Solitary Gardener

Spring Garden Journal 2012

2012-01-30T09:29:00.002-05:00

Fall garden as of Jan 30. Fall garden includes: several different lettuce mixes plus black-seeded Simpson and salad bowl, arugula, 3 kinds of Swiss chard, collards, Brussels sprouts, several kinds of mustard, beets, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas started up the trellis, and two kales.

The longer I garden, the more I see the need for a garden journal. Not one to keep a diary, I find myself questioning what I did in previous years and finding that I can't remember as well as I used to. Also, I find myself making the same mistakes every few years, like over-watering the summer roses as I did this year. So, this will be an ongoing journal of the preparation, maintenance, and results of this years spring garden. January starts the annual march to the spring garden...It's showtime!

Jan 29 - Started tomato seeds with heated, lit seed tray today. Used special seed germinating soil for just the top 1/4 inch of seedling pots. This soil is not as good for root growth and is expensive. Just used regular potting soil for the majority of the planting medium. Waiting for second heat pad to arrive and will plant second tray with more eggplant seeds and tomatoes that needed soaking prior to planting and some backup tomatoes.

Planted early eggplant seedlings (started Dec 15, 6 inches tall already and wilting daily due to insufficient soil) half in garden and half in pots. We'll see if there is any advantage for an early start for eggplant, a plant typically understood as a hot season plant. Also put early-start cayenne peppers in garden and have covered during freezes.

Planted row of potatoes this weekend with trench method. Spaded in several bags of manure and cut trench with a hoe. Planted potatoes that had been cut and dried to seal off, prior to planting. Added 5-10-15 to the top of the trench and pulled it over the seed potatoes to increase potassium that is deficient in my soil. Will add more potassium and some sul-po-mag during the growing season along with organic nitrogen.

Greens are doing well this year due to additions of fish emulsion and MG organic fertilizer and muriate of potassium.

Jan 30 - Several notes on starting camellias from seed. Place in moist soil in pot sealed in plastic bag until stem emerges from the soil. Many seeds can be started in a single pot. When the stem emerges, pull plant out of soil and clip tap root so it doesn't sap the strength and re-pot in single pot enclosed in plastic bag. When leaves start to form, open bag and fold back down around the lip of the pot. Keep seedlings protected from squirrels and cats who like to eat back the green tips. Place outdoors in shade when threat of freeze is over.

Found toad lilies rhizomes in Wal-Mart of all places and potted a patio pot in early January. The plant is already popping up and is cold-hardy so have bought a few more to inter-plant in the hosta gardens.

Untreated camellias come back after freeze

2012-01-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

We had a cold snap that went down to 18 degrees and pretty well obliterated all the treated flowers and buds. But one of the great qualities of the camellias is to be able to handle our lowest possible temperatures and bounce back with more beautiful blooms, often through March. The cold snap forced many of the bushes into semi-dormancy, and the grove looks pretty barren. But here and there flowers are blooming. When I went out to bring in a few, the variety was pretty amazing.

Protect dooryard citrus from hard freeze with ice coating

2012-01-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

I planted Satsuma and Meyer Lemon trees in our garden several years ago. They are just now gaining traction and beginning to bear fruit. When they were young, I would cover them with blankets whenever temperatures dropped below 25 degrees F. Air below that temperature can damage damage to leaves and branches. Much lower, and the tree can die from the cold. When temperatures hit the teens, I also put a lit bulb under the blanket cover to add warmth.

Now the trees are getting too big to cover. Besides, it was also very time consuming to make an adequate cover of out of blankets and Boston clips. I cast about for a solution to protect the trees from damage.

This week when the temperature hit 18 degrees, I tried a new solution. When the temperature was just a few degrees above freezing, I turned an impulse sprinkler so that it would spray the uncovered satsuma and the rest of the garden, already covered with sheets and blankets. Ice forms a natural insulation, keeping the temperature underneath it near 32 degrees, well within the tolerance of the citrus and winter veggies.

Within a few hours the blankets were stiff with ice and a thin coating of ice had formed on the tree. I turned off the sprinkler, removed it from the hose, and left a slow trickle of water coming out of the hose to protect the faucet.

The next morning the iced slowly melted in the morning sun and the tree and garden emerged unharmed. If you try this, be sure that you limit the amount of the ice so that the weight does not damage the branches. I'm basically lazy, so next time I think I will eliminate the covering on the veggies too and let the ice do its thing.

Germinate Seeds Faster with Heat from Bottom Lights

2011-12-27T14:25:00.002-05:00

These seedlings are less than two weeks old. They were started indoors in my two-tray light stand. This year I tried spinning the bottom lamps upside down and placing my tray directly on the lights (in the photo the tray has been propped up with a pencil to show the lights below). This added critical warming to the soil. When the seeds were sown, the flats were topped by a sheet of thin plexiglass to help retain moisture and warmth. The seeds starting poking up in 3 days. The plexiglass was removed when the seeds sprouted. The bottom light gives the illusion of summer soil warmth and the seeds respond, developing dramatically faster. This evidence was all I needed to buy a couple of seed tray heaters, available for about $20 each. The bottom heat not only makes the seeds germinate faster, but the seedlings grow much faster and stronger. Most of these seeds were ready to transplant in less than 4 weeks.

Vegan Collard Greens Recipe

2011-12-22T12:05:00.003-05:00

Collard greens are a very satisfying vegetable in the fall garden. I usually plant them as sets in September. By early December they are just maturing to the point where there are enough leaves to make a big pot of collard greens. The massive leaves have the texture of fine leather and are a beautiful cool gray green. I look forward to the new collards every year and try to make a pot each week until they bolt in late spring.

Here is a great recipe for collard greens that doesn't use pork or other animal flavorings but is so good that I have been known to snack on it several times a day when it is in the refrigerator.

Vegan Collard Greens

1/2 cup olive oil
1 red onion sliced in half, then in vertical 1/8 inch slices.
Red pepper flakes, if desired
3-4 dozen collard leaves. Enough to fill a large colander to overflowing
5-6 cloves of garlic
2-3 cups red cabbage, sliced into 1/8 in ribbons
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup red balsamic vinegar, divided
Salt or Spike and pepper to taste

--------------------------------------------
Clean collard leaves and remove stems, chop into 1/8 in ribbons.
In a large Dutch oven:

Saute the onions in olive oil until tender (5-10 min) Add some hot pepper flakes if desired.
One minute before adding the collards, add minced or pressed garlic to the onions and stir.
Add collards to the pot.
Add 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
Add tomatoes

Heat with occasional stirring until liquid boils
Turn down the heat and simmer covered on low heat for 1 hour
Add red cabbage
Add remaining 1/2 cup of vinegar, salt and pepper to taste (Use Spike instead of salt for richer flavor)
Simmer another hour or until greens achieve desired tenderness
Remove cover and simmer until liquid reduces until just covers bottom of the pan. Adjust seasonings.

Server warm or cold (cold is best!). Cover and refrigerate for up to a week.

First Camellias of 2011-2012

2011-11-27T13:41:00.001-05:00

In the center is Louisana Peppermint, from the top clockwise, Doris Ellis, Mark Allen Variagated, Joe Nuccio, Mary Edna Curlee, Sea Foam and Lover Boy.

Here are some more from Christmas Eve 2011.

Left to right, top to bottom: Nuccio's pink lace, Dennis Vaughn, Nita MacRae, unknown (dark red and white, air layer gift), Tama Glitters, Frank Houser, Var., Snow Man, unknown (medium red air layer gift),

Fall Garden, November 10, 2011

2011-11-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

The fall garden was delayed this year due to our September vacation. Typically I like to get seeds in the ground in early September, but this year I didn't start until early October. This means that the winter crop will be smaller but the plants will last longer in the spring.

This year there are beans growing on the trellis. After freeze, I will run Sugar Snap peas up over the wilted beans. Surrounding the trellis are Brussels sprouts, collards, broccoli, turnips, beets, cilantro, mustards, two mescalin mixes of lettuce plus salad bowl, black-seeded simpson, and red sails, 3 types of tomato, the best setting and fastest growing is Early Girl surrounded by summer basil, swiss chard, napa cabbage, two kinds of kale and garlic. Onion seedlings are sprouting in a patch, to be re-planted in rows later.

Can you identify this bird?

2011-11-08T10:28:00.004-05:00

Can you identify this baby bird? Here's a clue: it looks nothing like it will look in a few months.

This is one of the most common birds in the garden. On its forehead you can see the beginnings of its adult crest of feathers. This is a baby cardinal. I found it clinging to a blueberry branch, obviously way too young to be out of the nest. His parents were conspicuously circling me as I took its portrait. They seemed to be taking its early freedom in stride.

Cardinals are a mainstay in Tallahassee. Besides being a colorful stand-out, cardinals are a constant year-around feeder guest, where their entire life cycle is played out for our viewing pleasure. Cardinals will eat just about any seed we put out, and they are regular bathers in the pond.

Every spring the cardinals court at the feeder. The female pretends to quiver like a toddler and the male proves his worth by valiantly feeding her. We frequently find cardinal nests in the low hedges and watch as they guard their pale blue eggs.

Parents bring their offspring to the feeder each summer soon after they leave the nest. You can spot young cardinals because they are colored like a female but the beak is brown instead of striking orange beak of the mother. The babies lay low and shake their wings to ask for food. The patient parents carefully peel seeds from the feeder and pass them to the baby's quivering beak.

