Wow, Tom, those are some plump cukes! What are you planning on doing with those beauties?

Lots of tomato, cuke and pepper salads, equal parts marinated in Wishbone ROBUSTO salad dressing...to die for!

Tom - Those cucs look very tasty, let us know which varieties did the best for you. I went to a nursery on saturday and they had a veggie garden with cucumbers that look like yours on a arbor.

Cool Breeze, Diva, Sweet Success and Eureka, so far for me the Sweet Success and Eureka are the winners ;-)

Great gardens everyone!

Tom

Looking good everyone! I wish we all lived on the same block so we could set up a barter and exchange system and never need to buy produce. Also we could have a real county fair with contests and such like we did in my hometown. Oh well, I can make do with the pretty pictures.

Hi Dirtygardener - Sometimes is good to simplify and only grow what we can and gives us happiness, some food for the table is always a good idea.

Hi Karen - Sungold tomatoes are one of the most popular, they are always good, mine are starting to slow down too but the other varieties are just coming in full production. And I agree with you, we are coming to enjoy the best time of the year for gardening, I was just thinking this morning that there is going to be a lot of veggies for us and to share with others.

Hi Tom - I remember that salad, it was very good! and you just gave away your best kept secret.:)

Hi Amber - That would be very nice that we all live close by, I need partners to do some heavy duty food preserving. Yesterday I did tomato salsa, papaya salsa, papaya conserve. One time when I was living in NY, I grew some really big and tasty tomatoes one year and my neighbor asked me if he could take it to some fair and can you believe it he won! or in this case my tomato.lol

Today's pictures

The baby corn variety that I grew, I ate some and save some seed for another planting.

Green Lance hybrid, is a mix of gai-lan and broccoli. The leaves are like kale and the stalks like broccoli, very good while you are waiting for the broccoli varieties.

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The tomato stars this season, a beefsteak Hungarian Giant and a saladette Ailsa Craig.

Silvia

Tom, that sounds like a good salad, We have had a lot of cucumber, red onion and tomato salads here with basil and red wine vinegar, some spices, mostly dill. My cucumbers have only given maybe one a week, and it looks like it's not going to go any faster. The foliage is terrible and declining quickly. I've pulled almost all my peppers as they looked awful. However, we've had a really good tomato season so far, so we are eating tomatoes lunch and dinner and sometimes for snacks! Fresh tomatoes are great chopped up with garlic, basil, any other veggies, on top of pasta, and sprinkled with either parmesan or feta. Have had variations of this twice this week. A lot of caprese salads too.

However, I still am not having any success with greens. They are so tiny and pitiful. Broccoli is coming along well now, but not close yet. Collards are doing well too.

Silvia, the Green Lance looks good. Those eggplant and green beans look great too. I'm so sad my green beans were a bust this season, and I've pulled all but one eggplant in a container. It doesn't look so good either. Has given a total of maybe six since spring.

I am grateful for my successes, though, and this season's success is the tomatoes! Usually those are my frustration. I wish I knew what I did differently! It might be the dryness.

Christine, I've got to say that since the holographic tape has been out, I don't think there has been any squirrels in the garden! Could this really be true? Still getting holes some nights, but it is a larger animal.

Anna

I am grateful for my successes, though, and this season's success is the tomatoes! Usually those are my frustration. I wish I knew what I did differently! It might be the dryness.

I'd say it was the fact you started almost a month earlier than me. I've still not gotten the first tomato and mine are in stasis. Last year was so hot right through October that an early start would have been devastating due to bugs, this year has been so cool that a Sept. 15 set for tomato plants appears to be late for Zone 10 because it's been so cool. Cukes/Zukes I have, tomatoes I don't, and the squirrels are starting to pick them green and spit them out...dang squirrels :-[

Tom

Hi Tom - I remember that salad, it was very good! and you just gave away your best kept secret.:)

No secrets here Silvia, I love your cooking but I don't profess to spending much time in the kitchen so it's mostly quick and easy over here...I hope to change that if I ever retire ;-)

Tom

It's so great to hear and see about everyone's garden delights. It keeps me inspired too.

