Showing posts with label organic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organic. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Radish's potatoes, mint and Elvis

Nothing says romance like Elvis impersonators at the State Fair
Being the sentimental guy that I am, our romantic valentines day celebration consisted of going to the State Fair and seeing the Elvis impersonators and Budweiser Clydesdale's.  Top that valentine.  The State Fair had many agricultural and 4H club displays.  At one display, the kids were giving away little plastic bags with cotton balls with some radish seeds.  Since my wife likes radish's, she gladly accepted one and gave them to me to plant.  That was several weeks ago.

sprouting radishes

radishes new home
So today while rummaging around the shed looking for something I noticed the little bag with the cotton ball.  Somehow it accumulated a few drops of moisture in the little bag and the radish seeds were starting to grow inside the bag.  So the cotton ball was removed from the bag and all the little seedlings were separated from the cotton and planted.
newly planted potatoes

Another new addition to the Florida Bee Farm and a long shot in my mind are potatoes.  I was recently at a Farmers market and talking to a guy selling organic potatoes.  He happened to have a few potatoes that were starting to sprout that he had under the display because he didn't think any customers would want them.  He gave them to me for purchasing a pound of good organic potatoes.  That worked out perfect because you need organic potatoes for planting because the ones in the supermarkets are sprayed with an anti-sprouting spray to keep the potatoes from sprouting eyes.   Another reason for eating organic.

The potatoes had quite a few eyes already sprouting on them so they were cut into many pieces that all had an eye.  And then placed in large pots with a small amount of dirt on top.  As the plants grow you're supposed to keep mounding dirt on top.  I've heard only a few varieties grow in Florida so this may or may not take as the guy at the Farmers market had no idea what type of potatoes they were.  Since I'm the lucky guy it's worth a try.
relocated sweet mint

While reading some gardening tips today, I noticed people discussing growing mint.  The consensus was that you should put mint in a shady location with plenty of water.  My mint was not doing well in a sunny area so our barely surviving mint plants were transplanted into pots and put into a shady spot after a heavy watering.  Must have mint for Mojitos.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

False Alarm

It was to be a glorious event.  Something we were looking forward to for some time now.  A treat to tantalize the taste buds .... yes, our first red ripe tomato after months of nurturing the seeds and plants. 
The holy grail of gardening
While working in the garden all day I kept glancing over at the red ripe tomato while it basked in the sun.  I figured that it could soak up the sun all day and continue to ripen while I worked.  And then just before I get in my truck to go home it will be plucked from the vine and become our first tasty home grown tomato.

But as every gardener knows ... victory can be elusive and deceptive.  There are many ways to foil success in a garden, especially in Florida.  And in this case I was once again foiled and the trophy quickly taken away after discovering a worm hole on the other side of the tomato.
foiled again

I guess it's time to mix up another batch of natural organic anti bug spray for the plants.  And manually search through the tomato vines for the fat tomato worm that caused this tragedy.