HogWinslow
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Tom's attempt at Raised Bed Gardening

I decided to start a thread about my Raised Bed instead of starting a new thread every time I wanted to ask something.

If you read my other two posts you know I'm trying to garden in South West Florida about 2 miles from the beach. My conditions and soil aren't the best so I went with raised beds to have a little better control over the conditions. Besides that there isn't a bee within 10 miles of me.

So today I planted potatoes. My dad gave me some leftover certified seed he had from the spring in Ohio. I have no idea what they are besides red potatoes. They may not like it here but they were free so I'll give them a try. Should I fertilize them now or when they sprout?
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My baby tomatoes are still alive! You probably say "big deal". Well, I've never gotten them to live this long. They usually rot at the soil line and die. Dad has coached me on this and so far so good. The Mortgage Lifters are on the left and the right side has peppers. He said now that they have 4 leaves I can start feeding them. So tonight they get a feeding of Miracle Grow.
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Look I have a Eggplant. Actually I have two of them! This plant is in a clay pot and is about 3 feet tall from the top of the pot. It's been growing since the beginning of July and I was about to give up on it. Lots of flowers, no fruit. Dad told me to stick my finger in each flower very gently to pollinate them and give them a feeding of Epson Salt. Two weeks later I have a couple eggplants.
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One last picture of cucumbers, squash and zucchini. I need to give them some fertilizer. I've done nothing with them but put them in the ground.
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Looks great and Kudos to Dad

imafan26
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What did you put in the raised bed and did you use a starter fertilizer? If your bed is organic, then fish emulsion every week is usually a good choice as long as there are no cats around.

The plants look great. How deep is the bed. You have maybe 4-6 inches of wood showing.

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applestar
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Oooh — I Hate to be a naysayer — not My usual style, but I’m going to spit this out — you May have time to replant those seedlings if you dig them up whole with a big garden spade if you are careful to cradle all the roots.


You said this bed is 4 foot wide right? I would have planted the cukes (cucumbers) about 8 inches apart all along one side — the ‘Back’ or north side — about 4-6 inches from the edge — and would build a sturdy vertical trellis as tall as I can reach up. This can be metal conduit or bamboo (or metal fence post) uprights with horizontal cross pieces at top and halfway up (or diagonal braces) fitted with nylon vegetable trellis netting or with wide opening wire fencing (opening should be big enough for your hand to reach through).

This way, the entire remainder of the bed can be available for the zukes (zucchinis)

The ground/path along the trellised side should be mulched to allow the cucumber roots to grow underneath without competition — I usually just put down flattened corrugated cardboard box then pile pulled weeds and grass clippings, shrub trimmings and tree prunings, etc. on top but you can put a layer of more decorative organic mulch on top for aesthetics.

Re-route (train) any stray cucumber shoots so the tendrils will grab onto the trellis and grow up off the ground.


....OK having written all that, I scrolled back up to look at your photo and realized there are two cukes in the middle and you mentioned squash, which presumably are the other two closer to the edge. Were you planning to let the squash vine sprawl out of the bed?

Without a vertical trellis, the cukes will be overwhelmed and will also sprawl all over the others and it will be a mess, but putting the trellis in the middle will create shade on the north side, and if those are squash on the north side, then they will simply crawl off to find the sunniest area to grow in, but the zukes if they are on the north side will be too shaded.

In addition, the zukes plus squash on either side of the cukes might just be too much root competition for the cukes.

...I really think you needed another 2-4 feet (6-8 foot north-south bed) to comfortably grow both zukes and squash along with the north border trellis planting of cukes. I would have planted the zukes in the middle with the squash in the front because the squash will take time to take off and the zukes will likely be done by the time the squash need the space.

*Vining squash is pretty easy to train-move around to where you want them to grow, as long as you move them before the tendrils latch onto things (including grass and weeds). Zukes are like tanks but can be shifted slightly — 1-3 inches or so at a time, then propped up from flopping over with strategic sticks stuck in the ground at crotch of leaves. You will need to wear heavy gloves to protect yourself from the prickly spines.

