Yesterday was a great morning in the garden, cool temps around 70, nice breeze. 

First item on my mental to do list was transplanting some peppers.  The ghost pepper has doubled in size in the last month and it was the first to go into the ground.  This started as a cutting my friend Paul took from his plant, then came here all the way from Phoenix on a business trip.  Before our version of winter comes around, I'll take a cutting off of it so I can share with some other friends who are also into heat.  The ghost pepper is hot, off the chart hot, hotter than my scotch bonnet's hot.  Check it out:

I also transplanted 2 long cayenne pepper plants that I started from seed and I have 2 more emerging in small containers.  The cayenne peppers serve a dual purpose, in addition to cooking with them, I also use them in homemade insecticidal soap.  Side note, I'm a little bummed that the cubanella's still haven't emerged but peppers are real slow growers so I haven't completely given up on them.

Transplanted some more iceberg lettuce and mixed greens.  I started them in soil blocks and they seem healthy enough to move to the ground. 

The beans are all doing great.  The black beans have small but beautiful purple flowers so the pods can't be too far behind. 

Red kidney beans, baby lima beans, and green beans all have lots of pods now.The lentils are still small and slow growing, between 4-6 inches tall. 

Put some broccoli seeds in containers and soil blocks, its fun to see which wins the race.  It’s time to start my swiss chard and according to Robert Bowden it's best to soak the seeds in water before planting them.  I put them in warm water in the morning and at the end of the day, I transferred the seeds to soil blocks I had prepared. 

Tomatoes are growing really fast now and flowering.  Two of the plants have some leaves turning brown, need to snap a picture and send it to Ed Thralls to figure out what the problem is.  I also need stronger stakes, hoping to recycle some 2x4's from a buddy of mine, ripping them down to 2x2's for this purpose.  Also in the tomato bed are radishes, looking real good now.  I'll be making salads fresh from the garden soon!

Finally, I transplanted 3 pineapples that I started from the discarded tops I cut off.  The oldest one is huge now, the other two are still wambly looking but there is some new growth so I'm sure they'll make it.  I also put my two potato plants into the ground.  According to the charts, it's too early but somehow the potatoes don't know that. 

Cucumbers are emerging nicely and so are some more black eyed peas in the same container.  Evidently, there were some peas that didn't get picked that were left in the compost.  Epic win for me, more black eyed peas!

Wow, it's been 2 1/2 weeks since I updated what I'm doing, got some catching up to do.

Didn't have great success with carrots germinating, not sure if I'm not watering enough or if the seeds are old.  These seeds were bought about 9 months ago and have been kept refridgerated.  I planted more this morning and will be more diligent about watering them to see if I get better results.  In the other half of the bed (4x8 bed), I just put down 8 cabbage plants I started from seed 2 1/2 weeks ago.  I also put down 12 mixed greens also started from seed 2 1/2 weeks ago.  The cabbage and mixed greens were started in soil blocks.  The mixed greens were a combination of meslum and iceberg lettuce.  In the same bed, I also put down some celery seed that I direct sowed.  Tried starting the celery in soil blocks but didn't get any of them to germinate.

Tomatos are kicking into high gear now, probably doubled in size in the last 2 weeks.  I put a stake at the end of each row and ran 2 pieces of string between the stakes at about 10 and 14 inches up.  Started weaving the plants between the strings as they grow, several are about 18 inches tall now.  There are 3 rows of tomatos one foot apart and set one foot in from the edge of the bed to allow room for growth.  Planted radishes on one outer edge of the bed last week and they are appearing now so I planted more on the other edge today. 

Beans are all doing well.  Ran stakes and twine around the perimeter of the kidney, lima, and green beans.  The lentils are small, but look healthy.  They're about 6 inches tall and they were planted around the same time as the other beans which are now 12-18 inches tall.  I've read what I can find about lentils but haven't found any details on how quickly they should grow.  I'll keep watering and feeding them and hopefully get a bowl of soup out of it.

We finished picking the black eyed peas and last weeked we shelled them.  Made a nice black eyed pea salad from what was picked, delicious!  Pulled the plants up and threw them in the compost.

