May Garden Update

Hope everyone is having a great week. We have finally been getting some rain! Not only is the rain nice because we need it so badly, but because it gives me a chance to catch up on my blogs. 

Here’s what our garden is looking like this week…in pictures of course.

I took the photos on my ipad this week. I am trying to familiarize myself with the camera and see how it looks.  It would eliminate a step in blogging, uploading the images, but not sure how I feel about the quality of the images. Anyways, the garden…

 

We have a little bird nest in the upcycled tire  container we made last month!

The sweet potato runners are starting to grow up the kid’s teepee.

We are picking the last of the peas.

 

Already had to move the herbs into the shade of the banana trees. Summer in Florida is here to stay.

The cucumbers have started to appear.

We have tons of blooms on all the pepper plants!

Looks like the last head of celery is going to make it!

The littlest gardener always keeps things lively in the garden. She decided the pretend to be a peacock with the freshly picked fennel.

Butterfly Release

We released five beautiful Painted Lady butterflies last weekend. My little gardeners (six and two years) were SO excited!  Two of  the five butterflies stayed around our Lantana after they were released.  The others flew right off, but the two that stayed for about 15 minutes sipping on the nectar made this year’s experience really neat.

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oh no Oleander Aphids

One of our summer projects is designing and maintaining a butterfly & bee garden.  Recently we started some milkweed seeds that we proudly harvested and saved from our mother milkweed plant.

Today we realized our new milkweed seedlings have aphids, bright yellow Oleander Aphids to be exact.  When large colonies of these aphids exist they can harm or even kill the host plants.

So what to do?! After doing a little reading, Oleander Aphids love milkweed, butterfly weed, and of course, oleander.

It seems most sustainable gardeners use blasts of water to remove the little yellow guys, and then a natural insecticide soap or oil to finish them off. Some gardeners introduce lady beetles and braconid wasp to their gardens.

Since our milkweed sprouts aren’t very big, and we were worried the blasts of water would cause harm to the plants, we removed the aphids by hand.  We are hoping that takes care of things.  It took awhile to gently remove and squish them. I even got a little q-tip out to get them off the tiniest leaves, while still trying not to damage the milkweed.  We will keep a careful eye on them.  Insecticide soap or oil isn’t harmful and doesn’t leave a lasting residue, so if the little guys return they will be doused!

Sweet Potato Teepee

While on Pinterest the other day, I came across this adorable bean teepee:

We weren’t planning on growing beans this year, but sweet pototoes were on the list so we are giving it a try.

First we sprouted some delicious sweet pototoes from our local farmers market.

The sweet potatoes are growing!

And growing!

 

And starting to grow up the old reclaimed bamboo we had in the shed. I’m thinking I will add a little hemp twine to help support the shoots has they climb.

My little gardeners have lots of plans for their growing teepee. They can’t wait to get their dolls & fairies inside to play. They think they are going to get our cat in the teepee too. ha!

I will post updated pictures as the sweet potatoes continue to grow this summer! Seems summer is already here with temperatures in the 90s and a dry backyard.

Happy Gardening!

Busy Bees in April

Spring has been flying by. We love all the excitement in and out of the garden!  Spring is such a wonderful time of year to be outdoors. Above, we took a trip and brought our new wagon to the farmers market in Deland, FL. We won this awesome wagon (and some other cool stuff ) from #GardenChat and Subaru on Twitter in March!  

In April, we were also published on EcoEtsy’s blog: Gardening with Kids and Books. On May 10th, our next EcoEtsy article will talk about rhubarb and even include a yummy recipe!

Here’s a photo gardening update of our backyard efforts in April!

Success in the Garden:

Green onions have been fabulous this season!

The fennel has been smelling (and looking) lovely!

The sweet peas are in bloom all over the garden!  We are very excited about this crop!

Failures in the Garden:

Our celery, didn’t quite make it. We have one lone plant left, but I’m afraid it’s too hot now.  First I had trouble starting the celery seeds, then I planted them too close, AND then our fat cat decided that they made a lovely bed to lay on. She sleeps on a few border grasses in our front yard, but has never slept on any of our vegetables before.  I learned all sorts of lessons with this first celery crop.

Garden Future:

The last of this spring’s crops will be cucumber and peppers. The first of the peppers are arriving.

After this season, we plan on removing all the dirt in our largest raised box garden, and replacing it with new gardening soil.  We have been gardening three or four times a year in this box for four or five years now. Even though I add organic matter to the soil each season, it is just time to start over. The old gardening dirt will be used in various places in the yard, like to continue a stepping stone pathway.

We also have plans to build another box while we are taking a summer break from vegetable gardening. Well, a break from everything but sweet potatoes and herbs that is.

Happy Gardening!

An Upcycled Garden Container

For a little over a year I randomly volunteered at a local community garden.  When the local college bought the land and the garden was dissolving, we had to find new homes from all the plants and gardening tools.  While cleaning up the garden, I brought one of the old tires, used for potato gardening and composting, home with me.

