Silvia, I remember the seeds you gave me as being black. I am getting pods on now and the plant has taken to the pine tree above it. Guess I will have to get the step ladder to pick those :>)

bernie

Finally got the camera software loaded and can show some pictures. This picture is of the starter cole crop pots I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Lou

Bernie - You are funny! And yes the seeds are black when dry for seed saving or eating like dry beans. I like them like shell beans, they are very good and I have the same issue with some of my beans, they are growing to my neighbors side, they are very nice but I don't think they know about butterbeans, they are from another state,lol. I will have to introduce them to them. My father always told me "when you go to Rome, you do as the romans do" :) I am enjoying the southern crops now and I have been thinking of getting a new cookbook about this style of cooking.

Lou - Great crops! Let us know about the golden acre cabbage, sounds interesting, I grew the red acre before, I like cabbage! And your beans and other crops look very good, keep us updated on their progress.

Here is my Delica winter squash, a kabocha type that I love.

Silvia

What a great thread! You have a wonderful garden Silvia! I am particularly interested in your bay laurel. Very impressive for a 3 year old tree! I am very happy to see that it is possible to grow a healthy one here. How large was it when you purchased it? Where did you get it? What direction does that wall face - I'm wondering how much sun exposure it gets? I moved here from the Northwest and am adjusting to the difference in gardening. I'm having great success with tropical plants but am struggling to grow some of my old favorites. When I moved I left behind a large bay laurel. I bought a bay laurel that was about 10 inches tall 2 years ago. Now I know that bay laurel is notoriously difficult to grow until they can get about 3 feet or so, but even so mine seems to be doing dreadful. I have it in a large terra cotta pot in a spot that get part sun, part filtered shade. It keeps trying and will put out a flush of growth. But part way through the flush some of it seems to mysteriously brown and die back. The growth that does make it gets attacked by spider mites so badly that it gets completely disfigured, despite frequent sprays with insecticidal soap. Seems like it does ok during the cool part of the year but suffers badly in the summer. I lost the central leader due to the strange dieback, so it is now a tiny bush with multiple sprouts from about 3 inches off the ground. Any advice? I'm letting it struggle on to see if it can make it past that tough infancy, but have also been keeping an eye out for better specimens at nurseries, but the nursery stock I've seen looks just as bad as mine. Until I saw your picture, I hadn't seen a healthy specimen here in FL. So thanks for that nice pick me up!

It also looks to me like you have some nice healthy rosemary lining one of your paths? If so, how do you grow it? This is another plant that grew effortlessly in the NW, but seems to hate the FL heat+humidity of summer. My first two succumbed to some sort of black fungal rot during my first summers here. This year I planted one in the driest spot I have under the canopy of my maple tree where the maple tree's roots take most of the water, but due to the angle of the sun it still gets a lot of direct light. I was hoping that would help prevent the fungal rot. Here's a picture of my herb garden: {{gwi:936715}}. The rosemary is just behind that white thing in the foreground (a moisture meter). That worked a bit too well. No fungal rot, but it died of dehydration midway through the summer - lol. I'm thinking I will now try locating one a bit farther from the trunk of the maple, still in it's moisture competition zone but see if I can hit that sweet spot of dry, but not parched. Maybe next to the aloe. What do you think? How do you grow yours? Does it survive year to year? Or do you plant new ones each year? Any tips you can share?

Hi Sun worshiper

Thank you for your kind comments and you have a nice place too. I am glad that you find this thread useful, I am constantly learning something new from all the great gardeners here.

About the bay laurel I bought it from our kids tropicals nursery 407-877-6883 in Windermere, is a nice place to visit to see what grows well in this area, I don't know where are you located but I am at the west orange trail between the cities of Winter Garden and Clermont. To go to the nursery you have to make an appointment. I got few trees from there that have done very well for me some fruit trees like the Brogdon variety. I got the bay in a 5 gallon pot and put it in the south side of the house, gets a lot of sun in the afternoon, does well all year round, never fertilize, spray or any special care. It helps in winter that is sheltered by the walls of the house, does not get covered in cold nights. I actually have to chop it drastically so it does not get too tall.

Here is another view of the spot

About the rosemary, it was bought as a plant in one of the big box stores, it is planted on the east side of the house, morning sun, afternoon shade and the ground is elevated so it drains fast, never spray or fertilizer or cover. It is also 3 years and have to drastically be pruned to keep other herbs in the same spot. The garden gets the sprinkles 2 times a week.