Planted cucumbers yesterday in a 2x6 bed.  Since this was an existing bed I was moving, I decided to double dig the bed before planting since I just finished reading about the benefits of this method.  Anxious to see the results.

Two of the four potato cuttings are growing well.  Put the pots out in the bed without actually transplanting them to get them acclimated.  According the charts, its too early to plant potatos and I don't know what.  I'll be interested in seeing what the results will be.

A friend gave me 4 cuttings from his jalapeno pepper on Saturday.  I've had them in water for the last 5 days and today I put 2 of them into potting soil.  Planted 2 more long cayenne pepper seeds in potting soil and some cubanella's.  The 3 bellpeppers that I had in a container were over a foot tall so I found a spot for them today as well.  Love heat!

It's feeling like Fall

Ok, maybe we are still in the 90's but it's the LOW 90's now and the Fall garden is taking shape.  Friday, I made 32 soil blocks and I let my little girl plant flower seeds in them.  We had some hummingbird flower mix left over, some lavender, and some thyme (has a nice flower and makes a nice herb).  She will get to pick out a couple of seed packets on her own but I wanted to get hers started now.  She picked out where she wants me to make a hook to hang her hand shovel and hand rake and talked through how she would water her stuff.  Probably in the evening but she might try and get up early with Dad to water in the morning.  I sure do love my little girl.

Planted 24 tomato plants in soil blocks yesterday, 6 beef steak and 18 Roma.  They went into a 4x8 bed that I turned the soil in and added a 3 inch layer of homemade compost.  This is one of the beds I had tested at the county extension.  Before planting the soil blocks, I made 3 troughs the length of the bed and filled that with potting mix.  This will help hold moisture around the plants without filling the whole bed with the potting mix.  The eastern side of the bed has part of an old concrete pool 6 inches beneath the surface and I'm hoping that doesn't interfere with the tomatoes growth.  I'll keep an eye on that side of the bed for comparison, but this is why I didn't use this bed for carrots.  Hoping to plant carrots today or tomorrow.

Black eyed peas have almost run their course.  I will pull up one patch next week to make room for my daughters flower patch and the other will come be taken down probably the following week. 

Other seedling updates. 

I had a couple of potatoes "hidden" away in the pantry that started sprouting. It's probably too early, but rather than put them in the compost I decided to experiment. I cut a wedge off and planted it in some potting mix. I am a complete novice to growing potatoes but I plan to in my winter garden so I figured it was better to fail now. One of the cuttings I planted cut side down and covered it completely. One of the cuttings was cut side down and the sprout is out of the ground. The third is cut side up and completely covered. It'll be fun to see the results, stay tuned!


No sign of the jalapeno seeds emerging.  No sign of the cayenne seeds emerging.  Looks like 2 of the 3 ghost pepper cuttings died (to be fair they were brought to me on a plane from Phoenix by a co-worker).  The first ginger cutting looks healthy enough to transplant.  One of the celery plants is doing great and the other 2 haven't done anything, I'll try soil blocks for them going forward.  Chives are emerging, I'll do another container of them.  Need to read up on Swiss chard, it may be time to make soil blocks to start seeding them.

Posting a few pics

I've had some requests for pictures so here we go. 



This is a black bean plant as it emerges, I love the colors.  

The leaves start off with this dark purple color but change to green after a few days.




I got a bumper crop of black eyed peas. 

In addition to being one of the few things that can stand the

Central Florida heat in July/August, they are a great cover

crop that returns nutrients back to the soil. 

Note to self: next summer plant this in more beds!




One end of the new bed I built this summer. 

It's a 2'X20' bed that I filled with compost I made over the last year. 

It's full of beans (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun).  In the foreground

are the red kidney beans, the background has lima beans. 




I wrote about the soil blocks a few weeks ago and here is a shot of them. 

These are tomato plants that will go in a bed, hopefully this weekend. 

Really loving the soil block concept and I plan to make about 20 more this

weekend for my daughter to plant her flower seeds. 