Silvia - How are you going to cook the Green Lance? The reason why I ask is because I would love to get some extra ideas on how to cook the Oriental greens. I'm growing several varieties that I haven't tried before. And, I planted a lot!

Anna - Honestly, yes, believe it. The holographic ribbon really works. I have had trouble with large holes in some of my greens too. Unfortunately, I have been finding lubbers in the garden with big bellies and a smile on their face.

Tom - It is so interesting to hear about your garden (and others in zone 10) with your lingering heat. But, I'm glad that we have finally cooled down (in zone 9).

Love this thread! I'll have to take pic's this weekend. My brussel sprouts look nothing like the first pic's. They are still small. Broccoli doing well, beans about ready to produce. I've gotten some nice Sweet 100 tomatoes. Would love to have some of the Matts tomatoes. I'll have to contact Bamboo Rabbit! Oh, the onions are doing great I think.

I have been finding lubbers in the garden with big bellies and a smile on their face.

Me too. I've never had lubbers before and these things are monsters. It's obvious it's not worms when I see half a leaf eaten away with no holes in it, then I start looking only to find these critters slightly smaller than a 747!

Tom

Anna - Congratulations on your success, I think the weather being dry helped with the tomatoes. If you have a good amount or for next time, try to make roasted tomatoes in slow oven, they are my favorite!

Christine - This is what I do for greens; when soft like some oriental greens I quickly stir fry them in high heat and a little bit of oil. If the leaves are not soft like some kale varieties, I quickly drop them in boiling water, till they are still bright green, then chop them and add to the stir fry. With the stalks like broccoli, peel them with a potato peeler and use the mandoline to make quick and thin slices, then add to the stir fry. Depending on the flavor you try to create add spices, oils, vinegar, citrus or soy sauce.
Yesterday I made the green lance hybrid, boil the leaves first then chop, thinly sliced red onion, carrot and stalks.
Saute with olive oil, add salt, pepper, red pepper and at the end I added a splash of citrus some raisins and pine nuts. If you are making the oriental greens, don't add salt, use garlic, ginger, soy sauce and peanut or sesame oil. You can add sesame seeds, sliced almonds or peanuts.
Every time you can change different flavors not to get tired. And if you are feeling adventurous you can even make spring eggrolls with the leaves or a variation of cabbage rolls, I made last year swiss chard rolls, everybody love it!

Julia - I am glad that your garden is doing well, will wait for your pictures.:)

Tom - I had the lubbers too, we have not seen them before, I told Willy that they are called that in Florida, he said he called them grasshoppers. I said I don't care what you call them, you have to kill them,lol. I thought they were coming from the gardens around me.

Time to visit the garden again.

Currant tomatoes, this are the only ones reseeding in my yard, I don't spray, fertilize, water or even look at them because they are by the air conditioner and I have seen snakes there.LOL.

Salad every day, I have salad spinners in both refrigerators, if you don't have one and like salad, it is a must!

Garlic is doing well after the initial chilling.

Veronica cauliflower is showing the head

And the productive sword beans, still alive!

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Silvia

Just picked a colander full of green peas - big fat ones! Have picked 3 good harvests from the bush beans, probably not much more will come on. The chinese cabbage and collards are about 5 inches high. Oh, also jalapeno's. The tomatoes are still small, don't know if they will get to full size before winter, though. Haven't had good luck with tomatoes this year, darn it.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. I went out this afternoon to check on the garden and my squash/zukes are decimated with worms. I don't get it, I sprayed Sunday with a BT/Potassium bicarb mix...all the crop has many worm holes in every sinngle one :-( I was trying NOT to use spinosad because the Bumble Bees are working my tomato blooms hard and I didn't want to kill any of them. I wonder if the bicarb neutralized the BT? The BT was a fairly fresh bottle :-(

Tom

Silvia-Oh pretty greens Silvia. Maybe you could spell out your name with those colors?

