Gardens vegetable, flower or other?

[jamespowers]

I've got an "other" post... I harvested some honey this last week! Yummy. It's a combo of mangrove and wildflower, with some of my garden herbs I assume, since I can taste some Thai basil!

The bees have also multiplied. I started the spring with the one hive and am now up to four

My neighbor used to have a few hives. That must have been decent honey as I have a decent amount of citrus trees in my yard---particularly oranges trees.
Yesterday, I trimmed up one of the grapfruit trees so I can actually walk under it without getting hit with the leaves etc. I deadheaded a few rose bushes----30. Raked up a container of leaves and tied up a few climbing roses and tomatoes. I still have yet to pick my first tomato of the year though.:eusa_doh:[huh]

 

[jamespowers]

Time to add to the thread again. This morning I was fuming! The furry tailed rat hit up my cherry plum tree and was still there when I got to it this morning. What a mess! The fruit was all over on the ground, he knocked down a stake I had holding up a branch and it was just chaos. He saw me coming and ran to the fence to get away. He did of course but not next time. My garden guru gave me a tip that works for these furry tailed rats. Tangle Foot.
The stuff is super sticky and you put it along the top of the fence and they don't want to cross it again. It worked in one section of fence at the back of my yard(there is a chunk of rat fur still stuck to the fence in one place. ) After the rat left I grabbed a container and topped the fence along that area really good; I used the whole tub, in fact. That should keep him at bay for a while.
Last year it was the birds that stripped the tree. This year it is the furry tailed rats. You just can't win.:eusa_doh:
Oh and I still haven't picked my first tomato this year either.

 

[Old Rogue]

No tomatoes here yet either. We are getting decent yields of yellow and zucchini squash, cucumbers, and assorted peppers. We've had decent weather but I moved the garden to a different spot this year and it looks like I need to work on that plot of ground a bit more to get it producing as well as the spot I used the last couple of years.

 

[jamespowers]

No tomatoes here yet either. We are getting decent yields of yellow and zucchini squash, cucumbers, and assorted peppers. We've had decent weather but I moved the garden to a different spot this year and it looks like I need to work on that plot of ground a bit more to get it producing as well as the spot I used the last couple of years.

New ground eh? Did you use my rabbit pellet trick to make the plants grow faster and produce more?
We have had lousy weather but the Garlic, Chayotes and other cold weather crops did ok. The swiss chard was doing fine then we had a few warm days and it bolted. My canaries love the flower tops though so off they came and the plant resumed big leaf growth.
Cucumbers and peppers do ok here as they tend to stand cold fairly well. I once had a chocolate bell pepper last over a year here.

 

[Warden]

Saw this and thought of this thread

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2013/apr/10/wartime-garden

 

[Colonel]

Saw this and thought of this thread

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2013/apr/10/wartime-garden

Great article, sir! Thank you for posting it.

I now have my tomatoes in the ground - they're about 4" tall at this point. Today's project includes planting the beans, okra, and green peppers. That will about do it for this season. Also coming along nicely are the eggplant, sweet potatoes, and Seminole Pumpkins. Pineapple is in the ground year-round, and they are recovering from a freeze that I neglected to protect them from.

Photos of my garden are here:
http://www.southernagrarian.com/

 

[jamespowers]

Great article, sir! Thank you for posting it.

I now have my tomatoes in the ground - they're about 4" tall at this point. Today's project includes planting the beans, okra, and green peppers. That will about do it for this season. Also coming along nicely are the eggplant, sweet potatoes, and Seminole Pumpkins. Pineapple is in the ground year-round, and they are recovering from a freeze that I neglected to protect them from.

Photos of my garden are here:
http://www.southernagrarian.com/

Geez, I wish I had your weather to garden it. I can grow most of the things you listed though. I just have to start later than you. Some of those things take far longer to mature and fruit than our growing season will support. Are you the Author of those books?

 

[Colonel]

Geez, I wish I had your weather to garden it. I can grow most of the things you listed though. I just have to start later than you. Some of those things take far longer to mature and fruit than our growing season will support. Are you the Author of those books?

Living in the South has it's advantages - and disadvantages, so I try to make the best of the good stuff.

No sir, I can't take credit for the books. They are by Carol Deppe - my "hands down" favorite author on garden topics. She is a plant geneticist by profession, and she really knows what she is talking about.

 

[jamespowers]

Living in the South has it's advantages - and disadvantages, so I try to make the best of the good stuff.

No sir, I can't take credit for the books. They are by Carol Deppe - my "hands down" favorite author on garden topics. She is a plant geneticist by profession, and she really knows what she is talking about.

It definitely has its advantages. Interesting sounding books. I think I will look into getting them. As an aside, my chayotes have overwintered and are growing quite well already. Last year we had a bumper crop. Not too bad for a plant that I grew from a sprouting chayote last year. I added about five feet of lattice work to my fence to support it this year. My neighbors cut down their trees along the fence so it has less places to grow now unless I added height to the fence. They gave me about a dozen chayotes that had grown into their trees. lol lol I also added the lattice work to the other side of the yard where my grapes are growing. The idiot neighbor on that side cut off the canes that grew over to his side. I guess they don't like grapes. If it were me, I would have trained them to take advantage of the crop.

 

[Colonel]

Your lattice work sounds like one of today's projects (at least I HOPE I get to it today between all that pesky "pay the bills" work). I'm building a trellis for pole beans using cattle panels that run the length of the raised bed garden. So far, it's coming along nicely, and last night I figured out a big piece of the puzzle. When I'm finished with that project, I'll be taking photos of it and writing about it on the Southern Agrarian site. It will be at least later this month though - my wife has my camera, and she is in Greece working on a project.

 

[jamespowers]

Your lattice work sounds like one of today's projects (at least I HOPE I get to it today between all that pesky "pay the bills" work). I'm building a trellis for pole beans using cattle panels that run the length of the raised bed garden. So far, it's coming along nicely, and last night I figured out a big piece of the puzzle. When I'm finished with that project, I'll be taking photos of it and writing about it on the Southern Agrarian site. It will be at least later this month though - my wife has my camera, and she is in Greece working on a project.

The lattice was easy. I thought it was going to be a project but I found premade panels down at the Home Depot and just screwed them to the existing fence. Six foot fence is now ten. I love it when a plan is easier than I thought. I suppose the orange trees and tangerines are due for their monthly deep water. I'll put on the bubbler and set out the hose soon.