The gardeners will appreciate my excitement

[Laura_in_FL]

50528

Yes, it's that time of year here. Actually a little late, but not too late, I think.

The winter has been very mild here; only two nights actually went below freezing in January. That was just enough cold weather to to kill off last year's tomatoes and peppers. I still have dead pepper plants in my Earthboxes. As it turns out, it was a good thing that I didn't clean the dead pepper plants out yet, because I saw yesterday that two of the plants are sending out new growth just above ground level! Even better, one of the plants that is regrowing is a pepper I really like - Doux Long d'Antibes - but failed to save seeds for last fall. I thought I was going to have to beg on gardening forums for more seeds, but if that plant makes it I can save seeds from it this year. thumbs2:

However, frost is still possible for a month or so. It's not a given that those two plants will survive. Hmmm...I just remembered that I have some Wall 'o' Waters around here. Those should protect them from anything short of a hard freeze, and I'm sure the plants would appreciate the extra warmth from the WoWs on cool nights even if I don't have a frost.

I'm also trying to germinate carrots in a raised bed right now, and I have some other cool-season crops just starting in a few of my Earthboxes - shelling peas, sugar snap peas, mustards, spinach (hopefully it's not too late for the spinach), and kohlrabi. I need to get some lettuce and other quick-growing greens going, too. I should have just enough time to sneak a crop of those out of my pepper Earthboxes before I need them for the peppers again in 6-7 weeks.

But its been so warm that I'm seriously pondering starting some bush beans in my other raised bed - this is about a month earlier than I would usually plant beans. Bean seed is cheap, right?

[RiversGirl]

Awesome -- thanks for bringing us along on your project. I love kohlrabi!

[William]

Looks like you going to have a nice kitchen garden. I am sure it is not to late. You still got more then enough time to get a good harvest.

[Silbar]

It's always exciting to see the first sprouts of Spring. Congrats on your veggies starting to sprout up!

[mermaidwannabe]

I've often considered starting indoors or investing in a greenhouse, but don't have any room for an indoor set-up, and greenhouses are ugly. Even if I had one, I'd have to plow through several feet of snow to get to it right now!

Last Spring, I planted what were supposed to be "early" varieties of tomatoes in large pots on our covered deck. That was the only way I could keep deer from eating them. Got a fair harvest, but it took them longer to set fruit and ripen than those varieties are supposed to. I placed the pots in the sunniest edge of our deck, but I don't think it stayed sunny on that side long enough during the day. If our deck had been open instead of covered, they would have done better. As it is, the sun shines in from the sides.

Can't have home-grown veggies in open beds here -- too short a season and I would just be feeding the deer.

North Idaho panhandle ....

[Laura_in_FL]

Mermaidwannabe, I hear you about deer. The downside of suburban living is the limited yard space. The upside is 6' privacy fences, which means no deer in the back yard. I do have issues with rabbits and other small critters (don't get me started ranting about fluffy-tailed tree rats) from time to time. But no garden-demolishing deer.

Also, I hear you about room for a seed-starting setup. But it doesn't take that much space. I use a shelving unit and hang lights from it. My setup takes about 4' x 1' of floor space, plus I need a bit of room to maneuver around the front to tend the plants. In perspective, it takes about the same space as a 40 gallon long aquarium. And it can be anywhere in the house where I can plug in the grow lights. You can't start all the plants for a huge garden on a shelving unit like mine, but you can definitely start a nice batch of tomatoes and peppers.

William, the reason I worry about being too late with the garden is the heat and humidity, which in some years can start really early. Also, summer is the rainy season here. Disease and insect pressure is very intense in July and August. Many vegetable crops struggle, quit producing, or just plain die in Florida in July and August. Only the real heat-lovers, veggies that originated in the humid tropics, thrive in the summer here. Most common vegetables are much easier to grow in the spring and fall. On the plus side, I can grow cool-weather crops all winter without protection, unless we have an unusually cold year.