We watch as the juveniles molt in the winter and put on their adult plumage. The birds are at their finest in the fall. Every fall and winter evening they come around to the feeder at dusk. We sit in the bird window with a glass of wine and share our end-of-day conversation. We call it the "Cardinal Hour".

In the spring the cycle starts all over again. Did the youngster in the photo make it to adulthood? I don't know, but I know that many of this brothers and sisters did, because we watched them grow up!

Poison Ivy Home Remedy That is Cheap and Effective

2011-05-11T11:18:00.003-04:00

Like many others, I suffer from severe poison ivy allergies. What was an infrequent annoyance turned into an chronic problem when we moved into our new home and found that the three acres came with a huge poison ivy farm. I went through the woods slashing vines and spraying Roundup at the green varmints and over time I have gained a small measure of control.

With so much ivy around, it was impossible not to brush up against it now and then. When mowing the lawn, I would dress up in long pants and a long sleeve shirt--torture in Tallahassee's summer heat--to minimize exposure to the ivy aerosol spewed from the mower. Even so, I basically spent the summer months with some level of infection and misery.

I searched for some topical medicine to slather on to avoid infection. I found Tecnu, a bottle of oily lotion that could be applied before or immediately after to minimize infection. When I knew I had been exposed, I applied it and it worked pretty well, but it was $40 per bottle. Too expensive.

As I researched the problem I found that the allergy is caused by the oily sap of the poison ivy plant called urushiol. Tecnu basically dilutes the oil so that it can be rinsed off. I tried some of the home remedies on the web, most notably bleach. I would rub pool bleach over the exposed areas and plunge into the swimming pool. This worked, but not very well: it was impractical and I didn't like exposing my skin to harsh chemicals.

Now I've found a product that can do the same thing Tecnu does after exposure to poison ivy, and you probably already have some at home. It is Dawn dish-washing detergent. The blue bottle of plain Dawn is one of the most effective degreasers available and it is gentle on skin. It is routinely used on birds and animals exposed to crude oil. Simply rub full-strength Dawn on the exposed areas, wait one minute, and rinse off in cool water. That's it! I've done that every time I know I've been exposed and have not had any infection this year.

And, by the way, it doesn't hurt to hire a yard man to cut the lawn!

After the Flood--Dry Land Filled with Promise

2011-03-21T22:01:00.003-04:00

View From the Front Door Flowerbed

We built our home about 10 years ago on three acres with gigantic oaks in a rustic sylvan setting. It was during a 10-year drought and we were thirsty for rain. A couple of years after we moved in, we finally got some of that rain we desired and my wife said, "You need to take a look out the window." A fast flowing river poured into the back corner of our land and across the front yard, turning into a lake covering our driveway with 18 inches of water. We had to wade out to the car. We later learned that 400 acres of land drained right across our property.

View From the End of the Driveway

The water stayed for a day and a half, flooding not only the front yard, but also the roses, the vegetable garden and a large swath of the camellia grove. The river ran over our septic tank which is never a good idea. When it reached its maximum level, it spilled over the road where the drain pipe was way too small to handle the flood. The flooding was shocking and heart-breaking. The net result was tension every time rain was forecast and fear of flooding every time we entertained. This was a big problem. Our front yard turned into a stream bed with every decent shower and a couple times per year on average, the lake blocked our driveway for a day or two.

I'm no drainage engineer so I was at a loss for a long time to know what to do to fix the problem. As the years passed, I would come up with one idea after another, only to realize after some consideration that my latest scheme would not work. My wife got very weary of the word "drainage."

Large Berms Were Cut Into the Side Yards

About a year ago, a plan came to me that I actually thought would work. I had been looking at Esposito's drainage contracting ad for a long time, so I gave them a call. Ralph came out to the property and listened to my woes and my idea. He said that my plan would work and set about making a design and proposal. It included earthen berms on either side of the property and a concrete wall across the front. It creates a sort of a moat around the outside edge of the property and provides a channel for the water to flow around instead of through it.

The Wall/Fence Extends Across the Front of the Property

I'm very practical but my wife had bigger ideas. She said "I want a fence, too" so Ralph integrated columns and black metal fencing and a gate. Now, instead of a water control wall, we have a beautiful fence, too. Ralph was just the same guy you see on his commercials. He's easy going and very friendly and was very good to work with. He revised the design several times as we honed in on a look as well as a price.

Construction took a long time. We sadly did not know that we needed the county's blessing on a drainage ditch, so we ended up spending 3 months and thousands of dollars to satisfy the environmental permitting department. In all fairness, they pointed out a couple of things that improved the final result, but the cost in time and money was considerable. To his credit Ralph and his people hung in there doing all that needed to be done and the results speak for themselves.

The Gate and Lighting Provide a Focal Point

Was it a perfect job? No. One of the berms was dug right into a neighbor's property. He very graciously accepted the revisions without complaint. We have really great neighbors! Also, the gate was hung too high and I recently had to invest in custom extensions in order to keep our small dog from running out into the street. But, in the end, Ralph and his people were very good to work with and they wanted us to be satisfied with the results.

We worked with another contractor to build custom column caps and install lighting. The lights are controlled by a photocell and turn on automatically at night. The bulbs appeal to my energy consciousness; they are 2-watt LED lamps. Together they burn all night, providing significant light using less electricity than than a 60 watt bulb burning for an hour.

The final result was worth the effort!

St, George Island Vacation Condo site

2011-03-18T08:32:00.002-04:00

We have had a place on St. George Island for over 15 years. This year we decided to take over the administration and promotion of the condo ourselves and created the website above at www.StGeorgeIslandFamilyVacationRental.com.

Tomato Seedlings--Year 2

2011-03-10T12:14:00.005-05:00

Raising tomatoes from seed is rewarding in many ways. For one, it saves on gas and costs less (as long as you don't include the $200 light stand the first few years). For many years I routinely spent $10-20 on tomato sets and had to search several nurseries to get the varieties I wanted. It often took several trips, as they would be out or the quality not up to par. These days you can spend $5-10 for a single plant...ridiculous.

When I started growing heirloom tomatoes, the need to grow tomatoes from seed became an imperative. Heirloom tomatoes are even more difficult to find, more so if you are looking for specific varieties. So, last year I bit the bullet and ordered a light stand designed for growing seedlings. It is well made and it has already been a good investment, returning interest, joy and satisfaction many-fold.

My first year, I did what I figured would be best. After all, how hard can it be? Just give seeds light and water and let nature take its course. Last year's seedlings did go into the garden and fruit, but they were leggy, and had yellow leaves and some fungus infections.

I learned a LOT from that experience and this year, as you can see, the improvement is stunning. Here's what I learned:

Don't use the little multi-part square peat pots that are available everywhere. They are too small and their porous sides make it difficult to hold moisture in the roots without attracting fungus.
This year I used an 18-part plastic plant tray that held flowers from one of the garden centers. I cleaned it with some highly diluted bleach before refilling it with seed-starting soil (also widely available). The larger pots give more room for root growth. The plastic sides hold in moisture for the roots. And the tray holds up better than peat, which tends to start falling apart by the end of the cycle.
Don't start the seedlings too early. If you do, they will outgrow your light and space before the garden is ready for them. I started this year on the first of February.
To encourage germination, moisten the soil after planting, cover the tray with plastic or plexiglass and put it on TOP of the fluorescent light. This provides just enough warmth to make the seeds pop out in a few days. When they are up, uncover them and put them under the lights. Seed companies want you to spend hundreds of dollars on a seed warming mat. This is a big waste of time and VERY expensive for a glorified heating pad.
Keep the air moving in the room. I leave a ceiling fan on at night to keep the air circulating.
Never leave the roots soaking in water. Water before germination with a spray bottle. Later on, soak the soil but let it drain completely before returning it to the lights. Keep water off the leaves as much as possible. Put them out if it rains, as rainwater is wonderful for all plants.
Lighting is critical. It should always stay an inch or two above the leaves and stay on for 16-18 hours each day. A timer is a big help in keeping this consistent.
Feed once a week with diluted Miracle Grow Bloom Booster. I grow tomatoes organically, but they really need potassium as they are starting and this is a ready source.
Take a long stick and run it over the seedlings daily. This strengthens the stems.
To plant, cut the tray into individual pots and cut them apart as you plant them. This will result in less root stress and damage.

Tomatoes are one of the most satisfying vegetables you can grow. The aroma when you work among the vines is heady stuff. The vigorous growth and visible fruit are very alluring. Starting the process from seeds heightens the pleasure and begins the season in the late winter, when the spring garden seems impossibly far off.

The Joy of Cold-Brewed Coffee

2011-03-08T15:36:00.005-05:00

This topic is a little off-topic for my usual but I just wanted you to know that you haven't tasted real coffee until you have tasted cold-brew. Not only is it the best coffee, it is the easiest you can make. The idea is to brew the coffee at room temperature for four or more hours. This slow brewing brings out the flavor of the coffee with no acids, so the coffee is rich and smooth. Here's how you do it.

Take a press pot and fill it to one fifth to one quarter with ground coffee (about a cup of ground coffee). I use the cheapest dark roast ground coffee you can buy. Then, fill it the rest of the way with tap water(about 4 cups). Put the cover on loosely (with the plunger handle sticking all the way up) and leave it at room temperature for 4-12 hours.

