Itty Bitty Surprise!

So I've been telling you about this year's garden, but I haven't told you much about last year's garden, specifically the fact that it's still growing. Last year my garden included an eggplant. It grew and grew and got many buds and flowers, but none of the buds ever set any fruit. The season was extremely rainy. Any of you growing veggies last year know what I mean. There was so much rain that almost everything was taken over by fungus. Now my eggplant survived this deluge but all the buds fell off from too much water! However, surprisingly, it's still growing. So I was looking at it yesterday and, lo and behold, itty bitty eggplants! It's covered in blooms right now and at least two or three have emerging fruit - woo hoo!

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Eggplant, eggplant

How do you do?

I've been waiting

a while to see you.

Didn't think you would come

But there you are little one!

Footprints in the Dirt

So I had an overnight guest in my planter box. Could have been a cat, might have been the opossum who lives around here, or maybe some other small night creature. Whatever it was, he/she left little footprints behind. Had my tomatoes already been in the box I might have been a bit miffed at this mystery creature, however, no harm was done, so it's rather amusing at this point. Whatever it was walked the total length of the planter box - one side, 90-degree turn, and then the other side. If I had my guess I would say this was a curious kitty, as the opossum probably would have rooted around a little bit. I'd like to somehow blame this on a pesky squirrel but the only way these would be squirrel prints is if the little guy decided to sit every six inches and leave behind his "be-hind" print.

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Mystery footprints in the dirt

What or who might this be?

I'll be on the lookout for this little squirt

I should probably look in the trees!

Play Time

So last weekend we did the dirty work of cleaning out last year's pots to make them nice and sparkly for this year's plants. This is my self-watering "tomato success kit". Some years have been successful and others not so much. This year I'll probably be putting some grape tomatoes in here. I have seeds for those but haven't started them yet. I might just sow them directly into the box and see what happens. As you can see, China was waiting patiently for her turn at the water hose. It's hard for her to hold back. She just loves to chase the water!

After that fun I mixed up my compost with the three main nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Oh my! China wasn't so sure about this part. She was probably wondering if she was allowed to dig in these piles of dirt! You can see her eyeing them...but, alas, all this compost plus that same amount of very light potting soil went into the big L-shaped planter, and she never did get to dig in.

So now I've prepared a place for the little seedlings that soon enough they will enter into!

Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium - Oh my!

Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium Oh my!

These are the additives in my dirt, that help to grow my little squirts!

Big Boy Pots

Well, all the seedlings have graduated to their own pots now and the cotyledons have fallen off the tomato plants in the back row, so I guess my little charges are growing up. I spent half the weekend preparing their soon-to-be new home outside, though I won't be permanently moving them out for probably another month. Perhaps soon I can move them to the porch so they can begin to acclimate to the outdoors. Time flies so fast (sigh!). It seems like only yesterday they were just teeny seeds in the palm of my hand. Well, okay, that was only three weeks ago and, as you can see, some of them are still pretty small, like Chamomile and Chives, who hardly show up at all in this picture. The good news is that they are alive and thriving. None of the dreaded "damping off" disease has come to claim their lives. Things are looking good!

~

Little plants

they do grow up

in the blink of an eye

As long as I keep them

away from my pup

who is exuberantly spry

There's Always One in the Bunch

You know, when you have a moderate to large group of people or animals or things, or in this case plants, there's always one in the bunch that likes to cause trouble. Little whispy Dill is getting "leggy" on me. Growing too tall, too fast and now look at him:

That's what happens to little plants who do too much, too fast. They get themselves into trouble. However, the lucky thing is that he has a second little sprout coming out, so I trimmed off that first leggy sprout and left the new little sprout. Hopefully this won't deter his growing but now at least he can stand up straight again:

He's under the grow light in this picture and so looks a little strange in color, but it's one day after his hair cut and he seems to be recovering just fine in a brand new pot.

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Little Dill

Still a pill!

Let it Snow?

