I will be making banana bread and banana ice cream tomorrow, they are very sweet when they are over ripe.

Silvia

Sylvia, you even make the cold weather look good. That is a nice haul you have. My veggie garden got pulverized in the freeze a couple weeks ago. I am hoping I can dig up what is left of the sweet potatoes. I am the defiant kind so I will be setting more seeds of the more cold tolerant kinds. The chinese cabbages that I planted are doing great however, so I guess all is not lost. I bet your banana bread is going to taste fantastic.

Hi Trini

The cold weather crops get better with the cold temperatures that we are having. The hardy cole crops are at its best. The bed that is protected with the row cover has seedlings to tender to stand the chill, everything else is uncovered. If you don't have carrots planted do it now, this is the best time with the nematodes not active they are growing really healthy and sweet. Your sweet potatoes should be fine after the freeze, I picked some of mine that even when the vines were dead, potatoes were still good, especially when they are roasted in the oven with cajun spices. I will be making a lot of banana bread, some for me, some for others.

Silvia

Silvia, I have a sour cream bananna bread that is soo moist if you would like the recipe I can write it down for you. Also make a bananna cake that one guy pays me $10 for when he wants one. Everyone loves it.

We brought in most of the tomato plants into the back room yesterday. I covered the brussel sprouts and potatoes. I had bought a bunch of new veggies a few days ago and I'm glad I hadn't planted them yet! They are all sitting on my kitchen table

I have all my tender plants inside or in the garage, and some covered outside, but that's all I can do. Last freeze was worse than this one, and even my bell peppers survived, but my Hamlin oranges did not. They froze, and broke my heart, because the tree was loaded for the first time in it's life. This tree tried to die several times, and I finally nursed it back to health only to have its first real crop freeze before I could pick them.

I am sorta giving up. I am on to thinking about the Spring now. I bring in the orchids and I cover one palm. That's it for me. I do still have lots of kale, swiss chard, lettuce, etc... growing because these things don't mind the cold.

Wow Stuarwanda! Please tell me your secret recipes, I would love to have them! Can never have too many recipes, and I still have plenty of bananas, I hardly made a dent in the bunch, I only use 10 and still have plenty more. I tried this new recipe without the topping and less sugar, I put the nuts in the batter.

Julia - I brought in the leftover tomatoes few days ago and they have been ripening indoors, it seems to me that with the cold they take too long to ripen outdoors, same with the papaya, bananas, and star fruit.

Dirtygardener - I know the pain of losing a tree, it is the worst because they take so long to grow and give fruit. I am going to think that only hardy plants survive our weather when is hot is hot and when is cold we freeze. Tender tropical plants have to go in pots if we want them to survive, I am in the search for really big pots that are not too expensive, hope to find them.

Amber- I am thinking that the pretty plants will have to be living indoors if I am going to buy them, bringing the plants in and out is not fun. I saw a picture of a guy up north harvesting kale in the snow and just like you I am making plants for the spring garden...

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: banana bread

Sylvia,

Would those plastic 55 gallon barrels work as a big pot for you if you cut them in half? Just an idea as I sometimes see them in peoples yards used as flower beds. I have two in my barn I use to store my tractor diesel and often thought they would make nice big pots for small trees. They are very sturdy plastic drums.

Lou

I've done the drill again with running Christmas lights all through my garden and containers and then covering all with sheets. It's a huge pain in the southern posterior but I can't stand to lose my babies if I can help it.

Last night didn't get cold enough here to freeze anything and the wind was up (and still is) more then enough to prevent frost. I will plug in my array of "Christmas ghosts" again tonight and hope to keep the reeper away yet again. I truly am starting to wonder if it's all worth it though.

I'm ready to move - lock, stock, and barrel to a place where it's not so hot nor too cold but I suppose it's only in a fairytale book. Better days are a comin'! Merry Christmas and Happy Newyear to you all.

I just now heard the weatherman announce we will get down to 18 tonight. I give up. And my aunt in WV yesterday was complaining that it was 22 - ??? At least they have decent heating systems up there to deal with this. Of course she can't get out of her house, but that's UP THERE!

To me, the weather is always the challenge. That's what gardening is about, is throwing your labor and love up against chaos and entropy. If it isn't the heat, it's the dry, or the bugs, or the whatever.
I read once that a garden is the only art that does not outlive the artist, because our job is always to draw that line and hold it. And because it changes through time.
In my garden are lovely tropicals that have held up well. It's a matter of the right plant in the right spot. On the way to finding that plant/spot magic, I've lost a lot of plants. I've learned. It really is a matter of a Darwinian natural selection, I suppose. But in working it, I've learned so much about what works and doesn't, and what I love enough to put work into. (Orchids! Figs! PLUMERIA!)
Sometimes there are beautiful accidents, like the morning glory vine that ate my crepe myrtle, and now crowns it in glory all summer long. And sad little dramas, like the Acereola that I loved so much, which froze to the ground last year.
But if you don't love it, if it isn't satisfying to work your way through it, then there are other ways to go about gardening that are more bullet proof. No garden here, or anywhere else, is 100% safe though. Mother Nature has too much of a sense of humor for that.

Not to highjack the thread too far but I spent $80,000.00 on a solar power system (new metal roof included) this year and have become much more aware of how much power different things consume.

For whatever it's worth, I have learned that it's much more cost efficient to use space heating here in Florida. The furnace systems that most of us have are direct resistence heat strips. I have a large ranch house and my "furnace" is 17.5 KW! The city lights might dim when it comes on.

I will exit this year with my local power company (FPL) owing me more then a month of free heating or cooling thanks to my 10.120KW solar array and my learning about what is wasteful in electrical energy usage.

Now, if this "global warming" continues on the trend that we are seeling I will have to install a wood burner to heat the place but my next move will be to install a solar water heating system so the utility company has to pay me even more then they do now. I'm told that water heating is 30% of the load.

I don't know if this info will strike a chord in anyone but it does in me. I'm a farmer at heart and I like harvesting the sun just like I enjoy harvesting my veggies. That and I hate utility bills. LOL

Lou - Those barrels would work great for the bare root trees that I am getting soon, I usually grow them in a big plastic pot for a year, then they get transplanted.
What I really want is giant terracota pots like the ones in the picture for the trees that I am never going to transplant. They will live in the pots.:) I am sure they are handcrafted in Italy or something like that.

These pots are bigger than they look and have citrus and olives

Captturbo - I feel your pain moving and covering plants, it is just too much! and if we don't is worse we loose whatever we have. We just have to keep on doing till this winter goes away. I am surprise that you are having problems being in a warmer zone, you can image us in the colder zone 9, at least the lake is near by and that contributes to a little bit of warmth but not with the winds we are having!

The plants in the open porch are doing really well

Rita - I hope that you are keeping warm in your colder zone, we are all being tested with this weather! I just talked to my brothers up north and they can not even get out of the house to go to work, it is just so horrible to drive in the snow, I still remember sliding and dangerous situations with the ice.

Here is a purple cauliflower, I guess is cold too, lol.

{{gwi:15033}}

Silvia

Oh I missed these very interesting postings.

Ambersky - You said it so well, gardening is all about dealing with the elements, sometimes is easy and sometimes is a challenge, but for me is a way of life and living close to nature and that gives me an enormous satisfaction! I hope to see you very often in the forum, we all can learn something new, I am glad to see you back!

Capturbo - What a smart solution you are thinking, all your investment in the long run will more than pay for you. It is so refreshing to hear new ideas and options that we have. Harvesting those veggies will also pay in the long run for us, less medicine and more health to us. I applaud your ideas!

Silvia

I saw this interesting article attempting to explain all this cold.

Here is a link that might be useful: USA Today

captturbo,

I've also been looking into a 10KW solar panel system but I would need to set up a ground array as my house is set the wrong way. A ground system is cheaper than rotating the house 90 degrees ;-)

I just bought the solar water heater panels but yet to set it up. I will be also be using a solar water heater in my Aquaponics system for wintertime.

Lou

Thank you Amber for the article, I was so busy yesterday between phone calls to family and friends that are under the snow, that I completely forgot to read the newspaper. My daughter was last week in San Francisco and Napa Valley on vacation and she said it rained every day! I asked her to check the famous restaurants veggie gardens, and she said they did not look all that great, the only thing that she liked was the pomegranates and persimons trees that no one was even picking the fruit. And I have wine to last me a good year, all good brands, I will be celebrating the cold! LOL

Silvia

Did anybody look outside today? It is all frosted!!! it does not look Florida anymore, it looks like any town where they have frost. I just hope something survive, otherwise we are in for complete makeovers of our gardens. I will be looking to replace with plants that do well in colder zones like 7 or 8? when the sun comes up will see how bad it really is.

Silvia

Yes Silvia, even here in SW by the coast it is a heavy frost this morning. I just realized that I forgot to bring in my 30 year old desert rose last night. I sure hope it wasn't destroyed. The yards and roof tops look like they have snow on them. I think we should all go burn some fossil fuels to try to get that global warming farce going for real!

Lou, it is better to have your array on the ground so don't feel that you are at a disadvantage. You can aim the panels dead South. You can also more easily protect a ground mounted array during times of tropical weather.

I have my twin arrays aimed ESE because of the roof slopes that I have. Had I put them on the ground I would have had to give up my garden space. Glad to hear that you have the solar hot water components. I think that is the way to start out. It's kind of unusual (and dumb) to put in the large PV system first like I did because you get the most bang for the buck with the water heating system.

You are welcome to email me anytime if you want a "solar pal" Plus, we can talk about those chestnut trees. ;)

Well, I guess it's time to go outside and unplug all the lights since the sun is up an burning away the frost.

between 24 and 27 in the back yard this am at 8:30!!!! different readings about twenty foot apart, but i don't think those three degrees are going to make much of a difference....:) birds are going to have to wait till around noon for a drink or bath, froze solid.

Coldest day yet here. For the first time this year there was frost everywhere in the yard and on my car.

On the radio yesterday, I heard a forecaster in NJ say that the worst of our winter (here in FL) is over and that it won't be a repeat of last year. Oh, from his lips to God's ear! Too darn cold! This a.m. was a bit warmer than yesterday in the backyard. Yesterday was 33 and today, 36. At least the trend is ok.

Yep, same here, frost everywhere. I guess I will just count on everything being dead and hopefully will be happily surprised by a few things. Think Spring and keep warm everyone.
Sharon

Hello all the posters above

We are all experiencing hardship with this not to welcoming temperatures, I was out in the garden and I think it is looking better than I thought this morning, the sun is finally warming things up at least till tonight's cold again.

I picked bordeaux spinach, it is looking very good better than all the other spinach planted. It is a great weather for a soup and I will be making either a potato- spinach soup or a red lentil-spinach soup.

{{gwi:10794}}

Keep warm everybody!

Silvia

I was ready for the cold Silvia, unfortunately my plants were not :-( You know my motto, sink or swim, except for the orchids, we did bring them in. No frost here for fifteen years, then last year BAMB! Guess what this morning? Yup, ice on my windshield when I was leaving for work at 05:00 :-( Surprisingly, tomato plants still don't look that bad this afternoon....

Tom

Hi Tom - You were missing in action, lol. I thought that you were sun tanning in the Caribbean. And I agree with you the weather last night and this morning was frightening but later on it changed for the better. I am just glad that I kept all my winter clothes, I have to walk my dog with winter jacket, gloves, scarf.

It is good to hear about your tomatoes surviving the weather, I do have some ripening indoors.

Tom, if you like red lentils you would love the soup tonight, I put in a lot of spinach and herbs at the end. Soup is one of the cheapest things to make and probably one of the most satisfying and nutritious.

Cold, cold go away! that is my new mantra, :)

Silvia

The pipe supplying drinking water to the hen house burst overnight as the temp hit 16 this morning. I shut the supply valve to that line and went to look, the PVC pipe is split the whole length. I have the replacement pipes in the barn but it was too cold to work on it. The hen house ladies were all upset about the cold shower so I offered them cornbread muffins and that seemed to take their minds off the wet and cold.
Ladies are easy... just offer them Diamonds, Pearls, Gold, Dozen Roses, or cornbread muffins.... it works for me!

Lou

Lou, you are too funny! I am glad that you took care of the problem, poor hens!
Let's hope we don't get too cold tonight.

Silvia

Silvia, did you get the bananna recipes? I sent it through GW.

The temp hit 17 overnight, I woke up and the power was off, the house was getting cold, generator wouldn't start because it was too cold, made coffee on my Coleman propane stove. Am I having fun yet? I could have stayed in New Hampshire on the Canadian border for this. I've had enough of this Global Warming... I want to go back to Global Cooling.

Lou

Holy cow! Sorry to hear that, Lou! Hope you are warmer now! Not fun at all!

Hi Stuarwanda - Sorry but I did not get your recipes, still have plenty of bananas left, my email is vsilvia1@msn.com Thank you in advance for your nice gesture and I am looking forward to try them.

Hi Lou - So sorry about your trying out with this weather, it is taking a toll on us, we were not prepared for this, neither the plants. I hope everything is better now that it warm up. When I left the house this morning there was such a thick fog making it difficult to see the next car, glad did not stay long.

Hi Saintpfla - I hope that you are cozy and warm where you are. Sending you happy thoughts for the New Year.

My garden this morning in winter wonderland, I am glad that the veggies are back to normal now with the sun.:)

Silvia

At a little past 8AM the power came back on, seems they blew a feeder transformer from the heavy load of people heating their homes with electric. The sun feels nice and warm but the air is still chilly here. My barn feels like an ice house inside it. I think I will take a short nap letting the air warm up more before I drag all the pots back outside.

Sylvia, That fog looks almost like thick forest fire smoke.

Lou

Lou, I am glad to hear the good news, we should have a nice break coming up.:)

My veggies are looking better now than this morning with the chilling temperatures

Silvia

I'll send it again Silvia.

We had thick smoke and frost on the ground this morning. The fires in Broward and in Hobe Sound are not good for people with breathing problems.

Got my orchids out and watered them and put them back in their spot. They looked good for being in the front room for 2 weeks. Hopefully this is the last of it but don't think so.

LOL @ "I've had enough of Global warming I wanna go back to Global cooling".

x2

I found out this afternoon when I turned the water back on that the pipes at each end of my screen-greenhouse had burst open. I'm sure glad I know how to do plumbing and will put a hose bibb to drain and clear the pipes of water for the next time it freezes around here. I have no clue why it gets so dang cold here, I'm always 5 to 10 degrees colder than the surrounding areas.

Lou

Good morning everybody, it sure looks like a better day today!
hope to get a nice break from the cold.

Lou, you are lucky that you know how to repair things, that is very important in life, as much as we can do it ourselves, we are better off.

The New Year is almost knocking our doors, time to start making plans...

Silvia

Lou, you will need to keep freezes in mind when you install that Solar hot water system. Designs vary but some must be drained before freezing weather. Who would have thunk we would have to worry about such things in FL?

Silvia, your plants are amazing as always. Am I the only one who feels hungry when I look at the pictures?
HD decided I would cook another Turkey dinner for New Years, lol I don't mind...I wish I had some fresh garden veggies, I like to cook with fresh stuff. All I have growing now are carrots and onions. Pathetic lol

Thank you Sharon, the veggies are doing really well. Especially the cabbage tronchuda, the leaves are so good and tasty either in stir fry or soup. I picked some this morning to give away, they are very prolific! Friends were surprised to see the big and crispy leaves and I always include the recipes for them so they know how to cook it.

{{gwi:118925}}

Picked a medley of carrots today and made pickled carrots slices one with dill and chile pepper, the other just dill, they are delicious!

For New Year's I am planning a paella, red lime souffle and an assortment of veggies that look good that day.

Have a very happy new gardening year!

Silvia

Sylvia, I think I just need to hire you to be my personal seed shopper; you always have such good looking colorful edibles.

What exposure does your sea kale have? I ordered a package from Johnny's when we bit the bullet and ordered the agribon cover. I have plans to grow a bunch up and harvest and freeze for use during the summer. Johnny's says it doesn't tolerate frost?

I'm continually amazed at the multitude of micro climates around here. This month has been a thank you to the oak tree coverage. The gardens that are under heavy oaks are, for the most part; doing very well. The gardens out in the open; meh - not so good. I've lost a few plants I expected to loose, and lost a few I didn't want to loose. I'll replant one of the croton's I lost because it really makes a nice focal point for the street side veggie garden. I kept another croton alive by putting an upside down trash can over it :)

Some of the other probably lost perennials will provide me the chance to rethink and plant something different.

