An apple tree grows in Florida...

One of my five new apple trees. This one is called Cinnamon Spice.

While I am certainly not the first to grow an apple tree (or five) in Florida, I can guarantee that I am am one of the first, if not the first, to grow the varieties I have planted. I have been wanting to plant some apples for quite a few years. After much research, I ordered the five you see below from Trees of Antiquity in California. These varieties should do well in the warmer climate here in Northeast Florida if I play my cards right. The varieties I have are White Pearmain (2), Fuji (1), Cinnamon Spice (1), and Newtown Pippin(1). Save for the Fuji, you most likely will not find these in the local grocery stores.

It will take 3 - 5 years of select care to make sure these babies produce a good crop. An excellent resource I picked up at the library is Michael Philip's "The Holistic Orchard." Along with my research online, I think I have a pretty good chance of keeping these tress alive. But I am not getting my hopes up too soon. Going to depend a lot on the weather, my time and gain knowledge/experience, and the blessings of God. Keep checking back for updates.

On another note, we recently cleared/bush mowed some of our property ( one reason to get ready for the apple trees). While mowing, I came across many hidden huckleberry bushes that seem to have been growing for quite some time. They are all budding now as shown in the photo below. Looking forward to see what we get off these new discoveries.

And last, I got some of my vegetable garden planted (taters, peppers, okra, cow peas). Hope to get some corn and tomatoes going here soon. I have a few peas already popping thru the mulch!

The five trees in their new "orchard."

One of the many huckleberry bushes we found while clearing part of our property.

Mulch...

Excited to say that I finally found a company willing and able to deliver a load of mulch to me! Hope to get more. If you have been following me regularly, you have read my mention the Back to Eden gardening trend developing around the world. Not a huge trend as trends go, but getting there. If you have not yet watched the film, it is definitely worth the time. I saw results from the small scale garden I did this year in mulched leaves. Looking forward to next year after this stuff has set for a few months. Check back for updates.

Spring blooms

Hydrangea

Plumbago

Gardenia

Back to Eden gardening experiments

Back in this post I talked about a method of gardening that I came across in my never-ending quest to get a decent harvest from my garden. Called "Back to Eden" gardening, it's basic premiss is to use what nature already gives you to create your garden as opposed to adding a bunch of synthetic or un-natural chemicals. Mulch is the mainstay, with leaves and straw coming in a close second. Since I have had no luck whatsoever getting a load of mulch delivered, I have collected the leaves from 2 church spring cleanings and allowed them to "age" behind my garden area. What I found underneath the top layer of still whole leaves was beautiful, dark, rich material (humus?). I was never before so excited!

I planted a much smaller garden last year in my dirt (with a small bit of the rotted leaves), and managed a mediocre harvest with the exception of this tomato plant that I did not sow.

This year, as a means of experimentation, I kept the garden very small (shown below). I planted a few beans, 4 watermelons, and about 8 tomatoes, all in nothing but the rotted leaves. All but one tomato are in buckets (also below), the other in the garden.

My small garden, about 2' x 10'. You can just see the watermelons between the beans.

My bucket tomatoes.

As you can see, the tomatoes in the buckets are doing very well. I expect a pretty decent harvest. Unfortunately, I did not label them when I planted them, so I cannot yet tell with are the Old Virginias and which are the Cherrys (all from saved seeds).

The garden area, however, is not growing as expected, but I think I know why: 1) the layer of leaves is not very deep, which may be hindering root growth; 2) I did not use any row cover for the watermelons as in years past. Watermelons like heat, and I do not think they are getting enough in this weird cold May weather; 3) the leaves by themselves do not hold water very well if at all, unlike mulch. In the buckets, it seems to have compacted a bit and holds the water good (doesn't hurt that the buckets have no holes in the bottom either). Again, the shallow layer of leaves may contribute to this as well.

So that is my garden as it stands now. Will report back when the tomatoes begin to flower.

Mysteries continued...

Last post I told you about a mystery tomato plant that came up in the garden. Since that post, I have picked probably 130 - 150 tomatoes off that one plant. Below is a photo. The concrete block is for size reference.

I am amazed at the production of this bush, and am saving seed in the hope to at least get this good of result or better next year.

I also mentioned in my last post about two rogue sunflowers that just popped up—one in the garden, one in an old compost pile. Below is a photo of the one in the garden.

As you can see, it is a beautiful specimen. I love all the flower heads on it. I plan to save seeds from this and the other plant for next year as well. Just today I cut the heads off the other sunflower to dry them.

The heads shown above are from just one plant, so if all goes well, I should have an abundance of seed.

