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 > Jalapeños
	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