Here is another view of the rosemary next to the basil

I will be happy to answer any question that you might have.

Silvia

Here is a part of this seasons seedlings grown from seeds thanks to Silvia and other nice gardenwebbers. OAN, why do I need to get a URL to post a link to picturetrail, when some of you are posting pix out of your computer?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks Silvia for the close ups!

Our Kids Tropical's is great! I have been out there once to buy fruit trees. I didn't see any bay when I was there, but then again I was pretty overwhelmed by the variety of plants Larry has growing! A 5 gallon is a good sized plant. I'd love to get one that size - I'll have to check and see if Larry has any available. By comparison, my current bay is from a 4 inch pot. And they are just so hard to grow when small!

I was also very surprised that your tree is on the south side of the house! I am in Oviedo & my tree is on the east side of my house. It gets direct morning light, filtered midday light and late afternoon shade. Even so, its new growth often wilts and looks stressed due to the heat (soil is moist - it is not dried out) and I was wondering if it needed a more shaded location. Does the new growth on your tree wilt in the sun?

That is a great looking Rosemary plant! I am hopeful that if I can get one situated in a spot it likes that it will do well. I so love cooking with fresh herbs.

I have also had difficulty with thyme, marjoram and lavender dying out around July-August. These are all plants I could grow easily in the NW, but I haven't figured out the secret to them here yet. Do you grow any of these? Any tips on what they like here in terms of sun/shade & soil/moisture preferences & when to prune back?

This is another picture of the same herb garden (last picture was just planted last fall). This one is around late April this year:
{{gwi:936721}}

Things were doing great then - but they have suffered terribly over the summer. The huge marjoram you see in the front here is now just barely alive. I pruned about 1/3 of it just after this picture and then let it be all summer. I have just cut it back hard, down to the few green bits left and am waiting to see if it can recover. The thyme which is next to the huge dill on the right side has nearly died - just a few sad remains left. The lavender which is between the chives & the thyme died completely around mid August - succumbed to some sort of powdery mildew. So I'm very interested in understanding if you can successfully grow these plants as perennials here, or if it is preferable to treat them as cool season annuals.

On the plus side, lemon verbena, which I could never get to grow in the NW, loves it here! My plant is absolutely huge and didn't blink at all at the summer heat & humidity.

Hi Toni

I am so glad that you are still gardening and growing your own seedlings, good for you!. I am including the link for posting pictures, it is easy and sure would like to see an update on your seedlings. Have a great season!

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: posting pictures

Sun worshiper, maybe we can get to the bottom of the problem and have you successfully grow herbs in our area. I think it begins with the area where they are planted, even though it looks good to the eye, the maple roots might be interfering with the growth and causing disease? If you want to use the shade of the maple and the area surrounding. might be a better idea to keep them in terracota pots. When I get a new plant what I usually do is keep on eye on the watering for the first week after that they are on the sprinkles twice a week in summer and in winter once a week. I am constantly changing the garden so recently I pull out some herbs to use the area for another planting, I still have the same herbs in pots. I am going to show the other part of the herb garden, it is on the south side and shaded a little bit by the fence.

Marjoram in the ground, 3 years old, good all year round.

Thyme and oregano in pots, they also do well in the ground with half a day sun. Also mints in the pots they look better in winter, need trimming I have about 5 different varieties.

Sage is in the ground looking tired with heat, start from seeds and have plenty for winter.

One really happy plant if you like Thai cooking is lemon grass, have to keep cutting, in the back is an eggplant and on the side a star fruit.

If you go to see Larry check out also the nutmeg tree, I still want that one, I did not get it,lol. When buying herbs a good place to get is at the Leu Gardens sale in spring in the seminole springs rose+herb farm, they have a good variety also do mailorder.

Because I do a lot of cooking with herbs, I can not be without and in the store they are not only old they are expensive! Some are always started form seeds like sage, basil, parsley, cilantro. Others are bought as plants, I have garlic chives that I bought 3 years ago in just fruits nursery and keeps coming back. Rosemary buy the plant and bay get at least a 5 gallon pot because they grow so slow, once established they take off, new growth is very strong on mine, no wilting in the hot sun. And I have not planted lavender, so I don't know. Next season I am going to plant zaatar from seed for my cooking. Dill does well only when is cold. Make sure that you plant onions for your cooking, fresh scallions!

