Battle - Game On!

Cabbage Plant Carnage Jan 2012

I have an unknown pest prowling my garden at night. The picture to your left is the carnage left of my defenseless cabbage plant. Cover the children eyes from the horror of that picture. This dirty rascal is also feasting on some of my seedlings. It ate the tops off my onion plants down to an inch above the soil, only left me two of my four tomato plants, bypassed my carrot tops and just left the cabbage plant in shambles. I went out multiple times last night to catch the scoundle in the act, but all I found was more missing seedlings and no trace of the perpetrator. He didn't know though I had sprayed the plants at dusk with an organic insecticide called Spinosad. Who's got the last laugh now! Unfortunately, since I don't know what is eating everything I hope it works. I had my Dad check the remains of the cabbage plant and he feels it maybe a mammal I'm after, something like a mouse. Therefore tonight I set out mouse traps, one snappy the other is a glue trap. I've checked twice tonight and the glue trap has caught german cockroachs only, but I have no further damage. Let's see what tomorrow brings....

Row Covering For Garden Pests

Garden Row Cover Jan 2012

My little seedlings are growing taller and stronger by the day. However, it's a big bad world out there for the little ones, cutworms, melon worms, all kinds of hungry mouths trying to devourer their delicate leaves and stems. It's my job to protect them, so I can devourer their fruit. :) Last year I had melon worms by the bus load and they are a nasty bunch. I squished more then my fair share of those green freeloaders. I want to protect this crop from harm, so I'm using the safest organic garden practice to avoid these garden scumbags. I bought Agribon+ AG-15 row cover from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I have my crops cover for now until they start to bloom, then I will uncover them during the day for the bees and cover them at night when the moths come out to play and lay their dirty eggs with their no good young'uns. However, this doesn't protect from everyone, more on that later....

Getting New Garden Beds Ready

New Garden Beds Jan 2012

My husband built three more 4x8 garden beds today out of 2x8 cedar wood. Together we put weed block and cypress mulch around the garden to keep weeds to a minimum. I found an organic weed killer that works: Natural Weed Control if some do still try to grow in the garden. I wish I could find a local place that carries horticultural vinegar, because I would make my own weed killer. I noticed with the Ollas, it helps with the weeds since the only water in the garden is around them. I'm creating a separate tab on this blog dedicated to my experiences using Ollas if anyone is interested. I have recycled paper  weed block that will go in the garden squares for weeds. This week we will be filling them with soil and horse manure from my diligent working horses. :) I also added a tab with my garden schedule of seed planting and estimated harvesting dates. I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather today.

Seedlings Starting to Grow

Garden January 2012

This is a picture of my garden. I started the following seeds on January 2nd:
Carrots - Danvers 126
Broccoli - Premium Crop - Hybrid
Lettace - Buttercrunch
Cabbage - Early Flat Dutch
Onion - Granex - Hybrid
Leek - American Flag - Broad London
Super Snow White tomatoes ( I got these free with my order with TomatoFest). It too early for tomatoes, but these are suppose to like it cooler, so I though I better get them in the ground quick.

Some of these were a little late in planting, so we will see how it goes. The ones in the front are Bonnie Hybrid I won at a Garden Workshop at Lake County Extension office. I put the hay over the top of the seeds because we got frost. This seemed to help, because all the seedlings are growing through the hay now. I gave them all a foliage feeding with Dr Earth 3-3-3 Liquid Solution Fertilizer today. I will be building another box for my other seeds I have already. I'm going to be starting some of them like tomatoes and pepper in Cow Pots on an APS Seedstarter and I got Organic Seedstarting Mix from Garden Supply. If your wondering about the flower pots in the garden they are my homemade ollas for irrigation.The following website is where I found how to build your own Olla with unglazed clay pots you can get at Lowes or Home Depot, Olla Irrigation. I used them last year and like how they worked although you have to make sure the plant is close to the clay pot. I bought bigger pots (8in vs 6in) for the next box, because last year I was filling up these twice a week. I want to add a gravity feed system to make it like a drip system, but using more nature materials in the ground.Happy Gardening!

Garden Schedule

My garden schedule link: Garden Schedule. I will see how these date work for me this year. I got some of the dates from Tom MacCubbins book Month-by-Month Gardening in Florida. I also used the seasonal planting chart from Crispy Farms site at http://crispyfarms.shutterfly.com/products.

Open Pollinated Seeds

I'm going to try some open pollinated seeds this time. I got the following seeds for my Spring/Summer garden from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:
Red Russian KALE 
Sugar Baby WATERMELON
Marketmore 76 CUCUMBER
Yellow Crookneck SQUASH, SUMMER
Early Snowball Cauliflower 
Jericho LETTUCE, ROMAINE
California Wonder PEPPER, BELL (SWEET)
Carwile's Virginia PEANUT

I already have some Silver Queen corn seeds, but I'm going to try Texas Honey next time.

Starting My Gardening Journal

This is a journal of my experiences starting my organic garden in Central Florida. I helped my Grandfather when I was a child with our organic garden. This started my love for gardening. Unfortunately, working, getting ahead and moving around and limited time stopped me from gardening for too long. I'm still working, but ready to spend my free time to get back with Mother Earth. I've forgotten many things, so I feel I'm starting from scratch. I love trying new techniques and new varieties in the garden. Please feel free to comment and enjoy the trials I will encounter. :)