Category: Gardening

I have been doing tons in the garden while on vacation. Here is a matrix of our fall plantings.

Also planted plenty of Nantes Half long carrots, Yellowstone Carrots and red granex onions as well. It’s going to be a tasty winter!

Thought I would post a link to the original article discussing the chemical makeup of wood ashes for garden use as well as the pdf stored here in case the original site is removed.

Since the last of our big harvests in May, we have been pulling a few random items like everglades tomatoes, purple hull peas and couple of cucumbers. Today, I removed the cucumber plants seeing a fresh batch of insect damage and small black insect eggs on them.

Since our garden becomes a bit dull during August with sweet potato production being the real focus, I am thinking about starting a run of peppers for the fall when we comfortably get back into the 80’s and production picks up again. I’ll also re-order some seed stock to replenish the fall plantings like carrots and lettuces that did well last year.

The compost bins however are doing great work. I added a “trash can” composter to handle larger amounts of rubbish and it seems to be breaking down fairly fast in the heat. Maybe we can get a 6 month cycle to usable compost instead of my 1 year mark as has been in the past. The addition of red wigglers has also hastened the tumbler bin significantly and the kitchen scraps seem to be breaking down much faster than before.

The addition of a mechanical timer on the drip system has made watering much simpler allowing me to get out of that chore (mostly) and focus on the weeds. I am setting it for 30 minutes in the morning and occasional evenings when the day has exceeded 95 degrees and the humidity is high.

Lastly, a big shout out to the youtube community for showing me better ways to manage the garden and also show that my own struggles are not unique. It’s funny how we all want the perfect landscape with a massive harvest all the time, but its not the reality. Summer gardens, here in Florida, often look like a total mess in July and August, most just give up. With some tenacity and good crop selection, you can remain productive and keep the weeds at bay.

Happy Gardening.

Mr. SNH.

Greetings SNH family, my pavement planted hands are finally healing up to where I could get a few things done in the garden this weekend. We had to replace the chicken water container as it broke when I was carrying it across the yard. The ladies were also laying a good bit under the roost. While technically edible, we did a cleanout and hopefully they will be back in the boxes today.

We had a great harvest of pak choi. I put 5 bags into the freezer for soups and save a fresh group for stir fry tonight.

Lastly, we had a mix of white globe turnips and another variety that I had some seeds of but have since forgotten what type. The greens were frozen and the roots stored in the fridge.

I also took about 30 minutes to put our tomato volunteers into pots.

Get ready for spring, its going to come fast.

We had a good harvest today, taking a nice cabbage, the first of the golden wax beans, a few peas, finished out the carrots and 3 bundles of collards.

I also had a great time cleaning out the chicken coup (NOT). Still a bit of work to do in there, but much better than before.

Lastly, bed #2 is cleaned up and fertilized for the next crop. I also rearranged the grate to grow a few louffa gourds on the end.