If anyone is interested, I would be will to share the seed of both the tomatoes and sunflowers. Just email me at tomanda2042 at bellsouth dot net. The tomatoes, as mentioned in a catalog description I found, are addictive!

Happy summer!

Mystery tomato

One of the interesting (and frustrating) aspects of gardening is the unpredictability of it. Plant 20 seemingly good seeds, only 10 germinate (sometimes none, which is what I am finding out, though I think my seed is too old). Give all your seedlings the same amount of water, fertilizer, and love, and they grow at different rates (or, again, not at all).

My point in mentioning this is the discovery of a rogue tomato plant in my garden about a month or so ago, and its extreme growth and production despite my not planting it and lack of proper care. Not sure how it got there, other than perhaps through my compost pile after spreading some of it in the garden. When I saw it, I decided to let it grow just to see if, by chance, it might produce something (I have read many times that planting the seeds of store bought produce will not grow true).

Check out the number of fruits and flowers.

To my surprise, the plant grew... and grew... and grew. And not only that, but produced numerous flowers to which have grown numerous small tomatoes. To date, there are approximately 50+ tomatoes growing on this one plant that is about 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Looking through some seed catalogs, it looks as if this is a Cherry Roma tomato plant. The description says: 'Incredibly heavy set of 1" long plum-shaped fruits,' which is how this plant looks. My wife also identified the fruits as ones we have purchased in the past for parties.

The amazing thing is that I started some regular cherry tomatoes, Black Krims, and Old Virginias a short time after this one showed up, and they nowhere near got as big as the Cherry Roma before they began fruiting. And the Cherry Roma is just in plain old dirt, not a row I created and added anything to—just dirt! I have since added a bit more compost around the plant, but nothing major.

We have in the past 2 days picked some of the tomatoes, shown below, with many more that will mature in the next few days.

I am definitely saving some of the seeds from this plant, and hope to have the same success when I actually try to grow them!

I also have 2 large sunflowers that have sprouted on their own. Yet another anomaly, as I have planted sunflower seeds in my daughter's garden which did not grow.

Such is the wonders of nature, I guess.

This and that...

Red potatoes from my first ever planting!

Been a while since I posted anything... I am still here and actively working to better my gardening skills.

Started a new garden back in March, of which my success has been minimal. I managed to get a good amount of red potatoes (my first time planting them). And my tomatoes seem to be doing good. Everything else I have planted is not as I had hoped. I am thinking my seed is too old, or gone bad, as hardly anything germinated. I do have a couple watermelon and squash plants that came up after I had given up on them. There are bugs eating my cow pea and corn seeds, though I did find one pea plant poking thru this morning.

I could also attribute it to lack of water. With the terrible dirt we have here, the water just runs off as you water, thus putting more water in the paths between the rows than on the plants. A bought a soaker hose, but at 50 feet long, it is difficult at best to use in my short-rowed garden.

I do have one rogue tomato plant growing in the garden, apparently from the compost pile. It looks like roma tomatoes, and they are growing on the vine much like cherry tomatoes do—several fruit on one branch. And the plant is huge. And I haven't really done anything to it except water it.

And on that note, it amazes me that you can spend all this time preparing a garden, meticulously plant your seeds/seedlings, water them with love... and get nothing! In addition to the "roma", I have 2 sunflowers that just popped up—one in the garden, and one where an old compost pile sat. Still scratching my head on this. Perhaps I just need to randomly scatter my seeds in the garden, cover'em with some leaves, and see what happens.

I am kidding of course, but it does zap some of the motivation out of one!

After watching the Back to Eden film, I have put some requests out for wood chips, but no luck yet. May have to "bite the bullet" and pay for  a load from the company near my home. But at $125 per load, that is a bit steep for my budget (and the wife won't be too happy either)!

Anyway, that is the news for now. Will keep the updates more frequent in the future.

Pray for rain! : )

The New America

Gray's General Store, billed as the oldest surviving general store in the US.

While reading John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley", I came upon an interesting section that I felt was worth sharing here, in light of the growing "Buy Local" movements going on today. It reads:

The big towns are getting bigger and the villages smaller. The hamlet store, whether grocery, general, hardware, clothing, cannot compete with the supermarket and the chain organization. Our treasured and nostalgic picture of the village general store, the cracker-barrel store where an informed yeomanry gather to express opinions and formulate the national character, is very rapidly disappearing. People who once held family fortresses against wind and weather, against scourges of frost and drought and insect enemies, now cluster against the breast of the big town.

