Southern Garlic.

I love it when garden paraphernalia comes in the mail. It's better than Christmas! The latest goodies to show up at my doorstop was this shipment of garlic from Gourmet Garlic Gardens. Because I garden in the warmth of the Deep South, I've been let down by garlic. It can be difficult to grow here since we don't have a "real" winter to put a freeze on it. So in my search for some garlic to grow in Florida I came across this company out of Texas, that not only sells garlic that grows in the south, but gives you direction on how to have the most success in our warm climate. If you're a southern gardener, you know that it can be hard to find supplies & directions for growing things here. It seems like the best seed companies are from up north and they tend to cater to people like themselves.....northerners! Which is fine.....because they still sell fine products that I can use, but............sometimes I need a company who caters to southern growers. So even though I haven't grown the garlic yet, I'm really pleased with my buying experience from GGG so far. Their web site is real informative (they're based out of Texas), my garlic was shipped very nicely, as you can see, and very timely as well. You can tell they have a passion for growing garlic, which helps me out in a poor garlic growing environment.


I just thought it might help some other gardeners who struggle with growing garlic to give this company a plug. Here's some other companies I buy from that I've had a lot of success with:


1. Johnny's Selected Seed.......the best overall seed company I've dealt with. Seeds are of very high quality. Based out of Maine.....(of course!)

2. Totally Tomatoes..........I love tomatoes, and I need a lot to keep my vegetarian wife happy. I love the variety that TT has, and I like how their web site has one big page with pics & descriptions of their tomatoes. Their seeds come neat, on time and as described. Some people might not like that they're owned by a big corporation......but I just like using them. Out of Wisconsin I believe.

3. Park Seed Co. ........... I like Park's because they're based out of the south, so they tend to have more things for southern gardeners. I like their planting blocks & bio-sponges as well. Out of S. Carolina.

4. Irish Eyes .............. For potatoes! I just ordered my potatoes a few weeks ago......they should arrive around mid-November. I've only ordered from them once before, but it's kind of hard to order potatoes for the south! As most of you know, seed companies only ship potato seeds at certain times of the year............ and the south's growing season starts in Dec/Jan, not April/May. Irish Eyes has been the easiest for me so far. From the state of Washington.


If you have any favorites that you use.....feel free to share!

Fall Garden Prep 1

So, as you can see in yesterday's post, the garden's a bit of a mess......but we've been working to get it ready for the Fall growing season. Here's some pics so you can see how's its coming along:


The first thing I do when getting ready for the fall garden is to plant my tomatoes. Even though Florida has a warm Autumn, it can get chilly in October. Last year on October 29th it got as low as 32 degrees in Ocala. So you must start your tomatoes as early as possible. I start them indoors in August for the opposite reason Northerners start there's indoors in March.....because it's still too hot.

You'll notice that I like to use Park Seeds styrofoam seed starter (with the bio-sponges which are about 7 cents a piece). I love the accuracy, speed, organization and the strength of the plants when I use it. I label each styrofoam tray (I have about 8) with a letter. If you look on the notebook, this one is labeled "X". I wrote the letter "X" on the actual tray as well, so I know which way to read it & match it with my notebook. Now I can keep track of which varieties & how many are planted & where. If some don't pop up....I just re-plant in the same sponge.


Here's an okra newbie with some great looking root growth all through the bio-sponge. The sponges are made of some kind of sterile medium. Because you only pour water into the tray and not on the plant, it causes the roots to grow down & strong.



I then transplant them into some peat pots with a mixture of peat moss & potting mix.


And then it's under the lights until the end of the month. I'm looking to transplant them into the garden the 1st week of September.

You're looking at 54 tomatoes in peat pots on the bottom, 6 okra in peat pots on top left, about 24 assorted peppers still in the sponges top right, and about 12 tomatoes still in the sponges top right. With more on the way.