Tomatoes in particular are hard to keep alive in July and August. Dealing with the disease and pest pressure requires spraying with chemicals I don't want to use. And the combination of very warm nights and high humidity sterilizes most tomatoes' pollen. Except for cherry tomatoes and a few varieties specially bred for hot and humid conditions, most tomatoes quit setting fruit by Memorial Day. So after all of the spring fruit ripens in early July I just take down the plants. I don't see the point in constantly spraying to keep plants alive when they aren't going to set any fruit for months anyway. It's easier to set out healthy transplants for a fall crop.

Having said that, I am always looking for tomatoes that can produce through Florida summers without toxic sprays. A few of the more disease-resistant cherries can. I have high hopes for Healani - it was bred by the University of Hawaii for hot, humid, tropical climates.

[Laura_in_FL]

Oh, and Riversgirl, kohlrabi is something I only recently discovered. A few years back when I told one of my gardening forum friends that I never had it, he sent me some seed and said I needed to try it. He was right. :ssmile:

I like Superschmelz kohlrabi because you can pick it small or leave it until it gets huge and it's still not woody. So you can plant it at normal kohlrabi spacing and then harvest every other one when they are at 2"-4" diameter and leave the rest to get huge. Of course, then when you go harvest the big ones, and you have kohlrabis the size of melons, it can be tricky figuring out what to do with it all. :ssuprised:

[mermaidwannabe]

Combine kohlrabi with kale in salads, and you'll have a nutritional jackpot. Add other homegrown veggies, and your immune system should love it. It's a vitamin shop without the pills.

[flchamp89]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170216/be9f00e13d1f53e26db417bfd7be1071.jpg

Got red potomac in right now.

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[Laura_in_FL]

Those are potatoes, right? I have never tried growing potatoes due to my limited garden space. Your plants look nice and healthy. thumbs2:

I've got stuff coming up like mad both indoors and out. All of the veggies I talked about above are up or starting to come up. Also, I did plant some bush beans - I expect to see them breaking dirt any time now.

I also planted six blueberry bushes. I used to have bananas in that spot, but they never fruited. (They were wrong kind for my climate - that was research failure on my part many years ago.) Blueberries are one of the few fruits that are usually easy to grow here. The soil here is naturally acidic, and the types I got are bred for this climate. So hopefully in a few years I'll have lots of berries. My DH loves blueberries, so he is looking forward to that.

[flchamp89]

We have a few climax bushes. They should do well where your at. I got starters going too. I dont plant till im positive no more frost. Im a chicken

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[Laura_in_FL]

I'm mostly a chicken. :wink: The peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant are staying indoors until I'm sure its safe. Everything else in the outside garden can take a frost.

I decided to risk bush beans because the seed is cheap and they are fast growers in case I need to replace them. But, for example, I haven't planted my pole beans yet because I can't find that variety locally and I only have enough seed to plant once. But I am getting more and more tempted to risk a few other veggies that I have plenty of seed for.

However, I garden on a small scale in a suburban lot - when I have to replace something it's usually just a few plants, not rows and rows like in your big garden. So I am not risking nearly as much seed as you would be.

[mermaidwannabe]

Our growing season here in the north Idaho panhandle:

Begins after Mothers' Day (IF we're lucky), and more often than not, we have to wait until after Memorial Day to ensure there won't be a late frost.

One Spring, we continued to have daytime temperature in the 30s well into June. It warmed up late that year, which cut our growing season even shorter.

Ends, quite often, September 1st with the first killer frost of Fall. Sometimes we get lucky and it doesn't frost until much later, and if we're REALLY lucky, we get an Indian Summer.

That isn't much time for things that take long to grow and mature.

That's one thing I sorely miss about Southern California -- we could grow things all year around, and heat waves in January were common.


At least their drought is over. For awhile.

[flchamp89]

Super dry here. We are historically one of the most dry counties in Florida.

