Plants and off to Guate!

I am running off to Guatemala for 4 days to visit my friend Carol. It was a totally last minute thing and I am really excited.

The garden is doing great. I can only hope it rains EVERYDAY while I am gone!!

Here are some pics while I finish packing...

Zinnias waiting to bloom...

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The pomegranate tree has it's first bloom on it! YEAH!

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My cucumbers were growing all over the place - so I brought in the big guns

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To help build my new vining device - so far so good - totally made out of old and used pieces of wood I had around

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My cucumbers have been having an aphid problem - and right when I was planning on spraying it with some Neem in came the ladybugs...and I have every color and size and shape of them too! Yeah for beneficials!

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I do have bad news - the tomatoes are definitely done soon - they are still getting tomatoes but the look rough...I hope they survive my trip

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Making the Rain

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.” - Goethe

If only Goethe were right I could spontaneously call upon the rain. I am back to watering again ::le sigh:: It is such a chore now with these hot days ahead to keep the ground moist and the plants happy. 

I have also come to the conclusion that one can be TOO good at growing things. This of course comes way after the fact that I now own too many plants to fit in my small garden in the back. It wont stop me from attempting great feats of gardening ingenuity though!

I spent the day moving the rest of the sunflowers to the front of the house where the soil doesn't require as much work to help things grow and where I actually found worms in the ground. 

No blog pics for today. Too busy running around...but I'll get moody tonight in hopes of a shower.

Days of Rain

No post in a few days. Sorry. I was having too much fun at my friend Mickey's bachelorette party weekend. Congrats to her again!

She doesn't believe I garden so I am putting some EXTRA pics on here just for her. I am also going to do a before and after bunch of pics so you can see what a few good days of rain has done to my garden. 

Starting off with.....before and afters from 5/19 until today 5/25

BEFORE...I thought the cucumbers were looking great. I staked them with bamboo before I left to help them since they had just begun to vine. 

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AFTER...They have TAKEN over the grow box. I now need to figure out an actual trellis system. They are growing on and into everything!

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BEFORE...The beans were looking great.

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AFTER...They have a whole new set of leaves and I've added in the Royal Burgundy Beans which are almost as tall as the others. 

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Royal Burgundy Beans

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BEFORE...The 4 zucchini and cantaloupe were growing well.

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AFTER...They already have 3 new sets of leaves and even the onion I planted for fun has established itself.

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BEFORE.....This is the sunflower, cucumber and marigold bed on 5/19

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AFTER....this is it today 5/25

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BEFORE....zinnias and sunflowers in the worst of the garden soil. 

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AFTER....I cant believe how well they are doing growing almost in complete sand.

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BEFORE...Damn peppers havent given me ONE this season! here they are newly planted in the grow boxes.

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AFTER...You cant see it in this pic but I might actually be getting a pepper soon since they look like they are going to flower. They better!

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I realize there are a few things I haven't taken pics of in the garden lately. This is my spinach grow box. Before the rain the spinach was dead, the squash was newly planted and the onions were not to be seen. Now these bad boys are looking healthy and great. 

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Right before I left I replanted the tomatoes because they were taking over their little pots. Already they are out-growing the NEW pots I put them in. Maybe they will survive the summer to flower in the fall but I doubt it. 

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Bradley and Beefsteak bushes almost taller than the wall!

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As for the rest of the garden I pulled out the Winter squash and the last of the lettuce and have treated the soil to add in some new plants. I think I am going to start doing some square foot gardening techniques there since that is the only method I haven't tried yet. Ill have to move a few other things around though in the mean time. I also cut back the flat leaf parsley.

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This is my Patio hybrid tomato plant. It has 24 tomatoes on it and has already given me a few. The rain has caused some of the tomatoes to start splitting though as you can see in this picture.

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The strawberries are still producing well and they will produce year round here in FL. I am thinking of making them a big special pot soon. 

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These are my herbs and marigolds in pots. They look great from the rain. I must have 50 basil babies though - and I am not sure what to do with them.

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The trays of peppers have exploded! I don't know what to do with these bad boys anymore either. 

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UPDATE!

I planted a rotting onion from my kitchen in the ground which has continued to grow green onion chives. The onion was so rotted it was squishy. Today the top of the plant had turned brown so I dug it up figuring it had totally rotted from the rain only to discover it had turned into 4 baby onions. I am so proud!

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Rain you did my garden GOOD!

Wow! After what felt like months of drought we finally got some rain here and the garden has kicked into over-drive.

It's been to rainy to do anything, but during a break I managed to take a few pics. Things have gone crazy. The cucumbers will need to be staked soon and the tomatoes have outgrown their cages.

Cucumber in grow box are outgrowing the grow box!

