It's Fall!

Husband has been busy around the yard. He acquired some leaves from a yard raking job he had and incorporated them into the garden which is mostly a sand pit. We are going to try planting some alf alfa, as soon as we find out where to get some seeds, because I heard that alf alfa will regenerate the soil and that is what we need.

Fall garden area.

He put all the weeds he pulled from the garden in

 the fire pit and is ready for the next backyard burn.

Fire pit ready for a burn.

He got a couple of papaya trees from the neighbor and planted them. They are little twigs now but hopefully soon we will get a papaya.

Papaya tree!

Youngest daughter got an organic peach and noticed the seed had a sprout so she wrapped it an a paper towel and it got bigger so she finally planted it in a pot and, look, it sprouted and has leaves.

My mom has a peach tree in her yard and it has yummy little peaches on it every year. Florida peaches are just as good if not better than Georgia.

Peach tree.

The fig trees have a bumper crop this year every branch has three or four figs. It's still a fig bush though only about two feet tall.

brown turkey figs!

fig bush with figs on it.

All the plants are doing great this year. And Puppy dog loves them all.

Giant fern bush thing that my Aunt gave me and said it wont grow.

 A few years ago husband planted a plant in honor of his dear Aunt who he loved so much. It did not make it past the first winter and we thought it died but then it came back so we got another one and it would not grow. And people kept stepping on it. So I moved it to a shadier spot where it was out of the way of traffic and it died and then not only did it come back but another grew in the spot where it had been moved from so now we have three of these plants.

Auntie plant.

Plant that got moved.

I've plated carrots and radishes in the front planter near the peanut plant. And they seem to be doing pretty good too. I just need to do some weeding and I'd better do it quick.

Carrot plants surrounded by weeds!

 Another Aunt gave me some basil and I said that wont grow in my sand but it is doing great next to my oregano and mint plant.

Oregano with sexy frog and behind him is radishes and at the top of the picture is basil and ferns and in the front is part of the picture is the  peanut plant.

Next year I'm just going to plant a bunch of these peanut plants they seem to love it hear.

Radish plants with peanut growing over them.

Huge peanut plant! Yes, they have little yellow flowers.

 And then finally grand daughter helped me plant the honey dew plants we grew from seeds we got from a honey dew we bought. She was a little ruff with the plants but she is only two.

Honey dew in the top of the picture. I'm not sure what the other plants are anymore. but we will plant them and find out.

Hopefully we will have a good fall garden. It's late so this may turn into a winter garden. Husband has got to get busy to make it before the end of the fall planting season.

We've been working around the yard.

The front herb garden is usually mostly weeds with a few herbs here and there but if you didn't know what you were looking at you would think they were all weeds. The pond/fountain has been mostly frogs until Chris decided to get some fish. He wanted coy but they are so expensive and it is a very small pond so.... he is making due with gold fish. So far they are doing great. But... we think we have a cat fishing them because Chris found half a one laying on the ground.

Chris's fake coy fish pond.

We planted a few new herbs and picked the weeds from around others. Every year I add an herb or two. Some make it and other don't. I found a mint plant that I thought was dead growing in a completely different spot than where I had planted it. I planted some basil (that I can never get to grow) and sage. I have oregano and dill and garlic chives. I also put out some marigolds plants.

This is lavender.

Other plants just seem to come up in this herb flower garden on their own. Last year I was weeding and there was this pathetic looking little flower on a tiny little plant. Chris said pull it up it is a weed anyway. But I thought it was pretty and let it grow. Now I have this huge bush that is loaded every day with the prettiest flowers.

Wild flower! It is a blanket flower a type of sun flower native to Florida. About the size of a daisy.

We finished the garden. This year we went small and sweet. We've got strawberries planted and tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, the usual. We may expand with some beans later in the season and it's too late for lettuce so... I may do some in a container where I can move it out of the heat.

Garden!

The blue berry bush is loaded. I hope the birds leave a few for me this year. It has a lot of air plants growing on all the branches. We are not in agreement as to whether these plants are harmful to the blue berry or not. So far it has a lot of berries not many leaves.

Blue berries!

So for the last few years we have not gotten a single orange off our orange bush. Why? Because of a tiny little snail. We bought this expensive organic snail killer they didn't seem to mind too much but then I learned a trick.....

Baby Orange!

If you save your egg shells and... grind them into a fine powder then sprinkle it around the plants afflicted with snails... it is like walking on glass for them. Their little slimy snail feet get all cut up and they go else where. So far it is working like a charm. And egg shell is good for adding calcium to the soil it's a win win for my orange tree.

egg shells

smashing them

turning them into powder.

Chris has been planting all the plants he had in containers around the house. We got two gardenia plants that my mom grafted from hers and a maple tree from  a seed that blew over from the neighbors yard also a fern palm thing my Aunt gave us, she thought would never live. All free stuff that is finally big enough to go in the ground. Also we acquired a banana tree but he has yet to put it in the ground.

Banana tree.

Gardenia

He also finally planted the mosquito bush. I hope it keeps the mosquito population down although I have heard it's mosquito shooing powers have been exaggerated. I first heard about this and have been saving every wild geranium in the yard but if they don't keep the mosquito's away I guess I will pull them up they don't really have flowers.

