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.