That's it. Your coffee is brewed. Just push the plunger slowly down until it won't go further. Cold brew coffee can be stored in the refrigerator in the pot for up to a week (yes, a week!). During the non-winter months, I make a new pot every time I use the last drop. It only takes 2 minutes.

Be warned that cold brewed coffee has a higher caffeine content then hot brewed, because caffeine is extracted by soaking in water. The slower it is brewed, the stronger the coffee.

The best way to serve it is to put a few ice cubes in an old-fashioned glass. Pour in a tablespoon or two of half and half (this really heightens the smooth flavor). Pour in a half to full cup of coffee from your press pot. Now, wasn't that easy? You won't believe the flavor. It tastes like the coffee version of the best chocolate you can buy. Perfect pick-me-up for those languid summer afternoons. Enjoy!

He likes us....he really likes us!

2011-03-08T12:26:00.002-05:00

Since writing my last post, I've seen the bobcat near the house numerous times. Those who have domestic felines will recognize the behaviors of the bobcat as normal cat stuff. He is so well camouflaged that he is difficult to spot unless he moves in the open. I usually spot him walking to or from the pond in the bird window. Here he was moving very slowly, taking time to wash his front legs as he moved forward.

On these cool days he likes the edge of the woods near the garden where he can enjoy the warmth of the sun. After washing himself all over, he settled in for a nice nap. That wire mesh is a old tomato cage waiting for the spring garden.

When did we get that new rock...wait, that's a bobcat!

2011-03-04T16:10:00.003-05:00

We have lived here almost 10 years and this year is the first year we've seen a Florida bobcat in the yard. The cats are usually very secretive and we have caught a glimpse of them in low light at the edge of the woods. This week, I was surprised to almost collide with one while walking out of the camellia grove. It was a treat to see one only 5-6 yards away. It had been drinking from the pond we maintain for the birds. After stared at each other for about 10 seconds, he turned away and rambled casually into the nearby brush.

So, today when I saw him walking toward the bird window I grabbed my camera and started shooting. The photo quality is not the best because I was shooting between blinds through the sunlit window so there was considerable glare, but these photos give a glimpse of this beautiful creature. Note the distinctive white tips on his ears and tail. He's stands 15-18 inches tall and about 24-28 inches long.

He ambled down to the water, crouched and drank with his eyes seemingly closed for 3-4 minutes before he stood up and turned to go back the way he came.

What a difference a year makes!

2011-02-18T11:13:00.007-05:00

This was our fall/winter garden in mid February last year (2010). It was our best fall effort ever Along with collard and mustard greens, we added cilantro, Swiss chard, turnips, garlic and lettuces. We enjoyed the fruits of the garden all spring. It flourished even though we had a couple of really cold nights (lowest, 17 degrees). I was really proud of the output of the garden and it made me see the beauty of the fall/winter garden in a new light. This garden was planted in mid-October, when temperatures entice me back to the garden after the summer heat.

Jump forward one year and see the advantage of starting early. This year's garden was planted around September 1. Despite this years onslaught of cold, the lettuces and collards show how much more productive this year's garden is. Not shown are the zucchini, beans and tomatoes which fruited and were killed back from the frost. This is the first fall garden where those typically spring veggies have produced successfully. We have been harvesting greens and lettuces all winter in prodigious amounts.

So what have I learned from the 2011 garden?

Use organic fertilization! I always assumed that the composted manuer, which has only .5% nitrogen was not as "good" as chemical fertilizer with higher ratings. I was wrong. I've learned this year that organic sources provide nitrogen in a form that is more useful to the plant and cannot damage the roots like the chemical versions. I found Miracle Grow Organic Fertilizer at Home Depot that is made from chicken manuer and gives a good boost of nitrogen it a pelleted form that is easy to work with.
Set out broccoli sets every month or so to spread the harvest out. The fall crop is usually the best, but winter plants that survive the cold can produce pretty well.
Salad bowl lettuce (lighter green, bushy row right of center) is a reliable sprouter and grows very fast and dense. It's strong texture doesn't wilt which makes it great for salads. Red lettuces are not as fast growing as their green counterparts, so I'll plant a larger proportion of these tasty and beautiful edibles.
We tried a few new items this year. Red chicory seeds we found in Florence, Italy this summer did well, but were the same varieties that come with Mescalun mixes available here. I found red kohlrabi plants locally and they are doing well along side the green ones I grew from seed. Stay tuned to see how their quality compares to the supermarket varieties.
We were so pleased with the Swiss chard last year, but I made the mistake of planing a variety "neon lights" instead of "bright lights" that did so well for us last year. The neon lights variety did not sprout as well and it appears to be a mix of variety seeds rather than a single variety like bright lights. I'm not as happy and will go back to bright next year.
I'm trying Siberian kale this year. I started the seeds later and they are just starting to take off. These seeds were one of the varieties of expensive, unusual seed I bought at one of the top nurseries in town. The seeds cost over $3 per plastic packet and several varieties did not even sprout--a big disappointment. Back to the tried and true.
Most of the greens started from seed can be successfully transplanted to fill in gaps in a row. Plant a few extras at the end of the row that can be used to fill in.
Onions interplanted seed-by-seed with other crops to deter deer did not spourt reliably. I dumped the rest of the seed on a mound of fertile soil and let them sprout in a group. When they reached a workable size, I dug them up and planted a perfect row.
I use drip hoses in the summer to conserve water and keep the leaves dry to discourage the growth of fungus diseases. In the fall, I typically revert to sprinkling. The greens seem to like the overhead watering and it is easier when seeds are sprouting to give a quick refresh.

Fall garden starting early this year

2010-09-10T10:53:00.000-04:00

The fall garden is a bonus of living in the gulf coast region. We have a long cool fall and winter just perfect for growing greens and members of the cabbage family. This year I stumbled on a great overview of organic gardening in Florida created by the UF IFAS Extension service. It shows ideal starting times for vegetables in three regions of Florida: north, central and south. It recommends seed varieties and shows options for organic pest control and fertilization. In past years I could not bear the idea of working in the fall garden until at least mid-October, when the afternoon highs drop into the eighties, but this year I was inspired, so I jumped in the first week of September. I planted a single BetterBoy tomato plant using the techniques of the "world record" book I discussed in a previous post. I hope to get 300 pounds of tomatoes from that plant this fall....we'll see.

I also started some pole beans, summer squash, cucumbers, garlic, collards, broccoli, and Swiss chard. One of the things I learned is that Swiss Chard, which we grew for the first time last winter and loved, can grow in Florida just about year around. Who knew? I can't wait to start harvesting! The squash, cukes and beans are a test this year. I'm not expecting big results but would be happy with any produce.

Yesterday I planted a long row of Mustard, India. It has prolific long leaves with curly fringe edges. It was another success from last year's garden that we hope to repeat. It is an easy grower that eventually reaches several feet in height. Soon I'll be planting turnips and bush beans, cilantro, and a few kohlrabi. Later I'll put in 5-6 kinds of lettuce and onion seeds to create sets.

Cool gray oak snake biding his time

2010-09-10T10:12:00.001-04:00

Oak snake. Photo taken from the bird window.

As wild as our homestead is, with an acre of natural area flanking each side, we don't see snakes very often. Several times each summer I see (or jump back from) a sleek black racer snake. I even saw a rattler once crossing the road, leaving our property thank you very much. The black racers move very fast and help keep the yard free of rodents. Today I was on a business call and noticed something odd in the bird garden. A dead branch on the wax myrtle looked funny. With my aging eyes I had to grab the binoculars to see that it was a two-foot gray snake resting quietly on the branch. My reptile reference book says it's a gray rat snake or oak snake which has it's natural range in the Florida panhandle. He may not be very exotic in color or pattern but he is perfectly camouflaged to fit into the landscape and he knows how to play that to his best advantage.

Technology failed me in my spring garden

2010-08-23T13:53:00.001-04:00

Like all gardens, my spring garden was a combination of triumph and failure. We had lots of tomatoes, potatoes, and beans but very few squash and eggplant. When I look back at the new things I tried, a few worked for me and a few against. So here's the rundown:

Landscape cloth: I used a lot of it in this garden. It has kept down the weeds pretty well. However, when it is used in place of a think layer of mulch, the plants fail to produce. I believe this is why we had such a poor crop with squash and eggplant. In our climate, I think the roots got too hot under that dark film. Probably better to keep it away from the roots and use it in the pathways.
Red plastic mulch for tomatoes: I put this down in hopes of getting higher production. In the south it is not effective. Save your money.
Hybrid Tomato varieties: I planted 16 varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes. The old standby, BetterBoy did the best. Park's whopper, which was my previous workhorse did poorly, probably in part because they got a late start from seed, but I think the variety has changed, too and did less well than I would have expected. One more try, with plants started earlier and we'll see.
Heirloom Tomatoes: I tried a Mexican current-sized tomato, red and white varieties in this years garden. The plants got very large and we would pick them by the bowl-full. Very spicy, flavorful and I recommend them highly. The whites (pale yellow, actually) were particularly plentiful.
Tomatoes -- what I learned: Tomato varieties are local. I tried several from catalogs and other sources and none of them worked very well. Some died from wilt or virus diseases before I could plant them and some before they set fruit. Next year I will stick to the ones that have done well for me and concentrate on getting more production.
Tomatillos: I got one of these just to try it out. Total failure. Grew big but never set fruit.
Beans: Planting pole beans on my trellis worked out great! I added longer poles to set the top higher. This kept the beans high enough to keep away from deer, who ate my bush beans to the ground after the first harvest. Cukes did well on the trellis, too but were quickly shaded by the beans that flourished at the top.
It is never worth trying to hold on to tomato plants after the end of July. The head and diseases just take over. Pull them and be done.
Garlic: Garlic was great this year. The large stalks turned into medium bulbs by May. The harvest is all at one time, but the bulbs easily dried and could be used for months. This year I will start them earlier around Sept 1.
Organic rules! I think that the plants need more room and the roots need more room to expand and feed. That will be my guideline for next year's garden. I will use more composted manure and try to work without fertilizer. I learned a lot from a book that my friend Todd loaned me about increasing tomato production. I've started a fall tomato plant using these techniques. I'll post the results later in the fall.