*Orientation of the bed could be east-west with the cuke trellis on the east border, though that shades some of the morning sun. In this case, I would place the cuke trellis a little further in — maybe 1/3 of the way in, and plant shade tolerant heat sensitive plants along the north border such as lettuce and greens, spinach.... but this will mean no enough room for the 3 types of crops you were planning..... hm.

imafan26
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It looks like a series of 4 ft beds, not everything in one 4x4 sfg.
Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are wind pollinated as well as bee pollinated. Gently shaking the truss will help but I usually don't have to when they are outdoors. Indoors, they may need a little help from a toothbrush.

Bush zucchini will get crowded the sfg book says they should have 9 squares each. I have planted 2 in a small bed, planting them on the extreme ends and letting them hang over the side. I have done the same with broccoli which gets to be 3x3x3 when it is fully grown.

I agree with Applestar that the vining plants should be on the North side with a trellis or in a cage. I cage tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers. Squash is too heavy and a 50 ft vine is hard to contain on a small trellis, so squash gets a fence or I have a trellis that is built like a tent frame with crw on the top and a roof made with rebar and conduit. It is strong enough to hold the squash. I had used a regular tent frame made with easy corners, but rebar had to be placed inside the tent poles because they bend with the weight of the trellis growing upo.

You can get around the pollination problem by selecting parthenocarpic cultivars of cucumber and zucchini that do not require pollination. In fact, pollination is undesirable because it makes the fruit fat on one end. Suyo, Diva, Tasty Jade, Socrates, and Tyria cucumbers are all parthenocarpic. I usually grow Suyo, Tasty Jade or Diva as they also have good disease resistance as well. I have not grown Tyria or Socrates, they are greenhouse varieties and good for indoor growing. Socrates has good reviews. Johnny's have the seeds, but they are more expensive than Suyo, Tasty Jade, or Diva. Suyo is the easiest ones for me to get since they are available from multiple companies and it is available locally in most stores. Suyo does have ridges and a rough skin, but I peel it anyway, and it is a Japanese (really Chinese bred), cucumber of the type preferred here. The vines are disease tolerant and the fruit can get over a foot long. I really like Diva, it is non-bitter, but most people here don't like the American type of cukes because of their assumed bitterness. I don't grow Marketmore or Straight 8 because of their bitterness.

Parthenocarpic zucchini: Parthenon, venus, dundoo, defender, and cavilli. I have a lot of bees, but recently have been having problems with fruit set probably because of global warming. A couple of degrees more and I don't get many female flowers. I will get fruit set with the parthenocarpic varieties. Then all I have to deal with are the fruit flies.

Beets, bell peppers, cabbage, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, squash, and asparagus are salt tolerant plants. If you have room for trees, coconut, breadfruit, fig, panini (opuntia cactus - nopales, prickly pear),dragon fruit, pomegranate, and tamarind.

You can attract pollinators to your yard by providing habitat and nectar and pollen flowers for them. Coconut palms will attract a bees when they flower. Shrubs and trees provide shelter. Hollow logs or stacked stones will as well. Plant disc flowers like sunflowers, coreopsis, alyssum, sage, lavender, and cuphea. Let some basil go to seed. I grow fennel in a corner of the garden by itself since it attracts beneficial insects when it is in bloom and also is a nursery for lady bugs. It attracts aphids but is not bothered by them. It does not like company. Squash bees and carpenter bees are the normal bees that pollinate squash flowers. Honey bees have short tongues and the longer tongued solitary bees do most of the pollinating. You can make a bee house by making bundles of 1/2 inch pvc pipe or bamboo. One end needs to be closed. The bundles can be tied or put in a bucket or frame to provide a home. Carpenter bees will also go for unpainted wood, so make sure you don't have any of that around. If you have an elevated deck, paint the underside as well. Squash bees are solitary bees that nest in the ground so they need some open space nearby, so no mulch and on a small mound or hillside so they won't flood out the tunnels. Leaf cutter bees are also pollinators. They do not live on nectar but will cut out parts of the leaves of plants. They require nesting boxes usually made of a chunk of wood with 1/4 inch holes drilled about 3 inches deep in them. The solitary bee apartments can provide homes for many bees. The bee motels will have to be replaced as they get older and conditions start to deteriorate.
https://savebees.org/habitat/homes/

HogWinslow
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Thanks to everyone that has replied. Your giving me the exact feedback I wanted. I'm going to make mistakes and I'm fine with that. Next year will be better. Not even next year, I get another growing season starting in February.

