Amaranth took over!

We were away for 10 days for a fabulous vacation to Asheville, North Carolina! The pet sitter, really the plant sitter, (we have way more plants than pets) took very good care of everyone. Thank you Betty! The Pet Nanny, Inc 407-340-9672

While we were gone, the amaranth took over! We had just a few amaranth plants last year, but they grew big! And evidently, they spewed a lot of seed! The soil seems to be inundated. But gosh! they are beautiful! Green green leaves on top and reddish underneath. Fantastic! We are pulling some up and potting them to give away at our Organic Grower's meeting next week.

The weeds moved in while we were gone as well and here is Jon with his hoe! Yes, we giggled about the colorful metaphors that go along with the naming of this gardening basic. He is so good with that thing!

All of the seedlings we have in containers are ready to be planted, here is the space for them!

See our corn rows? Those are planted just 2 weeks apart. We will continue to plant rows weeks apart for a staggered harvest. Yum yum, I can already taste those bursting kernels!

Spring has sprung and boy! It is nice to be outside in the sunny and breezy weather. Seeing the new baby green plants reaching for the sun and lapping up the irrigation fills me with anticipation. We have many, many great plantings! Such a good time to do so much work out there. By the time the hot weather hits, there will be only watering and harvesting! (ya, right!)

How are you doing with your garden? Write to me. I want to hear about yours! Come to our Organic Grower's Meeting at Leu Gardens in Orlando, every 3rd Wed. of the month. 7 pm.

Guys and shovels

What is it with guys and shovels? With adept use of this amazing tool, Jon transformed my small (maybe somewhat unimaginative) plan for plant placement into a swath of measured beauty for our backyard organic garden! With more work for big muscles, I allowed him to move the chiminea back against the brick fence opening up more space for more plants!! Even though my tray of seedlings promises us a few herb plants eventually, Jon brought us several big healthy ones from the nursery. Yummy rosemary, basil, thyme, mint and oregano will add sweet succulence to our gourmet cooking!

We spent most of an amazing early springtime day together out there pulling roots (that darned St Augustine!) and planting. Such a privilege! And yes he measures! Precision is important to him and since both feet are the same size, he uses both to configure location, location, location!

I moved a few grateful arugula seedlings from the tray and into fertile mounds. Notice the cotton seed meal sprinkled over every thing? This provides enrichment for hungry little roots!

We have a marvelous start to more and more fun in the sunshine right here in our own back yard organic garden.

Bring the bees!

Bring the bees!

We bought several flowering plants so that the bees come to enjoy our garden early and often. Jon and I chose firebush, African Blue basil, and Purple sage from our local nursery.

Jon likes to plant deeply. I would've used the gardening trowel to make a nice resting place. He uses the post hole digger! Each spot was carefully located and "posted". Then a bit more of the rich dirt we trucked over from the landfill is added. I sprinkled cotton seed meal then the unpotted plant is lovingly nestled in. Jon mounds the soil up around each important plant!

We read that unlike most basil plants, leaving the flowers on the African Blue basil is beneficial to it's life. The one we bought last season attests to that. It more than tripled in size! Hundreds of bees drank the purple colored nectar. There were so many bees on that beautiful plant we couldn't count 'em right up until the day the first freeze hit us in January 2010.

It is warmed up now here in Central Florida. We're ready! Come on bees!!

Corn Rows

We have an official supervisor for this mammoth project! Charlie the Prince watches over us as we tickle the earth with our implements. Very serious work this tickling! When Charlie leaves the house, he roams our neighborhood freely and only God knows where he goes. But, if Jon or I pull one weed or apply spade to soil in our yard, Charlie appears!

He inspects Jon’s beautiful corn rows. Look at this perfection! Those are tiny pepper seedlings and okinowan spinach in the foreground.

Jon lovingly lays the corn seeds in.