Tom- Over here I had those worms in the squash and cucumbers last week and I freaked out and sprayed spinosad, but yes I felt guilty the whole time. I was trying to chase the bees away from the flowers until the stuff dried, but have you ever tried to chase a bee from a flower? Not an easy task. I should also warn you I had an "encounter" with some type of fruit worm eating three of my tomatoes.

Tom - It's so sad to hear that your plants got eaten up. That's why I don't grow squash and cukes in the fall. Too depressing. They are hard enough to grow in the spring.

Silvia - Thanks for the cooking ideas. I can't believe those winged beans!

Christine

Good morning All,

Rita - That is good to hear that you are eating some big, fat peas, I envy you! mine are still small, hope to get a good harvest like you. I remember that you said that you planted your tomatoes late? and now we are getting cold, next fall you have to remember and plant them earlier.

My dwarf tomatoes that were planted late to have them ripening after the other ones are gone

Tom - I am very sorry about your cukes and zukes, and I hope that they recover for you. We are getting hit with more bugs than ever. When I was in Nassau, they were spraying sevin everyday and everywhere except the planters that had flowers and basil flowers and they were still a lot of bees. I also spray early morning but not any flowers that I know the bees like.

Planted some marigolds, the variety said white but look pale yellow.

Amber - The dark lettuce in one of the pictures is a Yugoslavian kind with the name Silvia, lol.

Don't forget to plant some lettuce for salads, here it is planted in a container that is used for beer.

Christine - A well stocked pantry, will give you many ideas for recipes, when you go shopping get different oils, vinegars, nuts and dried fruit. I recently bought a fig balsamic vinegar that is delicious just like that as a dressing for salads. All the nuts I keep them in the freezer and take them as needed. Hazelnut, walnut, grapeseed oils I always have them. I know that you dry the fruits from your trees, you can use those, chop them and add them to salads and greens, also different citrus make good dressings. And of course greens are great chopped with eggs and soup.

Here is my today's salad in the spinner.

Silvia

My bush beans are probably pretty much done. And the peas probably won't produce much more. I was wondering, is it too late to sow lettuce seeds in their place? Or anything else?? How much cold will they take?

Corn Salad Cavallo

Crops in 50 Days
A tasty winter salad vegetable which can even be picked with snow on the ground. The succulent leaves are a staple ingredient for winter salads. Sow at two week intervals from late summer to late autumn in a sunny position in well drained soil. Sow in rows ý inch deep and 6 inch apart. Water the young plants during dry spells. Thin out when large enough to handle to 6 in apart. To harvest first pull up every other plant and then pick a few of the outer leaves from the remaining plants.

Lou

Rita - Depending on the area that you are going to garden, you can plant a lot of things that can take the cold. Also depending on what you and family like, different greens, lettuce, beets, carrots, radish, more peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, onions.

Here are pictures taken last december

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Hi Lou

That corn salad greens sound like a good choice for cold weather, I am always looking for adding tasty additions to my garden.:)

Silvia

WOW Silvia, You mean to say I'm growing something you haven't tried yet? AMAZING!!! ;They are great greens for winter time gardens.

Lou

I already have cabbage and collards growing - they're about 5 inches high now. I just didn't know if it's too late to sow anything else now. Where on earth do you find corn salad cavallo seeds at??? Are they at the feed stores? Silvia, you must be one healthy human, all those fresh veggies! I'm going to make homemade potato and mushroom soup tonight and I'm going to throw in those big fat peas, too!

Rita,
With me coming from a French Canadian background, we grew it up north in New Hampshire as a tasty late green that would survive the early unexpected September snowfalls. I don't see any of the large US seed companies selling it. When I lived up north I would find the seeds for sale in Canada. It is called by a few different names. If you can find the seeds, it will grow all winter long here in Florida. I see UK seed companies selling it online when I google it and will give the link.
This is a writeup from Yahoo Answers;
Lamb's lettuce is an undemanding herb that is widely distributed in Europe and Asia, and has been cultivated only since the beginning of the 20th century. Originating in the temperate zones of Europe, it was first described in 1699 in an English diary. It was once a common cold-weather salad leaf in the US, and all but disappeared before being resurrected by Americans traveling in Europe. It is now exported from France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, and, once again, becoming popular with small-scale growers in the US.