I've seen the "Book" referenced a few times. What is the name of the book? I want to get it.

As far as organic. I would love to go all organic. But sourcing the stuff is impossible here. So in the past I used Dawn soap instead of Seven but I do use 10-10-10.

My bed is 12' x 4'. It's broken up into three 4' x 4' squares, made from 2" x 6" that are 2 layers deep. When Dad and I made them they were filled to about 2" from the top. So right now they are about 6" deep of soil I brought in and under that is the natural sand. Due to settling and a really bad storm they aren't as deep anymore. The storm lasted a few days and was so bad that the beds were washing over and away. I finally went out and put a tarp over the whole thing and screwed it down.

I hoping to put in another 4' x 4' bed soon. If I place it right I might get a 8' x 4' bed. But I have to leave enough room for my grill.

I live in a manufactured home community for old people. I got in because I had cash and they needed it so they bent the rules. Money talks. My lot is about 50' x 75'. So I don't have much room to work with. The raised beds are along the side of my carport and I got lucky on the placement. The side towards the carport (back side) is to the north. They get full sun all day.

Please keep up with the constructive criticism. Please no destructive criticism. You guys are doing great. I saw no negativity, just people wanting to help and offering advice.

I really enjoyed the post about the varieties that don't require pollination. That helps me a lot. I know that's a real issue I have.

The post about placement is a real helper also. With the idea of the cukes with vines growing up the back side on a trellis. That's one reason I want the book. So I know where to place my plants and what plants do well together.

I have a tall thin palm tree in my front yard. I'm seriously thinking about letting pole beans grow up it. Or I have three poles that are behind the raised beds that hold the carport up. They might become pole bean poles also.

Good news. I'm rubbing off on people. In the mornings the roads here are full of old people walking and biking before the heat of the day. I was out this morning playing in the garden when a old lady stopped to look at my plants. She said she misses her garden but she can't bend anymore to care for one. She liked my beds because their raised a little off the ground. I told her that there are kits that have the bed about 4' of the ground so there isn't any bending. She was really excited about that. I offered to build it and set it up for her if she buys one.

Yesterday I planted 3 rows of bush beans. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some. I want to plant garlic but I have no room for it. Might have to make a new bed just for the garlic. Dad sent me garlic he grew. He told me to plant the large cloves and watch them grow. But I read they take at least 6 months. So I'm thinking about making a container about 1' wide and very long. Then planting a long row in that.

imafan26
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Be careful if your garden butts up against a wooden wall. It will cause the wall to rot if it remains in contact with water and wet soil.

All filled beds settle, 6 inches is enough to grow shallow rooted crops, but add more compost as the beds come up for replacement. You don't have to keep all your crops in the beds. Containers are good options for some plants. I prefer to grow eggplant, tomatoes, some hot peppers in large containers instead since they take up too much space in the garden. Herbs are very adaptable to pots. I grow green onions, mints (they must be contained), oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, and bay leaves in pots. I have citrus trees in pots as well since I don't have space for a full sized tree and potting helps to keep them dwarfed. I do have a couple of escapees that I will have to deal with.

HogWinslow
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Pots are a real possibility for me. I have a few Pickle Bush in pots and a Eggplant. What size pots do you use? I'm thinking about planting herbs in them. Preferably the clay pots so they match the pots I have now.

How big of a pot do you have the fruit trees in? Are there varieties that are "patio" size? One of the reasons I bought this house is because it's a 2 bedroom on a three bedroom lot. So I have a backyard that gets morning sun then is shaded by my house after 1 pm. My intention was to put raised beds back there but with the shade fruit trees might be a great idea.

A lady stopped this morning to see my garden and it turns out she grows herbs but not veggies. By the time she left I traded her 5 plants for some herbs she had started. Those are the herbs I want to put in pots. The funny part was she never heard of Rosemary. I happen to have a Rosemary in a planter. She's coming back to take cuttings off of it.

