortunately the very last of the snow peas. This was what I took off of the vines as I turned them under. In their place was sown derby bush beans.

Last but not least MINT > OH YUMMO. This handful of mint graced a nice pot of cocoa. MMMMmmmm... and some for drying.  'Cuz that much in cocoa would make my lips numb.

I'll be back soon. I've got a little project to share.

'Till next time!

Barbie



Harvest Monday 3.26.12

Well, this post was started hours and hours ago but something interfered. What was that? Oh, yes- WORK. PHTHTHTHT> :-P

The harvest was another good one. I keep thinking they will slim down again soon and yet they march on!

The first for this week? The first green beans of the year.

The first BLUEBERRY that wasn't stolen by the blasted birds.

The strawberries are getting much smaller now, and not setting as frequently. It's about time to chose what plants to save for summer and they haven't even set forth the runners. Very odd!

A few more cucumbers. 4 this week, and some chard as well.

Broccoli side shoots, snap peas, and snow peas, a few english peas, loads of lettuce and spinach that wanted to bolt, a few onions, a whole colander of mulberries and yes even the sour cream was in my harvest this week, though not from the garden. It was a trade. :-) Freezer Jam for sour cream.

Oh bother. Work has been one massive distraction after another lately. I mean that is what it is after all, but I don't like when work interferes with my personal life on my personal time. Of course right now my personal time (lunch break) is on work time - but this is legit personal time after all. Between the Captain of the Port and the general Coast Guard visits things are really heating up down here getting ready for the AUGUST National Republican Convention. It's hard to believe that preparations are already underway, but they are. I must return back to the desk now. Sorry it took so long to post. I hope you are all having a wonderful day. It's beautiful outside!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Stiches, and little bits.

Right now everything is in little bits.

Like this:

 

Little bits of handfuls. Little handfuls of grapes. YUMMM

Little handfuls of Everglades tomatoes...Usually in my little bits hands. The girls eat these like candy. They are technically a wild tomato possibly more closely related to a currant. And, I like them so much better than most other cherry tomatoes. Those and Grannies Sungolds - the rest of the cherries will be pulled from the garden this week I just don't like the others flavors.

Little handfuls of parsley, basil for daily doses of cooking, dill, and green onions, and mulberries, too.

But what is coming in by the bushel? Rosemary! I wish I'd have taken a picture. AFTER taking off the wood I harvested 9 OUNCES of the stuff. Some people at work asked for some and I really wanted to get some back in my cupboard as well. This is one thing that grows with a vengeance in my garden and NO BUGS care to even look twice at it. I should have planted it at the end of the row rather than the middle - but that being the worst of my sins it could be moved if I really wanted to.

I haven't abandoned my blog, nor my garden. I've just been busy. Hubby went to the Spinal Institute of Florida this week and Thank GOD - no surgery. At least not yet. There are other options to explore first and so far he seems to be recuperating fairly well. THat is to say beyond the emotional scars that competitive tennis may not be in his future quite the way it has been in the past, and he may have to come up with a new hobby, sport and stress reliever. Tennis will have to be only for fun now. Poor guy. It's like taking oxygen out of the air for him. But, in time he'll adjust I'm sure.

The other thing I'm experiencing a little bit of is whiskers. It seems my son has grown some -

3 stitches. *sigh* When it rains it pours. And speaking of pouring - we've gotten over 6 inches of rain the last weak. It was great for some things in the garden, and not so great for others. It did finish wiping out what was week - and strengthened the things that needed that so all in all it was a good thing. I just don't have the heart to rip out some of my favorite things when there is a chance they could turn the corner and come back. This helped make my decisions easier. And with that another 30 gallon trash bag full of the suffering plants from 'the incident' have gone out of the garden. The turn around is nearly complete now and hopefully by the weekend the garden will be completely back to planted again.

Meanwhile I have no cucumbers producing which is a major shock to my system. It's very odd for us not to have some cukes in the garden at any given time that there hasn't been a frost. I'm trying to console myself with barely dilled pickles, but it's not working well. I may have to resort to the box store just for faster turn around. The rain dampened off all my seedlings I had started a couple weeks ago.

And, it's time for starting my fall tomatoes! My list for this seasons plants are (3 each):

 Stupice, Mountain Magic, Black, Matina, Tomande, and Chocolate cherry to trial

and my stand bys:  Roma, Cherokee Purple 

I'm running into problems with my HOA so I'm trialing the semi-determinate and determinates (and the cherry) to see if I can deal with the flavor/texture/maturation rates and sizes this fall. In the spring if all goes well I'll have a few of these determinates as well as some of my favorites again. So this weekend I will be planting up my first set of tomatoes for fall. I'm starting to worry about space for all of them, but I'm sure that my schedule will hold and they will go in the ground just like planned. Some day the second part of the garden will get done. At least part of it anyway.

'Till next time!

Barbie~



Harvest Monday 5.2.11

Happy Monday! Harvest Monday, of course. Joining in at Daphne's once again to see what the world is harvesting, and sometimes how they are using their harvests. Break out your Maypoles people the harvests have begun to diversify. It's time to string the ribbons and celebrate!
This week was the most productive by far this year. Lettuce, berries, beans, CARROTS (each day a few as I needed them!)

