Gardening Questions and Paige Alert

[altarflame]

I want to garden at our new house, For Real. Like I want to actually cut our food costs and have a plan and not waste any of what we grow and all that. I've been trying to google with very little effectiveness...can someone more experienced that I (cougherincoughmizzycough) point me towards:

-Good all encompassing lists of native food crops by region...basically I want to know all of what is good to grow and bad to grow in South Florida, as the national chain stores with garden centers seem to just stock it all indiscriminately. I know some already, of course, but some I'm not sure about and I'm sure some I'm not thinking of at all.
-Guides to getting started with really growing FOOD, not just having a little hobby garden...timing your things to be ready for picking, seasons to get started in, if applicable, how to organize it properly, all of that
-EFFECTIVE organic pest control options, as we have major pest problems down here. I mean this needs to be serious.

And, tell me anything else you think I should know, like why canning maybe isn't as big of a pain as I think it is, what freezes well, and so on.

I am only going to have...I don't know, I guess it will be something like 30'x20' at maximum, depending on how we set it up. But I also have a narrow little side yard that's mostly paved, where we can set things in pots, and a built in window-box garden in the kitchen that I'm already thinking of herbs for...How does one go about drying herbs? Is there any other way to preserve them?

We also have a great mango tree that's currently loaded with fruit, and a couple of banana trees that look like they need some tlc and may also get transplanted based on where the fence is going up O_o

We've been fairly successful with a few tomato plants and basil, if you call letting it all run wild until it goes to seed and dies but being able to go and pick whatever we wanted for a few months before that happens success :x "Success" also involved a lot of things rotting where they fell. I am hoping that with the baby factory closed and Elise more independant, as well as A and A being of real "helping age", this will be a more practical option for us now.

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PAIGE IS BACK!! Paige being greatestislove who used to be corin13, that is. She is now likeinabook and asked me to spam you all with that, as many of her former friends read this.

Sorry it took me so long, Paige.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_delphiki_/]

It's good to see you back!

[hollyann.livejournal.com]

oh good grief. You had me get up out of bed to see you got a livejournal back!??

[hollyann.livejournal.com]

Ive got a cold.. sniffle sniffle!

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Since I never replied to this I wanted you to know that, no, I was not offended or hating you or anything. Honestly, that's ridiculous.

[nicnacpaddywac.livejournal.com]

Chopped herbs can be frozen in a tiny bit of water in an ice-cube tray and then added straight to soups, stews etc. Alternatively, whole leaves can be frozen in a single layer, then bagged up, and you can crumble what you need directly into the food from frozen.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

By Jove, that's sheer genius!

Comments on Canning and Storing veggies

[purerandomness.livejournal.com]

Canning is not a big deal. It takes some time and effort, yes, but it's not terribly hard. (Of course, this is coming from a girl who only WATCHED her mother can for years now, but I'm going to try myself this year!)

I grew up in the Northeast, so I'm afraid I'm no help with what types of plants to grow.
I know that my mother cans tomatoes with onion and peppers and garlic to make a pretty mean salsa. She varies the amount of hot pepper even so there's many varieties.

My mom also makes jams and jellies because we have lots of berries around, so I grew up with strawberry and blueberry and blackberry jelly. This, I think, is a little more difficult. However, any jams that didn't 'gel' correctly we just used as ice cream sauce.

My mom also would cook down strawberries in a little sugar and freeze packages in plastic bags for strawberry shortcake throughout the year.

Onions and garlic can have their tops braided and hung in a dry, cool place and they'll stay for a long time.

Great Gardening Books

[(Anonymous)]

You've probably run into these already, but they're my favorites:
1. The Organic Gardener's Bible - Good all encompassing resource for organic gardening.
1. Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistle - Excellent information regarding organic cleaning products AND pest control. One of my favorite recommendations for bug control is "Bug Juice." You pick the bugs (go for the sickly looking ones) off of the attacked plant and blend them with water in your not-for-food-use blender. Then spray the juice on the plants. Hee!
3. Square Foot Gardening - Great method for maximizing production, utilizing complementary planting for pest control, and having an organized garden that is easy to tend.