How to use all those tomatoes

2010-06-22T09:14:00.004-04:00

The spring harvest usually results in lots of tomatoes. How to use them all? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner--that's how. For breakfast, grilled tomatoes are a fine accompaniment to eggs. Just ask the Brits who have them every morning. Or you can just pick the small heirloom varieties and pop them for a burst of sweet tang while you wander through the garden.

For lunch, a large bowl of chopped tomatoes and fresh cucumbers topped with Italian dressing, fresh basil, and a bit of mayonnaise.

For dinner, start some pasta cooking...any tube or twisted shape is good. Pick a dozen tomatoes fresh off the vine, dunk in boiling water for 30 seconds and peel and coarsely chop. Saute onion and mushrooms in olive oil with a big sprig of rosemary. When the pasta is ready, add the chopped tomatoes and lots of chopped fresh basil (I mean lots!). Warm the tomatoes just enough to heighten their flavor and serve over the pasta with lots of Parmesan cheese.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Ahhhh, summer paradise! Now if I could just find a great tomato dessert.

June harvest is the best of the year

2010-06-22T08:56:00.001-04:00

Caging Tomatoes

2010-06-18T13:17:00.005-04:00

Something I've learned this year that I'll share between bowls of fresh tomatoes freshly picked and still warmed by the sun. I always plant indeterminate tomatoes in a row with each plant supported by a round wire cage. In past years, I would carefully guide the plant up through the cage until all the major stems erupted from the top. When the plants matured and a big rain storm would weigh them down, several would tip over and require staking to stand upright
This year I figured out that the cages would be much more stable if the secondary vines were woven into the cages on either side. Now, due to this spate of warm dry weather, the tomatoes are taller than ever and weighted down with immature fruit. For the first time, they are stable and freestanding. We'll see if the first big storm blows them over, but I doubt it.

Delicate Surgery -- Extracting a dying pine from the landscape

2010-05-19T14:29:00.016-04:00

A tall, stately pine has been hovering over our front yard since we built our home. At 80 feet tall and 28 inches in diameter, its presence was keenly felt. Over time we had added a large bed of roses and a delicate Japanese maple at its base, so removing it would be difficult at best. The past couple of years I watched it decline, always hoping it would last another year. but I worried more with each hurricane season This year there was more brown than green so it had to go.

Problems like this always bring out the procrastinator in me. I justify waiting as if some answer will knock on my front door. Finally my wish came true in the form of Mike Cross, owner of Arborworks, a local tree care and removal company. He was working in the neighborhood and noticed the tree . I've never hired a tree company before, typically waiting for the tree to fall and cleaning it up afterward, but for this tree--20 feet from my home--that was not an option. Mike quoted me a price for removal, but in my mind, I was not ready.

I'm generally suspicious, and did some research on Arborworks. They checked out fine. The thought about going through another hurricane season, worrying about a big loss, was weighing heavily, so I decided to give them the business and they scheduled me for the following week. Dave, a seasoned veteran who at 60 years old just recently stopped climbing the big trees, came by and scoped out the project, making sure they would have the proper crew and equipment.

I approached the day with some fear and reservations, but they were needless. The crew drove up at 8:30 am ready for work. They had the power company come and take down power lines that were in the way. With that done, it was no time before the climber, Doug, was in the top of the tree. Now I'm not a very physical guy, so I have to admit a certain awe for men like Doug and this crew that risk their life and health each day. From the time they started until the tree was fully on the ground, Doug stayed up there without a break.

One by one, starting at the bottom, he tied the limbs (big as trees in their own right) to a set of ropes, cut the limbs with a chain saw, and dropped them to waiting crew below. The crew was very safety conscious and were "in the zone" as they stripped the tree of its heavy limbs. With minimal communication they were always in the right spot as the heavy limbs were lowered. All of this was interspersed with a steady banter of insults and jokes. It was a great show.

When about a third of the big limbs discarded, the decision was made to cut the whole top of the tree and let it drop, again on a big rope. It was the highlight of the day when Doug made the cuts, pushed to top of the tree over. It fell probably 50 feet, stopping 12 inches from the top of that delicate Japanese maple tree. Doug, tied to the top of the trunk, held on for dear life as the remaining trunk shook back and forth like a big spring.

Then with a pole saw the ground crew carefully cut away each limb and dropped it to the ground. All this time they dodged delicate plants around the big pine, never dropping concentration. A small front-end loader loaded the logs onto a waiting truck. Doug then started cutting the remaining trunk into 5-foot segments and dropping them carefully to the ground with an earth-shaking thud. The sawdust looked like snow flurries.

When all was done, the tree was gone and every limb and branch were removed. The minor indentations in the lawn were filled with top soil and the front yard looked like the huge tree had never been there. But there were the roses and maple untouched by the heavy work that could have endangered them with every move.

I am grateful to Arborworks for doing such a professional job in a difficult environment!

The Waiting Game

2010-05-09T14:44:00.004-04:00

The seeds are sown, the compost is spread, the mulch is deep and the wait begins. The spring garden is in pre-production mode, starting to bloom and set fruit. Green tomatoes are forming on the bushes and blueberries are starting wo weigh down the boughs. Now is the time of hope...hope that this will be the best garden ever. Sure, we're harvesting some Swiss chard and herbs and picked a few new potatoes, but most of the winter greens are gone to that great compost pile in the side yard and we now await the main event.

The assumption is that the garden will stay in its neat rows and stay perfect and leafy green, but reality lurks right around the corner with hordes of insects with a taste for my produce, weeds that grow faster than the national debt, and heat that withers into chaos. In my mind, I know it's coming, but in my heart, hope is still winning. In the end we'll be the victors with bags of vine-ripened tomatoes and eggplant and enough sqaush to keep it away from our shopping cart for the rest of the year.

Swiss Chard--This year's garden prize

2010-05-02T13:33:00.011-04:00

Of all the new plants that grew in the past winter's garden, the most unexpected and impressive by far was Swiss chard--"bright lights." Last year, we grew a single, white-stemmed plant from a well-developed plant set in the spring garden and it seemed a bit of an oddity--pleasant enough and robust, but barely noticed.

This year started out as an experiment with a one dollar package of seed from a local store. I sowed the seed in October, wondering whether it would take hold or just sputter and die. But in a few weeks there was a pretty reliable row of small seedlings. I thinned, favoring the darker colored stems over the lighter ones. Several times over the winter, I transplanted a few seedlings to balance the row and thinned down to one plant about every six inches.

The seedlings were very resilient over the winter, surviving cold down to 15 degrees (lightly covered) and lots of rain. By February, we were picking leaves and adding them to the other greens for soups and stews. In March, however, they really took off, and by mid-April, when these photos were taken, they had leaves the size of front-porch fans. A ten-foot row provides plenty of Swiss chard for a family.

The leaves are large, rich dark green, thin, and highly textured like random bubble wrap; the stems are like celery stalks. The plant is a relative of the beet family and the color comes through in the stalks with white, yellow, pink, orange, and red variants, all from one package of seed. The yellow ones did not do as well as the white, pink, and red ones. The plants are remarkably heat-tolerant, staying green and sweet long after the collards and mustard greens have gone to seed

Cooking Swiss chard is easy. Always pick it just before cooking as it loses it's delicate flavors quickly. Because of this, you really can't buy Swiss chard and will rarely see it on a menu. You can only eat it if you grow it. Basically treat the leaves like spinach and the stems like asparagus. I use the leaves in omelets and fritattas or just wilt them in a pot of olive oil, garlic, and Cayenne pepper flakes.

The leaves taste like a mild sweet spinach and wilt down considerably. Stems taste like a mild, sweet celery and are good just boiled until tender (five min or so) and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper. A favorite soup recipe from a local organic farmer pairs Swiss chard leaves with yellow split peas, coconut milk and spices.

Nutritionally, they are like many greens: low in calories and high in vitamins A and C with plenty of calcium and iron.

Build a low-cost, lightweight trellis for veggies in an afternoon

2010-04-29T08:15:00.004-04:00

One of the prime challenges for all gardeners is making the most of their garden space. Some veggies are compact, but many have vines that spread and fruit that rots or does poorly on the ground. And when your garden is full, the only way you can increase production is go is up. Faced with limited garden space and a desire to grow better cucumbers, squash, and pole beans I designed this low-cost, lightweight trellis that is very strong and easily moved around the garden.

This trellis frame is made from inexpensive 3/4 inch PVC pipe cut into 6-ft sections. You can alter this design to any reasonable size but you may need a center brace if one dimension gets larger than 8 feet.