Ooooo, it's cold here now! It is a most un-garden-like day today! For the first time since I can remember it's going to go below 30 degrees in Tampa. As you can see, it's already 41.9 and it's only 9:15 PM. Today I am most glad that my little seedlings are safe and sound and toasty warm inside the house. My mailman Mr. Bob said he planted his tomatoes already and is wishing now his were inside too! Guess he'll be covering his little tomato babies tonight. If we can make it through to this weekend, we should be back up to 72, and you better believe I'm looking forward to that!

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I know I have it good compared to most of the country right now, but the fact remains that I have Florida blood and - Wow! I'm cold!"

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Thank goodness for the heater

and for the heating pad

that keeps my little seedlings

happy and not sad.

Thank goodness that my house

is warm and safe and dry,

if it weren't so

I think I'd have to cry.

For my blood's as thin as water

just like my little plants,

if it drops to 55

we haven't got a chance!

Half-Baked

Have you ever baked something that tasted absolutely terrible? Well I did. It was completely inedible. What was it you may be asking? It was dirt. Yes, actual dirt - potting soil to be exact! All the soil that used to be in my large self-watering planter is now sitting elsewhere, waiting to be used. However, since it has been exposed to the elements for the last year, it may quite possibly have fungus, spores, left over plant disease, etc., etc., that could devestate my new little seedlings. I wanted to use this regular potting soil for the transplants in the four-inch pots. However, I didn't want to endanger them with the possible equivalent of plant plague, so I learned how to "steralize" soil. There is an actual recipe for this:

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Soil

Steralization

Soil

Large pan

Thermometer

Foil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place moist soil in pan and spread no more than four inches deep and cover tightly with foil. Place candy or meat thermometer in center and place in oven. When soil reaches 180 degrees, heat at this constant temperature for 30 minutes. Do not allow soil to go above 200 degrees, as plant toxins may be released at this high temperature.

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That's it! I've been told soil sometimes smells really bad when you do this, especially if it has certain "cow" fertalizer in it (if you know what I mean) but mine did not, and so it did not drive us out of the house!

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So I am now officially a soil chef. Lets hope my little transplants grow nice and healthy because of this. Of course, if you buy brand new soil, then you don't have to worry about this, or you could just live on the edge and take a chance with the old soil!

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Little fungus

growing among us

now you are no more

when i close the oven door

Off With Their Heads!

Oh what a traumatic day for the seedlings! Now it's actually a good day for some and not so good day for the others. Tomatoes and peppers are ready for transplanting into 4-inch pots. Roots are beginning to protrude from the bottom of those little pellet pots, so it's definitely time. However, that means a little natural, or shall I say unnatural, selection must take place. When sowing seeds you always sow more than you intend to grow because we must face the fact that some won't make it. However, my little pellet pots have been so successful for tomatoes and peppers that all but one seed germinated! So now I have the sad task of choosing the strong and eliminating the weak. Oh, woe is me! Now I could try and pry apart those little pots and try to save them all, but the truth of it is that I would probably do more harm than good to all the little seedlings. So I was brave and did what was necessary for the better good! As you can see, I have now gone from 12 tomato plants in 4 pellet pots to 4 tomato plants in 4 of the larger pots. Also did the same for my pepper plants. Look at the poor fallen seedlings to the left, snipped off by the scissor guillotine! Well, the truth is, I don't have room for 12 tomoto plans and 12 pepper plants anyway! So now that my Marie Antionette episode is over, I'm feeling good about my little transplants.

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Little plants in your pots

How big will you grow?

Please grow big and don't you rot

for I want your fruit you know.

~

Tomatoes and peppers, yellow and red,

I'm looking forward to seeing you soon

Basil and chives in your beds

Of your beauty I will croon!

I've been workin'...

