Yard Farm Update

Winter is over and Summer is here. Where did Spring go? It's been in the lower 80s for the last week. My warm weather garden is starting to take off and my winter garden is biting the dust. I have pulled most of the lettuce and kale, but I still have a giant cauliflower that's getting attacked by bugs. I almost pulled the cauliflower, but I did see a tiny flower head in the middle. I will let it have a chance.

The new Earthboxes are finally taking off too. Here is my most advanced box with Brandywine OTV and Goosecreek tomatoes. I am happy with the number of blooms I am seeing and the leaf coverage is way better than I usually get in my normal containers. It amazing to realize how much water these things use though.

The Yard Farm 2011

This year I have tried to learn from my failures and successes of the past. I am going to make more of an effort to trellis my vines and secure my tomato supports. I am not finished yet but you get the idea. I copied my trellis idea from the Square Foot Garden Book. I hammered rebar into the ground and slipped electrical conduit over the base. You can see I have a mixture of  two wooden raised beds, a concrete block raised bed, a few large pots, a few medium size cheapo self watering pots, and some earthboxes. Out front I also have a topsy turvy and some trees and bushes planted in the ground. We shall see how it all turns out.

Borage in Bloom

This is a photo from my garden of a borage bloom. In all honesty the flower is much smaller than it appears in this photo. The vivid blue color is true to life though. Borage is an herb. I planted the seeds for mine in the Fall and they've survived all winter and are large plants now. The bees love them.

Apparently both the leaves and flowers are edible and taste like cucumbers. I cannot imagine anyone wanting to eat the leaves though because they are so hairy. The blooms make nice garnishes. Others have suggested candying them in sugar for decorations on desserts or freezing them in ice cubes for a touch of fanciness. I plan on trying a few of these suggestions soon.

Hello Again

I'm back in the saddle again. It's been another unusually cold winter here in my central Florida garden. Today it is a very pleasant 65 degrees with sunshine and puffy clouds. It's so nice I went outside and took some pictures of what's growing now. I haven't been resting on my laurels during this cold though. I've been sowing seeds and planning for the Spring. It looks like it is almost here. Those up north have my sympathy. Here's a look a the winter garden.

Tomato Harvest 2010

Well all my watering and waiting has paid off and it is now time to harvest the tomatoes and evaluate the results. This has been a great season for growing tomatoes. I have had to deal with very little disease problems and no whitefly infestations. I grew all of my tomatoes in containers on my driveway. The fruit worms have claimed a few tomatoes and I lost about 12 in a windy storm when the containers fell over. But all that is water under the bridge now that it time to harvest. I will post my evaluations of each variety in future posts as more ripen.

The Pumpkin Transforms!

I have really learned a lot about nature, science, and spirituality through gardening. Now I can add cooking skills to the knowledge I have obtained through gardening. I have baked pumpkin dishes before with canned pumpkin from a store, but I certainly have never prepared a raw pumpkin before. I cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out all the seeds. Some of the seeds I saved to roast and some I saved to grow future pumpkins. The Galeux D'Eysines has a nice orange flesh but is a little thicker than a carving pumpkin.

 Thank goodness for the internet! I learned that I needed to bake the pumpkin for and hour or until it became tender. It was really neat because the actual skin I discovered was very thin and peeled right off. Nearly all of the pumpkin is edible.

I made the baked pumpkin flesh into a pumpkin bar. I got the recipe on the internet also. It tasted heavenly. Like a pumpkin pie without the useless pie crust. There is a oat crust underneath the pumpkin filling. I was pretty worried about this recipe because the filling was very runny like water, but it did eventually set and cooked perfectly. I didn't even use half of my pumpkin to make the bars. I froze the rest in the freezer for later uses. I also still have two more pumpkins in the garden so I don't have to worry about any national pumpkin shortages for a while.

Behold The Pumpkin!

I picked this Galeux d'Eysines pumpkin this morning. In my humble opinion it's the most beautiful pumpkin I have ever seen. It also has the honor of being the first pumpkin I have ever grown. Ah, so many potential uses for this baby. For now it is just decorating the house.  I pulled the vine after I cut it, but I still have two more baby pumpkins on another healthy vine.