The whole trellis is lightweight. It can be lifted and carried with one finger, just a few pounds, but it doesn't sacrifice strength. The wires, spaced about 10 inches apart are made from clothesline wire (the wire shown is from WalMart). The wire bends and holds its shape well and is easy to thread through holes drilled in the PVC pipe. The wire is twisted around each vertical wire as it passes horizontally, providing added strength and stability to the structure. Ends are just bent back and twisted around the main wire.

PVC is a soft but strong, malleable material that can be easily sawed with a hacksaw and drilled with a power drill, so it is an excellent material for this project. It can be glued with PVC Cement, but this trellis was made without glue or other bonding. The wire holds everything together well without it.

The corners are simple elbow PVC joints. Supports (and optional braces) are held in place with 90-degree sleeve joints that are made to slide into place. If not locally available, these can be bought from any web site that sells PVC greenhouse parts. These sleeve joints are used for the supports.

You can prop the trellis up at any angle. Not very visible in the photos is a sleeve joint located on the bottom center of the trellis. I have pounded a 2-ft section of pipe down into the soil until only 3 inches are above ground. This bottom sleeve sits on that protruding pipe to hold the trellis in place and provide stability.

The back support poles can be cut to any length desired and just rest on the ground. This way the trellis can be tipped up for yard work. I cut my supports so that it rests at about a 45 degree angle to boost the solar footprint of the garden and protect the fruit without expanding the cultivated garden area. It would work equally well as a vertical trellis.

The construction is easy and took an afternoon start-to-finish. The whole project cost less than $30...a bargain.

Hot wax action in the pool

2010-04-20T09:45:00.011-04:00

Few birds provide more excitement in the bird window than cedar waxwings. These sleek beauties show up most years in Tallahassee in the late Spring, skulking about in gangs with relentless determination that would chill the Bloods and Crips. We grow several plants that provide berries around this season, like Oregon Grape (below) and Youpon. Almost every spring we are thrilled when a migrant gang swoops down and strips the multitude of berries. The fly around like the Blue Angels in flock formation, denuding every fruit-bearing shrub in short order.

Their bathing habits parallel their feeding method. Rarely do we see a lone bather. Rather, the birds swoop down and bathe or drink together. Their sleek plumage is like the finest neutral velvet with sporty black masks and bright color wing tips.

Great Winter Garden Slaw

2010-02-24T12:54:00.005-05:00

Looking for a great way to use the winter vegetables? Fall/Winter gardens in Tallahassee provide many green and root veggies and sometimes it is a challenge to use them all. Winter slaw is a easy and tasty side dish that will go with many of your favorite meals. Many coleslaws are creamy mush and not very healthy. The kale in this slaw makes the texture more light and open, and the flavor is great!

Winter Garden Slaw

1 c. coarsely grated turnips
1 c. finely julienned kale (1/16 to 1/8 inch width)
1 c. coarsely grated carrots
1 small onion finely diced

Dressing:

1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 T. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat vinegar enough to dissolve sugar and cool. Stir in mayonnaise. Toss veggies with dressing and adjust seasonings to taste. Chill at least one hour.

Spring Garden Startup

2010-02-19T09:09:00.005-05:00

Potatoes were planted Feb 14 using the method suggested by Art Cheek in Down to Earth Vegetable Gardening Down South, the Tallahassee go-to book. In the past I used the straw method, whereby the potatoes are cut and set on the top of the improved soil and covered with mounds of pine straw. Cheek suggests the more traditional method of planting the potatoes in a shallow trough filled with compost and mounded with soil. The potatoes from last year did not produce as large or as much as I hoped, so I'm trying this method to see if there is a better outcome.

A Christmas gift of a two-tray light stand for starting seedlings has given me the goal of starting most of my spring garden from seeds. The stand was from Harris Seeds and is sturdy. A problem with one of the light fixtures was handled with grace and trust by their excellent customer service with a full replacement of the fixture delivered to my door. Growing plants from seeds is so simple with the right tools. I regret all those years buying sub-standard seedlings from the garden stores. The winter squash seeds were saved from supermarket; peppers from last year's crop; and tomoates have come from earlier successful heirloom varieties.

I now have seedlings of 4 kinds of squashes, 12 tomatoes, 2 peppers, eggplants as well as milkweed and petunias for the front of the house. It has been really fun watching the small plants emerge. Last year I tried to grow tomatoes by putting the plants out during the daytime for sun. This was a big mistake as the cold temperatures inhibited growth and the plants never really recovered and produced poorly. I'm amazed to see how fast the seedlings are growing under lights indoors. Tomato seedlings and squashes were started around Jan 20. Eggplant were started in early Feb. Petunias started Jan 10.

It has been really cold this week, but with temperatures warming up this weekend, I see some early squash going into the garden on Sunday.

What I learned from my fall/winter garden

2010-02-08T15:15:00.007-05:00

In Tallahassee we can grow vegetables all year long, except for a couple of really hot summer months, so the fall-winter garden of greens and crucifers is a great way to keep the fresh veggies coming, even in the coldest weather we get. This photo is from December when the seeded plants were just getting established.

Here are a few things I learned from this year's efforts:

Most greens can be started successfully from seed. This is the first year planting Swiss chard in any volume and a packet of seeds produced a full and beautiful row of the multi-colored variety. Chard is easy to grow and matures in the spring.

Mustard greens are beautiful with their crinkled leaves and can be harvested as small leaves in less than 60 days. They will grow well into the spring garden, so locate them accordingly.

Deer have left the garden alone most of the season, but started snacking in early February. Time to start putting out repellents.

Most of the winter plants are small, so to ramp up the output, I also planted in the areas that usually are reserved for walking between rows in the spring garden, which has larger plants. This year I doubled production.

If you put too much nitrogen on Collards and other greens, they become more susceptible to fungus diseases.

Most of the plants survived two 14 degree nights with just a sheet covering them, but the cold did stunt their growth somewhat and pretty well killed off the cauliflower.

Garlic is an easy to grow winter crop. Simply buy a few heads in the fall, and separate the cloves and stick them in the ground just covered with root end down. Each clove quickly produces a beautiful, tall, scallion with a subtle garlic flavor that can be used in cooking in place of regular scallions. Stay tuned to find out if they actually bulb out in the spring. Bonus, they do seem to help repel deer.

There is nothing better than going to the garden for lunch. Fresh spicy lettuces on a salad, and sauteed greens are about the most healthy things you can eat, and so sweet and delicious straight from the garden.

Cilantro, the versatile herb who's seeds are the spice, coriander, is easy to grow from seed and is wonderful in soups, stews, and Mexican food. When you get fond of it, and you will, you look for any reason to pull a handful from the garden. It is sweet and savory and perfect way to light up a cold winter night with fresh, home made guacamole.

If you live in the Gulf Coast region, don't let that precious garden space go fallow in the winter. For me, it's just as satisfying as the spring garden--it just has a different pace and complexion.

Growing Winter Greens in Finland

2010-01-25T20:21:00.007-05:00

As a middle child I felt right at home in Tallahassee. Our climate is not too hot and not too cold--right in the middle. So we can grow vegetable gardens in all but the hottest summer months. Our winter gardens are full of the fruits of the cabbage: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and collards. Planted in the fall, these beauties survive most cold weather and produce healthy food all winter long.

This year I expanded to include Swiss chard, turnips, mustard greens, lettuce, kale and cilantro. I am an avid fan of the garden center, often buying plants seedlings to get a lead on the season. However this year, I planted this last group all from seeds. And what a success! They all came up in beautiful rows, doubling the potential productivity of this year's crop.

That was until Tallahassee was transferred temporarily to Scandinavia. For two weeks in early January, we had nighttime temperatures in the 20s. Several nights were in the teens, reaching a low of 14 a couple of nights. It's the longest spell of cold on record and it put the hurt on the winter crops. I covered the garden every night for two weeks, something that I normally do for two or three nights in an entire season.

The efforts paid off as everything survived except the fragile cauliflower. Even the Meyer lemon tree survived, wrapped in blankets and heated with a 60 watt bulb. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Today I cooked up a skillet of mustard greens for lunch that was great!

Mustard Saute

Chop one sweet onion and saute in 1/4 cup of olive oil.
Add hot pepper flakes, pepper and salt.
Fill the frying pan to overflowing with mustard greens, you won't be live how much they shrink.
Add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, a splash of orange juice, and a tablespoon of molasses.

Simmer greens until the liquid reduces to a syrupy texture.

Serve with sliced tomatoes. Also good over rice.

Monarchs do come to Tallahassee

2009-09-29T11:08:00.011-04:00

In my recent post "Bird window is not just for the birds," I flippantly remarked that monarchs are a no-show in Tallahassee. Well, I was wrong.

Even with the famous monarch migration gathering point at St. Marks just 30 miles away, we had never seen one in the yard. This year we planted milkweed, a major host plant for monarchs, and never saw one all summer. We didn't mind. Milkweed is a striking and easy-to-grow plant with brilliant scarlet and gold flowers on the end of tall stems. The flowers mature into pods of seeds with milky white cottony parachutes--hence the name. Many varieties of butterflies were attracted to the blooms and hummingbirds, too.

That was until September, when I spotted a female monarch quivering on the bottoms of the leaves, laying tiny yellow eggs. We saw monarchs laying eggs several times in the space of one week. A week or so later, there were tiny striped caterpillars thinner than a paperclip lead roaming the leaves.

