*sigh*

Listen people…planting guides are just that:  GUIDES.  They are not bibles, they’re not edicts handed down from on high, and they’re not immutable law.  They’re the average results from the average varieties grown the average way….none of which you are required to adhere to.   

We grow carrots and onions nearly year round here, despite the “recommendations” of the planting guide. We do it in small crops, in raised beds, we use drip irrigation that waters from below (which avoids most fungal issues), and we generally grow the smaller varieties that better suit our space limitations.

Honestly, only October through March??  Carrots and onions need at least some heat to grow, and those seeds we started in November did indeed sprout, but they didn’t start really growing until last month.  Yes, July/August/September here in Florida are going to be bad times for fungus-susceptible plants as it rains pretty much every day, but your April planted carrots are going to be harvested by then.  I can tell you from direct personal experience that our container and raised bed grown carrots had zero fungal issues last year.  Maybe it is the improved air circulation around the containers/raised beds, eh?  There’s a factor that’s not going to be included in your planting guides.

Scallions, shallots, bunching onions….we grow these all year.  I’m actually trying some long day onions this year (started in January) even though technically we Southerners don’t have long enough days for them to bulb, but after Googling around and reading reports of success from others, I’m damned well trying them.

And why would you not TRY?  The only thing it costs you are seeds and time.  Experimenting with varieties/methods is one of the great joys of this whole gardening thing.

Here’s something else I’m not supposed to be succeeding at…growing Tall Bearded Irises that actually bloom!

Not only is it blooming, but that’s the FOURTH time it has done so in the past two months.

I’ve decided, looking at the backyard gardens of others, that I am not maximizing my planting box space as I could be.  I like things orderly – a shock to any childhood friends (hell, post-college too!) reading this, I know – but I think that’s causing me to waste a great deal of space.  Peppers, for instance, do get rather bushy when mature, but really only at the crown, the foliage tapers to a few leaves about midway down the plant.  So there’s space under them for things like carrots, onions, chives.   The same is true for tomatoes, and even some bush beans.  So I’m revisiting the boxes, planting a few rows of carrots here and there, sowing a few onions.  These things we’re growing don’t have to be in straight orderly beds, they can be tucked in anywhere you have a little extra space, curved between two plants, zig zagged, whatever fits.  Nor do the crops have to be especially laaarge.  A few rows here and there will keep you in carrots and onions for weeks.

That said, can someone please explain to me why I have thought it necessary (with EIGHT tomato plants already blooming/fruiting, three more almost there, and six others just sprouted) to start yet another EIGHT MORE varieties, as well as FOUR MORE pots (2 seeds each sowed for all, and I DON’T thin, people) of the Campbell’s tomatoes??  Just where do I plan to grow all these things…on the frickin’ roof?

Would that I could, people.  Would that I could.

Here, have a pic I inadvertently left out of yesterday’s epic, of some really-needs-to-get-planted-soon Cosmos (shot with my beloved 105mm lens) while I contemplate where to put 24 more frickin’ tomato plants:

Oh, and the very best part??  I’M THE ONLY ONE IN THIS FAMILY WHO FREAKING EATS TOMATOES.

*sigh*

Purple Dragon, Hercules and White Satin varieties.

With the increase in cultivated area this year (.004 of an acre, woo!), I’ve decided I’m going to weigh our harvests as they come in, see how much a backyard “farm” can actually produce.  We’re off to a great start, harvested 3 1/2 lbs of carrots yesterday!
 

Those are Hercules, Purple Dragon (still our favorite), Atomic Red and Yellowstone.  The latter two were deemed tasteless and the entire crop consigned to the compost heap.  That’s the beauty of this…you can experiment with new varieties and if you don’t like them, all you’ve lost is time.  The rejects go into the composter and make lovely soil amendments for next year.

Remember the crystal apple cucumber?  It’s gone all Plan 9 From Outer Space:  
 

I had to remove the strawberry plants from the box as they were getting covered over, and put up a side trellis so the crazed vines would leave the climbing rose alone.  Should be a good year for cucumbers.

The shoepeg corn is going strong:
 

The first round of peppers is blooming like mad:
 

The pumpkins impress even before fruiting.  Those leaves are easily dinner-plate sized:
 

Some of the tomatoes are doing magnificently, fruiting already:
 

(Carbon)
 

(Chocolate cherry)

While out front the flowers are coming along nicely.  Like this seed-grown Cape Daisy:
 

The amazing 8 foot tall hollyhocks:

The grown from seed (last year) alyssum have finally decided to thrive:
 

The Red Hot Poker is busy self-propagating and may actually grace us with blooms this year:
 

The tall strawflowers are so tall we’re having to use the multi-trunk crape myrtle to help support them.  A true embarrassment of riches:
 

The daylilies are awakening.  This is Ming Toy:
 

This is the variety we haven’t any clue about.  There are so very many peach/pinks with green/yellow eyes:
 

Finally, the piece de resistance.  Grown here in zone 9a, and blooming like there’s no tomorrow, it’s a Tall Bearded Iris (Mariposa Skies):
 

Let’s hear it for experimentation!

This is pissing me right off, I tell you.  All the tomato seedlings were started inside in pure peat, hardened off on our fence shelves, and were not final-potted until they had at least two pairs of leaves.  The tomato on the left, spanking right along.  The tomato on the right, spindly and yellowing.  What the entire hell is that about?  The only difference is the pots…the one on the right has a small reservoir down in the bottom, though well away from where even the mature root ball will end up.  About half my 8 tomatoes are puny and yellowing, and the other half are monsters from some kind of radioactive waste dump horror movie.  Like this Carbon:
 

Had to quit measuring it because my yardstick is now too short.  

Other delights in the garden today include the sprouting Jacob’s Cattle bush beans:
 

The getting on up there soybeans:
 

The blooms on the first round of pepper plants (Whitney, Red Bell, Paprika) that were started with the tomatoes back in January:
 

A volunteer tomato plant from the compost that was added to this box:
 

We’re going to let it grow here, despite it being well outside the screened pool enclosure, partly to see how it will go, and to potentially give the tree seedlings a little shade in the furnace blast that is July/August around here.  To that end I’ve been investigating hornworm defense today, and am thrilled to discover that BT handles them just fine, as do the little predator wasps attracted by companion plantings of dill and fennel.   Bonus!

The Delice De Table melon plant is ignoring the fact that it is only about five inches tall, and is literally covered in blooms:
 

This crystal apple cucumber is the oddest plant I’ve ever seen.  Its stem is like a ribbon, flat and multi-layered:
 

And the top of the three foot tall plant looks distinctly like a sunflower:
 

Note the plethora of blooms though.  It’s all good.  For me anyway, this guy is having a rough day:
 

And this guy got into some of the local mushrooms, I think:
 

“I’M upside down?  No, YOU’RE upside down.”  

I think he needs an intervention.