Harvest Monday 6.18.12

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday. Make sure to join the fun over at her place. Stop by to see all the different things being harvested all over the world!
Harvests are much slower now.

This is the main harvest this week:

The onions I harvested? Just over ten pounds worth and when all was said and done I was only able to save my sanity and 25 ounces. Talk about a let down.  19 ounces in garlic. 1 pound of leeks.

This weeks harvest totals - 1lb 2oz concord grapes, 8oz tomatoes, 2oz broccoli, 6oz okra and a few measly greenbeans I'm not counting because I fed them to the hens (next door) I also got 2oz basil and a large fistful of parsley that I started to dry until I realized there was something wrong with it. (looked like pin holes through the leaves...*sigh*) so I'm yanking out the old parsley and starting a new batch. This one was 3 years old so I had to expect it to have something wrong sooner or later.

The garden is (mostly) bare and awaiting turning under. I got all those spots yanked out that needed it and now summer planting can start as soon as I can get the turning, compost topping and sowing done.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

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~

Size difference.

Oh my. I just realized how much difference in size my twinks have now.

 

Just look at those graduation pictures.

(they are the two together on the right)

And here they are just a month ago...

*sniff* Looks like my little Annah B is getting left behind in the height department. I didn't want to have to start buying different sizes (except shoes - Katie has my big feet) but it looks like I'll need to soon.  

Oh I can't believe the difference. I have to go get a tissue now....

Barbie~

Locked out? Fines...and rambling.

Well, I'm still locked out - and have been for months now of all the social sites. This must be some sort of virus that finally infiltrated the blog. Losing Facebook? I can live with that. I didn't frequent it that much and other than keeping up with a few select people well - it seems more of a time suck anyway.

But I couldn't lose my blog. So I have a safety net. I have 2 identities here. :-D That way I can at the least reset the password on one or the other to get in and post. Posting via email in the interim worked, but then I still couldn't post the comments or update, post links, etc. It just felt strange knowing the blog was all by itself. Lonely on the web. Kind of like leaving a teenager at home by themselves for the first time. The same way I feel when I go on vacation and leave the garden all by itself. LOL.

At any rate - I'm back in. Once I got here I realized I REALLY need to update the harvest tally. So I'll try to work on that today so I can update it by Monday.

There hasn't been a lot of harvesting this week. Things are so water logged that they are rotting. The rest of the onions and garlic seem to be rotting in all the rain. Par for the course - I should have know better than to have them out when the summer rains hit so it's my fault, just not a happy thought to throw that food into the compost pile.It's so water logged the roads look more like rivers. You think I'm joking? This is 3 lanes of road and a sidewalk...

The caution sign actually floated away you can see it up on in the parking lot. I need to bring a paddle to work to make sure that I can get home each evening now.
While the harvest is slowing to a crawl some things are picking up rapidly. Weeds are growing faster than you can blink. That much rain and heat make good mushroom weather, too. That means every other fungus will be attacking soon as well. I'll have to break out some sort of fungicide soon. This is where my organic methods fail me. I've not found anything that works against these conditions yet. :-( It may be a lack of knowledge base, so I'm all ears and willing to try if you have any ideas.

The weeds are where the fine part of the post comes in. My HOA is at it again. They are trying to fine me for weeds in my yard. my front yard. Now my back yard - that is different. I will admit the area we don't use daily back there the grass has gone to seed and the seed heads are a little unsightly...My lawn mower has been out of commission so part of the back has been pretty bad. But, we've been using the weed whacker to keep all the long stuff at bay in the front and the main area in the back. Yet, I got ANOTHER threatening letter in the mail on Monday telling me I'm being fined $100 a day. AGAIN

Here was my yard on that day:

(For reference it had not been cut for over 2 weeks - our mower was out of service)

Flooded? A little patchy maybe - it's native grasses. possibly not perfectly manicured- but weedy or high? NO! The neighbor adjoining was a good 8" taller so this irks me considerably. I'm sorry I know I complain a lot here about this type of thing. But, I'm not about to complain much to my neighbors. The last thing I need is for them to go talking to the wrong person and for it to get worse.
Good news is we are the proud owner of a rather used RIDING lawn mower. Of course it doesn't fit in a lot of places in the back yard, but that is what the weed whacker is for, right?