The back side off my beds are open. Their not up against a wall. So I can reach in the beds from all 4 sides. And I got lucky that their all facing south.

Thanks for reading, Tom

imafan26
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For large plants I use 18 gallon pots or 20 inch pots. I grow indeterminate tomatoes, rosemary, eggplant, and Hawaiian chilies in them. A minimum size pot would be 15 gallons or about a 16 inch pot.
I plant mostly citrus trees. The dwarf citrus trees grow in 20 inch pots. I do like to plant in terra cotta pots but they are hard to move without a hand truck or dolly. I have kaffir limes, Persian limes, Calamondin, yuzu, and Meyer lemon in pots. The meyer and calamondin try to root out so you need to move the pots around to make sure they stay in the pot. I have a meyer lemon and calamondin I have to kill now because the pots were too small (7 gallon) and they broke through. My 23 year old kaffir lime tree is about 5 ft tall in the pot. I have a persimmon and some bay leaves in pots. One of the bay has escaped and will have to be killed as well. It is also in a 7 gallon pot. They just don't make pots as thick as they used to. I have a persimmon tree that in a pot as well. The rosemary is in an 16 inch pot. It is sheared and about 3 ft tall. I use it sometimes for a Christmas tree.
I grow strawberries in hanging baskets as I have to move them into morning sun in summer and keep moving them around because both the slugs and birds like to eat the strawberries. Mint is in a container, it is invasive so it should not be in the ground. I have green onions and chives in 1 gallon containers. Thyme and Greek oregano in 14 inch bowls. I have an Ajaka basil in a 14 inch pot, it is a tree basil. I have some of my extra roses, pineapple, dragon fruit, gardenia, bay leaves, hibiscus, succulents, orchids, and Ohia Lehua in pots as well. I grow ginger in pots, but I have to change the pot to a pan. I got a tree pot and the ginger still went sideways and did not fill the bottom of the pot. I don't keep it in the ground because I have had ginger in the ground and it is not easy to get all the pieces out. The same is true of taro, so those are always grown in pots. I have pineapple in pots with some just laying on the ground, I might decide to just plant them in somewhere. I have to stay away from the house since pineapple attracts ants. Laevender is happier in the ground, but looks bad in the rainy season so I keep some of them in pots. I have a 20 year old bougainvillea I dug up and the darn thing survived so I am training it to become a bonsai.

HogWinslow
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20181004_081724.jpg
I took some pictures to help you understand my situation. Here's the area with my beds. The picture was taken at 8 am. The beds face exactly south so they get sun all day. Notice how close the next home is. When it rains we get 3" to 6" of water between the houses. The large black thing in the lower right corner is my mailbox. So you can tell how close the road is.The little palm with the pots are Pickle Bush. Two pots got eaten by bugs and were replanted. The other plant survived but has yet to produce. Next to the beds are my North Carolina cukes, eggplant and Basil. To the back you see a huge clump of bushes. Those are coming out this weekend and another bed is going in there.
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Close up
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Here you see the front of my house. Notice the long planter along the front. When I bought the place it was a mess. I pulled everything out and planted some cheap plants in there. My Rosemary is on the right side. He loves it there with partial sun. This planter faces west and gets late in the day sun.

Any suggestions as to what to put there? It gets partial sun and no rain. It has to look good because its the front of the house. I was thinking about multiple types of herbs. My Rosemary likes it so much I even thought about a long row of that. I may end up with flowers. I'm really looking for ideas here.

After re-reading the last post the strawberry idea came up. Will they like it there with partial sun?

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applestar
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Strawberries may not be as decorative as you want, especially in the summer months.

Rosemary would take to pruning and shaping. You could also try those small-leaves globe basils. You could really have some fun making herb topiaries. You could also grow trailing spiraling semi-ornamental varieties of rosemary, oregano, thyme that could spill over the side....

You could also consider micro-dwarfs or sprawling hanging basket/patio planter varieties of tomatoes, though in your case you would be limited to the winter-spring and fall-winter Florida tomato growing seasons. Since these types of varieties are typically early maturing determinate, they would work out well.

