As of today (June 17, 2024), here’s what happening in the garden.  The lettuce season is over – just too hot here in Florida.  But I did get quite a few nice salads of red leaf lettuce, kale and romaine for a couple of months.

The red leaf lettuce gave me the most pickings:

Kale – 4/9/24 thru 5/10/24 (last harvest) – 4 pickings

Romaine – 4/9/24 thru 5/22/24 (last harvest) – 7 pickings

Red Leaf – 4/9/24 thru 6/12/24 (last harvest) – 9 pickings

The corn grew tall but the ears didn’t do well.  Picked off the ears (5 small, deformed ears) and gave them to the chickens.  Harvest time:  5/22/24 – 6/1/24.  

Planted more seeds 6/2/24.  Here's how they look today.  I am hoping they will do better in this spot.

One of my potato baskets has failed but I did find 2 potatoes in the bottom (that was a surprise!).  I dumped out the one basket on 6/1/24 and that’s when I found the 2 little potatoes.  (1 was tiny and the other was very small)  

The other basket still has one shoot that is green.  I am hopeful that potatoes are still growing – especially since 2 small potatoes were growing in a basket where the plant had died.

The green beans are definitely over achievers! 

Green beans – started picking 5/11/24 – picked about 300 as of 6/17/24. 

This photo was taken 6/10/24 - I have now filled 7 containers of green beans (most of them are in the freezer) – in addition to the ones that I have already eaten.

The tomatoes are starting to get ripe quicker.  I have already enjoyed one tomato and mayo sandwich plus a few in a salad.  Started picking tomatoes on 6/4/24 – picked 82 (mostly cherry tomatoes) as of 6/17/24.

The tomatoes are hanging over the fence but so far no animal has taken any.

Bell Peppers – started picking on 6/8/24 – picked 5 peppers as of 6/17/24.  I cut up 4 of the peppers and put them in the freezer for now.

Onions:  started picking on 6/10/24 – picked 6 as of 6/16/24.  (they have already been eaten)

Leeks (from last year):  I pulled them all up 5/17/24.  I cut them up and put them in the freezer.

Cucumber – picked first one 6/14/24 (photo on the right)– made a salad of cucumber and tomatoes.  Yum!

Basil – picked 2 bunches 6/4/24 and 6/15/24 – made pesto both times.  The 2nd batch has been put in the freezer for use in the future.  Photo shows 1st batch made.

The eggplants are struggling.  They keep getting attacked by aphids.  I have been dusting with diatomaceous  earth to try and get rid of them.  I think I am making progress.  One of the eggplants seems to have rebounded and now has a flower.  There is hope!

The watermelon plants are doing great.  I have one large watermelon and several small ones.  I am using face masks as hammocks to hold up the watermelons so that they don't get too heavy for the vine.

There are still no pumpkins growing on the vines yet but there are some flowers starting to form.  I really hope we get some pumpkins as the chickens love eating them!

The greenhouse frame is doing a great job as a trellis for the pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers and green beans.

There have been some interesting visitors to the garden – not all of them are welcome.  Top left is a Eastern Eyed Click beetle, top right is a pretty butterfly and the bottom photo is a hornworm.  This guy was as big and fat as my finger.  I found a few on the tomato plants and got rid of them.  I need to be diligent and keep checking every day and get rid of any that I find.

I have planted basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro, mint, lavender and marigolds all around the garden to help deter and repel insects.  While I am still getting "visitors" to the garden, I believe the herbs are helping to keep most of them at bay.  

The good news is that I have noticed bees in the garden, and they are a very welcome visitor.  Now, if it would just rain once in a while . . .

Garden 2024 - Update #1

It has been about a month since the initial post on my garden.  Here is how things are going:

4/27/24:  I found tiny black caterpillars on the cherry tomato plants and lots of leaves that had been eaten.  Did a lot of pruning – hopefully I caught it in time.  Sprayed the plants with the dawn mixture.  Found some leaves eaten on the beefsteak tomatoes and pepper plants – pruned them as well. 

 

5/3/24:  The fight is on!  It’s me against the bugs. The eggplants got inundated with aphids and were eating up the plants.  I did manage to get rid of the aphids but I was too aggressive and killed the plants as well.  I bought more eggplants and surrounded them with various herbs (mint, cilantro, oregano and marigolds) to try and deter those little devils.  

In between the greenhouse and fenced in area (lined with cinder blocks), there is a gulley.  

Most of the garden is doing well – there are some plant leaves that have been eaten but most of the leaves are good.  If I see a bug on the plant, I remove it (well, I kill it).

Something has eaten the potato leaves.   (Potatoes are in the baskets.)  I covered up the remaining stems with more dirt.  I am hoping that it will come back.  Basil, mint and marigolds are planted in front of them.  (The cinder blocks with the plants line the gulley that is in between the greenhouse and garden.  Our yard has a slight hill and the gulley helps direct the flood of water when it rains.)

