Pam – Page 50 – Hydrangeas Blue

Florida Gardening in February Cool Weather Crop Planting

I am new to this Florida vegetable growing thing, but today I decided to plant some cool weather crops. Because my “garden” is made up of soil-filled fabric bags, I don’t have much space for planting. But I will do what I can. I’ve only lived here for a few months, so garden building is an ongoing process.

My son made me a raised garden bed a few weeks ago. Because I had used fabric pots when gardening in New Hampshire, I filled what I had with organic soil and placed them inside the wooden frame.

Today I looked through my Florida Gardening book to see which crops could be planted in February. Cool weather crops are still cool weather crops, no matter where I live. But down here in the south, winter is the cool time instead of early spring and fall.

So I bought some seeds and today I planted carrots, potatoes, and bib lettuce. The carrots came in seed tape form, which I had never used. The potatoes came from my kitchen. I’ve been eating lettuce from the backyard but it’s getting old and tasting bitter, so I need a new batch.

Now potatoes are easy to grow, but I can never remember exactly how to do it. I should buy “seed potatoes” but I only have what came from the store. So I’m growing them. On the website Rodale’s Organic Life, I found an interesting paragraph about growing potatoes in a bag, like I am doing.

He says to put just a little soil in the bottom and then plant the potatoes. Cover with 3 inches of soil, and continually cover the growing potatoes with soil until the bag is full. I cut the sprouting potatoes I have, and put them near the bottom of my largest pot and covered them with organic soil. As they grow I guess I will cover them, leaving just a bit showing. I never grew potatoes this way, so it’s an experiment.

black fabric pots — 7 Gallon Grow Pots Filled with Organic Soil

The pots I purchased are 7-Gallon size. I believe the ones I have from before must be 10-Gallon. The 7-Gallon bags have handles which is very handy if you plan to move your pots around.

Update: I used these pots for a year or two but discovered that they are too hot to use in Florida. They are great for a northern climate though.

At the time I bought them, other sizes were also available. The 7-Gallon size was a little small for me, but it’s manageable when filled with dirt. Plants grow really well in this type of pot because air can get through to the roots from all sides, whereas in a plastic pot it cannot.

For more information about planting crops in your US Zone, I’ve come across this informative article at Porch.com: Gardening 101: Choosing the Right Plants for Your Zone.

Spring Home Fixes For the Handy Woman, Part 2, Replacing a Screen

Here I will continue with my handy-woman Spring fixes list. If you missed the first article, you can read it here.

When I lived in the northeastern United States the spring season couldn’t come soon enough. Watching all that snow melt away meant the flowers would be growing soon and the sun would be up higher and longer. It also meant the Black Flies would keep me indoors throughout the month of May. I’d prefer to be outside getting my gardens ready, but once the weather warms up it’s a good time to clean the windows, and clean the screens too if they need it. If screens can easily be removed, take them outside on a nice warm day and spray them with the hose.

Some window and door screens may need to be replaced. If you have naughty cats that like to climb up the screen door (yes), or generally tear at them for no good reason (yes again).

Go to the local hardware store and buy some animal strength screen, (or regular screen if you have good kitties, or no kitties), and a roll of spline. Spline is that black stuff that holds the screen in the frame. Also a spline tool which will be needed to hold the new screen in place once the old stuff is removed. To get the old screen out, you will need a screwdriver.

I have done this, but with help from my son. It may be tough to do alone. But after watching this You Tube video, I’ll bet you can do it alone if you have to. This is not a super expensive fix, but it will take a little time and effort. First you must take the door off the hinge, or the window screen out of the window. Pay attention to how you do that so putting it back will be easy.

FYI, when I replaced my back door screen with animal strength screen my naughty cat would climb up to the TOP OF THE DOOR using the screen, and it didn’t damage the screen at all…. It’s totally worth it. The screen is darker than normal screen, but I didn’t mind it at all.

When the weather warms up it’s a good time to get some indoor painting done. With my daughter’s help I painted my bedroom, bathroom, stairs and hallway. My next article is about painting a whole room, or doing some touch ups.

Growing Bell Peppers

I would love to say that this is a photo of my bell pepper plants, but sadly my peppers never grown well. It’s a quest I’ve had for many years now – to grown a decent bunch of peppers.

I’ve read about growing them. I’ve tried to pay attention and fertilize them as needed, with not much luck. I might get one or two funny looking peppers a season but that is it! Now I live in a different climate, where it’s much warmer, which I think peppers like. Maybe my pepper growing luck will change.

I’ve read that the nutrients peppers need are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. For that I can use a 20-20-20 fertilizer. Once the flowers show, add additional nitrogen. For that I can use Ammonium sulfate or 21-0-0 blend.