A week later, those caterpillars are stripping the milkweed of leaves and are now over an inch in length. Maybe we will have our own population that migrates back to our yard each year. You can be sure we'll be ready with more milkweed.

First camellias of the season

2009-09-29T10:30:00.008-04:00

This year the first blooms of the season came earlier than ever. I started gibbing the camellias around September 1 as the first flower buds reached maturity and the first blooms started September 23, a record for me. The application of a drop of gibberellic acid to a camellia flower bud late summer and fall, spurs growth of early and often larger-than-normal blooms. Some varieties respond faster and better than others; others don't respond at all. Gibbing extends the normal 3-month season to 6 months.

The varieties shown here clockwise starting from the top: Rose Dawn, Brooke, Doris Ellis, and Tama Glitters. The bottom three were obtained at Loch Laurel Nursery, a nursery that specializes in new and unusual camellias in Valdosta, Georgia. Normally, these varieties would normally start blooming no earlier than late December.

Hostas in Tallahassee

2009-07-13T11:35:00.014-04:00

Hostas are great in Tallahassee spring and summer. Usually thought of as a northern plant, they do quite well in our southern Gulf climate. There are thousands of varieties of this lily-like plant. Typical species develop into low mounded shrubs. The plants are perennial, dying back in the winter and emerging in the late spring or early summer. Most plants sport a tall flower stalk with white or light blue, bell-shaped flowers in June or July.

This variety emerges in the spring with beautiful smoky blue green leaves which mature into a rich forest green.

Hostas show more leaf variation than most plant families. Leaves are usually some shade of green but can vary from mostly white to yellow, green and even blue. Variegated species have yellow and white leaf edges or centers. Mature plants of some varieties can have many leaf stalks and reach over four feet in diameter.

Here is a bed of hostas emerging in the spring one year after dividing nursery plants,

Hostas have many uses in the landscape. They do best with partial shade, so they do very well under tall pines or oaks as long as there is some direct sun during the day. They make a beautiful and varied bed of shaded greenery where few other plants will thrive. They make an interesting accent or border in home landscaping. When planting, keep in mind that they will go dormant and fully disappear in the fall. Watch the following spring as a whole new plant emerges from the soil...one of nature's miracles.

Looking down on bloom stalks above a beautiful cultivar named "Stained Glass" with broad chartreus leaves.

A large bed of hostas can be created for a remarkably low cost. Purchase plants from your local nursery in May. Look for plants that have multiple stalks. A hosta grows by adding new stalks above a thick rhizome or bulb below the soil. An overgrown potted plant or mature plant dug from the ground can often be cut into six or more individual plants. I use a saw-tooth bread knife to slice the tough rhizome.

This small variety has bright, almost white leaves

Cut pieces must have at least one stalk and a decent portion of the roots. The plants are remarkably tough and will stand up to abuse that would kill many others. Plant into rich, well-drained soil. Water every day for a week and once a week thereafter. Plants that get too much watering can develop an unsightly if non-fatal fungus in our area. Feed hostas with organic nitrogen a couple of times during the growing season.

Plant stalks that divide with insufficient roots can be brought indoors and placed in a vase of water. If roots develop, the stalk can be planted later in the summer, as soon as roots reach two or three inches. A bunch of hosta leaves can be gathered from established plants and will last for weeks in a vase of water for weeks.

These hostas were part of our home's original landscaping. They form a border between creeping yew above and white sasanqua camellias below. The plant on the left is over four feet across.

Bird window is not just for the birds

2009-07-11T12:54:00.007-04:00

Bird windows are wonderful for birds but they can also be great for other wildlife. Plant a few plants that attract butterflies and you never know what will show up. This spring my omniscient wife brought home milkweed, a plant most known as the host plant for monarchs. She said, "They sell this for monarch butterflies but when you ask them if they ever see monarchs, they say 'no'." Who cares? Milkweed, a native plant, is a striking addition to the bird window with a tall habit and colorful blooms.

Yesterday it brought this beautiful zebra swallowtail to our window. Even though this butterfly is native to to the southeastern US, we've never seen it before. It was drawn back repeatedly to the milkweed for 10 or 15 minutes. The zebra swallowtail is notable for the strong vertical stripes on the wings and the largest tail of any swallowtail. It is one of nature's gems.

Masked Marauder

2009-05-29T09:47:00.008-04:00

You never know when wildlife will make an appearance: a glimpse of one of our animal friends is always unexpected and exciting. The pond in the bird window attracts more than birds. Especially during drought we see many different species coming to drink. This fellow was passing through a few days ago, stopped to snack on the seed bits under the feeder, and paused to wash up before moving on.

Expensive tools solve problems

2009-05-22T09:10:00.010-04:00

Ever have a nagging problem you don't know how to solve? I'm a firm believer that having the perfect tool is essential to success. Just buy an expensive tool made to fix it and you'll never have the problem again...guaranteed!

A couple of years ago when we had the extreme spring drought in Tallahassee, the armadillos were in massive attack mode, digging up anything that was watered. Armadillos dig down into soft soil to find worms and grubs. They create a six inch wide hole wherever they go, so the effect can be devastating, especially to young plants.

I had just planted newly air-layered camellias, which were trying to establish root systems before the heat stress of the summer. I would go out in the morning to find several plants totally unearthed. Even the lawn, which I rarely water, looked like the aftermath of a golf chipping tournament with pieces of sod poking up and dirt strewn in every direction. The only way I found to minimize the damage was to sprinkle moth balls at the base of delicate plants.

When my patience reached its limit, I researched pest control and bought a small-animal trap from eBay, hoping to trap and release the animals far away. But, by the time the trap arrived, the drought broke and I've rarely seen armadillo damage since. I've never even opened the box. It sits in the garage collecting dust.

Another example. We've always had a protracted spring drought. Remember the smoke from swamp fires and endless dry weeks without clouds? Now that I have over seventy camellia bushes, it doesn't make sense to stand for an hour and a half, watering each root zone by hand. So I prepared for this year's drought buying a commercial strength sprinkler on a tower stand. Now I can water the camellias in one day by shifting the sprinkler a few times. Only, now I don't have to. Due to the regular rainfall this spring I have rarely had to water.

Other variants of this rule include, don't fertilize if you want it to rain today, spray herbicide now if you need rain in the next two hours, if you dont want frost or freeze cover your sensitive plants...you get the idea.

So, to recap, to fix a nagging problem, buy just the right tool to fix it. You'll never need it again. In that light, I think I'm going to invest in some of that expensive anti-aging creme and while I'm at it I'll pick up a copy of "How to Become a Millionaire."

Every bird needs a window

2009-05-19T15:36:00.008-04:00

One of our priorities when we built our house was to have a bird window. We have been birders for years and enjoyed watching the birds from our deck at our previous home. We based our design on the bird window we saw at Birdsong, a nature preserve in south Georgia. A bird window brings nature into the home. It is the focal point and comfort zone: a place for coffee, conversation and quiet reflection.

We have spotted upwards of eighty bird species, especially enjoying the fall and spring months when just about anything may drop in while migrating from South America to parts north. But every day is a good birding day at the window. Sit down and you can't help but be drawn into the world of birds.

A bird window is nothing if you don't have birds. Attracting them is easy. Birds want food, water, and a feeling of safety. Provide these things and you can attract birds just about anywhere. Sometimes it feels like we are looking into a bird aviary, there are so many birds flying and hopping around.

A good feeder protected from squirrels and raccoons is a must. Early on we wondered why we had to fill the feeder every two days. Since we added a raccoon baffle (black cylinder on the feeder pole) we only have to fill the feeder once a week or so. On the tray we also put out split peanuts and cracked corn. On the feeding stone on the ground in front of the window we put safflower seed because the squirrels don't like it. We also put down millet when the sparrows are in town.

Water is essential and the birds love the in-ground pond in front of the rocks at the back of the feeding area. We keep it filled with a misting spray. A timer keeps it filled when we are most likely to be sitting at the window and prevents overflow. Usually one or two birds bathe at a time, but sometimes a small flock will fly in for a swim, all splashing around at the same time.

Birds need to feel safe, so we've planted dense trees and shrubs around the feeder area to provide protection. These include Japanese maple, wax myrtle, sasanqua camellias, native azalea, Oregon grapes, nandina. I do most of the landscaping around our house, but my wife has claimed the bird window her own and she has created a masterpiece. A stream of annual and perennial flowers accessorize the seasons.

The only thing left is comfortable seating, a good reading lamp, and ready binoculars. Even close up, binoculars expose the uncommon beauty of birds. Every day we spend hours at the bird window. When we sit there the world goes away. For a time, nothing else matters.

A rose by any other name

2009-05-15T10:35:00.013-04:00

Michael Pollan, a wonderful essayist and journalist and crusader for the reform of our nation's food system, is less well known as a gardening philosopher. In a book and several articles he has taken the commercial garden industry to task for its excesses, and one of the examples he uses is the rose named for Dolly Parton.

..."the modern rose industry appears to have modeled itself after Detroit. Each year it introduces a handful of "exciting" new models, many of them in neon and metallic shades better suited to a four-door, and each bearing a name dreamed up on Madison Avenue and duly trademarked." An example he cites is "Dolly Parton (a rose with, you have probably guessed, exceptionally large blossoms)."