Depending on which authority is quoted, the name originated because lambs were partial to it or because it appeared during lambing season. Another name, corn salad, comes from its regular appearance as a cornfield weed. Mâche is a word seen in specialty groceries and on menus. Chefs prefer to use the French name because, they say, if "corn salad" is used, the clientele expects just that -- a salad made from corn. It has been popular for centuries in France; but, in England, it declined in popularity in the 1700s, and by the 19th century, declared a noxious weed.

The leaves are a good source of beta carotene, Vitamin C, and folate. In spite of its delicate appearance, lamb's lettuce is an extremely hardy plant and particularly valued as a nutritious winter salad crop. The leaves are a bright green and rounded with a slightly nutty taste, and is usually eaten raw as a salad green. Before the appearance of winter lettuce varieties, lamb's lettuce was the main winter salad green and at one time, classified in the same genus. There are two forms: the large or broad-leaved and the darker, more compact, green type which is popular in western Europe, but less productive. It is often planted in the unused damp spaces of gardens or flower beds, and makes the ideal cover between taller crops. Some varieties include Cavallo, Elan, Jade, Large Leaved, Grote Noordhollandse, Verte de Cambrai, Verte d'Etampes, Vit, and Volhart.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thompson & Morgan (UK) Ltd

Rita, that soup sound delicious! Bon Appetit! And yes, I hope to live a healthy life.

Lou, I knew it as a mache but I have not grown it yet, coming soon in my garden.:)

Here is a link that might be useful: mache seeds

Sylvia,

I'm happy I reminded you to grow mâche here in Florida for winter greens. I enjoy eating salads with almost every meal especially with home grown greens. This is what I like about GW, we can always remind each other of all the yummy things to grow in Florida. Thank you for the link as my mâche seeds was running very low, now I can buy more seeds too.

I have been busy putting together a 12'X26'hoop greenhouse I bought on eBay for $389.99 delivered. This will cover my outside garden and give protection from the bugs. I bought two of them, one is for my semi tropical trees for winter protection. In the spring I can remove the covering.

Baker Creek Seeds carry two varieties of corn salad. Corn Salad Dutch and Corn Salad or Mache-Verte D'Etampes. I also saw it once at Home Depot but when I went back to get some it was gone.

I love how you guys show us different things to grow here in Florida; it always spurts my imagination and shrinks the bank account! Silvia's latest round of pictures inspired us to Chinese Broccoli and Sword Beans.

Which then spurts me to go convert more of the front to growing veggies.

Garlic are growing in the pots and the area in front of them are slowing turning into another spot for greens. Can you believe I ran out of cardboard?

You can't see it well, but in the background between the tree trunk and croton is a black beauty eggplant that has 3 eggplants on it! Sunday we are making totally homemade eggplant Parmesan.

The more we harvest and eat from the yard, the more enthusiasm hubs has for converting the front into a salad bar.

This is the spot in our yard that gets the most sun, it is now being expanded at both ends and to our property line on the left; which is about 18".

Oh, and you can see the eggplant better here. Sylvie's waxing enthusiastic for Orlando Eggplant sent me crawling the web to find a source. I finally found it at Kitchen Garden Seeds.

Question? Does huckleberry grow here and what time of the year should it be planted?

~Dianne

Here is a link that might be useful: Greens @ Baker Creek

Looking good Dianne, There's nothing better than grazing off your front & back yards, all natural foods, I love it! Finding different edibles that grow well in Florida has been a challenge and this GW idea swap is priceless for all the ideas submitted on what and how to grow your fresh yard veggies. It has saved me years of trials and errors. I have no clue on huckleberry but will be watching for the answers.

Lou

Lou - That is a very nice greenhouse, you are ready for winter for sure! let us know how it works out for you.

