Sunday, January 6, 2013

End of a Great Fall Garden

Well I hope everyone had a great Holiday, however it's time to get busy in the garden again.

I can tell that my fall garden is almost finished for the season. I've harvested almost all of the cabbage, carrots, and tomatoes but because of the 80 degree weather we've had lately my lettuce has begun to bolt. However I think that all things considered I've had a pretty good first crop.  I've started another batch of broccoli, but I think I'm a bit late, even though they were put out the end of December the weather has been just too warm.





However, I think I've had a pretty good harvest for my first real garden.  I've made several batches of freezer pickles, salsa, and pepper jelly and have plans for a lot more canning ahead for the spring crop.

I will be posting some of my recipes here for you to enjoy soon.




So, on this vain, I've made some purchases for the spring garden which I hope to begin planting either mid February or at the very latest first week of March.  These by the way were all the recommended varieties from the UF website, and from local growers suggestions.  I did purchase seeds from two places this year Johnnyseeds.com and from a local store Smith's Ranch and Garden in Arcadia FL.  They have a great selection of new seeds for the season, and sell them by weight.  I purchased 1/4 ounce seeds, because I wanted to give them a try first.  According to them, these seeds have a 85-95% germination rate.

I'm going to start putting some of these in pots tomorrow (I know I'm a little late) however I've been extremely busy with family, and the holiday's and just haven't had the time to get to them.  I did however get a Worm Factory 360 for Christmas, and will be making some posts with regards to my progress with this.

As you've probably noticed, I have only chosen the indeterminate variety of tomatoes this year because I want to really focus on the vertical growing method and the bush tomatoes just get too leggy and take over the small raised bed space.  I'm also going to focus on growing the beans, cucumbers, and peas on the trellises as well.

I'll keep you posted on how the plants make out.

This is the Johnnyseeds selection:






Fortex-Packet
Vegetables > Beans > Beans, Pole > Round Pod




Slick Pik® YS 26 (F1)-Packet
Vegetables > Squash > Summer > Yellow





Excelsior (F1) (OG)-Packet
Vegetables > Cucumbers > American Pickling




Peppino (F1)-Packet
Vegetables > Peppers > Hot Specialty Peppers





Jalafuego (F1)-Packet
Vegetables > Peppers > Hot Southwestern Peppers > JalapeƱos




Juliet (F1)-Packet
Vegetables > Tomatoes > Saladette and Sauce > Indeterminate





Red Pearl (OG)-Packet
Vegetables > Tomatoes > Grape










Smith's Ranch and Garden Seeds:

Kentucky Wonder - Pole Bean

Alaska Snow Pea

Blue Lake - Bush Beans

Beefsteak - Tomato (Indeterminate)

California Wonder - Bell Pepper

Serrano Chili

Roma - Tomato (Indeterminate)

Poinsett - Cucumbers 






Crimson Sweet-Packet
Vegetables > Watermelon > Red Flesh





3 comments:

  1. Hi Katherine; Success! Well done, you've cracked it, as we say.
    I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for your help Mark I really appreciate the kindness! Looking forward to seeing many great updates on your garden blog as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kathy, you just inspire me! Today I am planting my 1st flower garden in my back yard. I know, it may be too early, but it will be a trial and error..lol. Love all your pictures and this is a GREAT blog...can you pin it to pintrest?

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