I hope that I answer some of your questions.

Silvia

Sylvia,

I have two nutmeg trees in extremely small pots (only 3 inch) started last year and the dang trees are now over 8 feet tall already. I grew them in small pots hoping to keep them smaller. Nutmeg trees grow to be tall (up to 50 feet) and bushy, with glossy, dark green leaves. The tree produces two spices: nutmeg, which is the inner seed kernel of the pale yellow, peach-like fruit, and the softer flavored mace, which grows as a lace-like covering over the nutmeg's outer shell. I'm very leery about planting them outdoors because of the size they grow. They flowered this last spring but never made any nuts. I'm not sure what variety I have.

Lou

Hi Lou

Good to know that you have a nutmeg tree, hope that you get some nuts soon. And yes, I know how tall they get, they were growing in Jamaica last year that I was there, I did not take a picture of the trees but I brought with me plenty of nutmeg to last me a long time! we do a lot of baking at the house.

Last year in Jamaica

Silvia

Thanks so much Sylvia for all the pictures and advice!

Sounds like we are watering on the same schedule via sprinklers. I think that the problem does not have to do with the roots of the maple. I moved to FL 3 years ago. The first 2 years I rented and had an herb garden exclusively in terra cotta pots using potting soil. Even with no nematodes or maple roots to factor in, I had exactly the same problems with the thyme, marjoram and rosemary. So must be something else I'm doing.

Last year when I bought a house I had hoped that planting into the ground would help because the root temperature would stay more even. The terra cotta pots were always drying out too fast - even though I had large 15-20" diameter pots. I'd water in the morning and go to work & come home to wilted plants. At that location, I had no shade - my terra cotta pots were in full sun. I still do have another rosemary plant in a terra cotta pot and is now on the west side of my house. It is still alive & has survived 2 summers, but looks pretty ratty. Definitely not lush like yours.

When do you cut back your marjoram? After it flowers, do you cut it back significantly? Or do you just let it do its own thing and not cut it back at all?

It isn't all doom and gloom - I've had success in FL with quite a few herbs: parsely, chives, lemon verbena, basil, dill, mexican tarragon, cilantro, mint and oregano. Just the mediterranean herbs that prefer arid conditions that I'm struggling with. I'm going to move things around a bit this fall based on what I've observed about the various micro-climates around my house and see if I can get better results in the coming year.

I've been thinking about adding lemon grass too. How tall is that plant? It looks like it is in the 4' range, is that accurate?

Sun worshiper, we moved at the same time, lol. 3 years ago this was the backyard and I was growing herbs and tomatoes in the porch.

{{gwi:26078}}

And I happen to have a maple tree, here it is in June behind the trellis

Remember that I said my garden is always changing? Here it is the same spot, maple is out, fig tree is in.

We are still cleaning the matted roots that we found growing around the maple, that is where some of my herbs came out. I will be planting herbs and onions in some of that space.

Now terracota pots overheat, if you look at the previous pictures with the eggplants, they are in pots buried with hay, the maple was there and gave some shade to the other herbs. Full sun is too strong for a tender herb, when established they can tolerate more heat. About the marjoram I keep it trimmed and don't let them flower if possible. You are right on the lemon grass, it is about 4 feet tall, after I have been chopping it, otherwise can grow into a big clump.

And that is good news about your success with other herbs, you will eventually find where every herb that you like is happy, just keep trying.

Silvia

That is neat that we moved here at the same time Sylvia! Your yard has changed a lot in 3 years! Where did you move from?

I'll try not letting the marjoram flower and see if that works better. I'm going to do some re-arranging and see what happens=) Experimenting is part of the fun.

Thanks for all the encouragement!

I come from many places, last one being Phoenix, Arizona and always had garden and fresh herbs, some of them very rare. In Phoenix they could not grow herbs, they said it was too hot, not even the farmers market had them. Because I lived there for 10 years my garden was very well supplied, I grew everything there, the house was sold even before it went in the market, just looking at the fruit trees that I had, somebody is eating very well at that house now,lol.

I had a huge rosemary bush under pea gravel next to hibiscus, mexican oregano maybe 7 feet tall, also grew native american herbs and crops. Now we are in Florida and I am growing the southern crops.:) As you can tell I had many lives and many moons of gardening experience,lol.

