North Florida Gardening

[PlainJane]

Tomatoes are making way for figs in my garden.
This is Green Ischia - good flavor and always first to ripen for me.
I also grow Smith and Petit Nigra, both purple fleshed.

8E8E1028-F15F-4FCA-98C1-C48C945E7A82.jpeg

[GoDawgs]

@PlainJane , do you protect your figs somehow from the birds? I have an old Brown Turkey figs here and I just can't get 'em before the birds do. No way I can get netting over the darned thing.

[PlainJane]

@GoDawgs, I don’t try to protect the figs with netting or anything.
Animals aren’t as quick to notice Green Ischia when it ripens so I get most of them.
Smith is purple and has a wonderful flavor. It’s not as productive as GI so it’s a fight - mainly with the mockingbirds.
Petit Nigra ripens very late and I let the birds have most of them.

If my low-chill sweet cherry ever starts fruiting I will be looking into some kind of protection scheme for sure.

[GoDawgs]

@PlainJane , Green figs... now that's a plan! How's the flavor on Green Ischia?

[PlainJane]

@GoDawgs - I find Green Ischia to be nicely sweet as long as ripe. The fig starts to ‘droop’ and color goes from green to amber. Not too many seeds and a closed eye.
This is not a fig you can pick early and ripen on the counter, nor could you ship it. Pretty much pick and use.
I haven’t tried drying them but you might be able to.(I know you’re big into preserving)

[PlainJane]

Tomato inventory slowly winding down.

9275A95E-2939-4A55-852D-4FF7252D627B.jpeg

[GoDawgs]

Great Day, PJ! If that's winding down you must have had all of the table covered earlier!

We haven't hit peak yet. That heat wave really set the plants back. It's a sorry state of affairs when you have 30 plants and maybe six or seven tomatoes ready to eat at any one time. But canning time is coming. The plants at the house are loading up and getting ready to avalanche within the next two weeks. Bring it on!

[PlainJane]

Yeah, @GoDawgs the table has been full since first week of June but I’ve stopped taking bags full to the neighbors.
I guess I’m hoarding.

[karstopography]

@PlainJane I see that your tomatoes are in grow bags, what do you believe are the best sizes of grow bags for indeterminate type tomatoes? I don’t think our climates are so wildly different and I am considering getting a few grow bags for tomatoes to supplement my raised beds. Is there sort of a sweet spot on grow bags sizes. I don’t want to go too small and run into issues that come with that.

[PlainJane]

@karstopography, I use 20 and 30 gallon sizes.
Robust tomatoes like most cherries go 1 plant in a 20 otherwise it’s 2 plants to a 30.
I use Texas tomato cages as the 2 sizes fit nicely into those grow bags.

I find I can still drag them around if I need to, even loaded up, as long as I’m careful. Most of my bags have woven-in handles.

Since soil cost was definitely a factor I went with my own 5-1-1 variant mix of pine bark fines, perlite and coco coir plus fertilizer and Azomite. The fines are the biggest proportion and a 3 cfu bag runs around $4 here.

[PlainJane]

Last hoard of Green Bee tomatoes going into a salad today.

These have been on the counter since end of June, which is one of the things this tomato is known for.

DE590D8C-52C3-4802-B488-F452A2FD765F.jpeg

[PlainJane]

Old beat up cyclone fence is out; new wood fence installed. Once the weather dries out in a month or 2 we’ll put a coat of clear sealer on.
The fence run parallel to the street was moved forward so as to enclose more of the side yard.
I’ve started removing the old weedy grass. Once that’s all dug out I’ll level and lay down landscape fabric.
Then DH will run the drip irrigation to the new cedar raised beds.
Here’s the ultimate plan:

41208414-22FA-418D-A20B-2D06F16038AA.jpeg

[PlainJane]

Some Before/After and In Progress snaps.

