Category: Gardening

A couple of things are happening in the garden and the home!

Mrs. SNH did a great job of clearing out some of the old homeowner’s plantings around the house. This is making way for us to get the back yard in shape. I was planning to chop down the large Pine in the rear, but decided it would be better to talk to a Professional before I take that one on.

If you are planning to do your own tree removal, please check out a few safety videos on felling trees. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. Better to pay a pro if you are in a tight spot and haven’t done it before.

We got a few of the cool season veggies started in some plant pots. We placed them on the roof of the shed that is still standing. This avoids the rather nosey wonderdog from interrupting the young plants. We started with Broccoli, Snow Peas and Romaine lettuce.

Last night was fun too, we ordered 2 Orange trees from backyardcitrustrees.com. I staggered the variety with a Valencia and Navel to give a slightly different flavor and slightly different harvest time. It will take about 3 years before we see the ‘fruits of our labor’ but well worth the free shipping and anticipation of our fresh citrus. The last little bit to round out our trees for the property will likely be an avocado and peach.

Lastly, we decided to relieve the stress of vacuuming up after the cats and dog. We purchased a Shark Robotic Vacuum and put it to work. We named her Mrs. Patmore after the cook in Downton Abbey. I know, pretty unimpressive if you already have one of these doing the chores for you, but it truly is a time saver allowing you to do more productive things.

Ahh, the peace of automation

Fall wherever you are…

I do love the fall and miss the days when I could go to the local park in Oregon and grab a nice harvest of apples and walnuts for free. I would then fill the house with the cinnamon infused scent of cockpot apple butter and enjoy a great treat after it had cooked down to a jelly like spread. Here are a few pictures from those fall Oregon days.

This was Mrs. SNH’s favorite local coffee shop! Go Dutch Brothers!

Meanwhile in the present, this rainy Florida Saturday yielded a surprise when I went to check on the plants. I cannot believe it is near Thanksgiving and there are still tomatoes producing in one of my garden bins. We kept one of the roma plants when we moved to the new house. It has continued to grow. The Florida weather has held up and the plant now has about 5 tomatoes on it. It would be great to harvest them before Christmas! Other plants that seem to keep on ticking are kale, blackberries (which were once just a small twig) and the Seminole pumpkin which is now about 8 feet long with several flowers on it.

I also have a Moringa tree that we cut down when we first moved in. It is back to a height of about 10’. We cannot kill it! Moringa is widely hailed as a miracle tree for its edible leaves. We may just decide to manage it and if you are a local and want a cutting for your own yard, feel free to contact me. I will gladly propagate for you. Here is a picture after we cut it down in August. I’ll try to get a pic up this weekend of how it has grown.

Lastly, I wanted to report that the first shed is fully removed so we can start building our raised beds for the spring season on this portion of the yard. Cocoa the wonderdog has to be fenced off first, so that project will take me through December to properly section off the yard. I did manage to put up part of field fence during a lunch break, but it cannot compete with the size that we now have available. I will solidify the sketchy back fence by using some 4×4’s with a concrete footer and extend a 4′ high section to where the field fencing is now (just in front of the Moringa tree shown in the picture above. I am still debating about how I would like the gate. I think a nice arbor would make a great entrance. Maybe my ambitions are bigger that my capacity.

Seed saving from your fall harvest!

If you want to continue to propagate loved plants or specialty varieties, you should try saving some seeds from year to year. In this group of pictures, I take you through the steps of saving some pepper seeds from our tabasco pepper plant.

1) If you’re like me and have built up a tolerance to the capsaicin in your peppers, you might not need to put on some gloves. All others, please put on some gloves.

2) I like to dry my peppers first before pulling the seeds. This way, when you cut off the head, most of them will come out by simply rolling the pepper between your fingers.

3) Put the seeds on a paper towel to remove excess moisture that may still be left on the seeds. Moisture can be an enemy to seed savers by allowing the seeds to mold or even sprout.

4) Count each and every seed you have on your paper towel. Just kidding, please don’t do this.

5) Get a glass jar with a lid that creates a decent seal. Place your seeds inside, but give them some time to dry again.

6) After a few days, place the lid on it and put in a cool, dry and dark location.

7) Plant in the next garden cycle, check your propagation rates. Beware that not all plants come true to seed, but peppers are fairly reliable as long as you don’t have a lot of different varieties growing in the same space.

Good Morning

I thought I would give a brief list of the things that have happened over the past few weeks.