So between the rain and the season change I need to do a lot of maintenance in the garden. Problem is the worst of the storms are in the evenings, when I could get to the garden - guess it's time to start utilizing the free labor I have when I do get out there. Time to put the kids to work! I'll have to mark of sections of the garden and give them gloves. I'll just let them go at it. If they pull up more than I wanted them to then - so be it. That is what seeds are for. Growing new things after all.  They need to learn about this part. They've been planting and harvesting with me for years. Time for them to learn about culling as well. Time for me to get over my fear of losing a few productive plants and gain trust in them.

Here is what needs pulled. This picture is now 2 weeks old so what is little is not so little any more...

The lattice is barely visible now, and the soy beans are flowering. Sweet tiny little flowers. Not what I was expecting at all. LOL. Should have read up better I suppose. I just hope they do OK through all the rains. The germination was spotty at best and I'm blaming the squirrels for a raid on that one. I shouldn't have planted the peanuts at the same time. I need enough to reseed a fall crop - or spring crop.

That's easily half the garden space that will be freed up. Cowpeas will go in, and a few more Okra. More peanuts as well. I have visions of peanut butter dancing in my head. Some limas and because I can't not do it a couple watermelon vines even though I don't expect much. I might let them compete for space on the trellis but its sagging and I'm not sure what to do with that... ???

WOW this is a long post - but you can see I have a lot of work ahead of me right now. I'll try to remember to take pictures along the way. I'm not always so great about doing that, but I'll try. It should be one of the larger changes to my garden area. Then again I've not have this large of a garden this time of the year before.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Bloging via email...

I’m locked out of my blog. That stinks. Royally.

 

I had wanted to go over a few things about Florida tomatoes. I have had a few questions about them and thought this was  a good time to get some answers out there.

 

Yes, I’ve pulled almost all of my tomato plants from my garden already. It’s rained consistently daily for several weeks now. When our daily rains show up- the diseases do, too. Besides that these plants just were not performing well. Despite being on my normal rotations they were not growing properly. I’ll take that back. My Steak Sandwich hybrids are still growing nicely – still in the garden, but not setting fruit. Only still in the garden because they are not diseased terribly yet. But, they are a hybrid so I’d expect them to last a bit longer. They are a type of Beefsteak so they are delicious and that gains them brownie points, too. ;-) Also still alive but not doing as well are the Sungold’s and Cherokee Purple. They still have fruit and I can’t quite tell if the fruit is still setting… I’m giving them another 10 days to see what’s really going on.

 

That brings me to some of the biggest questions about why I pull my plants and start over again. Of course disease is the very biggest reason, but also a hugely limiting factor is the heat here. Along with the rains, (Kind of what causes our rains) Our thermometer has topped  90* every day for several weeks as well. Night time temps are no longer dropping below about 78* and therefore - fruit is no longer setting. Once this happens the trend is a spiraling effect. In Fall because the humidity can cause the pollen not to distribute it can make the falling nighttime temperatures moot. But, trying to keep a tomato plant alive through that heat and daily rain? While possible it almost always leads right back to the main reason I pull the plants and restart…disease. By the time the temps cool back down the plants are ravaged. I’d rather use the space for those few months for something that is productive.

 

Of course living in these swampy conditions means we also live with a very large assortment of bugs. For a (mostly) organic gardener like myself this can be a massive challenge. Keeping to a rigid spraying and plucking schedule when you can hardly get to the garden to harvest is a difficult task, indeed. So choosing the plants that you have in your garden is equally important. Choosing what types of sprays and what types of organic methods you use are obviously just as important. Fungus attacks here faster that lightning bugs can flicker their little light butts on and off – so making sure you’re paying attention to your plants is probably the most important thing you can do!

 

Most Floridians tend to rely on greenhouse tomatoes because of these problems. To that I say a resounding, BOOOO!!!!