I took a few steps and turned that old tire into our new flower planter for the backyard! 

First, I painted it with some leftover exterior latex paint I had on hand. Then I placed some marigolds inside the hanging tire and did some experimenting. I found that the rubber tire will heat up and the flowers need more water than other potted plants. I also found out that it was better to drill holes in the bottom side of the tire so water can drain properly.

Next, I dug through all my old spray paint cans. I painted the front side of the tire green, and planted some more marigolds.

Then, got some more spray paint cans, and created a little garden graffiti on the old tire!

 

 After creating the design I wanted, I moved the old tire to its final resting place in a shady spot in the backyard, and planted yellow daisies in it.

Happy Upcycled Gardening! 

Ladybugs on Easter Sunday

For my daughter’s sixth birthday we had a little party, and one of the presents was Pink Spotted Ladybug larvae (coleomegilla maculata)!  Our oldest LOVES raising and releasing insects!  After a week or two of observing their life cycle, we released our ladybugs on Easter Sunday.

Ten little ladybugs arrived in their larva state. They turned yellow in their pupa stage, and then went still as they became adults.  One didn’t make it and one was released a few days after the others.  My oldest enjoyed giving them water and soaked raisins as they molted and became adults.

Things we learned during this experience: 

They really aren’t ladybugs, they are called ladybird beetles.

They will eat aphids, mites, and small caterpillars.

They can be found on the map from South Canada to South America.

They can be white, yellow, pink, orange, red and black.

And some species can have no spots!

It was better to release our ladybugs in the morning time, so after observing and feeding them for a week, we released them in the garden.   My oldest decided to share the experience with her two year old sister, and together they released the ladybugs in my two year’s old garden box. 

The girls ran back and forth to the garden all day and would find one or two ladybugs still crawling all around.   Our Ladybug Land is all washed and cleaned and ready to raise some more.

Happy Gardening!

Bee

Spring Break 2012

All my Amaryllis lilies are blooming in the garden right now. Every year, during the week of my daughter’s birthday they show us their beautiful red color. 

  

Other blooms in the garden:

  

I am happy to report, our salvaged pineapple is doing great!  What I mean by salvaged is, the unwanted pineapple tops from the dissolving Daytona Beach community garden, that have been recovering in my backyard.

Lots of sweet pea and radish sprouts are popping up all through the garden!

 New tomato sprouts as well:

Our avocado tree is recovering nicely from a fungus.

We saw this idea on Pinterest, and decided to start our own teepee from the summer. Our’s will be made out of sweet potatoes vines instead of green beans.

Caterpillars and grasshoppers have been easy to find in our backyard. Here one of them seems to have eaten my entire spearmint plant…

Funny, it didn’t eat the pineapple mint plant right next to it though!

We have lots of gardening plans in April. Seems we may have spent more of March on the boat than in the garden.  The weather has been so nice (and no bugs)!

 

Garden is Green

My garden is green again!  Spring is here, a little early, but it is here!

Our celery is doing lovely! As my five year old says, “Mom it is starting to look like the celery in the grocery store!”  This is my first attempt at growing celery and so far as good. Maybe another month and we will be able to harvest.

Sweet peas have sprouted in the garden. The little gardeners really enjoyed picking and shelling them last year!

Our fennel is doing great! It was brought over from the closing community garden.

Lots of green tomatoes!

Our pentas were never killed from the winter cold, so they seem to be full of extra blooms and much larger than normal this year!

 
Our lantana was killed from the cold, and is now making a coming back. Soon the bird bath will be hard to see, as we already have new lantana blooms starting.

My favorite green in the garden is our mint. I know I’ve said this before, but I love mint, and I have missed it!  

Here’s one of my favorite refreshing drinks after working in the garden:

• 3 green tea bags
• 1 quart boiling water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 large lemon, sliced into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 2 cups cold water

Brew tea in boiling water, letting steep for about 10 mins. Pour brewed tea into a serving pitcher. Add sugar and lemon, and swirl in the mint, holding it by the stems and using it to stir and dissolve the sugar. When sugar is dissolved, drop mint into pitcher and add 2 cups cold water. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. You can strain mint out before serving, but I like to leave it in. I think I originally got this from foodnetwork.com, but it was so long ago and it is only hand written in my cookbook now.

Happy Spring Gardening!

Renewing River

My health hasn’t been the best and it was wonderful to put the doctors and worry aside for an afternoon and get out on the water.  There is something so peaceful about having my family together in nature.  This spot on Strickland Creek, in the Tomoka River basin, is one of our favorite spots.

It was a beautiful day!

Even the dog came along.

I had to chuckled at the above image. Seems I am a referee a lot lately with two girls ages 2 and 5 in the house.  They were even fighting over a fish.

  

We are always on the look out for manatees!

Today we found one old manatee hanging out in the creek!

 

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein