Watch My Food Grow ~ A South Florida Raised Vegetable Garden

Florida Backyard Raised Vegetable Garden

What is Eating My Backyard Garden Tomatoes

February 24th, 2009 by Matthew Steinhoff
Respond

What is eating my tomatoes?Something has been taking bites out of my tomatoes.

I’ll give you a dollar if you can correctly identify what is eating my tomatoes and give me a plan to catch the perpetrator.

I’m not looking for a preventative solution. I want to catch whatever has been attacking my tomatoes. I want vengeance.

List of Low-Probability Animals

We have never seen a raccoon or opossum in our neighborhood, let alone our back yard. In three years, I have seen exactly one squirrel.

We do have a few neighborhood cats who spend time in our back yard (and on our roof) but I have never seen them look at the tomatoes. They are always more interested in the birds hanging out near our bird feeder.

There have not been any footprints in or around our backyard raised vegetable garden.

Birds Possible Vegetable Thieves

Birds are high on my suspect list.

I keep fairly close watch on the live vegetable garden camera. So far, I haven’t seen any birds in the garden but that doesn’t mean they are innocent.

We have a bird feeder in the back yard and it isn’t unusual to see 50 to 75 birds sitting on the power lines behind the house, above the vegetable garden.

Please Identify My Garden Pests and Vegetable Thieves

Once again, if you can identify the animal or insect that is eating my tomatoes, please let me know.

—Farmer Matt

Tags: 62 Comments

Food or Not Food: You Decide

February 21st, 2009 by Matthew Steinhoff
Respond

Oscar the Grouch from Sesame StreetSesame Street had a regular feature where kids were presented a few objects and they were asked to figure out which one was not like the others; which one was not the same.

For all I know, they still do play the one of these things doesn’t belong game. I don’t know. I stopped watching when they added Elmo. Seriously, he ruined the series for me the same way Jar Jar Binks killed the Star Wars franchise for me.

New Regular Feature: Food or Not Food

Here is how this game is played: I’m going to present you with a series of items that many people will consider food. One of these items, however, will not be food; true food, anyway. Your job is to figure out which of these items is not food.

Some Food or No Food challenges will be easy. Some will be difficult. Some will be misleading or otherwise obfuscated. No cheating, please. If this feature becomes popular, I may even give a prize to a random person who gets the correct answer.

Today’s Food or Not Food Challenge

Sun Sugar Tomatoes: Food

Contestant One

Are Green Tomatoes Good Eats or Not Food?

Contestant Two

All Natural Tomatoes

Contestant Three

Looks Too Good To Be True?

Contestant Four

Food or Not Food?

Contestant Five

Put Your Pencils Down And Pass Your Papers Forward

Which one of these is not like the others? Which one of these things doesn’t belong?

Post your answers below. Don’t look at your neighbor’s answers. I’ll know if you cheated.

—Farmer Matt

Tags: 4 Comments

Expanding My Garden for Strawberries, Cucumber and Watermelon

February 20th, 2009 by Matthew Steinhoff
Respond

The moment I finished my initial raised vegetable garden and got the plants in, I knew its 4’x8′ size was too small. I needed more space.

What I Did Not Get Planted

I wanted watermelon, ripe by the fourth of July. I wanted cucumbers and snap beans. Jan Norris surprised me with two strawberry plants and I didn’t have room for them. Thus, I needed more space to grow food.

Construction Details for the Vegetable Garden Annex

[this space intentionally blank]

No planning at all went into the annex. I looked in my shed for leftover wood. I kinda, sorta cut some plywood so it was mostly square. I guessed on most measurements. It was a wreck. No design — structural or aesthetic — went into this build process. (Which is why you’ll never see the annex on the web cam.)

Both beds have about eight inches of soil. Both have weed control cloth at the bottom. Both are held together with spit and bailing wire.

What Does the Raised Garden Annex Look Like?

Below are the only two pictures known to exist of my raised garden annex.

Ghetto Garden Addition Next to my Beautiful Garden

Garden Annex Much Smaller Compared to Original Raised Vegetable Garden

What and Why I Planted in the New Vegetable Beds

As you can see, there is one bed raised much higher than the others. That one is where my strawberries will live. As the plant grows, I’ll drop the strawberries over the edge, working much like a hanging garden. That way they don’t rot in the dirt.

The upper bed also has a few leftover lettuce plants and five sunflowers.

The lower bed has snap beans planted in a row along the back of the bed. The front left has watermelons and the front right has cucumbers. Once the watermelons start growing, I’ll set them over the side of the bed.

Growing Vegetables From Seed — Cross Your Fingers

The main garden used exclusively plants that already had some life to them. The annex, except for the strawberries, is all from seed. I hope it does okay. Already I see little shoots from the sunflowers. I hope they add pretty to the garden.

—Farmer Matt

Tags: 12 Comments