Tag Archives: Florida spring garden

May27

Florida Raised Bed Gardening: Harvest!

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If you have followed the progress of this raised bed, you may have been wondering about the growth.

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The above pictures were taken 2 weeks ago.

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Florida raised bed garden

Look at it now! The first green beans were harvested this last week and the gardeners were so excited!

 

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They planted ‘Kentucky Wonder’ bush beans and some yellow wax beans. They were able to eat green beans for lunch that they grew in their backyard.

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yellow squash plant

They have signs of little yellow squash growing too. They should be able to harvest squash in just a few days.

If you have been thinking about gardening, you can start small with a raised bed. The husband in this gardening duo had never planted a seed before, but he is now able to harvest vegetables from his backyard.

Please don’t think of gardening as expensive, complicated, or difficult. Start small, and enjoy the process. Gardeners are always learning, so don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know.

You can read about how they started their garden in this post, and follow their progress.

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Mar22

Spring Vegetable Garden Planting

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‘Jackson Wonder’ bean seeds

It was a beautiful day in Florida to plant some beans in my backyard garden. Here in northern Florida we are experiencing warm weather, so I am eager to plant spring crops in my garden. Not only did I plant the ‘Jackson Wonder’ beans pictured, but I also planted ‘Contender’ green beans and ‘Roma II’ beans.

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Since my garden expansion, my rows are much longer. I stretched yarn between two sticks and used that to help me make my rows straight. Now I pray for warm weather and soft rain showers. I still have some more varieties to plant, but I especially wanted to get the ‘Contender’ beans into the ground. They seemed to have a good germination rate, even when I planted them a bit early last year.

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collards

My final gardening of the evening was harvesting some collards to go with dinner.

Hopefully I will have some fresh green beans and yellow squash soon! Spring gardening in Florida is so exciting!

Mar1

What Have I Done?!

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Last year, I remember thinking “What have I done?!” as I watched my husband till the ground for this corner garden.

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Pretty big, right? Approximately 21’x23′ as of yesterday. This garden (which is finishing up its fall and winter crops) and the “shed bed” kept us in fresh vegetables for much of the summer.

This spring, I have even more ambitious goals. I want to produce most of our vegetables this year in our backyard. With that in mind, I planned this garden expansion. I hope to can homemade spaghetti sauce and salsa, and to freeze some of those fresh green beans for later.

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So, we rented a tiller again.

I wanted it to be an even 50 feet long so…

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Yikes! Look at all that! That garden MORE THAN DOUBLED today!!

I had the same thought today as I did last year, “What have I done?!”

My dog, Leif, is probably wondering about my sanity.

Don’t worry- I have a plan. I have seedlings of tomatoes(8 varieties), eggplants, and marigolds. I have plenty of seeds for green beans (I’m going to be planting at least 5 varieties), pickling cucumbers, cantaloupe, ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelon, and squash(zucchini, acorn,white pattypan, and yellow squash). I will have plenty of ‘California Wonder’ bell peppers too, if all goes well.

I want to try a new fruit too, the ground cherry. It supposedly grows like a tomato, grows its fruit in a husk like a tomatillo, and tastes like a pineapple. Sounds interesting!

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So what do you think? Am I missing anything? My marbles, perhaps?