Geranium or mosquito bush.

The youngest daughter always complains about helping in the garden so she planted her own. It consist of sunflowers surrounded by pinwheels. Hey it's hard to get teens to do anything. 

V's garden!

Hope y'all got some work done in your yard. There is always something to do.

Cabbage Patch

Husband and I went to start up the old rototiller and found it dead. So with shovels in hand, we dug what we thought was a pretty good size patch for our garden. It was about half the size of last year but we thought it would be adequate. Then I planted all the cabbage that we had started and nope. It turns out it was only large enough to be a cabbage patch.

Just a cabbage patch!
 

 We planted red and white cabbage. We found last year it grows pretty good in this area. I don't know about my yard... where nothing grows but we are going to try. We've got about 12 plants. That's a lot of kraut.

Red and white cabbages.

We also started squash and radish and lettuce and sunflowers and some black eye Susan's. The squash is growing strong it wont be long and it's got to be in the ground too. So I hope we can get the old rototiller to work before then.



These will need to be planted soon

 

 These guys come visit us and our little pond just about every day now. I don't know if they have a nest out there in all those marshy weeds or not. It sure will be neat to see some baby sand hill cranes walking around in a month or two.


He's becoming an old friend.

November

November starts the dry season here in Florida and so far the weather is beautiful. Much cooler and definitely dry. Normally I would be worried about how much extra water it will take to keep the garden alive but this year we only planted a few tomatoes and only one egg plant.


The harvest this morning.

What we did plant is growing like crazy! Lot's of little tomatoes and a few bigger ones. Even the egg plant is loaded with flowers.

Egg plant flowers

Already have two big egg plant.

Beautiful bunch of tomatoes.

Can't wait for Husband to make eggplant Parmesan with all fresh ingredients.

What's going on around our yard!

We have been busy lately and our yard has been neglected. Here is a look around at what has popped up despite us.

Here are the flowers Chris planted in memory of his Aunt. They just keep putting out one flower after another.



A friend gave me this plant and I said "That wont ever live. It looks delicate and like it needs lots of care," and look at it now.

This just popped up I don't know what it is. I think we planted it. (Head scratch.) It looks like it will be something pretty.

Blue berries! They are still green but we should have a handful, if the birds don't get to them first.



Here's the armadillo trap. It's latest location is sure to capture that pest. He He! The armadillo is alive and happy and still going in and out from under our porch.



The compost pile. Sad isn't it. It started off as a huge pile of grass clippings and now it it a small pile of hay with grass growing in it. I think the good stuff from the pile has seeped into the sand. Just like when we put 6 giant bags of compost in our garden and the next year it's back to being sand.  The armadillo enjoys digging it up every once in a while.  

This is a weed that is growing next to the compost pile. I love this weed it grows every where in my yard and has pretty little flowers. I've seen a plant similar sold in the store only with bigger flowers

The bald cypress is alive and well. Every year when the leaves die off I worry that it has actually died. But happily it keeps coming back.

This is another weed that grows in my yard. People buy these too. They are called Lantana and come in all different colors. I don't like the way it smells.

Here is another weed. It's a tiny little daisy. People don't buy these. I don't think they have enough pretty flowers on them to count.

Not sure what kind of flower this is. My aunt gave it to me along with a bunch of other plants. This is one that survived and looks pretty good I don't think it has ever been with out a flower even in the dead of winter.



Aloe Vera plant. It has a pretty flower. Ours has several flowers this year. They say it is good to put the goo from a broken leaf on your sun burn. It will sooth it. 

My mom has these growing like crazy in her yard she is either potting them up as gifts or digging them up to get rid of them. She has several variety's of aloe but this one likes my yard and hopefully it doesn't multiply like hers. 

Plumbago! I would have preferred hydrangea better but Chris liked this wild looking plant better. I think it's messy looking and needs a trim. This is the color we are thinking of painting our house. With brown and white trim. Cause the eves are brown and we can't easily change that. So blue and brown house. What do you think?

We have a lot of work to do around the house and garden this summer so check back often to see what we're doing.

Kitchen Garden Day.

 So I had planned to clean up what was left of the garden and get it ready for fall which is all winter long hear in Florida, but I got a little side tracked. I did pick the last of the vegetables that were growing. Two really pathetic looking egg plants.



Home grown eggplants.

I had stopped at a road side stand and purchased an eggplant earlier in the week. Mine didn't quite measure up. They must have been using some sort of chemicals to make their egg plants look so good. Or maybe they were using GMO seeds. Ha! Just look at my prized egg plants compared to the real thing. OK mine barely resemble an egg plant but they tasted just as good. Well, not the little one it was a little rotten. One of them was smaller than the other! I know they are both little. Any way fall garden plans are shaping up. Squash, maybe some carrots. I'm definitely going to try some more broccoli and the thing that grows best in my sand is....tomatoes so I'll plant some of those too. 



My eggplants just don't measure up.

I made a great spaghetti and eggplant with these click the recipe tab above to view the recipe.