My first attempt at vegetable gardening this past summer...

[Sienna Dawn]

This summer was my first ever garden. I posted pictures in the "introduce yourself" forum, but I thought I should bring it to the proper place.

I planted tomato, squash, onion, eggplant, okra, corn and green beans. Everything did well with the exception of the corn. There were a couple of ears per stalk, sometimes 3, and they were nice and full a little over half of the way inside the husks, then they became all... Island of Dr. Moreau weirdly deformed looking... the rest of the way. Dunno what happened. We didn't use any chemical fertilizers at all... only mushroom compost and fish emulsion... and no insecticides, just picked off any critters we found either by hand or blasted 'em with the waterhose!

There's some asparagus in there too. Thought I'd give it a try. It was just little and wispy in these pictures, but it's quite robust and has ferned out nicely now. I'm anxious to see if I get edible spears next Spring! WooHoo!

I did find out that sunflowers are pretty darn easy to grow! LOL!!!

I'm starting on my first Fall garden, and would LOVE some suggestions for fall/winter crops that would like the NW Florida climate. So far, all I've figured out is spinach and strawberries.

Thanks in advance for any suggetsions!


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[img]https://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/siennadawn/sunflowers1.jpg[/img]

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[Sienna Dawn]

Duh, I guess you need to know what zone if you have suggestions. Zone 8, I think.

[Tommie Toes]

Hi there. I started my first garden this summer too. I am in North Central Florida. What a beautiful garden you have! I often refer to this site to know what to plant when : https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VH021

I didn't know you could grow asparagus here. I thought it was too hot. You'll have to let me know how it turns out. I love asparagus and I hate paying so much for it at the store. I would love to grow it myself.

Did you happen to see any worms on your corn? I know that corn earworms can get into the cob and don't know they are there until you pick them. But sometimes you can catch them eating the leaves.
Happy gardening!

[Sienna Dawn]

Tommie Toes, thanks so much for the link. Lots of great info!

I don't remember seeing worms on the corn... but that dosen't mean they were't there I guess. Could they account for the... deformities? We snapped the ears off below the icky part, washed 'em up and ate 'em. :: They were yummy.

I guess nobody told my asparagus that it can't grow here. LOL That's the good part about being a beginner, you don't know, what you don't know.

I'll take some current pictures, the ferns are *really* big now. The directions I used said to leave the ferns go right through the winter, and cut them down only when it's time for the new spears to come up in the Spring.
Hopefully, the next batch will be going on the grill or in the steamer! Here's where I found the info on growing the stuff:

https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1603.html

[Tommie Toes]

Thanks for the link! You got me interested now. I am glad they are doing so well for you and now I gotta try! I read that you plant them once and you can harvest them for 20 years?? Totally awesome. I am planning on expanding my garden so I better make room for asparagus!
For your corn, I am not sure if the worms cause deformities but they can ugly up a cob by eating the kernels. I am glad you had some salvageable cobs. I am just starting to get some tomatoes and I am really excited about trying my first homegrown tomatoes. Here is a link to some of my garden photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30788112@N06/
My peppers are really small because I think they had severe transplant shock. They are flowering and producing peppers now but they are still kinds of small. Not sure what is going to happen to them...

[petalfuzz]

Yes, thanks for that link! I'm planning on growing asparagus next year as well. I'm already getting the bed ready in anticipation. I'd like to see a pic of your asparagus when it's ferned out. Does it really spread 5' per fern?

[Sienna Dawn]

Tommie Toes... Great looking, and HUGE!, garden! I'd love to see more pictures as it matures.


Petalfuzz... I'll try to get more pics up soon. 5' per fern? I don't see it that big, but from what I gather they've still got some growing to do. We'll see what develops... all part of my Mad Scientist Garden Experiment.