I imagine I am biting into our fresh corn cobs now! The corn kernels are bursting in my mouth as I write! Jon and I agreed that we would (he would) plant one row this week and then another row in 2 weeks. And so on until we run out of room! This will bring us a staggered harvest.

This organic garden is going to be grand! And with Charlie’s expert supervision, it will be all we expect and probably more.

Tomorrow we will add in some flowering plants to ensure that the bees arrive and are busy with our planintings. Busy bees mean happy plants. Charlie the Prince approves.

Start the seeds!

All the good dirt we brought over from the landfill is spread over this humongous garden space. The dark rich earth over the sandy silt will support my vegetable garden perfectly! Adding cotton seed meal and organic plant food regularly through out the growing season will make everything I plant very happy!

Broccoli and Okinawan spinach and an incredible patch of onions made it through the weeks and weeks of frigid temperatures that we endured there in central Florida this year. I am in shock and wonder of it!

I have an amazing array of seeds and a few seedlings! Let's get to work!

Jon disagrees with me about how to identify all the plants that are going into our garden. I have made a chart that shows what areas hold which seeds and seedlings. He wants sticks and labels for every row. I agreed to allow him to do this for his "part" of the garden. We'll see how long this lasts.

I separated the sticks and glass shards and other unusables away from the beautiful soil. I mixed in the cotton seed meal and organic plant food. WOW it was fun to poke the seeds into the little compartments! Look how many! Lettuce, tomatoes, kale, collards, purple sage. I am so excited!

I am ready to feel the warm sun! The big sunny days this weekend did not disappoint. As I planted the seeds, I could taste the summer squash. I smelled basil as I laid those tiny seeds into the chocolate colored earth. The beans will be up first! How sweet and crunchy they will taste!

A lot more good dirt

We borrowed a rototiller to enlarge our 12 by 6 ft. garden. What a great machine!! In about 15 minutes Jon had 60 by 10 ft cut up. "I could do the whole yard! This is fun!" Jon exclaimed. Thanks Dominick!

The weather continued to be cold. The wind sliced through to my Florida thin skin. Looking at this big swath of garden space from inside the house, oh I knew there would be a lot of work before I would brag about my sweet corn or pluck a perfect tomato. 60 by 10 ft! And much of this happy labor would be done under fabulous skies of now mid-March and April. Whoo Hoo!!

A lot more good dirt would have to be deposited onto the silt that was underneath the now chewed up lawn. The landfill has a huge pile of rich, dark dirt there for the taking, for free. Only absolute Florida native plants will grow in the soil that is in our Florida back yards. Beautiful veggies need rich. light weight, nutritious soil to put their roots into. I would have to ask for help to transport enough to cover 60 by 10 ft.

Finally, the sun shone through to warm us up to 70 degrees. My pal Tia came through for us with her little truck. She met us at the landfill pile. My daughter Madalyn, being a superior senior, did not have to go to school on FCAT testing days. I had free labor too!

We borrowed a rototiller to enlarge our 12 by 6 ft. garden. What a great machine!! In about 15 minutes Jon had 60 by 10 ft cut up. "I could do the whole yard! This is fun!" Thanks Dominick!

The weather continued to be cold. The wind sliced through to my Florida thin skin. Looking at this big swath of garden space from inside the house, oh I knew there would be a lot of work before I would brag about my sweet corn or pluck a perfect tomato. 60 by 10 ft! And much of this happy labor would be done under fabulous skies. Whoo Hoo!!

A lot more good dirt would have to be deposited onto the silt that was underneath the now chewed up lawn. More than the few bags of topsoil I bought from Home Depot last year would cover. The landfill has a huge pile of rich, dark dirt there for the taking, for free. I would have to ask for help.

Finally, the sun shone through to warm us up to 70 degrees. My pal Tia came through for us with her little truck. She met us at the landfill pile. My daughter Madalyn, being a superior senior, did not have to go to school on FCAT testing days. I had free labor too!