So this weekend was real gardening. I say "real" gardening because it was a full afternoon of sweating and back-tiring work! However, I must admit that it was a beautiful day. I think we were close to 70 degrees and clear blue sky. Just gorgeous! Today Bill and I put out landscaping fabric, blocks to level the planter on, and mulch on top of that. Now it's funny. That doesn't sound like that much work...ha...ha...ha! It turned out great though.

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Check it out:

(Now you know I included the picture with China just because she's so pretty)!

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As you can see though, we have a ways to go. I still want to put up window boxes for some of the herbs, plus I have a couple of square planters to add to our little 10 x 10 plot. It looks a little shady now but, believe me, it gets lots of sun in the morning and early afternoon.

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Next weekend we'll take a trip to get the right kind of soil for these planters. I'm looking forward to visiting a store called Worm's Way. Never been there but I think it's going to be great. Will keep you posted on that.

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Now - gotta run

pizza's here

Though it's been a lotta fun!

My arms are tired and so's my back

and I think I'm having a hunger attack!

Finally!

Welcome to the world Dill! Yes Dill finally grew. However, he's just a wisp of a plant, and only one out of six seeds germinated. Not to mention, it looks like the seed shifted and is just barely in the pot! What went wrong with the other seeds is hard to say. So many possibilities - old seeds, wrong temperature, too much or too little water, etc., etc. I'll just choose to be happy that one made it.

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So, I really do want the little Dill to grow. It is one of my favorite herbs to use in recipes. What's a tuna salad sandwich without a little dill? How about some baked fish and no little sprinkles of dill? Sure, I can buy it at the store, but it will be so much fun to just go out and cut some fresh dill off the top of my very own plant, and I'm sure much tastier too!

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Dill, dill, you've been quite the little pill

Grow, grow, they way you can, I know

Now, now, get strong and bold somehow

Yum, yum, so yummy in the tum!

Cotyledons in Leaves' Clothing

So here is little Basil now sprouting his "true" leaves (the little ones in the middle of each plant - just in case you weren't sure). Now the funny part is this - the other "leaves" aren't really leaves at all. They are something called cotyledons. I never heard this word before and I'm still not exactly sure how to pronounce it. I was somewhat surprised to find out my little plants have been deceiving me with look-a-like leaves. Really! I'll have to be sure and keep my eagle eye on them now.

Check out tomato here on the right. Lots of true leaves emerging here too. Things are really starting to ramp up in this mini garden. I had to add a second grow light and a timer for the lights so the little babes get 14 to 16 hours of light every day. I just didn't feel like getting up at 6:00 a.m. every morning for the purpose of switching on the lights! Now for you morning people this might not be a big deal, but let's see you stay up until midnight to turn them off!

Now that the true leaves are growing, I'm supposed to start fertalizing, so today I gave them their first shot of food with liquid fertalizer. In other words, I spiked their punch. I'm almost certain that two hours after I fertalized those tomato leaves, they grew to twice the size they were before. Maybe I'm growing the Incredible Hulk Tomato!

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Leaves and cotyledons in the same pot

Are they pretending to be something they're not?

Not really, it's just the way that they grow

Why this is I don't really know

Whatever the reason, they're still very cute

As long as they don't become big bamboo shoots!

Presidential Vegetables

I recently received a really cool gardening YouTube video done by Roger Doiron. Check it out - It'll make you think!



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Vegetables on the White House lawn?

A victory garden half-a-mile long.

The Senate and House from down the street,

come together to pick some beets.

It may not solve all our woes and irks

But it certainly would be a good day's work!

The Best Laid Plans

Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men...