Try your local University's agriculture department for a regional map of crop plants.

When we moved to our house I wanted to have a vegetable garden (I had a moderate one in TX and it definitely sliced my grocery bill in HALF.) Unfortunately we have full shade around our house, and husband is particularly attached to the invasive species we have.

Even if that pesky Norway maple is so old it's dropping limbs on our heads and growing between the power lines and growing into the windows and infested with ants which come inside the windows and get in your children's ears while they're trying to sleep, etc.

So don't be afraid to chop things down (but leave a loquat - very yummy!)

Have fun,
Kiki

Re: Great Gardening Books

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely interested in planting native species, and saving native things that are already there...but I understand your husband's perspective, too! My grandparents had a giant, non-native tree that made a mess of their property the whole time I was growing up, and I was so attached to it I would flip everytime they mentioned hurting it in any way.

[seanclocks.livejournal.com]

coconuts.

[carriede.livejournal.com]

Hi! You don't know me. I'm a friend of Bobby Jones. :)

I took a veggie gardening class at UF, and we used a book called "Vegetable Gardening in Florida" by James M. Stephens. It's got chapters on selecting a plot site, succession planning, climate effects, insects, diseases. charts on seasonal produce... Anyway, it's a great resource for everything Florida.

You can probably by it on Amazon or Half.com, or I can send you my copy since I've recently moved to Kansas, so this book isn't much used to me anymore! :)

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that sounds good...if you really don't need it, sure, I can send you my address. My email is altarflame@yahoo, if you email me I'll email you back my address.

[heavynleigh.livejournal.com]

go to the library and get books on Square Foot Gardening. I hear it's awesome and uses space much more effectively.

Or google Square foot gardening. It rocks.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of this term: I knew it was something like that I was looking for. I think I've basically been doing that whenever I've gardened in the past, but I didn't know any specific strategies for it other than "planting things closer together" :p

[superflippy.livejournal.com]

I hope I'm not posting this too late for you to see it, but I wanted to recommend the Southern Living Garden Book (http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Living-Garden-Paperback-Oxmoor/dp/0848720237/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213026388&sr=8-3). It's very detailed but still easy to understand and breaks down the South into zones so you can see which plants grow best where you live and when you should plant what based on your local climate.

My husband, who does all the gardening around here, swears by it.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Holy crap I had no idea Southern Living made a gardening book! How awesome! I subscribe to Southern Living and freaking adore it, I devour it everytime it comes and even made a community nobody else cares about to talk about things in the issues :p

Suffice to say I will check that out.

[schleppermom.livejournal.com]

We planted tomatoes from seed in mid-September. Wait until after Halloween, though. The Swiss Chard didn't make it. Too warm, even our coldest cold isn't a sustainable cold enough for lettuce. The UF website has good info. Remember that you live in Zone 11, not 10. Cucumbers, squash, gourds of that kind do well here - after Halloween. All out plants were in containers - we rent the house. For insects and grubs: we just pluck off the hornworms and other grubs. My husband makes this habanero pepper/garlic concoction tea, sprays it on the plants. I don't know the recipe or where he got it.

Google Dirt Doctor. He's got a radio show from Texas. He's more into organic gardening and taking care of the SOIL - not so much the plants themselves (if your soil is good, your plants will be, too). We also make a compost tea that requires molasses and a water pump to aerate. It's viable for only a few hours. Buy worms and use their poop after feeding them banana peels, carrot ends, etc. No onions, though. Lots more info that I wish I could spill out quickly, but I have to get ready to go to work.

Most important to remember: You are in Zone 11! not 10.

[schleppermom.livejournal.com]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021

This is what I meant about the UF site. I'm a dunderhead. For the "soap" (insect control), we use Seventh Generation dishwashing liquid as it's vegetable based.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all of this, I will definitely use it!

And the reccs about the piano, in the other post.