  1. We bought a house! It is a bit more inland that our island living arrangement of the past few months. Good Bye Covid Garden. We have about a 1/3 of an acre now and I no longer throw money away by renting.
  2. Our investments during the pandemic are already bringing returns. If you follow the financial posts you’ll know that I am interested in investment. The thesis that investing post crash seems to be holding up pretty well so far and has fully recovered. The allocation of how that recovery happened was completely upside down in how I thought it would play out though.
  3. The new garden space be about 8 times the size of the Covid garden. I’ll post some videos soon, but we need to get through the hot August first. Our first task will be to section off the yard for the new garden area.
    1. We already have some of the following from the previous homeowner: Moringa, Papaya, Banana, Turmeric and Ginger growing in the yard!
  4. Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaias is bearing down today. We don’t expect any damage here, but it will be rainy all day.

New Seed Order Coming!

I am very excited. I just placed a seed order with Baker Creek. Here is the list:

Black Beauty TomatoTX12506/28/20
Blue Beauty TomatoTX11006/28/20
Blue Berries TomatoTX11106/28/20
Brad’s Atomic Grape TomatoTX13306/28/20
Green Zebra TomatoTG10306/28/20
Rosa Bianca EggplantEG10506/28/20
Chicago Pickling CucumberCU18106/28/20
Galeux D’ Eysines SquashSQ15606/28/20
Solar Flare LettuceLT18506/28/20

Some of these are really for pure enjoyment. The tomato crop has been decent, so I thought I would stock up on the odd varieties that might have an element of fun. I am really looking forward to the Black Beauty and Atomic Grape Tomato.

The Eggplant is really a final attempt for me to like eggplant, so I picked one that had great reviews and looks neat!

I will trial a few of these for the fall garden. Hopefully, at our new house.

Sincerely – Mr. SNH.

COVID Garden Update 2020_05_31

Happy Sunday SNH’ers,

After the fiasco with the aphids, we are rebuilding. The pole beans have been replanted and another row has been set to grow into the chicken wire fence. We also have some good stuff coming out this week. We took another harvest of jalapenos. Mrs. SNH kindly let me have a few slices to make the salsa (pic below) with a ripe tomato from the garden. She also made some fantastic garlic cheese bread that I will post later.

I also got the opportunity to pick a fine yellow bell pepper which was used in a lasagna on Saturday night. I have really enjoyed the fresh produce coming out of the garden. The flavor has been much better than the store bought stuff.

Speaking of store bought, the local publix is charging 3.99/lb on fresh tomatoes. At that rate, if you can grow them, they really are a money saver. I would estimate that we are about $.03 in for each tomato plant. Talk about some value!

The Folks are also having some success out in California with their tomatoes. Their plants are fully loaded at this point and just waiting to ripen. I’ll see if I can’t find a picture and post that too.

Hope you are all staying safe. Keep investing, growing and loving your family!

Great Salsa with our jalapenos and tomatoes.
Yellow Bell Pepper hiding in there for our Saturday night lasagna!
The watermelon keeps getting bigger. We will likely build a new raised bed to house the watermelons this week. I’ll be able to put away the grow bags soon and start cleaning things up for a move at the end of summer.
Pole Beans being re-grown after the bean mosaic virus wiped them out.
Cowpeas still green after the aphids. Still working on controlling those buggers.
Beautiful sweet Roma’s getting bigger. First time I have ever grown romas.
The garden as a whole if you have been following the last few weeks. I hope to have a nice timelapse when this garden concludes.

COVID Garden Update 2020_05_10

Greetings SNH’ers, it has been a busy week at #realjob, but this weekend I was able to get into the garden and hopefully, work a few more improvements. I planted a few more of the tomato starts, we are now 15 total tomato plants at various stages.

I also took a healthy dose of lawn clippings and put them into the plant channels as a nitrogen booster. Ants are all over the place and other insects are eating everything. Mrs. SNH suggested another round of neem oil.

Here are some pics of the fun.

  • Baby Watermelons
  • Pole Beans Climbing up
  • Mulch in the wheel barrow
  • Grass Clipping Mulch
Whole Garden Picture

Just some spring gardening pics!

Powdery mildew spotted on the zucchini. Treated with milk as a “home remedy” seen from other pages. Also added some diluted milk and water to some slow growing roma tomatoes.
A nice little jalapeno growing.
Yellow bell pepper changing from green to yum!
Some great bed prep happening in California at Mr. SNH’s folks house. Those are some nice garden boxes!