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The Cucumbers in the ground are looking great too! So are the sunflowers and marigolds around them.

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The Morning Glories got a third leaf...

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The zucchinis and cantaloupes have sprung new leaves overnight!

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Beans are getting bigger.

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The Stevia is is growing tall and lanky...not sure they should be that long.

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The Sunflower and zinnia bed came back to life.

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The squash are taking over. 

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The Roma tomatoes turned red and so did a patio one!

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The Pomegranate has some great new leaves.

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The Gandules are filling in.

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Nothing like a big rain to really get the garden going. 

Rain Rain Thank GOD you came!

My friend Jose's been hanging out here, I think he's the reason it rained, and it has definitely been to wet to garden. I did pick up a few bags of soil and compost. I will try to make it out to take some pics tomorrow. 

New Pics of New Stuff

Ok - Tons of new garden pics. I also just planted some poblano pepper seeds and Royal Burgundy Beans (thanks Andy!) even though all of the planting time is sort of done here. 

Royal Burgundy Bush Beans

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Poblano Pepper Seeds

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Culantro Seeds

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4 Zucchini are up and growing!

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Tomatoes in the ground are doing great! Im really proud of them. 

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Here is a view of one of the not so good but fun bugs in my garden.

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Current Garden List - and know I am always open to trade seeds

Veggies:
Carrots (Purple Dragon)

Cucumber (Boston Pickling, Straight Eight)

*Gourds (Decorative)
**Lettuce (Parris Island Co Romaine)

Onions (like chives), *Onion - from my kitchen, Onions (Sweet Spanish Utah Jumbo)
Peppers (California Wonder, Chocolate, a Florida Heirloom, Long Red Sweet, Purple Beauty Bell)

Poblano Peppers (so spicy they get their own)

*Pumpkin (Small Sugar)

Radishes (Cherry Belle)

Squash, Summer (Zucchini Dark Green, Zucchini Black Beauty)
Squash, Winter (Delicato)

Spinach (Bloomsdale, Long Standing) 

Legumes:
Bush Beans (Blue Lake, Royal Burgundy)
Butter Beans (Speckled)
Gandules (Pigeon Peas)

Fruit:
Bananas

Blueberries
Cantaloupe (Hale's Best Jumbo)

Pineapple

Pomegranate

Strawberries
Tomato Varieties: Beefsteak, Plum, Patio (hybrid), Bradley, Creamy Tomato (Amish Heirloom),

Herbs:

Basil (new Sweet Basil seeds)

Catnip

Chamomile

Cilantro

Culantro

Oregano

Parsley (Italian flat leaf)

Rosemary
Sage
Stevia
Tea (Red Tea is the name although it is a Chinese Tea)

Flowers:
Angelica
Amaryllis
Butterfly flower (given to me so no proper name)

Gazanias

Gysophilia (Convent Garden)
Marigold, Crackerjack, Mixed Colors (from seed and one planted)

Morning Glory (given to me so no breed name)
Sunflower (Double Sun Gold, Mammoth)

White and yellow daisy looking plant (unknown)

Zinnias (Giant Double Mixed, Giant Violet Queen)

Random:
Brown Seed Plant

*none of these plants came up for whatever reasons so they will be gone next list

**the lettuce has bloomed leaving me tons of seeds - the remaining will be dug up and turned into compost

Grow Box Difference

I'm TOTALLY blow away at the difference between my cucumber grown in the ground and those grown in Grow Boxes.

These are the cucumbers in the grow box.....

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And these are the ones in the ground....

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GIGANTIC size difference. I had been thinking for a while I wanted to go strictly Grow Box but now I am fairly certain that is the way to go.

Here's a pic of the 3 new boxes all lined up...

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This is another grow box - this one with 4 zucchini seeds and two melons (Cantaloupe). So far 2 zucchini and one melon came up...

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Close-up of zucchini...

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Close up of cantaloupe...

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This is the new Pepper grow box. I haven't had any luck with peppers this year. Not even one!

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I separated the creamy Amish tomatoes again! I dont know what to do with these bad boys but I have to figure it out soon enough. Apparently they are growing pretty well considering they were seeded at the wrong time. :( I would hate to throw them away but dont know what else to do.

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This is the new sunflower and zinnia bed...they were over grown in the pots with very long unhappy stems. I hope they like the ground better.

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These are the last few lettuce plants....the radishes are underneath doing well. 

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The summer squash has grown back - NOT ONE SQUASH! I am having big trouble with them this year too.

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I'm loving the leaves on the butterfly plants.

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Marigold are doing great and I already put some in the ground too. I have so many of these!

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The mammoth sunflower, marigold and cucumber bed.

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This is the basil - it looks like grass there is so much of it.

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