I agree that most of the roses that have been introduced in the past decade have not lived up to their hype. I prefer the older, established varieties. But with Dolly Parton, Pollan and I part company. Naming this rose for the diminutive country singer was a stroke of genius.

The rose bloom is large and the color is a brassy bright lipstick red. You may wonder why I grow roses if their aroma is not that important to me. It's not, but the Dolly Parton rose has the most beautiful scent in the garden--like the finest complex Paris perfume. Probably just like the one Dolly wears.

Dolly Parton is a bit quirky and so is her rose. Blooms sit on an awkward short shrub. Bloom stems shoot off at odd angles. Most roses when their time is over, delicately drop their petals to form a colorful carpet, but this rose, like its namesake, holds on long past its time until it is forced from the stage.

Squash celebration

2009-05-05T12:04:00.008-04:00

Now is a good time, as the squash start producing in the spring garden, to appreciate this amazing plant. Given enough water and rich soil, a few squash plants can overwhelm with productivity, requiring us to force it on friends and coworkers.

But summer squash plants are also one of the most beautiful in the garden, pushing up large leaves to the size of a medium shrub in just weeks. The golden yellow flowers drip with pollen and are even good to eat. If it weren't so productive, we'd probably grow for it's beauty alone.

An easy way to cook squash is to saute mushrooms, onions, and garlic. When softened, add sliced baby squash fresh from the garden and sprinkle with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Continue saute until tender. Season with salt, pepper, a bit of lemon zest and some Parmesan cheese. When the squash is fresh, sweet, and tender, this is heaven on a plate.

Volunteer army

2009-05-05T10:54:00.009-04:00

Late spring the volunteers emerge in a vast army. A volunteer is any plant that sprouts without being planted. Most volunteers are weeds which are just plants that grow where you don't want them. Volunteer veggies that sprout from last year's seeds can be a good indication of when to put out plant sets. Other weeds sprout right where you pulled a weed and disturbed the soil.

Occasionally a volunteer emerges that is totally unexpected. We have several of those in our yard, plants that we never would have planted which we left to grow where they volunteered. One such plant is a Spanish Bayonet. I have never seen these plants growing wild in this area. But this one sprung up by the native edge of the yard shortly after we built our home.

I thought about cutting it down several times, worried about the sharp needles, but it was in a spot that gets little traffic. It has grown untended for six or seven years until it has reached a height of about four feet. You would think it a tropical plant, but it survived this winter's high teen temperatures without effect. This year it surprised us with the most beautiful bloom stalk.

It will probably die back after blooming, but there are baby plants at the base. We'll probably have Spanish Bayonets for a long time. When nature volunteers, sometimes it is good to just stand back and watch.

Not so, deer

2009-05-03T16:58:00.006-04:00

You never really lose the thrill of seeing deer walking or leaping through the neighborhood. It's one of the joys of living in the country. We saw a small herd of deer the first time we came to look at our land. They have been a good omen for us if you believe that sort of thing. Seeing deer may be a good omen. It's the ones you don't see that are the problem.

For gardeners, deer can be a scourge, eating your best efforts to the ground. In our area the deer have been known to eat roses, camellias, landscape shrubs, most vegetables, as well as annual and perennial flowers.

The problem with most deer repellents is that they work so long as the rain doesn't wash them away. During drought, your carefully watered plants are a special treat and need careful protection. One lapse and the deer will take their fill of their favorites, so consistent application is the only way to success.

Deer are sensitive to strong odors and that forms the basis of most repellents. There are some plants that repel deer and they can be interplanted with vegetables and flowers to help repel the deer. Onions and basil are two plants that deer seem to avoid. I often will plant a row of onions around the outside of the areas that hold deer favorites. I interplant basil because it is so fragrant and good in summer garden food.

My silver bullet is Irish Spring soap. It's incredibly strong fragrance seems anathema to deer, so during peak seasons (early spring and fall) I take a bar of the soap and a knife and drop slivers of it all around the garden, being careful to keep it away from vegetable root zones. I scrape bits over camellias with new growth and roses. It's not fool proof, but it works most of the time. Nothing, however, will keep the deer from stomping through the garden to eat summer okra to the ground.

Divide and conquer

2009-04-26T13:31:00.009-04:00

One way to fight the high cost of gardening is to buy pots with multiple plants and split them. Often if you look carefully, you'll see that some pots may have an extra stem or two. Remove the pot and wash away the soil with a garden hose. The individual plants can usually be separated and planted. Just make sure that the pot is not root-bound.

You can buy basil at the supermarket with 20-plus stems, intended for snipping into food. Stick basil in all the spare corners of your garden. Basil lasts all summer and is required for great Italian dinners.

Some plants divide better than others. Tomatoes and eggplants handle division pretty well. Often there will be a transitional period where the plant will need time to adjust. Be sure to provide plenty of water during this period. I find that carefully divided plants eventually catch up to single plants and are equally productive.

New visitor to the bird window

2009-04-23T11:20:00.004-04:00

We have been backyard birders for more than 20 years in Tallahassee and have never seen the rose-breasted grosbeak, a migrant that comes through in spring and fall. This striking bird is unlike any other we've seen and it was worth the wait! This is a male. The female looks like a big sparrow with drab brown coloring.

Spring bloom of roses in progress

2009-04-23T11:11:00.007-04:00

The spring bloom is always the most spectacular of the year, due to bloom size and timing. Here is a panorama photo of this year's offering. Left to right are Moonstone, Miss All American Beauty, Garden Party, Tiffiny, Queen Elizabeth (tall pink), Dolly Parton,Olympiad, Saint Patrick, Mr Lincoln, Double Delight, [dimestore yellow], Chicago Peace. Not visible: Memorial Day, Habitat for Humanity, Melody Perfuma, Touch of Class, Princess Diana, Lasting Love, Chrysler Imperial, and First Prize.

Watch and wait

2009-04-18T15:30:00.001-04:00

This is a shot of the vegetable garden a couple of days ago. The middle rows are mostly tomatoes. The outer rows have squash, eggplant, potatoes, brocolli, collards, lettuce and onions.

The hard work is done. Now its hard to dial back and wait for the payoff. This is the first year I've grown heirloom tomatoes from last year's seeds. I started in mid January, but that was too late. The plants are in the garden, but are more immature than I would like. Next year I'll start in mid-December and use grow lights to speed their development.

The byword now is patience--watchful waiting. Looking for insects and applying water and fertilizer as needed. For me the hard work part is easier than the patience part. I can't wait for the months of garden meals ahead.

Garden Party

2009-04-17T17:08:00.000-04:00

The Garden Party rose is one of the more aptly named varieties. It's large languid ivory shape recalls turn-of- the-century elegance. It's delicate, almost unstructured design often looks haphazard and fragile like it might collapse on itself at any moment. The buds are messy like a rumpled bed sheet. The petals have a faint pink wash at the tips which disappears during the heat of summer and re-appears in the fall and gives the rose a contemporary touch. This variety was one of the first we ever planted and have never tired of it. It is beautiful alongside deep magenta varieties like Chrysler Imperial or Mr. Lincoln.

The price of fresh roses

2009-04-15T12:34:00.000-04:00

Roses thrive when they have the five basics: location with plenty of sun and good soil with regular fertilization, fungicide, and insecticide.

Probably the worst part of rose care is spraying. Fungicide and insecticide keep the delicate plants from succumbing to the hot, humid weather and voracious bugs in Tallahassee. As a rule, I try to stay away from spraying landscape plants unless I see a problem, but roses don't recover well if a problem develops, so I spray them every 7-10 days from April through November.

All the while I'm spraying I'm imagining the tumors growing in my body as a result of contact with the spray. My logical part of my brain knows that this is probably unlikely, but the reptilian part never fails to warn me of the danger.

That's why when I saw Bayer's All-In-One Rose & Flower Care Concentrate a couple of years ago, I was rejoicing. Imagine one product that you pour at the base of each plant once every six weeks, that provides fertilizer and protects against diseases and insects. I was elated, even if the cost of the stuff is prohibitive. I felt it was worth the cost to retire the sprayer once and for all and let the cancer visions fade.

I started using it at the beginning of the spring bloom 2 years ago. Big mistake. Slowly, the leaves crumpled and the buds failed to mature properly. It was so subtle, I didn't realize until it was too late. My roses had a bad case of powdery mildew. The spring bloom was ruined. Some bushes did not return to full vigor for months. The Bayer product may work well in other climes, but here it was a disaster. I'll file it under "too good to be true."

A few weeks ago, I found a good quality breathing mask in the road in front of my driveway. Since I live in the country, it can't be one of the neighbor's. It must have fallen off a landscaper's truck. The universe is telling me to be more careful. I'm listening.

Roses at the lollipop stage

2009-04-15T11:58:00.000-04:00

Roses put on their biggest show in the spring with their first bloom. After spending late winter with bare branches cut low, they burst into bloom with the most and the biggest blooms you'll see all year.

Pruning the roses is a winter task when the canes go dormant. It forces the roses to put out new growth and synchronizes the bloom cycle so that the roses all bloom around the same time. Add to that the cool temperatures which give the emerging buds more time to swell and you get payback for the past year's toil.

With all the bushes at the same point in the bloom cycle, the emerging buds spend a few days developing color before they finally open and this always look to me like so many lollipops lined up at the candy shop. There is both anticipation of the great show to come and lingering sadness that this wonder of nature will soon be over.