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[Laura_in_FL]

I didn't realize that about Suwanee County. We get about 60" of rain a year here, but of course most of that falls in the summer, especially in active tropical storm/hurricane years. Even though we've had springtime temperatures, we have had a reasonable amount of rain lately. But as warm as it is, I expect the spring dry season to start any time now.

I haven't had time to do more than feeding and basic maintenance with my aquarium because I have so much to do in the yard and garden right now. I have a ton more yard and garden projects stacked up to take care of, and I'm trying to hire folks to do some exterior work on the house. Probably in late March I will have more time to focus on the aquarium. At least, I will have until the harvest really starts coming in May and especially June.

Mermaid, I talk to gardeners around the country and I know some other folks with similarly short gardening seasons. Since I'm a Florida native, it always strikes me as odd that folks up North are just planting out (or are still waiting to plant out) when my tomatoes and peppers start rolling in. It must have been quite an adjustment when you moved there from SoCal! But hopefully you have nice soil and those long summer days to help compensate for the short growing season. :ssmile:

[steeler58]

We usually can't plant gardens until May here :(

[Laura_in_FL]

If it makes you feel any better, later this summer I will be desperately jealous of your tomatoes. My plants will be long dead when yours are producing.

[flchamp89]

I dont get it laura. What are your summer crops. Are you geeting two plantings in? I can pick peas and okra till November. Sometimes as late as Turkey day.

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[Laura_in_FL]

I think we have a terminology problem. :ssmile:

When you say "peas" you mean southern peas / cowpeas / field peas. Yes, those love the heat. I just haven't had enough space to plant enough to get a worthwhile harvest. So I don't plant them every year. I may have a bigger patch of dirt available for a later (June) planting this year, though.

The peas I was posting about above are English peas - what everyone not from the south just calls "peas." They like it cool; the heat usually kills them by mid-May.

Summer Crops:
okra
hot peppers
some sweet peppers (Some of the bells and other big sweet peppers suffer in the heat; production and fruit size drops off a lot in July and August. But I leave them out there since they come back strong in the fall)
eggplants, depending on the variety (Some suffer like sweet potatoes in July and August, others produce through the heat)
Asian long beans / yard long beans

Spring and Fall crops:
tomatoes (transplants set out March and August)
green beans (bush and pole)
English peas (fall is iffy)
cucumbers (spring only; some varieties go all summer; never had much luck with fall cukes)
summer squash (spring only due to SVBs)

Cool Season Crops:
lettuce
greens of all sorts
carrots and other root veggies
broccoli/cauliflower/other brassicas


This summer, I am going to try some pole limas that are supposed to be heat-tolerant and see how they do in the summer.

Sweet potatoes would do great all summer, and so would peanuts, but here again I have a space problem - my whole veggie garden is in containers and a few small raised beds. Corn is another one I don't usually grow due to space. Winter squash, space problem, plus SVBs unless I plant only C. moschata varieties. Melons, also a space issue - but I am going to try some small melons on trellises for the kids, though.

Whew, tired of reading yet?

[waylon101]

I want to do some inside growing this year :)

[Laura_in_FL]

I'm thinking of growing some leaf lettuce and micro-dwarf tomatoes inside during the heat of the summer when I can't grow them outside. I just have to make sure to leave enough space under the grow lights for growing seedlings of plants that I will need to transplant out in August-October. Such as tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc.

Also some pansies for fall planting...whoops, argh...I am out of space under the grow lights already! :doh:

[flchamp89]

Yep....lol sorry. Peas. Primary purple hull, clemson 80, silver queen in summer. Ill usually get two runs of the purple hulls.

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[Laura_in_FL]

Purple hull are supposed to be some of the easiest to grow, and they are pretty easy to shell, too. (I spent many an afternoon shelling peas at Granny's house when I was growing up.) To me, White Acre wins for flavor, but they are a pain to shell compared to the purple hulls.

