Monday, October 13, 2008

Fall is (sorta) here...time for the veggie garden!

Fall has finally arrived in Florida (kinda). Temps have been in the high to mid 80s all week. And, the humidity is still brutal...but I've never known a day in Florida when the humidity hasn't been brutal.

Anyway, we finally got around to putting the fall vegetable garden in the ground. I'm a little late in getting started this year, so we planted mostly store-grown seedlings and not as many seeds as we have in the past. It's actually helped me a lot. In the past, I have a tendency to "overplant" my seeds (and not by just a little) and then I have trouble thinning them. Having seedlings really limited what I put in the ground. And because I didn't grow my own, I didn't have 10 million seedlings of any one thing.

My garden helpers were out in force with us.


Run Tebow, Run! Throw a jump pass! ... Wait are we watching Florida football or the lab puppy? I forget - they both barrel ahead at full force.


Will directing Kaity in the fine art of turning up soil.


And, actually helped himself. We turned everything up first and then added a couple bags of new potting soil to refresh and fill in the beds.


Will's really getting into this vegetable gardening thing. But, it's only cause he can use tools like shovels. What a boy.


Kaity planting the pepper seedling. She's trying to clip off the plastic part of the pot like I was doing and is a little frustrated that I keep interrupting her to take pictures.


Any guesses on the next garden task? How about irrigation? Until then, John will water by hand. He's a better farmer than I am and actually remembers to water. Oh, and here are the finished beds. Vegetable gardens look so much better with flowers in them, don't you agree?


This bed has a straight neck squash plant which I'm going to try to trellis, lettuce, collards, and mums. The rows behind the bed have more collards and broccoli (I ran out of room in the beds. Remember what I was telling you about overplanting?)


This bed has three varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of peppers, a few lettuce and some mum. John's watering in the squash (butternut and acorn) and pole bean seeds which are planted behind this bed.


Until we're able to put up a real fence around the garden, we had to make do with an invisible fence for the dogs. They love the garden, upturned soil, and easy claim to veggies. I'm not having any of that this year.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks like you've got a good work crew there! And yes, that sums up our climate: everyone up north is stacking wood and we're down here planting vegetable crops.

Meems said...

Hi Emily,
It is so good your children are right there with you learning all about gardening with their hands and tools. Those boys love their tools... I admit I do, too.

Now I feel better about my veggie garden that I didn't plant until September. I was thinking that might be too late. Of course you did plant more winter vegetables than I did so you will probably be fine. (you and me both on over planting - too many seeds and not thinning very well) I keep saying I won't cry about any of them not doing great except for the green beans... I just can't bear to buy those awful green beans in Publix... must have my own!
Happy autumn and let's keep hoping for someo cooler weather...
Meems @Hoe&Shovel

Unknown said...

Hello,

I saw this page when searching the net and your children are having fun. Its so good to see that you and children are having fun in helping you out in your garden. Its also good that your children know gardening in an early stage.

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