North Florida Gardening

[PlainJane]

@GoDawgs we were having so much fun we forgot to take pictures during the tasting itself.
DH always goes crazy setting up the drinks table but here’s the aftermath.

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[worth1]

I see you even have a too drunk to fly nesting station.

[Barb_FL]

How is your season going? I am 3 hours south and ours is over; just extensive cleanup.

[PlainJane]

Hi @Barb_FL, I have maybe 2-3 weeks left for tomatoes but peppers, eggplant, beans, melon and zucchini still going along. All in all a good growing season and I’m already thinking about next year’s tomato list.
Did you have any special standouts?

[Barb_FL]

Hi @Barb_FL, I have maybe 2-3 weeks left for tomatoes but peppers, eggplant, beans, melon and zucchini still going along. All in all a good growing season and I’m already thinking about next year’s tomato list.
Did you have any special standouts?

Standouts were GGWT, Amalfi, Cloeta Pink, Buffalo Soldier, TexWine, and Bola Rosa. The last 3 were spared the hurricanes (started later). Basically, anything pretty large did well. My April and May were the best ever, and February, March were the worst ever but I think that was because of the near freeze snap in late December filtering through.

[PlainJane]

Still getting a decent haul every couple of days. I did lose 2 nearly ripe melons to last Thursday’s monsoon which was a bummer.
Almost done are Green Doctors Frosted, Spudakee, BKX, Solar Flare, Mary Reynolds.
Producing a few here and there are Cherokee Carbon, Green Gables, Pilot Knob Green.
Doing pretty well are Hosier Outlaw Black Cherry, Eva Purple Ball, Green Bee, KBX and Amalfi Orange F1.

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[PlainJane]

Hitachi F1 cuke, Dragon Langerie mixed with a few Blooming Prairie, and Borsalino growing in part shade in the orchard.
Borsalino doesn’t like hot glaring sun but if you can situate where it’s happy it’s very productive and tender.

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[PlainJane]

Green Bee haul, with my helper not sure what is afoot.

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[worth1]

Sweet Kitty.

[GoDawgs]

OMG, your cat looks a whole lot like Callie and her son Socks did. Callie's nickname was SWMBO ("swimbo"), She Who Must Be Obeyed. LOL!

[PlainJane]

I had some gauze kicking around the garden shed so I rigged up some shade over a couple of the raised beds.
I think I have enough to do one more bed so that’s on today’s list of chores.

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The first wave of bush beans are winding down as are the Itachi cukes.
Squash borers and pickle worm have both made an appearance but I did get in a great early harvest.
Still have eggplant, peppers, a few stray beans and a few tomatoes coming.
Best new experiment was the Diplomat F1 melon. Each vine set at least 4-5 fruit and we got most of them. I’m keeping an eagle eye on the last 2 that are ripening.

[PlainJane]

DH has has a god-awful time replacing the irrigation system but he turned the corner yesterday.
It’s just the nastiest work.
He constructed and waterproofed the box to go around all the zone connections in between the daily storms of last week.
(He still has to make the lid.)
Yesterday he re-tested for leaks, then tested each zone with the old controller and all good. What a relief!
He was able to lay the gravel and start filling the giant hole.
Next up is to swap the old controller for the new one, fill everything back in and repair the walkway. Still a ton of work but at least we have light at the end of the tunnel.

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[PlainJane]

Yesterday I got the front pollinator garden dead headed, weeded, watered and mulched. Would not normally take me 3 hours but when it’s 95 out lol ….
As a reward we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie; fun fluff, plenty of bad guys, heroics, escapes, and creepy crawlies.

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[GoDawgs]

Wow! The finish line! Everything looks so pretty. Your DH deserves a medal for doing that irrigation system. Plumbing is a pain in the patoot. There's always something that doesn't quite fit or leaks and there's usually at least one trip to the hardware store for one more fitting of some kind. This system is going to be soooo handy!

[PlainJane]

There was at least one trip to the hardware store - daily.

The old pipe was very brittle and he ended up having to replace all of it; hence the giant excavation.

Many emergency water shutoffs interspersed with adult language and mucking about in a wet muddy hole.

[GoDawgs]

The man is a saint!

[PlainJane]

Well, we’ve been doing the best we can these last weeks but between the heat, humidity, storms or lack thereof it’s been s.l.o.w.
DH filled and leveled the area around the irrigation system. The stonework is probably going to be a fall/winter project.

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The weeping Santa Rosa plum has several branches that have made it to the ground so I have to decide where I want to prune.

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I’m very happy with how the Manettia cordifolia ‘John Elsley’ has performed. I found it when looking for perennial hummingbird vines from Almost Eden. Our hummingbird loves it.

https://www.almostedenplants.com/shoppi ... cker-vine/

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[PlainJane]

Guess we’re having eggplant something-or-other tonight.
Paloma F1.

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[Barb_FL]

Are your tomatoes done for the year? I pulled the last on father's day weekend so 6 weeks ago. So much rain lately, I never remember having so many thunderstorms with heavy rain for hours so good thing the season is done.

I am wondering if the el nino will be similar but in our heavy growing season Nov-March. Seriously thinking of cutting way back.

[PlainJane]

Are your tomatoes done for the year? I pulled the last on father's day weekend so 6 weeks ago. So much rain lately, I never remember having so many thunderstorms with heavy rain for hours so good thing the season is done.

I am wondering if the el nino will be similar but in our heavy growing season Nov-March. Seriously thinking of cutting way back.

I have a couple of stray tomatoes left but they’re pretty small and not much flavor at this point. They’re going into gazpacho as I accumulate enough for a batch.

Hot, humid, storms then hot humid and no rain. Much hotter than prior years.
At least the storms have been relatively spaced out but not a whole lot happening in the garden besides basil and eggplant.
By cutting way back Barb do you mean on everything or just tomatoes?

Boy am I looking forward to October.