Wait till we can update our gardens 10 years from now, that is going to be fun! Keep us updated on your progress, we want to know.

Silvia

Wait till we can update our gardens 10 years from now, that is going to be fun!

Like I said, just hang a sign out front, Silvia's Botanical Gardens ;-)

Silvia,

I'm running out of room in my screen-greenhouse for all the things I want to grow. I look at all your pictures of how well you are growing veggies without the screen protection that I have. I am going to have to try to grow outdoors in raised beds like you do. You have given me the inspiration to try it again outside and I think now I have learned enough from the people on GW to make it work this time. I will take some good advice from Bamboo-Rabbit and start to make the beds now for spring planting as he says "prepare the beds well in advance and let them compost". I want to thank all the people that have given good advice not only to me but to each other. I've learned so much about FL gardening and it's so different from up north and even from California when I lived out there (when it was safe to live there before they went nutty) :o)

Lou

Good morning Tom

Here are some morning pictures for you

This one has your name on it, remember?

Some zinnias that I know you like

Peppers and winter squash

And a new one that I got Superbells Dreamsicle

Good morning Lou

I am so happy that you are going to give it a try growing outdoors and is very nice from Bamboo giving you advice, he has the farmer's soul and he is very experienced. If you ever have any question, you can always send me an email because Bamboo said yours is not open or something like that. I will be looking forward on all your new adventures in gardening.:)

Silvia

I just looked at my member profile and the email was not checked. Somehow I missed that box to put a check in it.
Thanks Sylvia for calling it to my attention.

Lou

Silvia- That bean you sent me was huge! When I plant it will I be able to climb up it and find a golden goose? Your pictures are beautiful, but do not convey that massive scale of this bean. Thanks for the seeds. I will have fun with them.

Lou - That is great that now you can get emails too. Some day I might surprise you and say hello.:)

Amber - You are welcome, even if you don't like the taste of the beans when not mature, you will enjoy the looks of the vine. This is only 1 seed and has been producing for me since March.

The beans

The vine

Silvia

Silvia - I was shopping at the Seminole Town Centre Mall last week. There is a new Chinese tea shop there that had several varieties of tea for sampling. One was a lemon grass tea. I see that you have one of these plants. Have you made tea with it?

I have been making tea with my peach and olive leaves (from my yard). So, adding lemon grass to my home tea brews sounds interesting. The unusual teas sold at the Chinese tea store are sold by the ounce. There's not much dehydrated tea in an ounce. I would rather grow my own.

What is your view on home grown tea brewing?

Christine

Christine- If I may comment on your question to Silvia, I had some lemon grass (it died my fault), lemon balm (gone), and lemon verbena (still alive) and mixed that with spearmint and chocolate mint. It was very yummy. I particularly like the lemon verbena and chocolate mint for this purpose. Lavender and chamomille are good too if you can get them to grow here.

Christine - My father was like the original medicine man,lol. He learned to treat any ailment anybody had from his grandmother, he used to take me as a little kid to hunt for herbs even in the Amazon. Mornings at the house, we always had some sort of herbal teas that he made from the garden, we usually used a mix of herbs that tasted good, otherwise I would not drink it. Sometimes one of them was lemon grass and mix with at least 5 other more that I could not find them here but can be substituted for maybe chamomile and mints. If you are going to give them a try, don't boil them because they would be too strong, boil the water first and let them rest for a few minutes. We had so many herbs growing at the house that even the people passing by would ask for some and we always shared and explained how to use them.

Silvia

Amber - that is funny! I did not see your post and we answered almost the same thing. Have you tried hot cinnamon tea made from the bark? it is really good and sometimes liquor is added for extra punch, maybe like hot cider?

Silvia

My tomato plants doubled in height this week and have blooms on them now :-) But, now that the night temps are back up above 75F me thinks the blooming will stop for a while :-(

Tom

Looking GOOD Silvia!!!
Thank You for Sharing Your Garden With Us All...
NC

Silva- yes I am a big tea drinker although not really very knowledgeable about homemade medicinal teas. Lemon and mint taste good and are easy to figure out. I like the cinnamon sticks with other things mixed in. Cinnamon also makes the house smell nice:)

Tom-fellow pinellas person, my tomatoes are about at the same stage as yours it sounds like.

amberroses and Silvia - Thanks for you tea input. You've given me ideas to pursue.