The rest of the garden also got some thyme, oregano, mint, lavender, cilantro and marigold plants.  I am hoping to deter insects with these plants as I do not want to use insecticides.  (The lavender and oregano seeds that were planted did not come up, so I bought plants.)  As a bonus, I will have lots of herbs to harvest and dehydrate.

5/20/24:  As of today, the corn is over 4 feet tall,

the beefsteak tomatoes (pictured) have a couple of tomatoes, but the cherry tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes.

The cucumber plants have lots of flowers,

 

 and the green beans are producing like crazy. 

This is the right side of the fenced in portion of the garden: onions, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and more onions.

The left side has lavender, eggplant, oregano and marigolds.  Around the eggplant is oregano, mint, cilantro and marigolds.

This is what is in the topless greenhouse:  On the right side is watermelon, potatoes and pumpkins. 

On the left side are cucumbers, corn and green beans.  There are swiss chard seedlings just beyond the green beans.

I have enjoyed quite a few salads made with the red leaf lettuce, kale and romaine.  The kale is now gone (planted marigolds in its place) and the romaine is almost gone.  The green beans are in the freezer.

Here is the fenced in portion of the garden.  The raised planter with the red leaf lettuce and romaine is not visible in this photo.

Here is a view of the inside of the greenhouse.  

This is how it looks as of today (May 20th, 2024).

Garden 2024

My topless greenhouse garden experiment (last year) worked out well enough to encourage me to do more this year.  My hubby enlarged the area by adding a fenced in section that is connected to the greenhouse.  I added a lot of compost to the garden over the winter months (I would dig a hole, dump in the kitchen scraps and cover it up).  I did that all throughout the garden so that there is compost everywhere.  I also invested in a raised garden planter and an outdoor potting cabinet to make things easier.

There was also cardboard laid down over the entire garden and leaves dumped on top.

A lot of the leaves have been blown around due to some pretty windy days.  

On February 2^nd, the cardboard was removed, and the new raised planter and potting cabinet were installed in the garden.  

My hubby tilled the fenced in area and all that compost goodness got turned over.  To further enhance things, I bought 7 or 8 (I lost count) bags of compost garden soil and used that for planting seeds and putting around transplants.  

On February 27^th, all the leaves were raked onto the compost pile.  We created a compost pile in the corner of the garden for kitchen scraps to get dumped there during the gardening season.  At the end of the season, the compost will get spread all over the garden area.

March 6^th, the red leaf lettuce, kale and romaine plants were transplanted into the raised planter.  I used almost 2 bags of the garden soil to fill the planter. 

I also transplanted dill and basil plants into bigger pots.  The dill was moved over to the chicken coop as I found out that dill plants will encourage tomato hornworms to visit.  And I don’t want that! 

On March 8^th, I started planting seeds in the greenhouse section of the garden. 

Cucumbers

Corn

Green beans

Watermelon

Pumpkins 

The cucumber, corn, green beans, watermelon and pumpkin seeds were all planted in the greenhouse section.  Trellises were added for the cucumbers, green beans, watermelon and pumpkins.

The onions were already there from last year – maybe I will get to harvest them this year!

March 11^th – greenhouse section done! 

March 16^th, I filled up 2 big planters and planted lavender seeds.

March 17^th, I planted oregano, sage and thyme seeds in the 3-tier planter. 

March 23^rd, I started putting plants into the fenced in portion of the garden and I started with eggplant along with some marigolds.

I also planted a bunch of marigold seeds in the cement blocks that border the gulley that runs thru the garden between the greenhouse and fenced area. 

And some of the basil plants got transplanted into some cement blocks as well.

March 24^th, the beefsteak tomato plants were planted along with some marigolds.  Some of the basil plants still in pots were moved to the tomato plant area along with some thyme plants.  Thyme deters the tomato hornworm and marigolds deter aphids.  The rest of the herb type plants deter various insects.

March 25^th, cherry tomatoes and bell pepper plants were put into the garden along with more marigolds, basil and thyme plants.  Onions were added to the left of the bell peppers (onions are a good companion plant).

Then it was time to plant the potato sprouts.  I had some potatoes that had sprouted so I cut them up and planted them in the laundry baskets.  That will make it much easier to harvest the potatoes!  In the meantime, as the sprouts grow, I will add more dirt to cover up part of the stem.  Eventually, the dirt will fill the basket.  I have read that doing it this way encourages more potatoes to form.  We will see!

April 9^th – my first harvest!  Cut some of all 3 lettuce plants and made a nice salad.  

April 15^th – added another section of onions.

I also added more dirt to the potato baskets.

April 16^th – the fenced in area is looking good! 

And so is the greenhouse - this is the section on the left.  (cucumbers, corn, green beans, onions)

This is the section on the right.  (watermelon, potatoes and pumpkins)

 

There are various planters around the garden with marigolds - the more the merrier! 

This is how things look today (April 16th).  (The tarp building in the back is just storage for various materials.)  So far, so good!