Garden Fruit Production

It's late April and I am very pleased with the progress of my fruit plants and trees.  For Christmas of 2012 I received 1 almond and 3 cherry trees. I know this sounds like the beginning of a Christmas carol, or a fairy tale considering I live in central Florida. However, I found two varieties of cherry trees that were purported to fruit in extreme low chill environments. I followed this up with some research that yielded mixed reports of success, but since I am Super Gardener, I made a Christmas present request for these trees. Therefore I became the happy owner of 1 'Minnie Royal' and 2 'Royal Lee' Cherry Trees, as well as a 'Garden Prince' dwarf Almond Tree. They came bare root and were planted into 15 gallon pots. Then in July I put them in the ground. Anxiously I waited all winter through their dormancy to see if I would have any blossoms this spring. And they did! But only 5, and all on one tree. So I doubt they will result in actual cherries. I am gratified that they received enough chill hours to bloom their first spring in the ground, and will wait patiently for next spring.

The thornless blackberries are doing great and I anticipate having a great harvest. I bought the first one 5 years ago from a nursery that actually specialized in trees. I bought it and never even asked what variety is was, and have been uable to find out ever since. Whichever variety it is, is very prolific. It rooted through the bottom of the pot and has produced 5 additional plants. I have all 6 plants trellised and based on the number of blossoms I'm seeing, I am anticipating a good crop.

Under the blackberries, I planted 'Tri Star' Strawberries, which I rarely get any fruit from between the birds and the dogs (yes, my dogs eat strawberries). But they are doing very well, and I often see small birds, maybe wrens, eating bugs off the veggies in my garden. So if they are the same birds eating the strawberries then we are square.

'Tri Star' Strawberries

The 'Florida Belle' Peach I purchased last year in August has already almost doubled in size.  This spring it produced numerous blooms which were all successfully pollinated. Realizing that the tree was still too small to support all that fruit, I removed all the young fruit except for 2.

'Florida Belle' Peach

Peach tree in front of the garden, the multi-colored blob 

is Callie the Garden Cat

The 'Gulf Beauty' Plum that was also purchased in August 2013 is doing great as well. It has tripled in height and bloomed successfully this spring, but I did not allow this tree to keep any of the blooms though.

The 'Clayton' Mulberry took a bit of a beating this winter as my dogs insist on brushing past it while running through the yard. But it has numerous blooms on it and is thriving.

The limequat is doing great. I wanted a lime type of citrus to utilize in my Corona beers, and found that the limequat which a hybrid of a lime and a kumquat is extremely cold tolerant. And it was fortuitous that I soon came across one at Lowe's a few weeks later. I have it in a pot so that I can move it into the greenhouse in the event of a hard frost and have already harvested several limes from it.

The Kiwi vines 'Vincent' and 'Tomuri' are just coming out of dormancy, but are not very photogenic yet as the leaves are just emerging. I am hoping that the vines will bloom this spring. I also have some 'Sunshine Blue' and 'Missy' Blueberry plants I recently purchased that already had blooms and fruit on them at time of purchase. From my research, these two varieties are the most tolerant of pH fluctuation so I am curious to see how they produce next year.

'Sunshine Blue' Blueberry

Baby Veggies

It's only the beginning of April but I already have baby veggies forming! It won't be long now.

Red Bell Pepper

'Cossack Pineapple' Tomatilla

'Fancy Crookneck' Summer Squash

Tomato Update

I am happy to report that the tomatoes are doing great! I have found that the minimum threshold that tomatoes can take is around 38 degrees F.  Although I did have minor leaf damage to some very small tomato plants at this temperature, more mature specimens came through just fine. Even the blossoms were not affected.

'Chianti Rose' Tomato at 2' tall

'Beefmaster' Tomato between 20" and 21" tall

My husband and I have a bet going. I say that due to planting early and the frost protection I have given these plants that I will have an edible tomato ready by the middle of May. He says that no matter what measures I take, there will not be edible tomatoes until the first week in June. I think I'm going to win.

Protection for Tomatoes During a Late Frost

So last night we had a frost and my husband got his chance to tell me 'I told you so'. The weather predictions kept saying the low would be 40 degrees F, but fortunately I am a born pessimist. 40 degrees would be fine to leave the babies unprotected if you had some assurance that temps would not go any lower. Planning for the worst, I rushed home from  work to cover my baby tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, tomatillas, muskmelon and beans (did not know if they would be sensitive to the frost but I was on a roll).  First, I used frost cloth to form a tent over my Armenian cucumbers which was tedious and time consuming. As I was poring over the best solution for the rest of the veggies my husband, kicked back, drinking a beer and watching my shenanigans, suggested covering the plants with pots. My first inclination was to disdain this suggestion because he is, after all, a non-gardener. But I had to admit the idea had merit. I was cold, tired and a glass of wine was calling my name. So I took out all my plastic pots and buckets (I have many) and in 5 minutes flat had all my babies covered with their own black plastic greenhouses.

This morning we woke up to 37 degrees at 8:30 a.m., so who knows how low temps dipped at sunrise. I was nervous. I had visions of all my starts being a mushy, wilted mess, and having to start all over again. So I waited until temps were over 40 to uncover everyone, and......they all looked fine. It absolutely worked.  So hopefully we are done with frosts but if not I am good to go with my nursery pots.