Dianne - Very nice to hear of your projects and that hubby is also helping you. Changing to an edible landscape is an ambitious task and can be very rewarding. If done tastefully, neighbors can also enjoy the look. Little by little you can incorporate edible plants in the front yard since there is where the sun is. Fruit trees are very ornamental. Talking about veggies, it is good to introduce new varieties to the family and also different types of cuisine, this season green lance hybrid was a very good producer for me, the sword beans are more of an ornamental value, taste is different not like green bean or yard longs, but it is cook the same way. Orlando eggplant is a mini compared to the regular italian ones at the grocery store, but that is how we like them with no seeds and very young. They can be quickly sauteed and put in a salad or mix with zucchini and made ahead slow roasted tomatoes with plenty of herbs of your choice.
Dianne, I can send you some sword beans to try, send me your address to my email and happy gardening!

Here is Orlando eggplant today, have to pick again.:)

Silvia

Dianne,

Both huckleberries (Gaylussacia) and blueberries (Vaccinium) belong to the heath family (Ericaceae). Many people confuse huckleberries with blueberries, the difference being huckleberries have 10 large crunchy seeds while blueberries have many small, tiny, soft seeds. The black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) seems to be the most widely distributed species in North America. Its range covers the eastern half of the United States on up into Canada. A few of the huckleberry species are native only to the southern United States. Wooly huckleberry (G. mosieri), Confederate huckleberry (G. nana), and a South American native, the hairytwig huckleberry (G. tomentosa), are found in the Deep South. Wooly huckleberry is a bit more widespread and can be found in acid bogs, pitcher plant communities, and streamside baygall communities in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Confederate huckleberry, found only in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, has the narrowest range of all.

Lou

I believe Pinetree has it in their French vegetables section (under 'Around The World') - & they generally have the lowest prices for home gardeners.

I did grow it in the past, but prefer lettuces, chicories, arugula & Asian greens.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinetree Garden Seeds

Sunday night dinner:

Winter greens lasagna made with a combination of different kale and swiss chard, very good!

Silvia

Silvia - Tonight I cooked up a big saute pan of dinosaur/Tuscan kale along with a little garlic and red onion. Very good tasting. This is one of my very favorite kales. I see your harvest today is a colandar full of greens, the same varieties that I'm growing. I hadn't thought of mixing them. Wonderful idea.

I grew corn salad/mache last year. It was just OK. Not impressive but great for salad greens. I bought more seeds for this year but I didn't plant them yet. They like cold weather so I waited. It's plenty cold right now so I need not wait any longer.

Christine

Silvia,

thank you so much for your kind offer! But first, today I received my order from Kitazawa Seed Co. I had to restrain myself; I only ordered the Chinese Broccoli Green Lance Hybrid, Sword Bean Akanata Mame and a tatsui hybrid. 5 of the green lance are already soaked and planted!

Is the Akanata Mame Sword Bean the same as you are growing? If so, I have some seeds, if not I'll e-mail you.

Oh,and Lou - thanks so much for the info. Now all I need to do is narrow it down to Wooly or Confederate. Nothing can be too easy when we are trying to find things we ate as a child, hmm?

~dianne

Christine - Yesterday I made a moroccan chickpea stew with tomatoes, herbs and greens from the garden, it was very good!

Dianne - You can do succession planting of the green lance and the tatsoi, try to pick the tatsoi young so it does not get bugs. The sword beans I started in spring at the same time with pole beans and yes they are the same ones that I have.

Tatsoi can be used in salads or stir fry, her it is in a salad.

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Silvia

Right now just watching the tomatoes get huge and knowing that once again the frost will most likely get them before they ripen BUT considering I lost the first batch of tomatoes and had to replant they are doing ok.
Today picked a bushel or so of sweet peppers. We made 3 gallon jars of sweet pickled peppers and 9 sheet pans of roasted peppers. The peppers have really done well and produced their lil pepper hearts out all spring, most of the summer and the fall. If anyone likes the refrigerator sweet peppers I highly recommend the Yum sweet peppers, best ever. This winter will start a bunch as I have been very impressed by them. In the summer when my other peppers slowed producing the yums kicked it in high gear. Now as the weather cools they are slowing down while the bell types pick up, quite a good combo.
Of all things I have a few hundred blueberries turning purple and still a few flowers coming which I keep picking off at this late date. Someone needs to tell the BB it is fall not spring but soon to be ripe blueberries in mid November will be a treat. I still am not quite sure what triggered this either very late or very early blooming. Even the plants that do have fruit also just have swelled buds that will be fruit in the spring. It seems it is just the tips of some limbs that decided to break bud.

