Popeye's Lament

I just came back from the faux pumpkin patch around the corner from my house. I got two pumpkins which my wife and I will attempt to carve after we have a few drinks. Wish us luck.

The farmer and I at the patch had a little chat about the unusually hot October here in South Florida. We were both on the same scary page. The Climate Change one. Record breaking heat here and the earliest recorded snow in the Northeast. Denver International just had 5 foot snow drifts. Before Halloween!

People that deal with the Earth on an intimate basis have been recognizing these changes for some time. Ask any farmer and they will tell you things are not right. Sometimes I feel that people think that combating Climate Change is about saving the polar bears and penguins and some small fish that lives in a pool in the bottom of a cave in the Mojave. These things are true but really it's about saving us. The polar bears will die but some creatures will make it through the bottleneck. Will we?

I say these things because after two attempts my spinach seedlings have died. Spinach is notoriously difficult to grow. It needs a cool, moist environment. We had a cool spell earlier in the month and I thought, "Ok, this is it. The weather is breaking." Not true. It's in the upper 80's again. This is the hottest October I can remember. Enjoy your spinach while you can. Happy Halloween!

Locals Only

I mostly garden because I like to eat the things that I grow. Maybe that's why I don't have kids. For me there had to be a tangible result for my efforts. What can I say, I'm goal driven?!!? Occasionally I would grow things for beauty's sake. A bonsai ever so often or every kid's favorite, the venus flytrap. But I've relaxed over the years and my appreciation of the limitless beauty of nature has grown. I'm almost obsessed.

Over the last couple of years my obsession has turned to native florida flora. Not many recognize it but we live in a savanna environment. Plants here need to be tolerant of summer monsoon rains and dry winters. Without supplemental water most plants wouldn't make it between November and May. Florida natives will though. Unfortunately they get a bad wrap for not looking great year round. Then again what does? Shit, you don't! Take a look in the mirror after the holidays. Hmmmmm.

If you're making a native flower bed just be conscious of the bloom season of each species. Right now my Blazing Star plants are, well, the star of the show. Mid to late summer it was the Bee balm and mimosa plants. Before that it was tickseed and mistflower.

Yes, they do go dormant but the dried flowers can work with the right design. Experiment. Why waste money on crappy home depot annuals that you have to buy every season? These guys all readily reseed with no effort. Or money

My Plan for World Domination

Today I helped the Helton's set up their garden. Brad and I share a hatred for all things Monsanto so this seemed like a logical way to stick it to the man. Oh, and the kids might like it too.

We planted carrots, lettuce, beets, broccoli, collards and Thai yellow eggplant. I have no idea what that thing is gonna taste like. Good luck to you Brad & Kim - keep Shea away from dem cigars will ya?!!?

Sunday Blues

The last picture perfect Sunday before we lose daylight saving time. Someone should solve this problem. Yesterday afternoon I rotated my compost pile. Exciting, I know. It rained the last couple of days so needless to say this thing was full of some pretty putrid brown water. Not pleasant but it makes a great natural liquid fertilizer.

So I drained this stuff out of the composter, diluted it with water and fertilized all of my plants. When I got up this morning half of my seedlings were dead. DON'T DO THIS. Even a mild fertilizer is not good for seedlings. Let them do their thing and plan on feeding them when they get a couple of weeks older. Lesson learned. Time to reseed.

I've been gardening since I was a kid. My Dad always had a garden and I followed in his footsteps. There were very few years that I didn't grow something. Even all those years (11-21) when it wasn't cool to be a guy growing mustard greens in his parents backyard. But the same social pressures that convinced me to relax my curly hair didn't stop me from gardening. I just have to be in communion with the Earth. It's my church what can I say?!!?

Which would make South Florida gardening like paying penance... sometimes. You have to start with the foundation. The soil here is a mix of sand and nematodes with a little coral rock thrown in for good measure. If you are going to plant veggies you have to change that. A big brick of peat, a lot of compost (homemade hopefully) and a good blanket of mulch to top it off. Lately I've also been experimenting with bio-char, more on that later.

Get that stuff goin'! Entice the worms in with the compost. They'll love it and reward you by aerating and fertilizing your garden. Let them do the work of tilling. In fact, I say don't till. Most people do more harm to the soil structure by tilling than is worth any benefit. If you have sod lay down a thick layer of wet newspapers and make a raised bed on top of this. The newspapers will kill the grass and eventually decompose themselves ( I wouldn't use color and/or glossy print though, just b&w ink). SAVE YOUR BACK!! You'll need it later.

Some Like It Hot

One of the things you can grow in South Florida in the summer. This is a sweet potato vine that I grew from a slip from a store bought sweet potato. No magic here. When your sweet potato starts to root ( which they all inevitably do) just stick it in the ground. Before you know it there will be three leaves and shortly after a sprawling vine. I never fertilized or had a pest problem. And every once in a while I reach down and pull a sweet potato out of the ground! Duncan 1, Wholefoods 0.

OUR growing season

It's On! While the rest of the country is pulling their sweaters out of storage we South Floridians are preparing to enjoy the best time of the year. The sun is still out (it never really goes away), humidity is down a little and it is not 90+ degrees all of the time. Now is the time to get out there and dig!!

This blog ( I really can't believe I'm blogging... or for that matter have an iphone. I didn't think I was going to be THAT guy) is about my garden and the pleasures and tribulations of gardening in South Florida. The rest of the country thinks that we have it easy. No winters right?!!? But those of you who have ever tried to grow broccoli in the spring like the seed package says know better. Ever try to sow seeds directly in the ground here? And how about that new garden menace, the iguana?

So I'll be chronicling my backyard garden here and hopefully I'll hear from you. One can never know too much and there's always something new to learn about the earth.