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You are probably wondering what you're looking at. This is a picture of my grand garden-to-be on paper. My original intention was to do raised beds but, upon further consideration, I decided I am going to use self-watering containers instead. This is partly due to the fact that my spigot is halfway across the yard from this lovely garden spot and I don't want to wrestle with the hose every single day to keep my garden beautiful. Why then, do you ask, am I putting my garden halfway across the yard from my water source? Well the answer is quite simply that out of a 1/3rd acre yard, it is the only available spot that even begins to get enough sun to produce vegetables. However, I have already hatched a plan. My desire is to get a rain barrel that I can place next to this wonderful spot and then easily water my plants. Now very nice looking rain barrels cost bigger bucks than I want to spend, so I started researching "ways to make rain barrels", "cheap rain barrels", etc. etc., on Google until I was sick of looking. Now granted there are ways to make cheap rain barrels but most of them are not all that attractive, soooo...then I accessed that file way in the back of my brain about the county giving out free rain barrels to people who take their rain barrel seminar - Ha Ha! I had the answer -- sort of. So I then went to the county extension website to sign up for the class. The first three classes this year are already full, so I can't take the class until May! Who knew so many people wanted rain barrels? So meanwhile, the hose and I are going to be really close friends. Lets hope those self-watering containers do their job as well as they're supposed to. "Water once a week vs. once a day..." Well, I'm a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to trying out new products, but at the same time I do love to "buy and try" new gadgets - just take a look in my kitchen! The good news is, the really big L-shaped planter that I'm using is one we already own. It used to be right in the corner of the porch (check out my girl China):

So now we'll put it to good use I hope, as it never got any sun on the porch and everything I ever put in there died - except for the Wandering Jew, which, as we all know, grows absolutely anywhere.

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So let the fun begin!

To my husband's chagrin

With shovels in hand

for this best laid plan!

They're Alive!

Yes, they're alive and kickin'. These little seedlings are amazing. Less than a week into it and I've got mini plants everywhere! The only seedlings yet to appear are Dill and Onion. Onion has an excuse, as that seed is supposed to take 10 to 21 days to germinate, but "Hello Dill! Anybody in there?" Maybe the Dill seeds went AWOL during the night...I can see them now with repelling ropes and little microscopic flashlights. Okay, I know, I'm getting carried away.

Remember the Spud family - Daddy Spud, Mama Spud, Jack and Jill Spud? Well they fulfilled their food destiny in the crock pot tonight. It was sad to say goodbye but yummy to the tummy. After all, better they go out by way of cooking rather than rotting. So - so far so good! My follies haven't been so folly-ish as of yet. We'll see what next week brings!

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Thank you Lord for plants that grow

Thanks for all that I've yet to know

Thanks for the joy of my little brood and

All of your gifts of wonderous food!

Garbage of the Garden

Compost...It brings a lot of things to mind. One being, what the heck is in there and how do I get it to look like dirt? I began experimenting with compost last year after attending a county workshop. They gave me a free compost bin and thermometer, which I thought was way cool. However, it took me about eight months to have enough compost to fill a five gallon bucket, not to mention I spent $30.00 on a special tool to help me "turn" my pile so I won't break my back. Needless to say, I'm still working on my technique!

So about four weeks ago, since my hubby was raking leaves and he was going to donate them to the garbage and yard waste collectors, I decided I would rescue some of them and begin my compost quest all over again. So me and my trusty thermometer have been tending this pile of organisms for a month now and, as you can see, I successfully hit the green zone today at 80 degrees. I do love to see that little needle in the green zone. If you look very closely someone with a sense of humor printed on the thermometer, "How Hot's Your Pile?" Some days when the pile's gone cold and the needle has dipped low, I perceive this as a little taunt - So, Lisa, how hot is your pile? Because I know someone somewhere is looking at 120 degrees!

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Oh to see 120 degrees!

All of this from the leaves of trees,

and plants, and kitchen scraps

Oh no, now there's the neighbor's cat

Bury the scraps or we'll get rats

But at the end of the day, or weeks, or months

I'll have black gold instead of lumps!

Florida Oranges

Oh it's time for Florida orange juice! This is a picture of the orange tree in our backyard. It's been quite a pitiful tree, but it is starting to look pretty good these days after a few years of pruning and care. It has an interesting little "twist". Someone planted or grafted a lemon tree right next to the trunk of the orange tree, so sometimes I unexpectedly find a lemon instead of an orange! No kidding! Two totally separate trees growing as one. Mmm...throw in a rascally racoon and it sounds like something Aesop would be interested in.