Covering baby tomato plants with nursery pots

Not fancy but it worked

Healthy, happy tomato plant the next day

Review -Winter Garden

As I am tearing out my the last of my winter garden, I thought I'd share a few things I learned with this garden.

Purple Carrots: I do not particularly like carrots, I grow them for my mother to eat (she loves raw carrots), for juicing (health benefits, not taste), and to use in stews (they are easy to freeze and store). My mom's opinion on the purple carrots was that they were not as good raw as the orange varieties I grew. She said they were not as sweet, and had a stronger carroty flavor. Reading up on the domestication of carrots, it would appear that the purple colored variety is less domesticated than the oranges and yellows. However, I found that in the garden the purple variety grew twice as fast as the orange, which is probably due to their more primitive nature. wink. In the future I will plant a small area of the orange, sweeter varieties, for momma's fresh eating. And then do a larger area in the purple as the sweetness is less of a factor for juicing and cooking.

Purple Haze Carrots mixed with orange varieties

Apollo Broccoli:  This was the best variety of Broccoli that I have ever grown and/or eaten! I could pick enough sprouts for dinner for two people every three days. The flavor and the vigor of this variety was phenomenal. It broke my heart to pull them this weekend, but with the warmer temps, the sprouts were going almost straight to flower anyway. In the future, I will not waste time or space on any other Broccoli variety for eating.

Apollo Broccoli covered in shoots

Romanesco Broccoli: I was intrigued to try this variety as it looks really cool, and is pricey to buy in the grocery stores, if you can even find it. This variety of broccoli is not vigorous... at all. I waited all winter, watching these plants grow...ever...so...slowly.  Finally, I was rewarded with those beautiful, geometric, chartreuse Romanesco heads, and they were delicious...but very small.  In the future, I will skip growing this variety unless I have a bed with nothing else planned....and time on my hands.

Head of Romanesco Broccoli about 4" across

There is no denying that this is one pretty vegetable

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage: This variety of cabbage, despite being an early variety, seemed to take forever to form heads. Although this may be attributable to how warm the winter season began. Then in early February the heads were looking really good and ready to harvest. On a Friday I walked through the garden planning to pull the heads the next day. Saturday morning I walk out to find one of the heads had split. This never happened with Flat Dutch. The Flat Dutch, which is supposed to be a late variety, formed heads earlier and I could leave those babies in the garden forever without them splitting. In the future, go back with Flat Dutch for cabbage.

Beautiful heads of cabbage one day

Split cabbage head the next

Tomatoes, Peppers and Squash... Oh My!

This weather seriously needs to warm up...right now! I have a greenhouse full of veggies ready to go in the ground. And my beds are cleared, prepped and ready to go. All I am waiting on is to get past the last threat of frost. To be honest, I am probably just going to take my chances and plant out the majority of my veggie babies this weekend. If we get a late frost, I'll end up doing like I did last year. Rush home from work, pick up frost covers and run around the garden in the dark covering up all the babies, with my husband standing nearby saying 'I told you so'.

Right now in the greenhouse I have several varieties of tomatoes ready to go: Chianti Rose, Beefmaster, Wapsipinicon Peach, Bush Big Boy, San Marzano, Coure de Bue, Roma, Pink Brandywine, and Black Krim. I also have the 'Vermont Cranberry' Beans, 'Pike' Muskmelon, 'Seminole' Pumpkin, 'Fancy Crookneck' Summer Squash, and 'Cossack Pineapple' Tomatilla.  I typically grow everything from seed to reduce disease introduction, except for the Bell Peppers. For some reason it takes too long to grow peppers from seed. Therefore I cheat and buy starts to grow out in the greenhouse for a few months. This way I'll be eating peppers by May.

Bell Peppers and Tomatoes

Tomatoes and Muskmelon

Vermont Cranberry Beans and Tomatillas

Tomatoes in the foreground

Messy Greenhouse                                        

                                           
My other motivation for planting out some of my stock is to free up some room in my tiny greenhouse. I mostly use it for storage during the warmer months because it does not have ventilation fans and gets HOT. But then during the winter when I am doing all my starts to get a jump on the spring/summer garden, I end up running out of room.

Taking Care of My Pollinators

It's difficult this time of year to have flowers to support my pollinators, to keep them interested enough in my yard to hang around until my Spring garden. The winter garden does not have many vegetables that require pollination, mostly greens and  root vegetables. And most flowering plants cannot survive both the occasional frost as well as the typical central Florida heat and humidity. But I do have a couple of species that work, and are low maintenance.

Borage grows great during Florida winters, I love the beautiful purple blooms and even the hairy leaves have visual interest.

Surprisingly the African Bush Daisy was not even fazed by the worst of the frosts in the 20's this winter.

But my best flowering plant for keeping the pollinators around is Broccoli that I let bolt and go to flower. I discovered this last winter unintentionally. I tried a sprouting variety of Broccoli called 'Pericicaba'. A sprouting variety does not put out just one big main head but several smaller sprouting heads. Unfortunately the 'Pericicaba' variety is not good for eating here in Florida as it bolts quickly in our warmer winters and goes to flower. So last winter I was just too lazy to pull them and discovered that the bees love the flowers and these plants were continuously covered in flowers.