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New to Gardening

Just a hello

11 years ago

Hi everyone, My name is Patmark/Mark and I live in South Florida. I am new to this forum and new to gardening as well. I have decided to teach myself how to grow my own food and so far I am doing quite well. I am disabled and have three children (23,23,and 21) and a grandson who is 4. His name is Aydyn and He's my partner in crime and is absolutely loving learning about all the plants and everything involved in making them flurish.

This year I have prepared a 550 SQ. Ft. garden, and it will be ready for the plants next weekend. All of my indoor starts are ready for transplanting and I am very excited. Anyhow I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone, LOL I have a million questions. The link below will show you all that I have done so far and how I am progressing if you are interested.

I was truely amazed at how many fruits and Veggies can be grown here in South Florida. I assumed when I started researching it was going to be too hot to grow anything but citrus down here. My garden will have a fruit section with watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, blueberries,blackberries, strawberries, bannanas, and pineapples.

In the Veggie section I will be growing Lettuce, Tomatoes, gr.onions, red onions, egg plant, broccoli, bannana peppers, bell peppers, two kinds of corn, peas, beans, carrots, beets, swiss chard, zuccini, and cucumbers. I will plant Marigolds, and garlic in the cinder block holes surrounding the garden as well. Anyhow I think this post is quite long enough for now so I will talk to everyone later. Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.189660701084645.63120.100001221504169&l=42ebf6b012

Oh ya I forgot to mention that this garden is 100% organic from start to finish which is very important to me. See ya soon.

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Comments (8)

Patmark
Original Author
11 years ago
Sorry about the link in the first post everyone. Let's see if this fixes it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden pictures
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 years ago
Welcome, Mark. Your plants look great! If you haven't already discovered the Vegetable Gardening forum, be sure to head over there to share your pictures and concerns. It's always busy with fellow veggie gardeners just like you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Let's check out the Vegetable Forum!
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Hey! Welcome to the forum. I wish too that there was more activity on this forum. The far north forum seems to have many current members who post but there doesn't seem to be anything regular used by the rest of the country. I go on their's every once and a while but am not sure if I should. I know we have such different climatic conditions in this country but I think we could all benefit from some exchange of information. Your garden is lovely. I too have given up on fancy roses. I have planted some hardy ones in what I call the wild side of my front yard. It is along a field on our farm and I have tried to plant it with flowering shrubs. This is the first year many of the roses have actually done something and they all seem to be the same pink colour for some reason! I am busy right now with all of my daylilies. I hybridize and have hundreds of seedlings blooming that I am trying to get photos of. It rained all spring and the weeds in a couple of them are horrendous. I just couldn't keep up. Now it is dry -I still can't quite believe that - and I am starting to water all of the huge lush plants that grew with all of the rain! Good luck with your soil-it looks like you are making headway. Keep posting to show us how it is going! Debbie
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Patmark
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi rhizo, thank you very much. This is a very large forum so thats exactly what I needed lol a little help navigating. I will talk to you soon in the vegetable forum.

Thanks again,
Mark
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
Wow you're off to a great start! I hope you and your family have as much fun and amazement with your garden we we do with ours - and (usually) some awesome food, too. You might also consider starting a compost pile or bin, or doing sheet composting.
Patmark
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi Purpleinopp, thanks for your response. I have a friend here that has 10 acres with horses and cows on it so I have access to all the free cured manure that I need, in fact its mixed in all throughout the soil in the garden. But what is sheet composting? That sounds quite interesting. If you would be so kind as to explain to a newbie like me I would be forever greatful. I just love learning new things. Talk to you soon. Thanks

Mark/Patmark
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
Sheet composting (also referred to as "composting in place") is when you put your compostables directly on the garden, a little here, a little there in small amounts.

Some people sprinkle a little dirt or leaves over it, if looking at it is bothersome although in the heat of summer, small bits of kitchen scraps become unrecognizable very quickly. The smaller the pieces, the more quickly they will break down. If you are more organized than I am, you can put everything in a blender and pour it here one day, there the next.

It looks like your plot is big enough to absorb the amount of organic material generated by a family. If you have a large load some days, you can dig a little trench and bury it under an inch or 2 of soil. The soil covering will prevent odors discourage flies from becoming interested in it.

The cool thing about composting is that you can do it however it fits into your lifestyle and yard. I find this to be an easy way to do composting without dedicating space to a pile or bin. There's also no lugging of finished compost later.

That free manure sounds great. Kudos to you for using it. Good friend to have!
Patmark
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi Purpleinopp, that's an awsome idea. I never really thought about that. We certainly make plenty of stuff here that will make great compost. I will definately give that a try. Thank you for explaining it for me. I will talk to you soon.
HazelJosephine
11 years ago
I am new to this forum community, I am very glad to join this community and I want to share my ideas and knowledge resources with the forum members as well as keen to increase my information bank also. Thanks.

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