Florida Backyard header image

All images © Daniel & Stacy Tabb and Boondock Studios

«   •   Home   •   »

The Late Summer Garden

I’ve been pondering the garden these past couple of weeks, deciding what to pull out, what to plant in my garden, and that’s why I cut my grass using the best garden shears from https://technomono.com/best-garden-shears-for-cutting-grass.  The blistering heat is finally starting to ease up a bit, with nights in the 60s and 70s and days in the 80s. 

 The rainy season is officially Over, so all the cursed whiteflies are finally dead, which means I can plant cukes again, woo! You can also look at the home automation atlanta ga and find the best way it can work for you at your home or interior garden. To that end we did some much needed maintenance today, remember to replenish lost nutrients by top dress living soil to keep it perfect Now laying down newspaper between the boxes and topping it off with eucalyptus mulch:

dsc_0222

In box #1, we have a flourishing Parisian Pickling cucumber, a few struggling Fresca strawberries (what, too hot still?), and a newly planted Lemon cuke:

dsc_0224

In box #2, we have a bumper crop of Parisier Market carrots, a newly sprouted Pearl cuke, and five new rows (on the left there) of Parisier Market carrots:

dsc_0225

That used to be the home of the Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, but after the Yellow Pear tomato was slaughtered (MURDERED, I SAY!!) by hornworms, I emergency evac-ed it to a large pot inside the pool enclosure. None of the tomatoes are particularly happy right now, though, all with small curly leaves.  I haven’t had time to devote to figuring out their particular issue, though I suspect it is nutrient-related.

In box #3, the peppers continue, though a little lackadaisically.  The Thai Hot pepper is covered in new blooms, so we’ll see if this is a last gasp for them:

dsc_0227

Today I also planted two Romanesco cauliflower seeds, and will add more as the peppers retire.  And I freely admit, to you all, here and now, that I am growing the Romanesco as much to photograph it as I am to actually eat it. 

In box #4, we took out the faithful, and extraordinarily productive red rice beans (into the composter, of course!) added some fresh soil, compost and manure, and planted two offset rows of Golden Bantam corn:

dsc_0228

Harvest for this variety is in 83 days, which will put it on the table right before Christmas.  This is as much experiment as anything else, to see if we can get a good harvest of corn outside the rainy season.  We also hope the sodding cornworms will be less in evidence in this drier weather, but stand ready with Worm DeathTM should that prove otherwise.  I want fresh corn, from my own garden where I just also added outdoor turf for dogs.

Other crops in progress include Purple Haze carrots:

dsc_0230

Napoli carrots:

dsc_0231

Seems kind of bare, eh?  Someone…who shall remain nameless, since he’s the one who will be building my new planter boxes for me…stepped on the edge of this pot while harvesting red rice beans the other day and tipped out almost the entire crop of carrots.  The seedlings were rescued and moved to a different pot, and new seeds started in the original pot:

dsc_0232

Next to the rescue pot are Ishikura bunching onions, shallots (woo!) and Carentan leeks.  I am having ABYSMAL luck with leeks this year…do they prefer cooler weather or something?

Still to come on the planting agenda are:

  • Cebolla yellow onions
  • More strawberries
  • Ground cherries
  • More carrots (Purple Haze, Parisier Market and Napoli)
  • More shallots and Carentan leeks
  • Raddichio
  • Butterhead lettuce
  • Tennis Ball lettuce
  • Celery
  • Spinach
Speaking of new planter boxes, we have two planned, one 2ft wide x 8ft long, and one 4ft wide x 10 ft long, both 16 inches deep.  All the potted herbs will be transferred to these boxes, which will border the patio outside the enclosure.  I want HUGE sage, fennel, horehound and rosemary, so I can get some good dried harvests out of them, and they simply need to be in the “ground” for that.  And who knows, I might actually resort to growing the corn INSIDE the pool enclosure if I can’t conquer the cornworm issue!  I WILL HAVE CORN!!!