Did I Say "Let it Rain?"

2009-04-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

In the last intense drought more than a year ago, I vowed I would never complain about too much rain again. Looks like I'm going to break my vow. Last week's rain event gave us nine inches of rain across two days. We watched as five inches was dumped in 4 hours resulting in record flooding on some North Florida rivers.

The land around our house is subject to temporary flooding during these mega-rain events and this one brought six inches of water on top of my vegetable garden. After months of planning and planting, I thought all would be a ruin. The flood waters did not subside for about 12 hours. The tomatoes looked haggard, lettuce was soggy and drooping, potatoes were leaning and limp. I did not hold out much hope.

Half a dozen camellias grown painstakingly from seed over the past two years were washed away after recently being potted and placed outside under some protective shrubs. I still feel a sense of loss, as every camellia grown from seed is a unique variety. Most don't amount to much, but occasionally a new, spectacular cultivar is born. Only two plants survived.

Then, the cold weather that followed the spate of storms gave us a late-season freeze. Thirty-two degrees forecast for April 6th and 7th. So, off came the tomato cages and everything sensitive was covered, accompanied by much grumbling and cursing.

Several days later, the garden is emerging from the flood and freeze pretty much intact. In a few short weeks, we'll be feasting on fresh red potatoes and squash, with tomatoes not long after.

Like everything else in life, there are no guarantees in gardening. When the spring garden is in and the air is full of hope, we try to repress that is full of foreboding as well.

Fight Back Against the High Cost of Gardening

2009-03-30T09:03:00.000-04:00

One of the key decisions in creating a vegetable garden is deciding whether to start from seeds or buy plant sets. Some veggies are very easy to start from seeds like lettuce and squashes. Others like tomatoes and eggplant need to be started ahead of the season. In the past, I was content to buy a six- or nine-pack of the desired plants and drop them in. Convenient!

This year all of that changed. I was shocked to see at a local discount store (yes, that one) that a single tomato plant sells for as much as five dollars. That is a lot of money for a few seeds and a small pot of soil. If that plant doesn't produce a bumper crop of fruit, it will not be worth the investment. Even the small pots go for over three dollars. At that price, a medium-sized garden could cost upwards of $200 to get into the ground. Also few varieties were available in the economical multi-pack. The gardening companies are forcing gardeners to pay more--much more--to put in a garden.

Gardening is a hobby for me, and price is really not a limiting factor. But one of the great satisfactions I get from gardening is transforming my energy and sweat into something of value....a profit. If my garden costs hundreds of dollars to create, I had better not make any mistakes if I hope to reach my goal.

Last year I caught on to heirloom tomatoes and saved the seeds of our favorite varieties, so this year I have 10 heirloom tomato plants that I grew from last year's bounty. It was easy and fun. Next year I'm going to germinate more seeds. A couple of fluorescent lights, a timer, and a few packages of seeds and I will make my garden even more profitable. I'll purchase plant sets, but only the varieties I want one or two plants in the garden.

Camellia Grove

2009-03-28T14:39:00.000-04:00

Camellias are my favorite flowers. It is hard to imagine that all this variation comes from a single species, Camellia Japonica. Every year I try to take photos of a few of the 80+ varieties from my camellia grove. These blooms are from December '08. Clockwise from the top are Elegans Splendor, Tomorrow Variegated, Doris Ellis, Fifth Avenue, Governor Mouton. Pink Perfection is in the center.

Camellias are well suited to the Southeast US and Tallahassee is the epicenter. We have the proper combination of acid soil, moderate cold, and moisture that camellias thrive in. I have always planted and enjoyed camellias, but it was my neighbor and friend Bill Hightower who was the inspiration for my camellia grove. To create the grove, I cleared out a large natural area in my back yard under a cathedral of live oaks. Bill generously gave me many air layers from his amazing collection and got me started. He introduced me to the amazing Lochlaurel Nursery and its wonderful owner and now my good friend, Mark Crawford, a great source of camellia plants and gardening wisdom.

Now, at the end of March, the bushes are showing signs of wear at the end of their valiant winter bloom cycle. A few straggling blooms and yellow leaves are all that is left. But never down for long, the plants are pushing back as leaf buds pop out with this year's new growth.

Let it Rain

2009-03-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

We've had far too much drought in Tallahassee—below average rainfall for the past 10 years. Often we go 2 weeks or more without substantial rain. Then it's time to play hose jockey in an attempt to keep everything alive until we see storm clouds again. The wet weather over the past couple of days has been a welcome relief. The gardens are sodden with delight.

Working alone at home all day, I have to admit a minor obsession with weather. My wife would probably say it's a major obsession. During my workday when rain is coming, it's my constant companion. Weather radar web sites make it possible to watch the storms sweeping across the Southeast, heightening the excitement. Cheap thrills!

One way I've turned my obsession into something useful is becoming a rain monitor for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, CoCoRaHS for not much shorter. This network of volunteers checks and reports daily precipitation levels to the hundredth of an inch. It's the perfect arrangement for a work-at-home guy with a weather fixation. All you need is a rain gauge like the one pictured (around $30) and a willingness to check and report rainfall on their website daily. It takes less than a minute. The measurements are used for meteorological research.

Where are the wild Dogwoods?

2009-03-25T22:14:00.000-04:00

Every town thinks it invented spring and Tallahassee is no different. In a city of trees, the dogwoods at their peak are like snow flurries, even in a average year. I love dogwood. It is one of the first trees I really noticed and the first I planted when we bought our starter home. I planted six beautiful trees, all in deep shade. They never bloomed and all eventually suffocated for lack of light. It was one of my first great lessons in gardening...the setting is father of the landscape and must be obeyed.

Dogwood is a tree with style. It is neither huge nor lush. It grows to a moderate height with the shape of a disciplined dancer. It's leaves are simple and medium green. It blooms in classic white and never outwears its welcome. Before it drops its leaves, they turn a dignified bronze or gold, leaving behind red beads like understated jewelry highlighting its naked beauty. There is something to recommend it all year long.

Twenty years ago, dogwood seedlings were common enough that you rarely had to move them...just leave the ones you want and cut the rest. Fast forward to the past few years when I can't remember seeing a single seedling. Most of the dogwoods around here look more than ten years old. What happened to the wild dogwoods?

I remember that word came down in the 90s that a virus was spreading in the Eastern forests that would wipe out the mature trees. If so, it hasn't happened yet. My theory is that the constant drought in the Southeast US since around '95 has not provided the proper conditions for dogwood seeds to sprout. So, this past fall, when we had a bumper crop of seeds I decided I would grow some dogwood trees of my own.

I won't go into the details. You can find excellent instructions on the web. I gathered the seeds, soaked and stripped the fruit and nestled them in damp sphagnum moss. Then around the first of February, little roots started growing out of the moss. First one, then another. When I saw what sprouts look like, I checked under our trees and found a few more. Now I have 30 small trees growing in my window.

We have about 12 mature dogwoods growing around our house, most tucked in the woods here and there, but that's not enough for me. I'm a patient man. I want snow.

I live in Paradise

2009-03-24T08:01:00.001-04:00

I went to hear the acclaimed biologist E. O. Wilson speak last night. He said that the Florida Panhandle is a hot spot with more biodiversity than anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere, including Europe and Asia. You'd think we would see gazelle in the garden and serpents hanging from the apple trees, but most are creatures hidden away in old growth forest, salt marshes, and gulf estuaries.

There are a few days each year, however, when the spheres align and the flowers bloom and the cardinals sing and Paradise reigns on the few acres that surround my home. Spring is prime time for Paradise, and today is one of those days. In the gentle, cool morning light, the dogwoods are fading and the roses are racing back to life with leaves of plum and bronze, shaded by the pale green cathedral of languid oaks. Camellias are ragged and breathless, recovering from a marathon of non-stop blooming. Loropetalum forms magenta fountains beside the house and the sprouts in the garden fill the air with promise. The petunias that frame the entrance, which were on life-support a few weeks ago, have resurrected in mounds of white and purple.

Paradise has many definitions, but to me Paradise is right here on earth. It's not an eternity of spendor. It is those moments when all good things converge into sweet joy: the reward for days of toil and sweat. I can't imagine a better place to be and I suppose that is Paradise defined.

Home Alone

2009-03-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

One of the challenges of working from an empty house is finding ways to keep your world from shrinking. When you have no co-workers around the corner and can only go as far as two feet will take you on a lunch hour, your world can shrink and brain atrophy. The net is a wonderful resource, but in the end it feels shallow and cold and lacks personal interaction. So to keep sane while working in the sterile electronic vacuum that is my workday, I have found a respite in gardening.

There is nothing quite like plunging your shovel into rich garden loam. The rich smells of compost and tomato stems have no digital equivalent. Watching a small seed grow and produce food and beauty is life-affirming. The satisfaction of a meal made of the fruits of your own garden is better than any chef's speciality.

In the Florida Panhandle we garden year around--veggies and flowers. Roses are spectacular in April and bloom thru December. Camellias bloom during the winter months. I've just finished my spring vegetable garden with six kinds of heirloom tomatoes and five hybrids. I have greens left over from the winter garden, and have added once-shunned carb-laden potatoes back to the fold. Add squash, hot peppers, eggplants...well you get the idea.

In this blog you'll find the daily ups and downs, the promise and the pests, the sublime and ridiculous musings of the solitary gardener.