 

UGH. Is there anything worse that a gassed tomato? I mean I know that we can’t all grow every single tomato from the garden, but I’ll be darned if I don’t at least try. Those I don’t grow myself get purchased from local sources. (At least someone can grow them around here) Farmers markets are a great source for me. I know that not everyone is blessed to live in an area where tomatoes are grown year round. Heck during the winter 85% of Americas tomato consumption comes from Florida. I’m actually ashamed to admit that because they are mostly tasteless compared to what we find in our markets here. (Sorry all you North of the Florida line)

 

In the pots on my screened in porch I still have 1 determinate and 1 indeterminate plant. I can’t help but try to continue to grow SOME tomatoes through the summer. Besides if all I do is manage to nurse these plants into fall limping along they should set fruit as soon as the temperatures fall again. These two plants are one each of a heat tolerant heirloom and a heat tolerant hybrid.

 

That’s right folk’s! The University of Florida has a program out there that does nothing but devote years and years to breeding heat tolerant tomatoes. In 2010 the biggest and best headliner was the Solar Fire – Now this year the tomato that takes the cake? The Tasti-Lee. I’m not so sure how tasty this tomato really is, but most of these overbred tomatoes lose a lot of flavor in the process of picking up a lot of disease resistance and heat tolerance. The Solar Fire and it’s little brother the Solar Set supposedly will set tomatoes through temps into the 91* mark and with nighttime temps into the mid 80’s. Not a huge improvement you say? The 5 degree difference gains us up 2 months of time in the garden. With a sun screen there is the possibility that the tomato could tolerate setting at some point each week throughout the majority of the year (disregarding any freezing temps of course)

 

Some heirlooms are known for setting in higher temps than others – but here this far into the south we have to watch for the disease problems so even though Cherokee Purple is a wonderful (I do grow it in the Fall and occasionally spring) producer in the North it is susceptible to damping off even with larger seedlings. Good to know in our monsoons. It can also be susceptible to Bacterial Spot, Fusarium Wilt and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl – all bad buggars in our Florida gardens – It does show some resistance to late blight though – that’s nice in an heirloom! Arkansas traveler and Sioux/Super Sioux are also on the short list of heat tolerant indeterminate varieties that do pretty well with a decent disease resistance. I have an affection for beefsteaks and will be trying Monomahk’s Hat this Fall as well.

 

But, I gotta tell ya – I long ago gave up only growing heirlooms. Production wise it was a lose/lose situation. I can’t NOT grow them. Because I demand a better flavor and the heirlooms give me that for out of hand eating. Bring a salt shaker into the garden and there isn’t much I won’t eat out of hand and tomatoes are one of my absolute favorites.

 

When it comes to keeping the tomatoes on the table though? I depend on the hybrids for that. Every year I trial some and I’m not going to tell you here which are my favorite and which are not. Why? Because every person’s taste buds are different. That’s why. What I like in a tomato may be completely different than what you like. What I will tell you is what does well around here. What I will also tell you is that as of yet – NOTHING - not one single tomato plant variety is perfect. Sometimes I think I hit the jackpot and the next season I grow them again and it’s a complete failure.

 

Hybrids that were specifically bred for Florida usually sound Floridian. Look for things like Floridel, Tropic, Flroidade, Florimerica or Suncoast, Sunchaser, Homestead, Gulfstream (WOW what a disease package!)

But, those plants were made to be resistant to diseases and production, not for taste tests. Win some, lose some. There are others too that do well here Lemon boy, Celebrity, Betterboy to name a few.

 

So- I plant some for production, and some for flavor and usually come out on top. With a good mixture of both. When I make sauces that are going to use a lot of spices, I use the less flavorful of the bunch. When I’m looking at a recipe that is wanting to really bring out the flavor of the tomato and not mask it – I’ll use the better flavored ones. I get the best of both worlds this way. Usually. Sometimes (Like this season) I only get about 10 pounds of tomatoes and I’m disappointed. But, that is the fun of having 2 seasons of tomato growing. I get to try again in a couple months!

 

Right now I’m thinking about which seeds to start… Time to wet some paper towels and mark the bags. It’s seed starting time!

 

‘Till next time!

Barbie~

 

Harvest Monday 6.4.12

June. Really? Wow.