There are hot pepper varieties that stay short. Those might be an idea too.

How long do you plan on living there? For an unusual accent, I could see espaliered extra-dwarf fruit trees there in step-over style to limit height below the windows. Maybe dwarf cultivars of figs or citrus?

imafan26
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I think the "book" you are talking about is Mel Bartholomew's New Square Foot Gardening. You can get this book on ebay or Amazon and you might even find some copies in some second hand book stores. There are online sites that also talk about square foot gardening as well.
https://www.growveg.com/guides/planning ... ble-garde/
https://www.vegetable-gardening-online.c ... plans.html
https://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/
https://www.heirloom-organics.com/guide/ ... nting.html
https://www.growveg.com/guides/planning ... le-garden/
You could grow green onions, cilantro in the cooler months, nasturtiums in the early part of the year. It would require that you water regularly the green onions and cilantro. Nasturtiums don't mind a little less water since it prefers sandy soils with cool dry conditions. I would prefer that the bed be wider. Most of the plants I know will need to have more space to stretch out.

HogWinslow
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I went out looking at plants today and found onion sets. The sets I found are Long Day. When I got home I did a internet search and found out that for my Florida zone I should plant Short Day. If I plant the Long Day will they not grow? Or will they be stunted? Out of 3 stores they all had Long Day. I'm confused as to why they sell the wrong sets?

In my previous post I said another bed is going in the weekend. I'm thinking about 12 garlic plants and onions. Does anything like to live with them?

Tom

imafan26
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I usually don't buy sets at box stores. They ship the same merchandise all over the country, like the seed racks, not everything is suitable for all zones. If you plant long day garlic or onions, and you don't have 16 hour days, the bulbs will not get very large. I made that mistake by trying to plant elephant garlic. The cloves ended up smaller than what I started with.

For the south, Texas Granax is a good onion and the seeds are readily available. It should be planted in the late summer or fall. By now, I would be considering transplanting the seedling 4 inches apart. I don't have any snow to kill off the tops so they will grow straight through until Spring. Then when the days are warmer and longer,

HogWinslow
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20181009_113734.jpg
My beans are up. Should I feed them? The fence is over them because last year something ate the tender young leaves. There's 3 rows of beans that I think I planted to close. Then 4 pepper plants and 2 Mortgage lifter tomatoes with stakes.
20181009_113910.jpg
Pickle bush looks good and has a lot of 1/2" cukes. Hopefully they will continue to grow and not fall off.

imafan26
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As far as feeding the beans, it depends on what starter fertilizer you used. Beans do not require a lot of nitrogen a 5-10-10 fertilizer will do. It will work for the peppers too.

Tomatoes are a little different. They are heavy feeders and their nutritional needs change at different times of their life cycle. They need a little more nitrogen while they are actively growing, but more phosphorus when they start fruiting.

You said you used 10-10-10 as a starter fertilizer. It should be enough. As long as the plants are growing well, and producing the exact numbers are not that important. it will become more important as you move from one crop to the next if the nutrients are not taken up evenly. I usually try to use a fertilizer with a lower nitrogen or slow nitrogen now. Nitrogen is a volatile element. It works best if it is applied when the plants need it and in a slow release form. Heavy feeders like corn and tomatoes benefit from having the total nitrogen requirement divided into smaller side dressings. Too much nitrogen in the soil in the beginning can cause more issues with dampening off. Too much nitrogen all around, will be great for green crops but root crops will make a lot of leaves and not much root. The amount you add matters. That is when a soil test does come in handy. I rotate heavy nitrogen feeders with cabbages which is a scavenger crop that will clean up some of the excess nitrogen. I add organic matter in the form of compost everytime I plant the garden. I add about 4 inches. I have clay soil, so compost improves tilth and feeds the soil organisms to make a healthier soil. It is a disadvantage in some of my garden beds since the local compost test at a pH of 8.13 and those beds are already very alkaline at a pH of 7.8 which makes them good for root crops but some acid loving plants cannot grow at all in those conditions. I have switched to peat moss for those gardens and I continue to test my soil every three years. I only need a small amount of nitrogen as the other nutrients are high or excessive (phosphorus is in excess in all my gardens).

https://sfp.ucdavis.edu/pubs/Family_Farm ... rtilizing/
https://extension.psu.edu/soil-manageme ... landscapes

HogWinslow
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Well, after an unexpected stay in the hospital most of the garden died from lack of water.

