Well the heirloom tomatoes that I planted from seed 2 -1/2 months ago are already in need of staking. Because one of my main goals for this blog site is to promote the practice of low space, intensive, and “frugal” home growing, I am always looking for new ways to accomplish these ends. Therefore, I decided to try a different idea for staking my indeterminate tomatoes. (more…)
Previously, I discussed the development of my worm pit and how much wonderful vermicompost that I have obtained from it in just a short time. Therefore, I decided to photo-document my compost harvesting practice. On the left, I am shoveling into an area which I feel has suffiently matured, and I will filter this through a screen filter. (more…)
Even though the weather is still cool here in Northeast Florida, I found this parsley worm on my parsley today. This is actually called the black swallowtail caterpillar and will transform into the black swallowtail butterfly - a large, attractive insect that will visit flowers and suck nectar. The Black Swallowtail caterpillar changes appearance each time it molts. In the last few stages of growth, it is white and green, with black bands and yellow or orange spots.
With the bottom section about 90% full, I stopped adding food for about one week (as previously discussed). Pictured here, I have now attached the top section and have begun adding food to it so that the worms will now start migrating upward to this section. By digging into the bottom section a bit, I assured the the worm population was pretty maxed out and that most of the food was eaten. (more…)
If you are looking for a super health food, you most certainly want to consider broccoli sprouts. You have probably heard of the wonderful health benefits of mature broccoli heads, but did you know that three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain 20-50 times the concentration of compounds like sulforaphane glucosinolate and glucoraphanin? (more…)
Here are a couple of the heirloom tomatoes that I grew from seed a couple of months ago. The two shown here are black krim and I have pictured them here to illustrate the genetic variability in open pollinated varieties like the heirlooms. Notice the difference in leaf structure and plant shape. Because of this variability, (more…)
Hmm, we will see about that(?) I tried to grow some globe artichokes a few years ago and some nasty fungus or other pathogen set into them when they had gotten about 2′ high. However, I am a sucker for challenges and especially like to try somewhat unconventional stuff that nobody else is growing in the area - that and the fact we love artichokes and they are now getting too expensive. Therefore, I am giving it another try. (more…)
This is the first time I have planted Arugula and I sure am glad that I did! It grows very fast from seed and is exceptional tasting in salads and other dishes. It is also fairly expensive in stores, and so this is another incentive to plant your own.
Pictured is a small section of plot in which I transplanted various “greens” seedlings one week ago (along with some seeds which I directly sowed which have just come up). Seen here are arugula, curly cress, and mustard greens - I featured the seed starting of these recently in the seed trials post using worm compost. (more…)
Well I saw a guy cutting down a lot of beautiful hardwoods on his property, and this sort of thing always “raises my ire” a bit when there is not a good reason for it. When I asked him why he was doing it, he said, “for firewood.” Anyhow, I just sucked it up and proceeded to ask him if I could have a few pieces, and he let me have about 10 logs that were between 2.5′ and 4′. (more…)