6A0B6324-B87E-4399-A44B-9AF45F29D09D.jpeg

E5246319-96F7-4B41-9C0D-5ED8DA540331.jpeg

370C36E1-15F5-41A2-962A-FD02E40A4683.jpeg

A2F6833F-47F5-4E09-83E7-F903F0E53025.jpeg

C82D4FFC-BBF4-4A31-9C78-0AD29800BEB4.jpeg

62BA7EAA-6FE2-4922-B58C-4E2D16669017.jpeg

[PlainJane]

Area I’m working on now:

77F5D168-77CD-4642-BE1B-4DD6CDE2ECAC.jpeg

01D10951-BA4D-4A05-9211-A2FCB6E88E4C.jpeg

42B2FC3B-01DA-4017-9FE7-366D6071134F.jpeg

[PlainJane]

Once we figure out a project for the remaining stone we’ll finally be able to re-sod the backyard.
My plan is to have the back be the only grassy area. I’ll whittle away the front lawn into plantings with pathways.

521D1FD3-E6C0-4A8A-9455-A1B35FA222B1.jpeg

2CCB610A-DD2F-4F5D-B1D6-4705DDD257A4.jpeg

180CFD0F-AAAF-4FD2-BC30-F2D6E95E0F63.jpeg

[GoDawgs]

Spectacular! Your own private back yard Eden. Well done! can't wait to see the rest when finished.

The arbor planned for the entrance will be a finishing touch! Any idea what you want to grow on it?

[PlainJane]

It’s slowly getting there @GoDawgs … this is year 5 of the makeover, lol.

I do a bit of donation of special crops to a local restaurant and would eventually like to expand on that.
(Besides feeding us and the neighbors, of course!)

[PlainJane]

The arbor planned for the entrance will be a finishing touch! Any idea what you want to grow on it?

Seasonal veggies like pole beans, cucamelons, peas, etc. on the single arbor and passionflowers & honeysuckle on the double (for the Gulf Frits, Zebra Longwings & our resident hummingbird.)

[PlainJane]

The garden has started to take off again now that the hideous Florida ’summer’ is past us.

Bean production is ramping up - green is Matilda (pole) and yellow is Borsalina (bush).
I’ve started another wave of zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos to replace yucky plants and fill holes.
Started cauliflower, beets and cucamelon seeds.
Fennel is coming along. I have to transplant some for better spacing.
First radishes are exploding so time to start more.

I hope to start digging out the grass this weekend where the new raised beds will go.

67A6A8E4-F06D-48B8-AB24-D0217E6B430B.jpeg

80ED8A82-8011-474F-A70A-5E82E95104E0.jpeg

57FE5A25-8288-4D66-ADCF-897D9CF0383B.jpeg[/attachment[attachment=3]37B0FE57-12C3-428D-8982-518B9354D4B0.jpeg

3BCDE1EA-FFA9-4626-BAD5-66E86862A7A8.jpeg

9A1A9721-81E0-4450-8DF3-699E04E156D4.jpeg

1C294CA9-BBBB-4B98-A3A1-080BF7D79D25.jpeg

CD663BC9-F9DE-465A-9CE8-00EE635E2255.jpeg

[karstopography]

Those look great, the beans and the rest of it. I don’t so despise summer weather here, but I certainly welcome the cooler weather of October. Summer and summer heat does drag on doesn’t it!

This is the first year I’ve made a big effort at fall green beans. I’m pretty excited at the progress and overall health of the crop. We had our first meal of them last night and they were great. I only planted bush Rolande filet beans.

I planted bulb fennel seed, Triste and Florence, on the 10th. Will likely do another planting of that soon. Hope we don’t get too big of frost early, but gardening always carries a bit of risks. I love bulb fennel and would like not paying $3 a pop when I want some.

I look forward to fall and winter gardening. We are at about the same latitude I believe. I’ll follow your progress and plantings, I’m never against stealing good ideas for fall and winter crops from others!