Bone meal is something I have used in the past when planting my flowers and vegetables. The calcium in bone meal is especially good for developing a strong root system, which is why I usually mix it into the hole when planting almost everything. The “Maximum Yield” site has a very good article about Bone Meal Basics, which I found very enlightening.
Green peppers have their own special flavor and I use them in salads, sandwiches and omelets. Red Bell Peppers are sweeter, and are delicious when mixed into chicken salad or sliced to eat raw with a healthy dip. From what I understand, green peppers will eventually turn red if they are not picked.
Eating a variety of brightly colored fruit and vegetables gives us optimum health, and picking it from the yard is as fresh as you can get. One day I WILL eat my own yummy peppers… maybe this season.

(Image credits: Find all these wonderful photos at Pixabay.com)

A Little Salad From My Backyard Winter Garden

Just made myself a salad with ingredients from my (very) small backyard garden. In fact it’s really just a few pots with lettuce, parsley and scallions / green onions. I added some flaxseed meal and a side of potato salad, but the greens came from the yard!

When there is fresh food growing just outside the door, it’s hard to choose NOT to eat it. After all, it took work to plant it and care for it, so why not enjoy it as often as possible? Plus I am lucky enough to still have food growing in January! I am in Florida now, and I have to constantly remind myself that it IS winter…. in other places.

Floridians believe it is winter here. When the temps plummet to 60 degrees they put on their heavy hoodies, tied tightly around their heads as they head out to walk the dogs. What? I wave to them as I stand there in my capris and t-shirt and then I turn and laugh. My blood will thin out again too, and one day I will think 60 is cold… I guess. For now, the icy cold of a January day in New Hampshire is still fresh in my mind.

Back to garden talk. I know that planting season is coming soon down here in Florida, and I am stressing a bit because my raised bed is not filled with dirt. BUT, a friend made a suggestion, which I may do because it seems easier than trying to buy a load of dirt and move it into the container. I also have a sprinkler system to worry about crushing. If I decide to try the “new way of gardening” I’ll share it in a soon-to-come post.

For now I am enjoying my greens. I can’t wait for the citrus (lemons and limes) to grow. Fresh lemonade would go well with this meal!

Easily Grow Your Own Scallions From the Grocery Store

growing scallions — Grow scallions from the store

As I was chopping up my store-bought scallions, I noticed the little roots at the ends. I had read somewhere about growing produce from store-bought items, and decided to stick the ends of the scallions into my fabric pots filled with garden dirt.
Sure enough, a few days later I began to see growth! Now there are new shoots coming up and I will have scallions to cut soon to add to my cooking.

Some sort of animal was digging in the pot, but the onions seem to have come through it fine. I can’t wait to walk into my backyard and clip off scallions to add to my meals.

Growing a Meyer Lemon Tree

meyer lemon tree flowers — Buds on Meyer Lemon tree

Although my new yard is fairly small, there is a lot of sunny space out front. I planned to plant a row of Florida citrus trees out there, but now I have some questions about growing citrus trees.

I bought a Meyer Lemon tree and a Lime Tree from Pells a few weeks ago. The lemon is planted in the ground out front, and the lime is in a pot on the patio out back.

The lemon tree has pretty, purple buds on it, but it’s December – almost January – and I don’t think this is the time of year it should be getting flowers… but I don’t know.

I did find a Meyer Lemon tree growing article at the Fast Growing Trees site. Between the information in the article about watering, fertilizer, pollination, and light needs, the comments from people trying to grow these trees also adds good info.

screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-8-57-26-am — In the ground 3 weeks

My question is “Can I plant other citrus near my lemon tree?” What if I put a lime next to a lemon? Will the fruit end up tasting like a combination of the two?

I also wonder if it’s too early in the season for flowers to be forming on the tree. We could have frosts and freezes in the months coming. I thought that citrus began to bloom in Spring.

UPDATE: The staff at the “Fast Growing Trees” site have answered my questions. Trees that have been growing in containers may take time to acclimate to being in the ground. He said it is early for the tree to be blooming, but the tree will eventually figure it out.

Also… it’s fine to plant citrus trees near each other. It will help with pollination! Thank you! I can’t seem to figure out how I signed into that site so I can say thanks.

I’m new at this, but I live in a location where it should be easy to grow all kinds of fruit. I know that I can cut the top off pineapples and stick them into the ground to grow. It takes a couple of years before a little pineapple begins to grow out of the top, but it can be done. I used to grow them when I lived here before.

pineapple welcome sign — Welcome address custom tile with pineapples and tropical flowers.

So I have posted my question with the above-mentioned site. I’m always up for learning new things, and gardening of all kinds in Florida is something I must now learn.

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!