I am a fan Emerald okra, since it stays tender longer than Clemson Spineless (is Clemson 80 similar to Clemson Spineless?) and produces better for me also, especially in the fall as the weather cools down. I have never grown Silver Queen, but I got seeds for it in a trade last fall. I might try SQ this year instead of Emerald.

[flchamp89]

Clemson 80 is the same.

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[Ritchie]

I'm getting itchy to start gardening. Soon I will be starting my tomatoes from seeds and turning my compost thumbs2:

[Shidohari]

Unfortunately I have only a little 'deck' space in my condo, which doesn't get sun until the middle to late afternoon as I'm on the upper level of my condo building. So I am unable to keep plants or have a mini garden on my deck.

That being said, great work to all the gardeners that shared their gardens.

[Laura_in_FL]

You might be able to grow leaf lettuce or some other greens - some of them can get by with just a few hours of sun.

Or you can grow some ornamental shade-tolerant flowers or foliage plants if you just want to have something pretty and alive on your deck.

[Shidohari]

You might be able to grow leaf lettuce or some other greens - some of them can get by with just a few hours of sun.

Or you can grow some ornamental shade-tolerant flowers or foliage plants if you just want to have something pretty and alive on your deck.

I live in northern KY so we get all four seasons for the most part here though this year it's been sticking hints of spring inside of winter.

I have a Lowes and a Home Depot in town, I forget if there were any gardening specific stores near me.

My deck is as wide as a hallway and has a entry door at either end. One door to my bedroom the other door to my living room area. The light hits closest to the windows of my dining area of my condo around 4ish depending on the day. Occasionally earlier but normally by that time.

The other drawback is that unlike some of the other decks that have the wooden rails, mine has a 'brick' barrier that covers the whole front. That's the other reason I have restricted light. The building that my condo is in was made by a different building company than most of the others.

Since I haven't figured out anything that I could do with those restrictions, I haven't put any money into a project yet.

[Laura_in_FL]

Ah, the brick barrier does make it harder. Pots sitting on the floor of your deck would get almost no sun due to the wall.

You could get around that by having the soil level up near the top of the brick barrier. You could use either a stand of some kind to elevate your pots, or you could use some kind of deck railing planter, such as: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-24-in-Metal-English-Horse-Trough-Planter-HTR24TBVG/205388455. I'd install the deck railing planter so that it hangs on the inside. This eliminates the risk of it falling onto people below.

Or you could just grow houseplants instead of veggies. There are some low-light plants that can survive on room light or the little sun they'd get hanging or sitting by the window looking out onto your deck. Pothos is one that springs to mind right off the bat. If you get lucky and find the variegated pothos, they are quite pretty and very easy to care for.

[Shidohari]

Ah, the brick barrier does make it harder. Pots sitting on the floor of your deck would get almost no sun due to the wall.

You could get around that by having the soil level up near the top of the brick barrier. You could use either a stand of some kind to elevate your pots, or you could use some kind of deck railing planter, such as: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-24-in-Metal-English-Horse-Trough-Planter-HTR24TBVG/205388455. I'd install the deck railing planter so that it hangs on the inside. This eliminates the risk of it falling onto people below.

Or you could just grow houseplants instead of veggies. There are some low-light plants that can survive on room light or the little sun they'd get hanging or sitting by the window looking out onto your deck. Pothos is one that springs to mind right off the bat. If you get lucky and find the variegated pothos, they are quite pretty and very easy to care for.

When the sun actually comes up I'll try to get a decent picture of the deck area to post to this thread.

Once i wake up and remember to do so that is, i worked third shift so i've been off and home from work only a couple hours.

I couldn't reply earlier because my team lead at my part time job (which is evening shift not third shift like my primary warehouse job) advised me that I was no longer allowed to post on forums between calls since company information is on their computer screens as i post. I was very board for the rest of the night....Unfortunately he was doing his job so I'm not mad at him.