Bamboo,

I have some of my trees that dropped leaves and I thought they went dormant but now the new leaves are emerging. Something in this strange weather is making some plants 'trigger' oddly. The native forest trees seem to be acting normal but some of my fruiting or nut trees and bushes are totally confused. Side by side exact same species trees bought at the same time are acting totally differently, one is dormant, one leafing out, and another still green and hasn't dropped leaves as yet. Go Figure?

Lou

Hi Bamboo and Lou

In my garden we are following the cold weather, my blueberries are dormant, I still have some figs ripening. The bananas, papayas and star fruits hopefully get ripe before the frost. I am almost done with the tomatoes except the dwarf that are ripening now. I have a few peppers most of them the small sweet varieties. I have a lot of pickled padron peppers in the fridge ready for recipes, they make a great salsa. I already started giving away greens before they get too big and I am in the abundance of lettuce.:)

The garden this morning, lettuce varieties

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Moved the cold sensitive fruit trees next to the dwarf tomatoes

Silvia

Silvia,

Your greens look great. You say your blueberries are dormant now? They should not already be dormant, early dormancy is bad for the plants that should now be storing away energy for the springs fruiting.

Bamboo, I meant they have no fruit. I have the emerald and other pollinator and the sunshine blues that are evergreen. I live around a lot of blueberry farms and as far as I know they have no fruit. It is time to pick citrus at the farm soon.

I am already making plans for the family Thanksgiving and I am going to prepare the best sweet potatoes, you should try them like french fries made in the oven with cajun spices, they are good!

I got some sweet potatoes as big as a potimarron winter squash.

Silvia

Sylvia,

Ahh that explains it. A lot of people here in Florida have BB that start dropping their leaves this time of year and think it is normal, it is not. It is a sign of an unhappy plant or disease, scorch, rust or bacterial as a rule. Our blueberries (central Florida and south) in Florida should ALL be mostly evergreen and should not lose their leaves until just about bud break in the spring.

I think the late fruiting is simply a sign the plants have an abundance of energy. I took a drive last night up to the acres and acres of BB fields in my area and I spotted flowers on a lot of the plants. Of the 10 or so varieties I have almost 1/4 of them have flowers but not all plants of the same variety have flowers. It does seem the plants that pushed the most growth are the ones that bloomed, some of them put out 2 plus feet of canes after I pruned them in June.

I plan on planting the Japanese sweet potatoes in the spring, I guess that is the time to do so? I can't stand sweet potatoes but my wife likes them and I find the Japanese ones palatable, though just barely :)

Bamboo, in my small garden I only have a sampler of varieties and I am happy about that because is a size that I can manage.:) all my blueberry plants have leaves but no flowers.

About the sweet potatoes if you don't mind that the japanese variety send out runners of 2 feet or more it will be a good addition to the table, I like the flavor too. If you look at Sandhill they have the best varieties and they are planted in spring, but I have some of mine going all year round even with the freeze. I have about 5 varieties that are bush, a white, orange, yellow, violet. They make a pretty ground cover.

Silvia

Sylvia,

Thank you for the tip I will be adding them this spring.

May I share? My garden is very small but I do have a few things growing! I am preparing to raise my beds as my origial raised beds are now level due to sod instalation so I will be turning over a lot of the plants soon as they decline.
I have pumpkin: Cukes
Okra still producing but much slower now
green beans
and LOADS of tabasco peppers along with some radishes here and there, tomatoes that ripen one at a time, snow peas, and lettuce.

I love very everyones pictures. Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Unfortunatley I can't figure out how to post the pictures, so off to try to figure it out. (first post and all)

Bamboo, you are welcome and I hope that in spring you will be growing some nice sweet potatoes, it is a very rewarding crop!