More seedlings

Started some more hot peppers (love heat).  I planted two containers of long cayenne and two containers of jalapeno peppers.  For those of you playing along with the home edition, I have 2 mature scotch bonnets that produced a lot this year, 1 ghost pepper I plan to transplant soon, and now some jalapeno and long cayenne.  Realistically, I'll probably need more jalapeno since they have more uses but it's a start.

The black beans I planted are slowly coming up.  I haven't done the research yet, but it seems they are taking longer than I would expect to germinate.  All the other beans I grow tend to emerge within 3-4 days and these were planted 8 days ago.  Still, they are coming up now so I can't complain too much.  The lentils haven't started emerging at all.  I think the heavy rains this week compacted the mix and pushed the lentils to the surface.  I'll give it a few more days, but I may need to put something else in there (Love black beans so maybe more of them!)

Miscellaneous:

The ginger I planted is looking real good so I planted another piece of root I broke off from what I use for making ginger tea.  Bought another pineapple yesterday so I cut the top off and it's drying now.  I'll pot it tomorrow.  Planted some chive seeds in a container to add to the herb garden, need to plant some thyme soon. 

Beans, the magical fruit.

So it's been 6 days since I planted the red kidney beans and baby limas and they are growing like crazy.  I added about 4 square feet of green beans right next to them a few days ago and today I finished out the bed with 6 square feet of lentils and 6 square feet of black beans. 

The black eyed peas are popping.  Every day I pull a handful off the bushes and take them in to finish drying.  Once they are dry, I move them to a brown paper bag until I'm ready to shell and store them.  I had no idea is would be so easy to grow them!  I took a bag of dried black eyed peas we had used for a dish, took a handful out, put them in the ground, and haven't done anything else to them.  And recently I found out black eyed peas are a good cover crop, returning nutrients back to the soil for whatever I plant in their place next.  Boo yah!

Planted 3 4" containers of celery, plan to plant 3 every few weeks from here out.  As the seedlings are ready for transplant, I'll reuse the container for the next batch.  Staggering the yield since I have no strategy for storing celery.

Planted a 6" container of peppermint, plan to keep it carefully contained as it has a tendency to take over from what I've been told.  Need to get some markers to keep track of containers.  Once I get some markers, I plan to start some small containers of long chilli peppers, jalapeno peppers (thanks Chris for the seeds), and some scotch bonnets for my buddy Don.

Planted first beans, tomatoes are sprouting

Yesterday, I planted 4 square feet of baby lima beans and 4 square feet of red kidney beans.  The bed was filled with homegrown compost and some grass clippings topped with a thin layer of store bought potting mix.  Got a heavy ran later in the day to kick start the process.  I'll plant another section of both beans in a week or two to stagger the output.

Picked a handful of black eyed pea pods that were yellow/brown yesterday and today and set them inside to finish drying.  Trying to figure out how to finish drying them in quantity and I'm thinking it might be best to leave them on the vine a little longer. 

First tomoato seedlings came up, the winner is.... soil blocks.  6 days ago, I planted 8 roma tomato seeds in soil blocks and 3 in 4" containers.  Both used the same potting mix.  Today, 5 of the 8 seedlings are showing, all from the soil blocks.  Yesterday, I planted 8 more roma and 8 beef steak tomatos all in soil blocks.  I plan to use the roma's for making tomato sauce and the beef steaks for making crushed tomatoes and salsa.

3 bell pepper plants I planted in 4" containers are tall enough to transplant now, just need to figure out where they are going.  Also have a pineapple ready to transplant, and again I just need to figure out where it's going. 

I have 3 small Ghost pepper plants from Paul Laughlin.  2 of them don't look good, leaves have fallen off but one looks really good.  All 3 were taken as cuttings in Phoenix AZ, put into potting mix just prior to flying out on business and handed off to me about 2 weeks ago.  One is definitely going to make it, the other two are questionable.  Time to remind Chris to bring me one of his jalapena peppers so I can harvest the seeds.  This will round out the hot pepper garden nicely with the 2 scotch bonnet plants.  Harvested over 100 scotch bonnets this year!