It's hard to believe it's June already. But then again there are only2 tomatoes left in my garden now so that makes sense. The rest are pulled and gone. A couple in pots on the porch are still fighting a good fight. I'm trying to keep them for fall - we'll see if that works. Something went wrong on the spring crop. I pulled in 5 pounds of green tomatoes this week before I yanked the vines. I'm sure I'll have more of the sungolds and such coming in here and there but that is it for the slicers until fall. *sigh* Somethings gotta give. I'm not a good tomato grower. AT. ALL.  This year the tomatoes barely grew, and I didn't get a lot of fruit. Last year... Oh, last year i had a bumper crop despite having what i think was Septoria leaf spot. But so much of the fruit was damaged to the stinking worms. This year not a lot of fruit but no damage at all to cats... Keep on trucking. But I'm getting into the funk part of the year. I don't want to keep going, but I know if I do there will be rewards. I need to get a bunch of marigolds out into the garden, and get the cow peas in the ground. More okra and let the garden start taking care of itself while I start concentrating on the screen porch and getting ready for the fall garden.

This weeks harvest:

broccoli I swear wasn't white- the flash was on. Just a bowlful. Perfect for a side dish.

Carrots 1lb 3oz. Not all of them are pictured here. This in one picking. I've got one more like this coming maybe. Then the rest might be weaklings. I'm not sure if any more after the next batch would be worth showing so this is getting very close to the end of them. *sniff* Same for the broccoli. I'm amazed that I still have it really. I've started eating some of the leaves knowing that the plants won't be around much more

Mmmm...beet cake from the last of the beets....

Tomatillos (very small I'm disappointed in them) sungolds, chilis romas, and a cuke.

AND.... GRAPES> C.O.N.C.O.R.D.....grapes!!!! And they are Delicious!

I didn't even know I had them! I assumed that the second vine was green like the first, but I was wrong, and I am OOOOOooooooo so happy to be wrong! They are small but so good!

Linking in for Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions. Thanks Daphne for being such a wonderful Hostess!

Don't forget to stop by her place and check out all the posts for Harvest Monday that highlight everyones Harvests from all over the world.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Along that line...

Always learning.

Apparently you already knew that broccoli could set out additional sets of roots. You are smart folk. I was not so smart. I had simply not learned that lesson on my own yet. Nowhere in my reading had I come across anything like that. I've since scoured the internet searching for information on it and I am yet to find it written anywhere about this phenomenon so I'm feeling pretty good about my discovery. I'm guessing though that you smart cookies that have been doing this for a while found out through trial and error long before I did.

Don't you worry about me. I'll catch up later.

I've got another one for you today. :-) Another simple fact that you probably already knew. But, I'm gonna put it out there in case you didn't - because up until last week I didn't know it. Actually I didn't know it until Tina came over and my son said, 'Hey- MA! What's this?'... and I had to abashedly say - 'Well, Gee son, I don't really know. I'll have to get back to ya on that. But, let's make sure we find out together, OK?'  A few minutes later Tina asked me how in the world my long beans didn't have aphids and what I was doing to keep them off the vines, and my mind was whirling and I was off in the conversation again.

What Troy had called my attention to was a gathering of tiny wasps, of different varieties - but the tiniest ones I've ever seen. They were lined up production line style and busy, busy, busy. I didn't at the time have a few minutes to spare to truly watch and see what they were doing - but I did notice a ladybug nearby and that these wasps were all about what they were doing and couldn't care less if we messed with them, got in there way or were close to them. They just kept doing whatever they were doing.

We were enjoying company so we kept doing what we were doing, too. The next day though I went out to see what the fuss was about. Most of the wasps weren't as happy though - we were, uh- well dealing with the tail end of T.S. Beryl. It was rainy and windy but in between when it cleared up they were there doing their business, but that didn't make for a good time to bring out my camera. By Tuesday evening the social occasion had dropped to less of a frenzy, but they were still visiting.

Here is the proof - and then I'll tell you what I learned with each picture.

This first picture above- I learned that unlike what I've read over and over again about wasps- they are not incredibly territorial. I've even read that you can hang a fake wasp nest in your yard to keep wasps away because they are so territorial. Please take note that they are actually touching each other here and not being aggressive. Also note what is UNDER them.....