Hi Ibarbidhal

Welcome to the Florida forum, where we all exchange experiences, tips and pictures from our gardens. It is very good that you are utilizing your small garden to grow crops, and I see that you have quite a few things going. We all love pictures and I am including a link where you can learn how to post pictures. Looking forward to see your garden.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: posting photos

Here's an update in the veggie garden.

This evening we ate previously harvested sweet potatoes and a big pot of Swiss chard ---first pick of the season. For those who don't grow Swiss chard, only the outer leaves are cut.

I have 2 plantings of pea pods. They are blooming and forming many pods. Yummy to munch on off the vine.

Last week I harvested the outer leaves of 2 rows of this dinousaur/Tuscan kale. This is also one of our favorites.

The rutabaga and red turnip plants are still growing very well. The turnips now have small bulbs forming.

Cabbage-- colorful too.

Carrot plants growing nicely.

Another favorite is red Russian kale. Not large enough to cut for greens but the small leaves are good in salads.

West end of garden - has the red Russian kale, gailan kale, bloomsdale spinach, and tatso. Most too young to harvest.

I love hearing about all of your gardens. Let's keep up our progress reports!!!

Christine

Christine,

You have an absolutely beautiful garden. You must not have all the critters that I have here that ravage a garden. I have to build fortresses against them all, a regular fence just will not suffice as they jump or fly over, burrow and tunnel under, or chew their way through the wire fences. The pictures of your garden leave me envious of your ability to grow outdoors while I have to remain confined behind ill contrived barricades and garden in dirt filled tubs. I enjoy looking at your garden pictures. Thank You,

Lou

Lou -- Squirrels, wild rabbits, and opossums are my main troublesome critters. Since I got my 112 lb. Akita 10 years ago the deer and raccoons stopped coming into my yard. It seems that they are afraid of the scent of my dog.

I do feel bad for you because it is so much easier to garden in the ground. I try to reserve pots for cold sensitive plants that need protection. I do use some Earthboxes on occasion.

I enjoy seeing pictures of your yard too.

Christine

Silvia- You ROCK! You are very helpful to everyone I see. Thank You!
Christine- WOW your space is amazing are those paper cups that you are using?

OK- Here's my try. Sorry it took so long.

Heh- Whatdyaknow it's time for some new pictures! I don't have pictures of my cabbage since they were seedlings. I don't get home during daily on weekdays so I'll try to come back on Monday!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog

Hi ibarbidhal

Thank you. Nice harvest, that is a lot of hot peppers! Last time that I had so many I pickled them and also put them in oil, they are also good dry to be used later. And peas are very good especially when is cold like today.:)

Silvia

Christine, how are you faring with this cold snap? Your garden has been so beautiful....

Tom

Tom - Well, last week's cold snap was kind. Minimal damage. However, I am really worried about this week!

This is 'red round turnip' and some papaya that I picked last Sunday. This variety does very well for me.

These are 3 views of my garden today. The recent freeze wasn't hard enough to turn the papaya trunks to mush. I picked off a lot of the green fruits in hopes that I get to eat a few more ripe fruit.

These pea pod vines have produced a lot of pods already.

My husband and I covered several of my favorite fruit trees today to get ready for tomorrow's hard freeze. I use plastic to make mini-greenhouses and then I put a little heat inside. This is my 9-10 foot three year old 'Carie' mango tree. You are so lucky to not have such low temps when the cold fronts come through.

ibarbidahl - No, those are not paper cups, they are the top part of plastic cups. I only use them for plants that I started from seed in "pots" (plastic cups). In the heat, the plastic collars help to capture water and they act as cutworm protection too. When the plants get large I often remove them.

Christine

My temper. :) (kidding) Another hard freeze warning tonight.

I picked tons of snap peas recently, Eggplant that were huge, nice cucumbers, a lot of lettuce, onions, beets, Broc. The corn didn't do too well.

I have plenty of green tomatoes growing. I picked a bunch of green ones today, just in case the sheets and warmers do not do the trick tonight and tomorrow.