Meanwhile the little seed garden is looking about the same. Basil and chamomile are still in the lead, but I think yellow pepper is about to get into the game. Now, let me tell you, I'm biased about rooting (ahh the unexpected pun) for the basil because I was the proud owner of its predecessor.

Below is last year's basil plant that I let go to seed and, you guessed it, the resulting seedling babies!

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The Dove and the Ant

An Ant, going to a river to drink, fell in, and was carried along in the stream. A Dove pitied her condition, and threw into the river a small bough, by means of which the Ant gained the shore. The Ant afterward, seeing a man with a fowling-piece aiming at the Dove, stung him in the foot sharply, and made him miss his aim, and so saved the Dove's life.

"Little friends may prove great friends." ~ Aesop

Look at these guys go!

Wow! Check out chamomile and basil. These seeds were just sown three days ago. I guess the Ferry-Morse growing system really works. Now if I can just keep them alive...

Go little guys go!

Yesterday I dug up my potato growing experiement. I took 10 small red potatoes that were about to go bad and planted them. I know - I'm not supposed to use regular potatoes. I'm supposed to buy those planter spuds but, hey, they were about to go bad, so what did I have to lose? Anyway, so they've been percolating for the last three(?) months. I don't know. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, so they didn't get a lot of attention with the exception of occasional watering. Plus those pesky squirrels kept trying to bury their acorns in the pot! So finally the tops died off and I was ready for the treasure hunt. I was pleasantly surprised - Look at my cute little spuds lined up in a row:

Daddy Spud, Mama Spud, and Jack and Jill Spud

Jack and Jill were under the mound,

along with mom and dad.

So I dug them up along with my pup,

and now we are so glad!

In the Beginning...

Okay, for anyone interested, I'm keeping a blog journal on this year's vegetable garden(s). I aptly named this blog Food Follies because the Miriam Webster definition of follies is, "A costly undertaking having an absurd or ruinous outcome". Though I have been a successful gardener in the past, I have not really been a very successful vegetable gardener, with the exception of an occasional tomato plant and a few peppers. Thus, the definition above. However, before we get too depressed, lets hope that I have begun to learn my lessons and have fewer of these "follies", but either way the journey this year is going to be fun. I'm always fascinated by growing my own food. To me every fruit, vegetable, or spud is its own little miracle.

Anyway, now that it's January I'm already itching to get out there and start growing things and, since I live in Florida, that's actually not as crazy as it sounds. So two days ago, after visiting Lowe's looking for after-Christmas 75% off sales, I arrived home very excited with a seed starting kit, a grow light, and some seeds of my favorite veggies (and no Christmas items).

I bought the Ferry-Morse kit that comes with the little discus-like pellets. Just add water and - poof! - instant miniature pot with soil to put your seeds in. It's like those little magic sponge capsules when I was a kid where you add water and they grow before your eyes into a colorful dinosaur or some other animal or object. I loved those! Maybe a subconscious reason I liked the pellets? Anyway, if the seeds grow, I'll like them even more. This kit also came with a heating pad to keep the seeds nice and warm, so they germinate faster. It's already 75 degrees in the house though, so I hope I'm not cooking them instead!

Check out my little garden thus far (It looks purple because my grow light puts out violet-colored light):

Not much to look at yet, but lots of potential - Chamomile, chives, dill, tomatos, lemon basil, banana peppers (red and yellow), and onions. I really wanted to grow some some garlic, but from what I read I just missed the Florida planting season for that.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

The history on this little diddy is actually rather serious - check it out if you wish. I prefer to continue thinking of it as a cute little nursery rhyme about gardening.

Lisa, Lisa, quite optimistic,

How does your garden grow?

With love and care and a little hope,

And plenty of seeds to sow.