Silvia - I missed the Friday morning post somehow, when I'm at work I zip through them rather quickly. That Butterstick sure looks great, it all does! I just got my cuke/zuke seedlings into the garden this weekend, was focusing on the maters the last two weekends.

Amber - I can't wait to see pictures of your garden to see how we're doing here. So far things look great, fingers crossed we don't get a "big blow" next weekend...all the weathermen are predicting this developing low to become something later this week, I sure hope they are wrong.

Tom

Wow - Arizona must have been a very challenging place to garden Silvia. I am definitely looking forward to watching all my new plantings grow - especially the fruit trees!

I decided my potted rosemary was just too ugly to struggle on. This weekend I chopped it up into cuttings to propagate and plant out in a variety of locations to see what "sticks".

Are all peach leaves good for use in tea Christine? I didn't know they were edible. I recently tried cinnamon plant leaves for tea - brewed up a beautiful rose color and was very tasty. I am thinking of getting a cinnamon tree to keep in a pot just for tea.

sun worshiper - Yes, all the varieties of peaches are good for making tea. Even though nectarines are a close relative of the peach, a master herbalist said not to use them.

Cinnamon leaves, that sounds like a great tasting tea. I'm going to check that out. Now that's a good reason to have one (or two) trees in a pot.

Christine

I have two cinnamon trees in pots and I will have to try the leaves as tea, Somehow I missed reading the post correctly and thought the tea was flavored using the cinnamon bark. Do you have to dry the leaves first or can you steep them when green?

Lou

Christine - thanks for the info on peach leaves. I planted a peach tree earlier this year. Neat to find out it has another use!

Lou, I went to Plant-O-Gram a couple weeks ago to buy a mango tree. While I was there, I got a great tour of the owner's property and he told me lots of interesting things about the plants he was growing. He showed me two kinds of cinnamon plants. I realize now I am confused which is which scientific name wise. But one had small, narrow tapered leaves - similar in shape to lychee leaves. The other had large, broad oval leaves with pronounced veins. He said that the small leaf variety makes better tea and gave me some leaves from it to try - picked fresh from the tree. To make the tea I brought some water to a boil and then removed from heat and added the fresh leaves & the twig they were attached to - crushing them up a bit. There were about 5 leaves and 4 inches of stem. I steeped it for about 20 minutes. I was quite surprised that despite the leaves being green, the tea turned out red! Pretty sure next time I go there I'll buy a plant to keep in a pot=)

Very good! I have the proper cinnamon trees for making the tea. I just went out and checked on the leaf and yes they are very similar to the lychee leaf shape but with 3 small veins running the length of the leaf.

You may want to buy more than one as they seem to be a slow growing tree and I can't imagine stripping the leaves off will in any way help it grow faster. I will have to re-pot them in bigger pots and see if that helps it grow. Mine may be stunting from the small 6 inch pots. Both of my trees seem to be growing laterally and not upright, was that the same way as his grew or do mine need immediate attention and staking?

TIA, Lou

I always wondered about Nutmeg! I am an avid watcher of the food channel and they use it all the time. I have looked and looked for whole nutmeg in stores but can't find it anywhere! So how can I get one growing?

That's great Lou. Do you happen to know the scientific name of your plant? I'd like to know which is which by name.

A 6 inch pot does seem small for a tree to get much growth going. At PlantOGram Mickey had them growing in 3 gallon pots. They were between 3 & 6 feet tall. I can't remember if they were staked or not but I suspect they were. They looked just like any normal tree that you'd buy at that size. Upright and with a reasonable number of leaves. I did ask him if they could grow indefinitely in a pot since they can't go in the ground here & he said they could. If I buy one I would probably put it in a terra cotta pot that is about 20 inches in diameter and then keep it as a bush rather than a tree. I'm sure you could train one as a standard if you want to, but I'd want to be harvesting from it. So best to keep it as bush, so that the harvesting isn't disfiguring. That way new sprouts can keep coming up from ground level and older shoots can be harvested. Got a picture of yours to post?

Sun worshiper,

The name is Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a Ceylon Cinnamon indigenous to Sri Lanka.

The slightly inferior cinnamon you mentioned (Cinnamomum cassia) comes from Southeast Asia, the closely related cassia tree.