I started over and have Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes, Potatoes and a couple of Green Peppers. But none were doing good. My parents came down for their annual winter stay in Florida and my dad determined that the tomatoes and potatoes have blight. He pruned everything and retied my tomatoes. He installed drip irrigation and started spraying with baking soda with dish soap. Honestly, nothing looks better but it's not getting worse. He wants me to start spraying with copper fungicide when I replant. He thinks with the irrigation one spray of fungicide will work.

He also planted more potatoes, green beans and lettuce. They are just breaking ground and look good.

What do you think of the use of Copper Fungicide and the drip irrigation? Will it work for stopping the blight or should we change tactics? Pictures soon.

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applestar
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Since growing conditions are so different in Florida, I don’t feel confident in offering a recommendation. But copper fungicide is I believe the strongest of the recognized organic fungicides, and it sounds like your Dad has a plan.

Drip irrigation is better than overhead watering, and trimming and tying up the tomatoes help create better airflow to also minimize fungal growth. It sounds like the baking soda solution is insufficient and he is trying to save your garden and preserve the time and effort you’ve put into it already.

So far, he is not doing anything permanently damaging if you are concerned about any of the -cides.

IMHO, this will be a good opportunity to learn his methods from him — what he has learned works for him over the years he has been gardening hands-on — and add them to your gardening bag of tricks.

I’m looking forward to hearing that your efforts have worked, and your garden is growing well. You are lucky you can grow tomatoes in the winter. (we had a snowfall overnight and some more white stuff are coming down this morning) I was actually surprised to hear you can start beans already. — is it already too late for peas there? — Good luck! :wink:

imafan26
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It can be challenging to grow some plants in a warm and semi tropical climate. Although, the growing season is long, humidity, persistence of disease and pests are a constant problem. This is especially true is you are growing temperate crops in a tropical zone.

Cultivar selection is important. It usually means giving up something, like size, looks, or flavor for disease resistance. High humidity and the rainy season are tough on temperate plants that are more used to a drier climate. Living near the ocean means your soil is probably more sandy, which can be improved with compost, but also more salty and alkaline.

You may have some luck if you have no hard freezes growing some of the tropical vegetables. NZ hot weather spinach, Malabar spinach (it is mucilaginous, so you have to know how to prepare it), tropical beans (Yard long beans, wing beans), sweet potatoes, moringa, Asian greens.

Moderately salt tolerant crops = cucumbers, asparagus, figs, beets, Kale, broccoli, cabbage, spinach(cooler months). Raised beds and regular addition of organic matter will modify the salt content in the beds for a while.

You can grow the heirloom temperate vegetables in pots and in raised beds as long as you plant them at the right time of the year and protect them from pests as well as a regular fungicide program.

Drip irrigation is a great idea. Not only is it a time saver, it saves on water and keeps the water where it is needed on the roots and not on the leaves.

My yard is only slightly larger than yours. My lot is 54x100 ft. My house takes up 1900 square feet, leaving me about
3000 sq ft of yard. My neighbor is 10 ft away on the North side and it is very dark there, not even grass will grow so it is all cemented and there is a small raised bed up against the wall, but except for ti leaves and a bay leaf, it is only used for storage.
The other house on the South side is 15 ft away. I keep my orchids there.

I am required by the HOA to have 50% grass in the front yard. No "vegetative" plants are allowed in the front yard, but there are ways around that since the design committee enforcers are not aware of the fact that technically, roses, ornamental peppers, lavender, sunflowers, marigolds, roselle, herbs, and breadseed poppies are edible if they are not sprayed with chemicals.

