Surprise!

So I was looking at my potato plants this morning, and because I'm a rookie gardener I had the following conversation with myself (you do it to!):

"Hmmm..what's up with these potatoes? Every veteran gardener I've read says that your potatoes are done when they've been flowering for a couple weeks.....jeesh, mine haven't even flowered at all. It's been almost 3 months, what's the problem?!... Hmmm.....I know I screwed something up.....man, I need this space for corn.....soon! .....uuuggghhh...I suck!...Was it too much water? ....... Not enough?......hhmmm.........Maybe it's getting too hot......dang Florida, I knew I should have planted them earlier! If I still lived in New England I wouldn't have this problem...........hhmmmm...... Maybe I shouldn't have used the top soil from the woods......I bet it had diseases in it!.............Wait a minute.....I read somewhere where you can dig down next to the plants and pull one potato out without hurting the plant........hhmmm....let me give it try."

So I stuck my hand right into the dirt and started to feel around (which is awesome fun for a 12 year old stuck in a 40 year old body!) .........and.......what ..........wait .........what's that? Well look what I found:




My first potato harvest. The ones pictured are Purple Viking & Red Potamac. I had my youngest daughter help me, and I love the picture with her dirty hands holding the potatoes she picked. Awesome!



Oh yeah......................... they were delicious!

Roof Top Tour

I had to deal with a big leaf problem on my roof.......so to get a different perspective on my garden & yard I took my camera up with me and took some pics.



The Garden.


The Garden with Timmy (pug) & Fenway (tomato killer) in the pic. If you click on the pic and make it larger you'll notice one of the tomato plants I had to re-pot sitting on my stone column.


The leaf problem. What's nice is how this problem has turned into my compost supplier! I use a leaf blower/vacuum that chops the leaves up when you use it as a vacuum, and then it's off to the compost bin. I told you it's like Fall in the Spring here in North/Central Florida!


The other side. This is the East side of my property (the garden is on the West side). I just moved my Plumbing Company to my house and I'm using my large shed as a shop. Because of the bad housing economy my company went from 70 employees & 35 trucks to 6 employees & 4 trucks in about 2 years. I'm just glad I have room on my property to help me get by while we wait for construction to pick up. In the mean time.......not bad for suffering!


The North. The paved street in front of my house dead ends into a fence. It's a nice quiet neighborhood.


This island by my pool used to be covered with ferns until the hard freezes we had this winter. I know the ferns will be back with a vengeance by summer, but I'm thinking of doing something different. It's pretty shady so I don't know what I'd plant there........got any ideas?

The Race.........

...............to see if the Broc can beat the heat! Started from seed on Jan. 14th and transplanted to the garden on Feb. 8th. I swear I looked yesterday and didn't see any heads forming....but I've been wrong before!

Wordless Wednesday.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

The tomatoes are moving fast, come check it out:



Another "Am I the only one"...............who plans to harden off my plants for 5-7 days and then after about.... uummm....7 hours, talk myself into planting them before it gets dark!


Here we go.....gotta lay it out first so you don't have problems in 2 months!



Digging them down deep, all the way up to first true leaves.


The first of 4 tomato beds is in the books! I think I'm planting the 2nd tomorrow.....of course it depends on how long I can hold out on the hardening process.




As a side note.....my spaghetti squash, crooked neck and a couple other squash varieties are doing well!

Wrong again.

Am I the only one who thinks...............

....the time has come..........it's not going to work............they're not coming up.

New Edition

Yep...I was talked into adding a new addition to the family. It didn't take much actually. Our neighbors (and best friends) got a female Chocolate Lab/mix from the pound yesterday, and when they showed her off to us they mentioned she had a brother there that looked just like her.......bad news for me! So my daughter begged & begged and....well, you know what happened:

"Fenway" is the one with the collar.



Now since this is a garden blog (and you CAN see the garden in the background behind Samantha & Fenway) I couldn't help but let you peek at my tomatoes..........it won't be long.

It's Falling Spring

One common complaint this time of year in Florida is the amount of pollen in the air (and on your car)..........and it's justifiable! Darla over at http://familyandflowers.blogspot.com/ wrote a blog on pollen a couple of days ago with some pictures : http://familyandflowers.blogspot.com/2009/03/aa-aa-aaa-choo.html

But what many of you north of the Florida/Georgia line don't know is that Spring time is our Fall. Yep.....leaves everywhere! Most of our trees keep their leaves year round, but during spring new leaves sprout and knock off the old leaves. Hence.........Fall! So not only do we have pollen everywhere, but leaves as well. And I mean it's just like October in New England! Well.....maybe not quite the same!


You might be saying, "What's the big deal?" ........I'm telling you there's leaves everywhere! And it's March!


I took this picture this morning.....it looks like Autumn! And I just cleaned the leaves out of this carrot bed a few days ago.


All I need is a little pumpkin soup. And yes, those are my tomatoes on the right.... getting ready!



O.K. these pics have some leaves in them, but my main reason for showing it is to show off my first ever strawberry grown.

Movin' Forward...........

The heat is starting to kick in now......mid 80's for highs, high 50's for lows. The warmth came a little quicker than I anticipated because of how cold the winter was. I mean it was just 28 degrees a couple weeks ago and now it seems the cold is gone for good, so I've got to get moving preparing the garden for the big Spring season. I've got tomatoes & peppers (hot & sweet) coming and I'm preparing the raised beds by turning over my green manure, weeding, adding compost and then covering with straw while I wait for the plants to get bigger.





Of course there's still plenty going while we wait for the warm veggies to arrive. My onions are bulbing....which I'm mildly surprised by. Lettuce has been tasty, and my potatoes look like they're progressing well. Of course I've never grown potatoes before so I really don't know! I do know that my broccoli is doing well...because that I have grown before. Actually I'm wanting the broc & potatoes to hurry up so I can make room for some corn.









Red Meat radish......I don't know, didn't taste right for me. Maybe it's too warm in Florida.

Joy.

Peace.

Ooops.....

Yep. I got a little agressive hardening off my cukes. We don't see failures as much...so here's one for the books.

Feeling Fruity.....

One thing I've learned from gardening......nature doesn't wait on you. If you procrastinate it might cost you! I'm definitely ahead of last years spring/summer garden, (which was my first) but I still didn't start when I wanted. And my tomatoes took forever to sprout....I think because of the chilly nights. I brought them inside most nights but.........I forgot a couple of nights as well. Dummy. Anyway this is what's going on in my garden:


I love tomatoes. Definitely my favorite garden veggie. This season I'm growing about 70 plants which consist of Black Krim (boss lady's favorite), Italian Giant Beefsteak, Early Girl, Rutgers, Red Brandywine, Black, Black Sea Man, Yellow Brandywine, Dixie Golden, Georgia Streak, Lemon Drop (cherry), Velvet Red (cherry), Isis Candy (cherry), and Chocolate Cherry.



The Broc is coming along very well.



Lettuce & Beets are just fine.






And the new editions to the garden...... a little mini-orchard that includes a Dorsett Golden Apple tree, Anna Apple tree, Pineapple Orange tree, Rhode Red Valencia Orange tree, Persian Lime, Eureka Lemon, Sunburst Tangerine, and a Meiwa Sweet Kumquat which I have devoured about 50 of the little fruits so far!