I will post a picture after I get them re-potted and staked upright. Right now they both look more like vines running along the ground :)

Lou

jwalton,

The nutmeg tree is native to the Moluccas (the spice islands). Myristica fragrans can reach a height of 60 ft. This is a dioecious tree (male and female flowers occur on separate plants) so you will have to plant a male and female tree. When the tree is about eight years old, it bears its first crop of fruit, and it can continue to bear fruit up to the age of 80-100 years.

Lou

Lou, thanks. Hmmmmm I guess I'll keep looking for whole nutmeg instead of waiting 8 years for it to fruit!

Silva, I missed your rosemary plant photo when I looked earlier. I so want one like that! Right now it's in a pot but I think I'll plant it on the East side this weekend and see how it goes.

I'm also trying to get a good Thyme plant going as I like to use that too. I'm hoping for a good herb garden soon. I absolutely HATE cilantro so that will not be in my garden!

Julia

Julia,

I just searched on eBay for 'whole nutmeg' and there are a lot of people (71) selling the whole nuts for very low prices. They even have organic grown nutmeg.

I do a lot of shopping on eBay because I live so far out in the puckerbrush the cost of gas for the 30+ mile round trip makes it not cost effective for me for a small forgotten store item when I can have it delivered by mail.

Lou

Hi Friends!

I see that you were very busy while I was away for a week's vacation in the Bahamas. Sure glad to come back and see that you are all gardening edibles, better than were I was where they only garden ornamental plants because they their soil is coral and limestone, no top soil. All their food is imported, I would not like to live there.-(

I took some pictures from Nassau, tomorrow I will take the garden pictures at the house, long overdue with the harvests,lol.

The ocean is beautiful and I like fish:)

The plantings

The town

And last night's party...

Silvia

Hi, Silvia!

Looks like you are having fun...enjoy your vacation. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Hugs,

Freya

Welcome back Silvia, there are some gardens on Eleuthera and they still produce quite a few pineapples but good old Uncle Sam killed that export when they wanted to support Hawaii, for the most part much is imported.... But, we know how to container garden, don't we :-) Looks like you had a good time, nice pictures.

Tom

Hi Ladies

I forgot to report the best part of the vacation was the lemon grass spa treatments, body rub, wrap and massage, I could go back for those anytime,lol.

Hi Freya

Thanks for the good wishes, I am back and cleaning the garden this morning.:) Hugs

Hi Tom

Pineapples were so good! probably the best that I have ever tasted. There is a big problem with the drinking water there, very expensive, they still collect rain water in some places, one of the luxuries in life that we don't even think about it.

This morning I walked around the garden and nothing died at least, it had no care or spray for a little over a week, they had water from the sprinkles every day, things are over grown and had to trow a lot of veggies not picked, I can not believe they matured so fast!

Some saved veggies.

Silvia

Nice Haul you have There Silvia!!!
NC

Silvia, I missed your postings and your advice. Glad you had a wonderful time. Looks fun. Glad to have you back with us, though! Your veggies look wonderful! So many colors! I picked two little sungolds tonight for my salad and am making caprese salad for dinner tonight with some of my garden basil and store-bought tomatoes. Not like your harvest, but it's something! Welcome back.

Anna

Thank you NC, I am happy to be back gardening and talking to the garden friends again.:)

Thank you Anna for the warm welcome, it does make a big difference to be able to garden in our own backyards, it is very sad to eat only imported and expensive food like what I saw on vacation. The natives said that they actually come and buy things here that are affordable including food. The downtown area had shops like Gucci and others high end.

I am glad that you are getting some sungolds they are usually the first to ripen for me. And was I surprised to see the dwarf container tomatoes when I came back, this tomatoes are the same in the green container, this is how they look now.

The morning glories that are supposed to be black are a shade of purple

And I got some corn for my african grey parrot

Silvia

Everything looks picture perfect, Silvia. I keep aspiring to be half as good at veggie growing as you! Yes, the sungolds are just starting, and I think the black cherries will be next. A few beefmaster are getting to be a decent size. We will see. Despite spraying them at least once weekly (sometimes it rains and I respray), I still have some that are getting worms. I don't know how, as I spray pretty thouroughly. Not too many so far, though. I keep hoping the weather cools and most of the bugs will go away. Your photos keep inspiring me to try again. Thanks.

Anna

Tom, I've considered taking a bucket of soiless mix over and leave with a friend on Eluethra, believe they could grow great veggies in winter there!

Silvia , me thinks it is time to start a new thread, this one is getting overwhelming :>)

bernie