My backyard is 15-30 ft x 54 ft. I have taken out most of the grass, since it uses up so much water and requires too much maintenance. I have a raised bed garden that is free form (it came with the house). It is roughly an oval that is 8ft x 16 ft.
and about a foot off the ground. My soil is red clay, but the garden has been heavily amended with compost over the years. It is
tested every 3 years and It had a pH of 6.0 last year. I have only needed to add nitrogen for about 8 years. The phosphorus is still very high, potassium and calcium are high. I have hundreds of plants both edible and ornamental in pots. I sometimes only have a narrow path between the pots in the back yard. This makes it slug heaven. Right now, I have moved most of my plants to the perimeter and I am trying to get rid of the persistent weeds before I lay down another layer of weed mat.

Large plants like tomatoes, eggplant, larger pepper, citrus trees are all in pots. I grow herbs in pots since, they don't need a large pot and I don't like to mix perennials and annuals in the raised garden. It makes it easier to work. Ginger, mints, sweet potato, burdock (gobo), are in pots parts because they can be hard to harvest or are invasive in the ground. I have planted flowers in the front yard that attract beneficial insects and pollinators and I only use chemicals if I have no choice usually on the hibiscus for erineum mites, gardenia (for scale), and roses since they are hard to grow without using chemicals on a regular basis to control diseases and scale. These plants are isolated in the front yard. In the back yard, I use mostly alcohol, water, occasionally and cultural controls. The garden patrol takes care of most of the pests, except for slugs and snails which are a losing battle for me.

In my acidic home garden, leafy greens like spinach (horenso), swiss chard, broccoli (Italian Sprouting, De Cicco), kale, butterhead and romaine lettuce are now growing. These are cool season crops. Tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are growing slowly as are the yard long beans. They will get better as the days get longer and warmer.

In my alkaline garden, I have better luck with root crops like beets, and daikon, Asian greens and cabbages grow in both gardens. I have two other gardens, both are alkaline. One is my community garden, the other is the herb garden that I take care of. I can grow carrots as long as the temperature stays below 75 degrees in my alkaline gardens. My acidic garden has much higher nitrogen and root crops need to be in pots where I can control the nitrogen. Too much nitrogen means that my home garden gets nice tops but roots are small.

Sweet potato leaves are edible. I do have wireworms in the soil, so getting potatoes that are edible is rare, but possible. Sweet potatoes can be grown in the community garden, as well as squash where there is room for them to sprawl. I grow taro in pots, since I don't get large enough roots in the ground at home and my community garden pretty much survives on rain. Chayote grows wild there.

In a small garden, you need to plant what grows best for you, what is more expensive to buy, and tastes better fresh. Herbs are good choices, since many of them don't mind being in pots. Gray leafed and succulent plants are harder to grow in the rainy season, so I have to move pots around and sometimes on to my lanai to keep them out of the rain and on racks so they don't get flooded. I have a plexiglass cover for the orchids that I can put on to limit some of the rain. Once tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and other hairy leaved plants get mildew, it is hard to control. I will only keep them if there is fruit to save, otherwise, it is best to just pull them and stop the spores from spreading.

Cut the lower leaves off the tomatoes, you don't need them and they will be the first to get disease. Prune indeterminate tomatoes and make sure they have room to spread out. Tomatoes with decent disease resistance are Husky, Better bush, New Big Dwarf. Cherry types are easier to grow with better resistance. Sungold, sunsugar, suncherry, Sweet Million. Heat resistant tomatoes are Heatwave II, Kewalo, Florida 91, Arkansas Traveller, Sioux and Super Sioux. Surprisingly brandywine did well with the heat, but requires a regular antifungal program since it has very little disease tolerance. Look for tomatoes with VFFFNTA resistance. I currently have issues with tomato yellow leaf curl virus and now either cannot plant tomatoes or I have to plant only resistant ones. The peppers and eggplants may be a reservoir for the virus and I would have to destroy all of those plants as well and not grow them for a couple of years. Since the virus is becoming more widespread, my best choice is to plant resistant varieties. I got Charger seeds this year. I did not like the taste of champion II.

https://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... o_2013.pdf

You may have to experiment to find out what grows best for you. Don't be afraid to try something new. I discovered Komatsuna in a mesclun mix and it is my favorite mustard now. Give a variety a couple of tries before you give up on it. Sometimes, you cannot predict the weather or it may just be that you did not plant it at the best time. Try to research the varieties you choose to make sure they are the ones recommended for your area.