The new American finds his challenge and his love in traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another, while the townlets wither a time and die. And this, as I found, is as true in Texas as in Maine. Clarendon yields to Amarillo just as surely as Stacyville, Maine, bleeds its substance into Millinocket, where the logs are ground up, the air smells of chemicals, the rivers are choked and poisoned, and the streets swarm with this happy, hurrying breed. This is not offered as a criticism but only as an observation. And I am sure that, as all pendulums reverse their swing, so eventually will the swollen cities rupture like dehiscent wombs and disperse their children back to the countryside.

Keeping in mind that this was written in 1962, it is interesting to see how things were changing back then. Perhaps with the help of the buy local, eat local movements, the pendulum will begin swinging the other way, to our new America.

Garden reflection

Amy over at Get Busy Gardening posted her thoughts on her garden successes and failures for the past year, and how she plans to remedy those for next year. With all that I have learned this year, I thought I would share my own experiences. However, in my case, my lists will be more of "What I should have done" and "What I learned"

It is unfortunate that it takes a whole year to glean knowledge from gardening (unlike, say, dancing or singing), but the small tidbits of new information make the whole process, good or bad, worth it when you see the successes the next season.

While I have had some sort of garden for a few years now, this year was my biggest, making things a bit more of a challenge. So with out further ado...

I should have:

• Amended the soil better: One of the biggest challenges with gardening in Florida is the "wonderful" sand we have to grow in (note sarcasm). With a small budget, I was only able to get a about 5 bags of Black Cow to be spread throughout my garden. I added my own compost, but that's another bullet point. However, pink eye purple hull peas do excellent in that sand!
  
• Mulched: Would have reduced watering, and held on to the rain water, which is so much better (my plants always took off after a rain).
  
• Stuck with a garden my budget would allow: Lack of amendments and mulch was due mostly to the available cash for gardening. With a smaller garden, one bale of hay, and the 5 bags of BC would have been sufficient.

I learned:

• Soil and dirt are completely different: A local farmer was featured on our PBS station, and he said he uses leaves as one of his amendments. So, after a spring yard cleaning at church this year, I brought home 35 bags of leaves, and piled them behind my garden... and let them sit. A few months later, I went digging in the pile and under the top layer of still whole leaves, found the best looking black soil I had ever seen. I don't know if I have ever been that excited about gardening up to that point. It felt good, it smelled good, it didn't compact! I even found a few worms in there, which is a very good sign.
  
• Compost is not a pile of sand where you throw your yard and food waste, and expect the sand to turn to soil: As hard as I tried, my "compost" piles never did what I wanted. I now know that dirt has no place in the compost pile. Hopefully I will be able to build a proper bin, and get real compost for next year.
  
• Weeds are good for watermelons: A friend of mine told that while watermelons like heat to germinate, the actual melons prefer some shade. He said for lack of weeds, he puts palmetto fronds over them for some sunscreen.
  
• Nature has all the answers: I watched the fairly new documentary, Back to Eden, and was amazed and inspired by the wealth of information featured. It reports on gardener Paul Gautschi’s experiences over the years as he studied to find a better method of gardening, one he feels God has always had there for us to use. One that is less work, less stress, and has less impact on the environment than any other system today. This is the system I hope to implement this coming spring. I have begun mowing and bagging the brush on my property, and piling it in my garden plot, in the hopes that it will do much the same as the leaves and produce a good soil layer for me to plant into. If you have not yet watched the video, I highly recommend it.

I would be hard pressed to say that any of my gardening efforts were failures in that I gained knowledge I never had before, and can therefor use that to my garden's advantage next season. While of course disappointing when a harvest is less than ideal, there is hope of an even greater abundance next season.

Have a safe and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Fall harvest

Today I harvested some of the romaine and deer tongue lettuces from the garden. Didn't get any photos, but did have it on a turkey sandwich for lunch, and a grilled chicken wrap for dinner. It is an amazing feeling to be able to walk out back and bring in a large bowl of lettuce you grew yourself.

I can't wait for spring!

Back to Eden

In case you have not yet seen it, here is a link to the newly released "Back to Eden" documentary. It follows gardener Paul Gautschi as he explains his discovery of a seemingly new method of gardening, yet one used by nature since the beginning of time. I found it very enlightening and helpful, and am looking forward to implementing these gardening methods next year.

For the lettuce I planted this fall (see post below), I used some composted leaves that I got from my church yard cleaning day. I had piled the 35 bags of leaves behind the garden last spring, only to discover the wonderful compost it turned into under the top layer of leaves. This is the theory behind the documentary—using a cover (wood chips, leaves, grass clippings, etc) and allow it to break down to develop the soil in an effort to reduce the amount of fertilizer and water you use, the amount of weeding that needs to be done, and increase the output from the garden. I have seen nice results already in the lettuce I planted using this method. My goal is to get my whole garden area covered as soon as possible to allow the covering to break down enough to be usable next season.

