Morning Garden Update.

I love trees. I also love shade. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I spent so many years as a new construction plumber working outside in the Florida sun. So day after day, year after year of the bright Florida sunshine burning my skin caused me to seek........shade. So when I went to build my house a few years ago I picked property that was woody & shady. To me it was just so comfortable. That's how I viewed shade........comfortable. Little did I know that years later I would start my first garden and need lots of ..........sun. Which is why I've been spending that last year cutting trees down. Just so you know, I hate cutting trees down. I still love the shade that trees provide, but.............my garden needs sun! It can be such a battle. So there's been times when my garden has been too shady and as a result I've had some failures in the garden. Twenty plus trees being cut down has fixed a lot of that. One of the failures I was sure of was the onion patch I planted. When I planted it I had full sun, but as Winter got closer & closer the shade also crept closer & closer until.......complete shade covering my onions. I was bumbed. I thought for sure the onions were done. But as Winter passed and Spring came around, and some trees being removed, the sun returned. As the sun returned the Onions kicked back into gear and today I harvested my first mature Onion. So the lessons continue as I realize just how cool it is to grow your own stuff. Why didn't I start doing this 10 years ago?


I'm also growing shallots in my onion patch.



Check out my double-headed squash flower. I'm really afraid of the dreaded pickleworm destroying my squash, so I planted them as early as I could so my harvest will be before they get here, which is usually in late May. I hope. No signs of them yet, so my plan is working......so far.


This is big. I'm going with a different system for staking my tomatoes. I'm using mostly 10' long re-bar driven into the ground 2-3 feet deep for each individual tomato plant. I've got 70 tomato plants this year and this seemed to be the best way for my garden. If the plants get too heavy with fruit later on I have a plan to strengthen the stakes by tying them all together. We'll see!