 

Here the red wasp has nearly finished his duty. After their little social get together they went their separate ways. One went to tend one side of the leaf while the other one (that had reinforcements) went in the direct opposite way. The red wasp was alone and as such he (she?) went to the area with less of what they were after - AH HA! The answer to my riddle. The APHIDS! They are eating the aphids off of this citrus tree. Note the wasp on the right - the little crooked ovipositor is visible at her tail. This wasp is definitely a female.

Here you can see that the black and yellow wasps have finished cleaning the lower branch off now. SLURP!

Yet another reason that I don't have a lot of other bugs around the garden, my little pet soldier bugs.... Well I should add a disclaimer here. I have an abundance of leaf footed bugs (whos young look just like this soldier bugs young) and more than my fair share of stink bugs....grrrr... if only I could find a way to get rid of those two I'd be golden. All the other bugs around my garden are in fairly good ratio. *knocking on wood* The wasps, bees, spiders, and other bugs - they have never bothered me. Myself and my children have never been stung or bitten by any of them through the normal course of the day. I did however GRAB a wasp once. He didn't sting me then, but when I let him go he tried to fly off and couldn't do so successfully and managed to sting my backside. LOL. Win some, lose some I suppose. I deserved it. I knocked down the nest in broad daylight and knew it to begin with.

So there is today's lesson. Wasps eat aphids. At least these itty bitty wasps do. Too cool!

You knew this too? How cool for you. I'll still keep posting these little ditty's anyway. Never know when I'll come up with something completely new or unexpected. Maybe I'll break the some new science record some day. Don't count on it.

See you Monday for Harvest Monday. I'm off for a picnic at Silver Springs if the weather will clear up finally.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Lessons - learning...

Times TWO!

First of all is a sad and BAD lesson.

Squirrels like immature persimmons. Yup. That's right. Freaking, Fracking, Stinking, I'm gonna run 'em over and then back up over 'em and then get my shot gun out.... OK I'm in a residential neighborhood so I'm not gonna get my gun out - but I might just sic my kid on them with his paint ball gun... with pellets in it. GRRRR..... Squirrel stew is sounding good about now. With new potatoes and carrots because I still have about 10 left from my potato haul and I still have carrots. LOL.

Onto better things. The second thing that I learned. First let me begin this by saying that while i've been gardening a long time- I've only grown certain things for most my life. Namely my grandmothers garden and she grew watermelon, bush beans, some tomatoes and left most of the other stuff to other local farmers where we would trade and barter.

 I have had a broccoli plant that I've been letting bloom and keeping trimmed for nigh on 8 months now. Over the winter I needed something to keep the pollinating bugs in the yard and happy. I chose this plant because it was consistently in bloom and required little to no extra care other than for me to go out weekly and collect the seed pods so that I didn't have 5,000 broccoli plants growing in this one tiny planter. Being the thinking ahead kind of person that I am I chose to put this particular plant under my peach tree. Smart, right? Bring the pollinators right where I'll want them in the spring. Teehee. I thought that was sheer genius. And, it was.  Somewhere around November we had the tail end of a tropical storm that knocked this (then) young broccoli plant down. It actually knocked it in between the slats of my planter and I could not right the plant without damaging it further. So, I determined that I would simply leave the plant there and see what happened. This is where my lesson comes in.

Like tomatoes and squash broccoli is capable of laying down additional sets of roots. Did you know this already? I most certainly did not! But, I do have some proof to show you. This picture shows you not the main roots, not the secondary, but these are the Tertiary and quaternary roots. OOOOoooo big words. Third and forth sets of roots. This particular plant continued to set off side shoots for the entire 8 months (if you ever wondered how long your broccoli plant will keep producing now you know) and as long as I didn't clip it in the first few days it would send it to flower. Now, IF as I did when it started to warm up and I no longer needed the flowers you then keep the flowering section trimmed off the plant it will not try to blot as fast. So by keeping it trimmed or letting it bolt you can control if you want to harvest from the beast or not. That is not to say that while the plant is in flower you cannot harvest from it - you just have to be vigilant. If you don't cut the floret in just a day or two it will be bolting already.

I'll stop talking- here is the picture -

Keep in mind that I yanked that sucker up. I had no intentions at the time of trying to save those roots or show anyone what it had done. You can see that the lower part of the stem had gone completely woody at that point and made a true root. The plant was easily 3' across and 5' tall - well it was 3' tall but only because it had fallen. The woody portion that you can see in the picture from one rooted section to the other is the length of my forearm... and I have very long arms. I'm 5'9" tall if that is any indication to you.