2 more weeks until September!

First tomato seeds planted

Planted 8 Roma tomato seeds in soil blocks using regular potting mix. For comparison, I also planted 3 more Roma tomato seeds in 4" containers with the same potting mix. I put the soil blocks on a small piece of wood where I can water them and ultimately move them to their final home. I plan to mix my own recipe later this week and I'll track the progress of those Roma's as well. I'll keep track of time to germinate, growth pattern, and how well they transplant.

Black eyed peas are doing amazing. Sent an email to county extension to ask about harvesting and got this reply from Ed Thralls:

Good morning, Bill.

Dried Southern peas are best harvested after the pods have matured, turned yellow or brown and dried but before the pods have split open. Removing them from the pod before this happens may invite fungal organisms. For additional information see: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CDBREC/introsheets/southernpea.pdf

Best wishes.

Thanks for the advice Ed.

Drying herbs the simple way

I love herbs, I especially like them fresh from the garden but lets face it, you may not always have some ready. Drying herbs can be very simple and can provide a ready supply year round.

I have a dehydrator, but it just seems like overkill for something like drying herbs, not to mention they require a much lower temp than potatos or carrots. I learned a simple technique for herbs I'd like to share. Be forewarned, I would NOT suggest doing this with anything other than herbs.

The supplies you need are simple: a brown paper grocery bag, some string, and some pencils. Tools needed are just as simple: one pair of scissors. Go ahead, I'll give you a few minutes to gather it all together.

To start, clip off some branches that are ready for consumption from your favorite herb plant. I try to get clippings that are about 6-10 inches long. Take them inside, rinse them off, then pat them dry on some paper towels. Next, take a piece of string about 8 inches long. Tie one end around a small bunch of the branches you just picked. Set this aside and repeat for up to 4 bunches.

Now take the paper grocery bag and open it up so it's standing up on it's own. Poke about a dozen holes in the bag on the sides for ventilation. Now take the herb bundles and tie them to the center of the pencil with the other end of the string. Now lower the bundle of herbs into your paper bag and suspend the bundle by poking each end of the pencil into the sides of the bag near the top.

Put the bag somewhere out of the way, near a window if practical. It takes 2-4 weeks for them to completely dry out. Once they are dry, break the leaves off the stems and store them in a container. If possible, wait until you are ready to use them before crushing them.

Here is a top view of the finished product

And a side view

Enjoy.

Early August check up, preparing for the Fall.

I have 2 new containers, each 4' x 8'. I built them last week and today I prepped them for planting. First, I made sure all the weeds were gone and the soil was leveled. Soil in both were tested along with the compost I was about to add (see blog from August 3rd). Next, I added half of a large garbage can of compost to each and leveled it off. Note that I did not mix it in the soil, I spread it out as a topping for the soil so that when I begin planting the seeds will start out in the compost and any nutrients that leak out will go into the native soil. Finally, I topped each container off with half of a large garbage can full of lawn clippings that had cooked for a week.

Since it's the first weekend of the month, I did some fertilizing. Fertilized the navel orage tree (it's only 2 1/2 feet tall right now with 16 oz of citrus fertilizer 6-4-6. Fertilized the blueberry bushes with 8oz of Rose fertilizer 12-6-10.

Black eyed peas are doing AWESOME! Lots of pods, some of which are showing the peas. Next year, I need to plant a lot more black eyed pease, probably 100 sf, as other crops die out. Tomatos are probably ready to pull but my wife is sort of attached to them so I'll hold off a bit longer. I wasn't really impressed with them anyway and I plan to try a different type in the fall. Left 3 romain lettuce plants in place and one is starting to flower. I'll harvest the seeds soon for a fall planting of romain. Scotch bonnets are at the end of their harvest, a few left to pick but not much. Picked some basil and set it up in a dryer along with some green onions I clipped. I'll do a seperate blog about this simple drying technique I learned.

Soil blocks and other forms of blasphemy.