A great thing about the film are the biblical references Paul uses to describe how God lead him to these ideas, in turn, giving examples of who God is and how he works.

I highly recommend anyone interested or active in gardening give it a look. You won't be disappointed.

Fall lettuce

Fall planting begins

Well, I finally had some time this morning to get out and begin my Fall plantings. Going a bit conservative this time and only planting 3 items: romaine lettuce, deer tongue lettuce and turnip greens. (As I write this, I don't remember which tray is which now.... In my haste, I did not label the trays and also accidentally watered my seed packets, so they are on the counter drying out. Will have to wait until the seeds sprout to label each tray.) I had pretty good luck with the turnips last year, so I am hoping that they will go even better this time with the proper care.

My father in law is scaling his gardening down a bit and redoing his compost bin. As a result, he will have quite a few concrete blocks left over that he is giving me. Now I will be able to construct a bin where all the stuff I throw in will stay in there instead of rolling off the hill!

I picked up a good read from the local library that I think is worth sharing. "A Short History of the Honey Bee" by E. Readicker-Henderson discusses the importance of bees to our food supply, their origins, the sweet honey they produce, and the threats they face today's society. The writing is light (poetic, maybe?), mainly focusing on the bees' and never staying too long on the threats of big agriculture, pesticides, etc. If you can find a copy, I recommend picking it up.

Until next time!

A long wait...

I find myself in a bit of gardening withdrawal these days. The summers here in FL bring a hiatus to much planting and growing as the heat and lack of rain make it less than worth the effort. Each morning when I walk outside to feed the dog, I walk back to the garden patch and stare at the bare soil, a lone bean plant still hanging on (and still amazingly producing) with no care from me. I run my stirrup hoe thru the dirt to keep the few weeds and grass at bay, dreaming of the produce to come next season.

My plans are to try my hand at growing greens and lettuce this fall. I had mild success last fall (managed to get a large pot full of turnips; they were quite good, but needed a more thorough washing (crunch!)).

I also want to get some apple trees this year, if the budget will allow. There are many that will grow in our Florida climate, and I see it as a fun and interesting challenge to see if I could get a small orchard going on my property. Perhaps some blueberries as well, and bees... bees would be good too, since I saw only 2 bees this year total. And goats, my wife likes goats, but is unsure if she wants to raise them (she loves, LOVES goat cheese, so that might be the hook that reels her in).

Anyway, not to worry, I am not planning all this at one time... but more and more, the call of the farm speaks louder every day.

Will keep you updated.

Thanks for stopping by.

Food, Inc and other stuff

By happy accident, I caught Food, Inc on my local PBS station tonight. I have been wanting to see it for some time, but it isn't online anywhere, and I don't have the extra cash to buy it.

If you have never seen it, Food, Inc is a revealing, inspiring, revolting, heart wrenching, somewhat life changing experience. My wife watched it with me, and the seed of starting our own farm I have been trying to plant in her head for some time may have actually started to root! If you are at all in to the local food, slow food movement, then try to catch this show. Anyone want to go in on the purchase of half a grass fed cow!?

In other news, my garden is officially finished for the Spring/Summer. With the exception of my tomato plants, and some sunflowers, all of my other crops have been pulled up. All I managed to get out of the garden this year was one small bell pepper, one cucumber, one rouge cantaloupe, 2 hand fulls of cherry tomatoes, 2 squash, and a good amount of purple hull peas. No corn, okra, watermelons, musk melons, spicy or hot peppers, carrots, lettuce. I say this with a bittersweet tone as, even though I only gleaned a minute amount of produce in comparison to the amount of seed I planted, I am trying to stay positive knowing that I gathered quite a bit on knowledge (mostly the need to amend, amend, amend!). I am giving the remaining tomatoes one more week to show potential.

I ate the pepper in an omelet, a few of the cherry tomatoes in salad, and we plan to cook the peas soon. I am letting the rouge cantaloupe ripen a bit more before I cut it. It is smaller than its parent (store bought), but I am curious to see if it is at all edible.

I have high hopes for my future gardens, and look forward to more success next time!

New beginnings

Well, I have decided that it is time to begin pulling up the current plantings and begin planning for the next season. Working by the example of what farmers and others are doing, it seems that it is just too hot at this time of year in FL to make much work. And with the lack of rain (until yesterday) and below average soil, I feel it best to start clearing the garden, and work on making the soil much more improved for better production. Now, I haven't pulled up everything mind you—my watermelons and tomatoes seem to be doing pretty good (finally got some tomatoes growing on the heirloom plants I started from seed, and I planted these before the ones from Lowes). But I am systematically pulling unproductive plants out and either throwing them on the fire pile or the compost pile.