The actual root section was so large and so infiltrated with the peach tree that I had to leave it in the ground. That was the not so stellar thinking on my part. But, this learning curve really got me thinking  about how these plants survive in the wild and I can just see not only the pods burst open over and over spilling MILLIONS of seeds per plant, but the longevity of this plant due to it's ability to grow up, fall over re-root and gain strength each time. Amazing plant, and we as gardeners tend to think of it as a short term plant. Huh...

Gives ya more to think about.

'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~

Super Nanny

Where is she when I need her?

My girls are twins. Surely you knew that, right?

They're 5 and OK closer to 6. They are opposites in almost every way. Except one.

Night time.

Yes the dreaded nighttime routine.

Oh the joys of motherhood. This has been my nightmare since they stopped sleeping in the same space (crib/isolette) at 19 months of age.

When we brought them home at 3 pounds and change they fit sideways in a crib together. They stayed swaddled, together when they slept for their first year of life. This is a side effect of that bonding. One that could have never been told. One that I ALMOST wish we could have seen coming. But, one that I wouldn't have gotten a single stretch of uninterrupted sleep at night without when they were those teeny tiny infants.

For a reminder here they are at nearly six months of age. Still not even the size of  most newborns. *sigh*

I have now been trying to break this cycle of falling asleep for 4 years. FOUR YEARS Y'ALL!!!

Have we had this conversation before? Well. Sit back relax and grab yourself a glass of ice tea because it's time for a refresher course.

This is my recurring nightmare. Only for me it's real. Our bedtime routine involves the typical things. We brush teeth, sometimes we floss (OK well, once or twice a week I remember that part but their teeth don't even touch LOL!) then we head to the potty and strip on the way out of the bathroom. Once the girls are in their bedroom (usually after a side trip here or there and a little cajoling by me to GET IN THERE... RIGHT NOW!!!) they get into their night clothes and we read a bible story. This part normally goes well, I'll say normally. There is an occasional child running in the opposite direction as one institutes the wonderful art of distraction - running nude to my bed or grabbing me and hanging on koala bear style pretending to be all lovey dovey. It's all for not though. This Momma bear is on to them. The girls hop into bed, get a kiss and hug, an "I love you" and of course a reminder to sleep nicely and to be quiet. The lights go out... and promptly 2 minutes later the talking and bouncing and giggling and throwing of things (pillows, blankets, clothes) begins. If I do not intercede it gets louder and they end up either standing/kneeling/jumping or out of bed entirely.

Grrrr.....

If I separate them completely? Oh that is fun. WAILING. And I don't mean the cry it out method will work type of stuff. I mean these are twins with some serious separation issues at night. During the day they can and will be separated, but at night it's like their souls are back in the womb and being in a different room is torterous. Even so, it's not against my rules to use this against them, and I do. When they are entirely too out of hand I will take one of them out of the room and place them on a cot in the hall way. It is however at a great expense. I have to quite literally punish myself to do this. If I leave them this way it means that for hours (no exaggeration on my part) I will hear screaming and crying from them both as if their hearts are torn out. And the one that is in the hallway will be in some serious trouble because it is almost impossible that they will stay in the cot and not leave. At times it is worse this way and causes behavior issues. Really. ? I wouldn't believe it either it's completely ridiculous. Incredulous even.

There is no reward system great enough and no punishment punishing enough to get these two sweet little girls to go to bed nicely. We've tried bunk beds, side by side, different rooms, stickers, me in the room, out of the room, ignoring, spanking even ... and there has never been ANYTHING that works. Each and every system that we try we STICK TO IT for weeks. So none of the systems are run into and out of tossed aside and the children figure we'll go back to our old ways. Not the case.

Tired of the subject yet? After four years how do you think I feel? I've managed to rock myself to sleep crying more than once from the stress of it. That's simply not healthy.  It's the one thing about parenting twins I just don't get.

Let me rephrase that. It's the one thing about parenting THESE twins I just don't get.

Super Nanny - Where are you!? I need you. My sanity needs you!

'Till next time!

Barbie~