Wow, it's been awhile...

Alright, I know I haven't posted in forever so let me start with a small breakdown of Summer and Fall 2013...

Summer 2013:

Three plants survived the harsh Florida Summer: Mint, Yams, and Peppers.

Everything else died (green beans, spaghetti squash, carrots, & radishes). So, if you are planning on starting a garden in the South during Summer...don't. Just get your garden prepped and hold tight. Yield wise those three went above and beyond though. Several gallon bags of mint, 5 lbs of yams, and to date (8 months later) about 3 gallon bags of peppers. We also got a few handfuls of green beans and leeks, but they were over run by the yams.

 

 

Fall 2013:

Fall was slightly more optimistic. We planted spinach, romaine, Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, broccoli, onion, radishes, calamando, & tomatoes in the beds and I made an herb pot with stevia, cilantro, lavender, and basil.

 

 

Now, just because you plant, doesn't mean you harvest. We got about 1 gallon bag of romaine leaves and about 10  gallon bags of various herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, mint, & rosemary), a gallon bag of Chinese cabbage, about 1 qt. bag of radishes,  1 qt. bag of calamandos, & 5 tomatoes.

Problems: We had a huge infestation of cabbage moths and the spinach withered while the romaine bolted. Also, I learned not to put onions interspersed with broccoli because they rot. :( The Chinese cabbage and regular cabbage never formed heads, so I started just taking the leaves and my radishes are not forming into balls, but elongated tubers. The calamando tree was starting to droop in the 5 gal. pot so I moved it into a 15 gal. and it's doing much better.

Improvements:

We did a bit of garden improvement that came out really nice though, including adding more garden beds and creating a rain barrel. We also tried making quince paste and sausages which I'll discuss in a future post.