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!