 

 

 

 

*Onions (small bulbs, but oh so good) 6lb total      *Green beans total of 5lb 6oz      *Zucchini I forgot to measure it all but 4lb 7oz       *Carrots for a whopping 3pounds, my largest EVER harvest of them       *Strawberries 9oz     *blueberries 15oz      *lettuce 8oz      *peas 4.5oz      *peaches 2lb 3ozs!   Blackberries  4oz  *broccoli 1lb 6oz

The broccoli is nearly final, and the lettuce is final - I am still undecided if I will allow the remaining plants to try to give me side shoots. The second succession of beans are starting, just as I'm almost ready to pull the first set out so perfect timing there. The most productive zucchini has PM so it's a matter of time now... and that's all right I'll have it again in a few months in the fall. I'm sure I'll get a few more weeks out of it, until the steady afternoon rains come. Now I will have to keep an eye on my winter squash I suppose. Ho hum.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

The newest update.

In pictures of course. Because I'm hot or cold with them. Either all or nothing, and today you get 'em all! Well, gardening ones anyway.

I came home the other day with this lovely basket. All for the sake of sharing a little knowledge, and a lot of wind (talk, not toots!)  with a friend of mine. I sent him home to his wife with a grab bag full of seeds all labeled with when to plant and what would tolerate the frosts and what wouldn't, etc. I certainly didn't expect this, and now turn abouts fair play - if anyone is looking for the best AFLAC agent in Florida just let me know and I'll be glad to send you his info. :-) His wife C. made this basket by hand. Talk about talent. OK she didn't hand weave the thing, but she put it all together and made such a wonderful presentation. I can't wait to find the perfect place to put a few of these things, and the Burt's Bees already managed to find a place, my purse! :-D

Now, for the garden side. It's the end of April now so the cooler season crops have all dwindled down. I expect that the very last peas will be brought in on Saturday. All what, three, five? of them that are left. In their place I'll need to decide quickly if I will plant the limas or the black beans, or the cow peas, or.... *sigh* such cramped spaces is bad this time of year. In the winter it's good because I don't do a lot of cole crops but in the spring and through fall it is pure torture.

Believe it or not my corn is tasseling! It's a mere 3.5 - 4 foot tall! I am certainly not complaining. Early corn is all good by me. I'm just concerned because something inevitably happens to my corn. I typically harvest only 1/5 of what is planted. Oh, and I have a few silks peeking out, too so at least the plants aren't insane, they are doing what they are supposed to do, just early it seems.

The tomatillos - well they are insane still - both bushes but as of yet none of the fallen flowers have filled in well enough to tell for sure that we have set fruit. It seems we have, but no guarantees yet. I'm wondering how the 'papers' will do in our humidity, but so far the plants are certainly thriving on absolutely no attention whatsoever. I've decided next year to plant them behind the pool pump and let them grow wild, like weeds. We had a lantern grow there last year for only 2 months and it was willing to dominate the entire pumpyard. I'm thinking these plants look identical and act identical and would do very well there, completely ignored.

There are monsters in my garden lurking! This behemoth weighed in at over 2 and a half pounds! And it DID NOT BULB! Hello!? Can you imagine if it had? Yikes!
It has siblings i left in the ground, but curiosity got the best of me and after playing tug of war for a few minutes, I finally got this one out to give it the once over. Hopefully the others will see the massacre and get scared into bulbing. Hey, cound happen. Never know! Meanwhile it is perfectly usable, just not for storage. Soup, here it comes!

 

Every tomato plant I have it setting fruit now. Not as much fruit as I have seen in years past, thanks to a very hot start to our spring, but a faster start then previous years so it is a trade off. Even the smallest plants at only 4" are setting fruits! The one in the screen enclosure is as well and it is small, too. It's a everglades currant if anyone in Florida wants to know. I'll be planting more of those. Tom says they will set through the summer. I'm yet to see a tomato that truly sets in Florida summers, but he lives not far from me, so we shall see. I'm certainly excited to try, and Tom is someone I definitely trust, so I'm very excited indeed! (even if it is a tee tiny tomato something is better than nothing!)

The beans are still producing well, spilling into the lawn.
The first to produce (harvester) are finished with their duty and ready to be pulled and replaced with a summer staple. Hard to do that when the plant itself is so darn healthy. But it would be another 4 weeks before it would bloom again and then it would be too hot to set. Of course the decision of which plant will replace it is yet to come.

 

Sunflower, Winter squash Lakota and Pomegranates ready for pollination.

 
Pesky cuke finally took after weeks of getting after it with a paint brush. Just look! It's already over grown the 4' lattice. sheesh! I'm so happy to see this little fella hanging on!

The blackberries are uh- brambling. The grapes are setting....

 The peaches are ripening and as of yesterday fully half of them were stolen and our back gate was open. Grrr...

I've decided I'm going to fertilize this guy, grown him big and get him a collar. Then I will sick him on anyone who walks back there unannounced! Bad news is we had just showed off our garden to a neighbor. We don't think she did it, but we think she may have talked it up with her neighbors and word spreads. I just hope it was someones kids who did it and not an adult. I will seriously hurt someone if I find them stealing my food. (adult) Ask, and I will gladly share, but do NOT steal! Grrr...

I think that is it. The rest of the pictures are for Harvest Monday so come on back y'all. I have them uploaded already so at least you'll have the first half of the week waiting for ya! This week the garden harvesting is going gangbusters -relatively speaking for a 100 square foot garden- as the cool season stuff is on it's way out and needs harvested before it bolts. Get this- I FINALLY (successfully) grew carrots! Sweet success. Only problem is that the kids are eating them straight out of the garden (after rinsing them with the garden hose) and not many are making it inside! I guess that is a good sign that they at least taste good. GO ME! *snicker*

'Till next time!

Barbie~