I use the Florida planting calendar sometimes since my climate is similar to Miami. I also use my local extension service at Ctahr to find out specific growing information, and look for cultivars with the recommended disease resistance.

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

HogWinslow
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Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:37 pm

Hello everyone. Sorry but no pictures this time.

I've been digging potatoes for a while now. You can't beat fresh dug taters! The potatoes that my dad sent me didn't do well. He buys 50 pound bags of seed potatoes to grow in Ohio. Come to find out, Ohio potatoes don't like Florida weather. Got that problem solved. Funny thing is they mature really fast here. 10 weeks and I have potatoes. Big enough for french fries. I got 8 plants right now that are ready to be pulled. I'm waiting for my son to come over this weekend so we can pull them together.

I grow Mortgage lifter tomatoes and they are great! So much so my dad is now growing them. I just got back from a trip to Ohio and he has 50 Mortgage Lifter plants started in his garage. I had very little trouble with blight or insects on them. And the stalks are very thick and strong. They almost wouldn't need to be tied if there was little wind. That's one of the things I liked about them. Since I'm so close to the Gulf of Mexico winds gusts pick up here quickly and are strong. The Mortgage Lifter seemed to handle that abuse better. But they do have a lot of suckers that need to be trimmed.

Green Bell peppers did fine. Nice sized peppers averaging 2 per plant. Not great, but better than nothing. Egg Plant did great also.

I found some short day onion sets at Lowes. Their loving life so maybe by June I'll have onions. While at Lowes I also found Bibb Lettuce. A quick google search produced a thread saying it liked Florida weather. I bought a 6 pack and it did great. Now I'm trying to find the seed so I can start my own. I want to stagger the plantings for continuous harvest. One plant makes a ton of lettuce!

Now for a couple of issues. Green Bush Beans. I had beautiful plants and very few beans. They got watered with the rest of the garden, using the soaker hose irrigation dad installed, so it's not a water issue. I got 2 ideas on this. Either it's my discount seed or I over fertilized them. I read online that beans don't need a lot of feeding. Any thoughts?

I had 2 squash plants the looked great. Each produced one fruit that grew to about 2 inches turned yellow and fell off. I have no idea what went wrong. But, I can't get cucumbers to grow either. Maybe this area isn't a great growing ground for those plants.

Overall I'm happy with the garden. So much so that I'm removing more ugly old hedges to add more raised beds. One bed will be 4' x 6', most likely divided in the middle. I think 6' might be to far of a span without a support. Another bed will be 2' x 10' and will run along side my shed. I'll add trellis on the side of the shed to hopefully grow cucumbers. If I can figure out why the cukes aren't producing.

I'm about to start winding down the garden. From what I understand the summers are to hot and buggy here to grow anything. Not to mention the daily afternoon rain. I'll probably tarp the beds to keep them from washing away. Talking to people I've heard the growing season is October to December. Cold crops in January. Then Feb to April. Finishing up in May and possible to go to June for crops that like hot weather.

I want to thank everyone that has posted in this thread. I enjoy your comments and helpfulness. Not a single person has posted a negative comment. That's hard to find these days.

Tom

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Your post is a reminder that you really have different sort of growing seasons than here in NJ where I am coddling a whole bunch of tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in the house, and tentatively planting cool weather crops outside. (Like your Dad in OH, no doubt)

Glad to hear you had/are having a good winter-spring growing season. :D

About the bush beans, cukes, and squash —

- I can’t speak to over fertilizing since I tend to under-fertilize, but they are shallower rooted than the other crops you mentioned. Also bush beans typically only produce 2 or 3 flushes of crops at most, and are best succession planted by staggered couple of weeks for continuous harvest from new patches.

- Cukes are related to melons and is warm weather crop. Not sure from your description when you were trying to grow them ?

- Also both cukes and squash are susceptible to various and more pests and diseases in the south than in the north. Were there any other symptoms/ signs? And little fruits falling off could mean they were not properly pollinated. You could try parthenocarpic varieties if there are not enough pollinator bees, etc. or you could try hand pollinating.



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