Watch My Food Grow ~ A South Florida Raised Vegetable Garden

Florida Backyard Raised Vegetable Garden

Soil Solarization for Raised Gardens

August 3rd, 2013 by Lila Steinhoff
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Putting the Garden to Bed

July is the end of the growing season in South Florida. It just gets too hot. This is the time to take care of the soil that will be used for the season beginning in October. In April, the garden was at its peak. The vegetables were deep green and full of produce.

garden at height of growing seasonGarden at Production Peak

By the beginning of July, everything but the herbs had been pulled up or was close to the end of production.

wilted tomato plantsExhausted Tomato Vines

The last to go were the tomatoes. They grew to six feet tall and produced for nearly three months. By mid July, the plants were exhausted and were wilting. It was time to pull them out and prepare the garden for the summer.

Putting the Garden to Bed

I learned a new term this year… soil solarization. I knew about covering the garden to let the sun bake the soil during the hot summers, but I didn’t know the process had a formal name.

Florida soil has nematodes, fungi like Phytophthora Root Rot, other pests and weeds. A good and organic way to kill off these gardening nemeses is soil solarization. The heat forces the nematodes to move from the heated area and kills other pests, weeds, weed seeds and fungi.

Dirty Work

Before the garden is covered for the summer, a certain amount of preparation is necessary. All the plants must be pulled up by the roots from the raised garden boxes. The soil has to be raked to remove root material and to smooth it out. A small ridge is left  in the center to help shed any water that collects on the plastic.

empty raised gardenEmpty Raised Garden Box

watering empty raised gardenWatering Soil

Before covering the box, water it well. Moisture aids the heat of the sun to bake the soil and kill the weeds, weed seeds, nematodes and pathogens during the eight weeks it is covered.

Covering the Soil

Last season, I covered my garden but had little success killing off the pests, weeds and pathogens. I did some research and have since found out that I should not have used black plastic sheeting. I used black, because I thought that dark material would soak up more of the sun’s heat. However, it shades the soil underneath rather than heating it up.

plastic-covered raised gardenClear Plastic Sheeting

This year I used Black Hawk 2-mil, clear plastic sheeting which I purchased at Lowe’s Home Improvement. I would guess that it can be purchased at any big box building materials or hardware store.

The sheeting can be pressed into the ground around the edges or held down by something substantial enough that it does not move. I used red bricks.

plastic-covered raised gardenRed Bricks Plastic Sheeting

The plastic has to be held tightly so that no heat escapes. It will stay this way and bake in the hot Florida sun for about eight weeks. Then the plastic comes off and we start planting again.

 

 

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Baby Carrots

July 27th, 2013 by Lila Steinhoff
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The Last of the Harvest

I mentioned that the garden is finished for the season, so, in the next few days, everything will be pulled up and the boxes covered to bake in the sun until October. However, there was one last crop of carrots to pull first.

baby carrots Baby Carrots

Each year, I ask grandson Malcolm what he would like to have in the garden. This year he asked for carrots. I planted the baby carrot seeds a little late in the season… toward the end of March, but they did come up.

We have picked carrots, one or two at a time, over the last few weeks just to see if they were about ready. They were awfully small, but they did taste like carrots.

Awfully Tiny

I pulled all the rest of the carrots, so the boxes can be covered for the summer. The bunches looked pretty, but the largest carrots were only an inch and a half to three inches long.

baby carrotsBaby Carrots

I knew there would be dirt, roots and green tops, but I was disappointed that they didn’t, in the least, resemble the baby carrots in the bags at the grocer’s.

Size Matters

In addition to being smaller than I expected, there were just as many that were barely half an inch long and very skinny. They were not usable.

baby carrot and rejectsBaby Carrot and Rejects

Once the greens and the root were taken off, there would not have been enough carrot left to bother with. The tiniest ones were dropped into the compost pile.

Some of the carrots that were large enough to be cleaned easily were shared with my grandson. The rest were shredded into some very good homemade Cole slaw, along with a bell pepper from the garden.

I may plant carrots again, but I will not plant baby carrots. I want more to show from what I plant.

 

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Spiney-backed Orb-weaver

July 24th, 2013 by Lila Steinhoff
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aka Crab Spider

Today, I watched a crab spider maneuver a fly that was twice as big as she was. I have seen many insects stuck in spider webs, but I have never seen any spider with a fresh catch.

crab spider with fly

Crab Spider with Fly

My yard has scores of crab spiders. Crab spider is the  common name for the spiny-backed orb-weaver, or if you want to get really scientific, Gasteracantha cancriformis.

You can identify a female crab spider very easily. The bright red spines and her black-spotted, white abdomen make her immediately recognizable. A quick glance is not enough. I have been known to stop  and stare on a regular basis. I am totally fascinated by them.

crab spiderCrab Spider and Web

I never bother crab spiders. In fact, I go out of my way to avoid disturbing their webs. They are great at controlling mosquitoes and gnats in the yard and on the screened pool deck.

Not Your Usual Spider

dorsal side of crab spiderDorsal Side of a Crab Spider

Female crab spiders are not quite a half an inch in diameter. The dorsal side of the female’s abdomen is dark with small spots. The male crab spider is much smaller than the female… about a third of her size and has no spines. The male’s colors are similar to the female, but where she is white, he is grayish.

‘Will you walk into my parlour? said the spider to the fly.’

I am fairly sure that most people are familiar with Mary Howitt‘s poem, The Spider and the Fly. The minute I saw this crab spider with a grip on her lunch, I thought of this poem. Later in the day, I listened to a reading of the poem online. Seeing the crab spider was good, and being able to listen to Howitt’s poem made even better.

 

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