Today I gathered 4 soil samples for testing, 1 each from 3 of my containers and 1 from the latest "cooked" compost I have. After gathering the samples, I headed down to the County Ag Extension office off Conway Rd. First guy was very friendly, performed the tests, told me all samples were neutral and subjectively added that the compost looked really good! Yes, getting compliments on my compost is like getting a high five for knocking a few milliseconds off some SQL query, its all good. I was about to walk out when I decided to ask one more seemingly simple question, "any recommendations on soil block recipes?"

I should have quit while I was ahead.


To understand how I got to this point, you have to understand where I came from. I recently sent an email out to folks at work (techy geeks like me) asking if anyone had any old containers they were willing to let go, preferably 4" containers for planting seeds for transplant. One response I got was "Have you looked into soil blocks?" and suddenly I'm on a quest to figure out what soil blocks are.


First off, soil blocks are actually an old school European method, they've been around for many years. The concept is simple enough, if you compress some planting medium it will hold together without the need for a container. You make an indention in the top of the block, place a seed there, cover the seed and keep it watered. They have some advantages over using a small container, primarily less shock when you move the plant to it's spot in the garden. Google soil blocks and you'll see there are some avid supporters of soil blocks. I liked the idea because it doesn't rely on gathering and storing containers or tray packs, plus I got to buy a new tool from Amazon.


A soil block recipe is what you mix together to compress and make into the blocks. Dirt, especially sandy soil like we have here, won't hold together well. Most recipes call for some combination of peat, perlite, lime, compost, and some form of fertilizer. The idea is to have a medium that holds water, provides nutrients, and keeps it shape. I could use a good potting mix, but I thought it might be fun to try making my own mix.


Back to our story about the county extension. When I asked the guy if he had any recommendation on soil block recipes, he looked at me as if I was from another planet, another planet with really good compost I suppose. I was quickly passed off to another guy where I had to explain again what a soil block was. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to learn something, he started getting really rude with me, basically questioning why would anyone want to make soil blocks and why would anyone want to mix their own planting medium. I'll skip the details but at one point I actually had to point out that I wasn't harming anyone or building a bomb, I was just trying a different method of starting seeds. Lesson learned, stick with basics and stick with the stuff in the approved publications any time you deal with the county extension. Actually, the approved publications are even questionable so just stick with the basics.


In the middle of this, the guy referenced some book that might help someone with my affliction, this whole soil block problem of mine. I asked him to repeat the name of the book and he gruffly pointed out that it was "impossible to find now because it was printed in the 70's". He almost blew a gasket when 15 seconds later, I asked if the new edition was better because I had found this "impossible to find" book on Amazon using my smart phone. Geeks 1, Old guy at the county ag center 0, not that I'm keeping score. For those playing along with the home edition the book was The New Seed Starters by Nancy Bubel. It's as low as $5.45.


The final moments of the visit involved a short discussion on when to start sowing celery and brocolli. At this point there were three of them since people like me from other planets with good compost attract crowds. They said it was too early to plant celery and brocolli. I pointed out that their publication contradicted what they were saying, they looked it up and found that I was right. They eventually agreed that even though their publication said it was ok to plant both now, it's probably best to wait a few more weeks. For now, I'm going to hold off. Time to transport back to my home planet and tend the compost. Next blog will be about my first attempt at soil blocks. Later.

August is here and the Fall garden is about to get started. Added a new container that I solarized for the last 6 weeks and tomorrow I plan to take the plastic sheet off it. Plans are to direct sow some celery, brocolli (have to check my seeds first) and green onion tomorrow. I also plan to use my new soil blocker to start some tomatoes and chilli peppers for transplant later. I'm a little concerned about T.S. Emily who is supposed to be close enough to effect our weather, but I'm anxious to get started so if I lose some to a T.S., so be it.

I'm going to stagger the celery over time since you can't store it long term(dehydrating/canning/freezing). I'm thinking I'll plant 6 now then maybe 3 more every 2 weeks for a while. Hard to eat more than a stalk a week but we will be coming into chilli and stew season soon (although it's hard to tell by the still stifling heat) and I can add some to spaghetti sauce I make and can.

I'll fill in more details including the varieties I used tomorrow after I'm done for the day.