Watch My Food Grow ~ A South Florida Raised Vegetable Garden

Florida Backyard Raised Vegetable Garden

Promise of Good Things to Come

April 20th, 2012 by Lila Steinhoff
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I am feeling the excitement that comes with tending a garden… the potential of fresh vegetables. Vegetables planted in late February and early March have come up and are flowering and setting fruit. I have squash blossoms, green bean plants with lavender flowers and okra plants with spears and flowers.

October Planting Fading Out

Tomatoes and herbs were planted in October of 2011. I pulled up the October basil and cilantro and planted again in March 2012. I am trying a slow-bolt cilantro seed this time from a company called Seeds of Change. I use a lot of cilantro, and it would be good not to have to replant so often.

I really haven’t paid attention to whether something is organic or not, but this seed is ‘100% certified organic’. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in the plants or the taste.

Tomatoes – Size Doesn’t Matter

Several tomato plants from the October planting died off and had to be removed. However, the smaller tomatoes… the Juliets and Romas… continue to produce after six months even though the plants are beginning to look a bit ragged. I use Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food on the tomato plants every two weeks.

I have a steady supply of tomatoes… enough everyday to have them in salad or use them in cooking. I slice them on sandwiches, too. It takes several, but a BLT with fresh Juliets rates pretty high on the taste scale.

 

 

 

 

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Meager Mango Year… Again!

April 15th, 2012 by Lila Steinhoff
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My yard has two mango trees… a  Haden and an Alphonso mango. The Hadens are the ambrosia of the mango world, as far as I am concerned. So, I watch that tree with anticipation every spring. Even have it guarded by the old man on the tree.

Last year in April, we had a severe thunder and rain storm that blew the majority of the mangos off the tree. It was a meager year. I didn’t get enough to satisfy my yearly mango craving.

Wind and Pounding Rain

This spring, the Haden tree set a lot of fruit. It was dropping the usual tiny culls, but it had plenty of fruit that was coming along nicely… until Friday night.

We had a really pounding rain storm with a lot of wind during the night. We woke to find the ground covered with scores of half-grown mangos. It looks like another meager year. I am so disappointed.

 

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Peppers in Distress

April 6th, 2012 by Lila Steinhoff
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During an unusually rainy time in March, the poblano, jalapeno, banana and bell peppers I planted began to suffer from, what looked like, damping off.

Damping off is my guess, because everything else in the box is doing well. The drainage in the box may not have been sufficient for the peppers. The stems turned brown and soft , the leaves wilted and the plants were dying.

Build and Set Up a Box with Better Drainage

Peppers need rich, airy soil with very good drainage. To have peppers, I would need a third box that I could adjust to get better drainage. My husband constructed a box, 24 inches by 42 inches from plywood left over from a previous project. The box is smaller than my others, but it will be used only for assorted peppers.

Drainage and Weed Barrier

The bottom of the pepper box was lined with a single layer of scrap red brick.

Weed barrier cloth was placed on the bricks to contain the dirt and prevent weeds and grasses from growing up from underneath.

All the soil I purchased from the nursery was used in the large box set up earlier this spring, so I took the easy, fast way. I filled the pepper box with a bagged garden soil and planted all new pepper plants.

Looking Much Better

Better drainage means that these plants have to be watered more often. It has been about a week, and it looks like the new plants are taking hold. So far so good.

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