In past years, I've kept orchids out during low temps by running heat lamps in ground stake fixtures with sheets over the orchids. Sadly, last year my system developed some sort of short and I lost several of the orchids. I have enjoyed my orchids for years; moving them from SoFL to SoCa to Central Florida. But now that I can't move plants around I'm rethinking things.

In the gee, surprise it is still alive department -

If you look closely; that is a cherry tom - unprotected snug up to the electrical box and still growing away. And the zinnia's in front are the only blooming flowers remaining in the front. Normally this time of year I have Johnny Jump ups that reseed themselves each year; but this year they have not come up.

My End of the driveway bed. In the front center are heavily covered pots containing tomato plants I started from saved comparti toms. I have shepherd hooks on either side that I use to create a tent like cover. I had planned to make it into a little greenhouse type area using plastic drop cloth. Nasty cold/flu/sinus crap has kept me away from my favorite toy store though.

The real surprise though are the plants against the fence to the left; a sweet basil, eggplant and cilantro seedlings are all just fine and happy.

I was happily surprised to see the cilantro, culantro and arugula all come through like shining stars. Again, they are in areas that have oak canopy's so I think that helped. I was very sad to see every last one of the basil curl up and melt; even our favorite spicy globe in a pot I covered.

The coleus along the front of the house all froze (as expected) - Syvlia - perhaps you could suggest for me something edible and ornamental that I can plant in those spots?

For dinner last night we had left over italian meat pie with a huge side serving of slightly steamed greens from the garden. They were so very good; and they are all loving this cool weather and growing like crazy. Even the cranky spinach and celery are going gang busters now.

If I can just figure a way to keep those dang rotten pesty squirrels out of our dinner. Those crazy things are running around like miniature banshee's frantically searching for buried treasure.

I read that rats do not like catnip - so I'm going to plant lots of catnip around the salad beds this spring - squirrels are rodents also.

And speaking of herbs; I found an old thread from 2008 in this forum which showed many pictures of ways to incorporate herbs into ornamental gardens. I would really love to see you "old timers" point out some of these tricks to us noob babe in woods peeps.

~dianne

Hi Dianne - Happy to hear from you again! You are doing well considering the freeze that we just had.

About the questions, most of my veggies are in full sun but some are in shade in winter. The ones that can tolerate shade are anything like lettuce, greens, cabbage, herbs, onions in winter. In the summer you can probably grow successfully peppers and maybe tomatoes as long as they have light.

If I have to pick one cold weather vegetable that gives the most for the money and effort would be the tronchuda cabbage aka portuguese kale, it has long leaves and the stalk is tasty and tender like celery or cauliflower, can be stir fry or put in soup. You can start using the leaves when very young, they are very productive and I am sharing the leaves with a lot of people. The picture above has the cabbage next to the bananas with a south-eastern exposure, mostly morning shade, afternoon sun, but I also have some growing in full sun and full shade, they are all doing well.

The idea that you have of creating an edible landscape in the front yard is a good one, if I was you I would borrow a lot of books from the library to get an idea what can be incorporated in the garden. Flowers can give a nice color contrast, the same herbs. You also have to think that with the vegetable garden, as soon as the harvest is over, other crops go in, it is changing it never stay the same like in the ornamental type of gardening. That is the reason to make it easy on yourself to have a few foundation or focal points and work around them. You can also add nice structures to the garden, like obelisks for beans or tomatoes even old ladders painted the color of your choice can look very nice. Do a little space at a time and then move to the next, think about 4 seasons veggies, if you have space add a fruit tree either a plum, nectarine, apple or other that takes the cold. You can also plant a row of sunshine blueberries that look good all year round. For vegetables that look good in the front are any kale. Your lettuce for salads can be in containers and also the herbs that way can be moved for freeze or when the weather gets hot.

Dianne, squirrels is one problem that I don't have maybe because I have the fence and the 3 dogs that patrol the yard :) I heard that they don't like hot pepper, maybe you should try to sprinkle the veggies with cayenne and see what happens. Or maybe a scarecrow and it will be a cute addition to your garden, if you are handy, you can make it yourself.

Look at this website when you are ready to make a new order, the seeds are very economical.

Have a very happy new gardening year!

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: The Sample Seed Shop