My small garden is now thriving with cucumber, squash, zucchini, okra, tomatoes, peppers, and more. Of course, this does not count the many varieties of cooler weather greens, broccoli, artichoke etc. (more…)
For those not familiar with the earthbox concept of a “grow box,” the original can be found at this link. You might want to familiarize yourself with the concepts and operation before proceeding. In a nutshell, the advantages to the earthbox (in order of priority) are: (more…)
Here are some of my Anaheim peppers that have reached 2.5′ tall - and have peppers about 6″ long. These are the peppers commonly used to make chile reinos and can be used for other chile pepper recipes. They are medium heat, and will get hotter if allowed to redden. I have these and other pepper varieties scattered throughout my property, and I am particularly found of the idea of growing plants in nursery pots and then burying them in various places around my yard. (more…)
Here is a shot of some of my tomato plants, and as you can see, they are getting full of tomatoes. Pictured here are black krim heirlooms and a bloody butcher in the background. Not pictured here in the same plot are the Isis Candy, Sungold, and Kellogg’s Breakfast. I am already harvesting the tasty sungolds. (more…)
This simple method of capturing seeds will work well with many flowering plants (especially those which produce a flowering “stalk”). In this picture, I am holding the mature stalks from just one broccoli plant. After the plant flowers, I just wait until the seed pods are nice and full, and a few of them have started to fall off - and then I know that they are ready to harvest. (more…)
I have previously discussed the many benefits of compost tea and have also provided information sources in my links section. You can use regular compost or vermicompost, but the latter will generally be richer in micro-organisms. Pictured on the left, I am using a very simple system which cost me a total of about $20. (more…)
I discussed in a previous post, Artichokes in Florida, that I was going to try my hand at growing these. Well so far the results are outstanding. On the left is one of the artichoke plants which I planted from seed only last month! As you can see, it is growing like crazy in “my secret formula” (no secret really). I decided to plant them in deep containers (more…)
I previously discussed the cheap method I was utilizing for the purpose of staking indeterminate tomatoes. In case you haven’t followed, the first part of this process is here. Well, my tomatoes have gotten huge and some are already 4′ tall since I planted them from seed in the first part of the year. (more…)
Well the tomatoes which I just staked are starting to load up with blossoms, and I even have quite a few fruit. However, one thing that I notice is that a few of the heirloom varieties are dropping most of their blossoms. Seen here on the left is one nice Black Krim heirloom, but most of the surrounding blossoms just fell off. I have also noticed the same thing happening with two of my Kellogg’s Breakfast heirloom tomatoes. (more…)
I just wanted to post a few photos of the new growth, blossoms, and fruit as spring gets into full swing. To the left is one of my fig trees that is about 6 years old and is starting to leaf out nicely. It is a Brown Turkey and as you can see is quite large. (more…)
