Garden Update: May 10, 2009!

In the garden, as in life, some things work and some don't. I spent 2 months caring for a tray full of young eggplant and pepper seedlings only to see them wither and die as the sun relentlessly beat down and they got tired of waiting for the rain. Then miraculously little sprouts of things I didn't even know I planted shot out from the same dirt, volunteers from the compost that found their way into the mix. Survival of the fittest. It still hasn't rained but once in 2 months so we've taken to keeping the 5 gallon bucket in the shower and recycling the dishwater. In some ways the drought is good, forcing the roots to go deeper and hopefully passing on these drought hardy traits to the next generation, but mostly it sucks, the rain barrels have long been dry and hand watering is getting old. I still dont think I can get completely free from the supermarket yet, but we're getting there. Local edible log: Suriname cherries, elder berries, mulberries, grapefruit, avacado, chaya. Here's what the garden looks like tonight...


This squash that has taken over the bikini garden is a volunteer. We planted okra and eggplants and yardlongs in here. The eggplants (which I grew from organic seed) mostly died, the okra are holding on but are tiny so far compared to last year...

The two young eggplants that are growing well were bought as plants most likely grown in some non-organic soil mix. I will eat them anyway.This was a cool surprise from a little packet of seeds with directions in chinese. I thought I was planting some kind of Asian summer green, but today I pulled up a tiny radish. It was very spicy. These things are doing surprisly well in the heat.A proud moment, my sunflowers have outgrown me...

Mayan spinach returning to life after being declared dead from the freeze.

Squash in bloom

Sunflowers

Baby Squash

Yard Long Beans climbing

Bikini update

After the overwhelming response to the bikini garden, I decided to post an update...
Really not much to see here...

A couple eggplants, some squash, and some left over broccoli up in the corner where it's shadier. We've had one day of rain in the last 2 months or so. I filled up both rain barrels (110 gallons) and ran around the house placing buckets under all the valleys in the roof line. I managed. That water lasted a couple weeks. If they can't produce in the drought, they die. Survival of the fittest in this yard. More updates to come...

Bikini Garden

Finally went all out and dug up the back yard.

a short history of the white house garden

Michelle Obama's Garden Plan.

The NY Times published Michelle Obama's garden blueprint today. Looks a little boxy to me.
(thanks punk rock permaculture)

Seminole Heights Community Gardens

Alright! the Seminole Heights Community Garden Website is up and work on the first garden location is to begin soon (just in time for the most severe water restrictions in ages).

gardening gets hip

There are many positives to this recession. One of them is the slowing down of the industrial capitalist death culture, even if just a hair, and making people rethink their values.

With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots — literally — cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget.

Community Gardening is now a Growing Trend, so let's criminalize it!

Back to the Garden

It's been over 4 months since I last posted here. I got lazy...but also extremely busy with life and work and the garden suffered for it. My apologies to the garden and all my loyal blog readers who have been clamoring to find out the latest juicy tidbits from the DirtGod (let me know if there's more than like 1 of you out there by leaving a comment) I promise to be more "with it" from here on out or until I leave town or the computer dies or I lose internet access or I just plain lose in the garden: which is what is happening currently. The Garden Underdog I should have named this blog, as with the current Florida drought, growing anything in the ground is an uphill battle-even though it's flat here.

Because I realize everyone on the interweb is dying to know, here's a recap dear readers, on what's happened on this little patch of dirt since that last post back in late October about that White Sapote I bought at USF...

The yard long beans came out good:

We got two separate harvests of them. Then the damn aphids came and I had to pull em out.

By November we picked the last of the okra and tomatoes...

They were delicious.

Mid-November we went to a wedding out in Polk County and i was mesmerized by the spanish moss:

This is what our Starfruit tree looked like back in December before the first freeze:

It looks about the same now but without any leaves...


Winter in Florida is generally the best time of year: Mild and cool, an escape form the hohum (heat and humidity) and citrus everywhere. But this year Tampa had the misfortune to get hit by not one, nor two, but THREE hard freezes. My yard transformed from green tropical wonderland to brown-grey deadzone literally overnight.:

It really is enough to make ya cry, or at least rethink all the sensitive tropical stuff I've planted here. We lost a dozen papaya trees (already suffering from downy mildew anyway) and the two mangos I planted when we moved in last spring.Tampa is considered a sub-tropical zone and I guess that's why I rarely ever see the more exotic fruits (guava, mango) really thriving here. Interestingly, just a mile or two south it didnt freeze. South Tampa and St. Petersburg's tropical fruit trees look great. The bright side, besides identifying where the micro-climate areas of the yard are, I'm hoping maybe the freeze struck down that damn mildew hanging out on the papaya leaves. More on that later...