As far as watering goes, I still haven't figured that out. I can water my garden for hours—hours—and not see the results I get after one good rain like we had yesterday. I think the obvious answer is that there is more water when it rains, which saturates the ground and keeps it from draining so quickly. But how do I replicate that when there is no rain.

One thing I plan to do is definitely put down either row covers or straw over every row to help hold in moisture. I also plan to get as much organic matter in the ground as well so the water doesn't drain so quickly. Our local zoo offers composted manure for whoever will come get it. I will be checking in to that as well.

I haven't decided whether I will plant anything this fall, or just let the ground rest. I would like to do something, even if only one crop. May try greens again. I had OK luck with those last fall.

First fruit

Well, here it is, my first heirloom cucumber (and my first veggie out of this year's garden). This is a Spacemaster from seed I bought from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Though I am excited, I have to admit that this is going to be a somewhat disappointing season. Out of everything I planted, I will most likely only get a fraction of the produce. With the lack of rain, no bees, and unamended soil, it comes as no surprise. I do water as best as I can to compensate.

In an effort to go as organic as possible, I tried to avoid any chemicals, only using some Black Cow and my own compost to amend the soil. My budget being what it is, I could only get so much BC, and had to spread it quite thinly, and the compost wasn't quite ready. Another mistake I made was not tilling the plot from last season, which made for some hard, compact soil. I also tried to co-plant some vegetables, but did it too close together (and I later read that it isn't really necessary or that beneficial). I will admit that I caved and use some MG garden soil and liquid fertilizer on an irregular basis to help the poor soil. I hope to be able to save a bit more money to get some organic amendments in the future.

After removing my first planting of squash for lack of growth, I really amended that row with compost, leaf mold, bone meal, potting soil, and Black Cow. Everything I planted in this row, except for the corn, is doing really good (duh!).

I am quite surprised at how good the watermelons are doing. I have about 10 - 12 growing, some that are about softball size. I should have some good tomatoes, a few peppers, some squash, and of course purple hull peas (those never fail me!!).

My goal at this point is to get at least one of everything to get seeds for next year.

It may sound like I am complaining, but I am really not, as I have gained so much knowledge during the past months. Hopefully my Fall garden will be much better.

Progress in photos...

Garden plot

Watermelon

Tomato

Muskmelon

Cucumber

My sole remaining basil plant (out of 12)

3 types of peppers (what survived of the 36 plants I started with).

Calling all birds...

We have quite a variety of birds on our 3 acre plot, and deciphering their unique calls is quite a challenge. We have the cardinal and woodpecker down, but the rest are giving us a run for our money, as many of the birds are out of sight, or don't stay still long enough for us to find the source of the call.

My daughter's recent inquiry as to if a call we heard was an owl (it was a dove), prompted me to search for sources that have birds sounds to show her what an owl in our area would sound like. During my search on the local library's website, I came across The Backyard Birdsong Guide. There are 2 editions: and Eastern and Central guide, and a Western guide.

I picked up the Eastern guide and I have to say that this is one of the neatest books I have seen. There are 132 recorded bird songs included, from birds all over the eastern and central US. Each bird has a 2 page listing featuring an illustration and some details about its habitat, location and song.

If your local library has a copy, ti is worth it to pick it up, especially if you are into birding. For more information, you can visit the companion site at www.chroniclebooks.com/backyardbirdsongs.

A gardener's learning process...

It is amazing how quickly frustration goes away with knowledge. As I work this year's garden, I am learning all I can (thru books, web searches, forums, etc) and experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. It is quite interesting how satisfying failures can be when you allow yourself to get past the aggravation and see the knowledge that can be gained to be used on future plantings. Just in the past month and a half since I planted, I have learned many lessons that will be valuable come next spring.

While I admittedly would have liked to have known all this before I started, I take it as part of my initiation of sorts. As a new gardener, I now know that it is crazy to believe that your first efforts will be 100 percent successful. You have to invest the time to experiment and see what works for you, in your area of the world. There are so many factors that affect the outcome of a garden—soil condition, weather, available time, pests, diseases, money—and they change every year, and are different for everyone, even if the distance between is just around the corner. And it only gets harder if you are trying to go organic! (Right now, I am working on sustainable; organic may have to wait a few years.)

So, if you are a new gardener like me, allow yourself to fail and let it be OK. Figure out what went wrong and how to correct it and use that information to create a success next season!