My gardening with pics! Criticism and comments welcome

[mikej]

I have looked at many forums the last 6 months and decided this is the one I want to join. I live on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee less than a mile from the lake. My soil is app. 80% muck and 20% sand.



My only gardening experience was years ago I use to grow tomatoes twice a year form seedlings that I received from a friend that works for a commercial grower. I have no idea what variety they were, but I am sure some kind of hybrid. I thought they were pretty good when I let them ripen on the vine. I retired about a year ago and wanted to garden to keep me busy and provide family and friends with fresh vegetables. I grew commercial tomatoes as well as grape tomatoes. I also had clemson spineless okra, 5 kinds of green beans, conk peas.







Now I have more conk peas, okra, and some brandywine tomatoes in the ground. But it started out tough for the okra and conk peas. Tropical storm Isaac gave me some water.




I had high expectations of being able to grow organic, but either I am not smart enough, my soil is not ammended enough, or the northern edge of the Everglades is just too overwhelming. I will just continue to learn and do the best I can. This is my most recent battle. I am talking thousands upon thousands upon thousands.


Here is some of my most recent pics.



More details and questions in other posts.

Thanks for the welcome.

[meadowyck]

hello and welcome, we do love pictures, so thanks for sharing your great looking garden. Gosh I can't believe how much water you received from Isaac, we had that much from Debbie. so how is your garden now did the rain soak in rather fast? Did you loose those crops?

Have you had the soil test at you county extension office? If not you might want to do that so you will know what to amend with if anything is needed.

You might think about saw bale gardening to keep the snails down or maybe some broken egg shells all around each plant.

[mikej]

Thanks for the welcome Jan. If rain falls fast here it does not take long to make it wet. My elevation here is around 13' above sea level. I had to replant every thing a week later.

No never had a soil test done. Been thinking about it, but just have not done it. I have been using Ortho bug b gone for the insects and daconil, copper and sulpher in rotation for the fungi and diseases.

I am not familiar with saw bale gardening. I will do a search. I did put out some snail bait last monday. Iron phosphate.

Thanks for the comments.

[gixxerific]

Great pics and love the garden. Sorry to hear about your hardships. But it seems like you think you are not ding well with the garden. From the looks of it to me you are kicking some major butt out there. Everything looks very healthy well expcept when they were under water. Come to think of it they looked good than too.

Don't be so hard on yourself your doing great, just keep with it there is a lot to learn about gardening. A LOT!!!!

[remy]

Well, I think you were doing absolutely fantastic until Issac came!
We all have our gardening challenges, and of course some years are better than others, but it is always worth the effort in my opinion.
Remy

[mikej]

Thanks guys and gals! I am pleased with the way the spring garden turned out. Went and bought a second freezer to save some of the harvest. My wife was very popular at work with the grape tomatoes.

As mentioned above, I wish I could use no chemicals, but now only use them while the plants are young. I sure can't see a way around using them here.

[Deborah]

Great harvest ! Your hard work paid off.

[Alpinejs]

Looks like a fabulous garden and I am jealous. One tip, however. Round-up is very
effective on okra!

[mikej]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

Looks like a fabulous garden and I am jealous. One tip, however. Round-up is very
effective on okra!

LOL

I keep my round up away from my okra. I love the stuff. My favorite is to brush olive oil and salt and pepper on it and place it on a hot grill for about 5 minutes.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by mikej

As mentioned above, I wish I could use no chemicals, but now only use them while the plants are young. I sure can't see a way around using them here.

You have awesome awesome awesome beautiful ground. What I would give for 80% muck and 20% sand! I have the 100% hard as a rock, bounce up and down on your shovel till your feet hurt, to dig one hole, hardpan red clay with just enough very fine sand to track into the house and get into the carpet!

Well that's what I started with until I got to work repairing the land with organic techniques.

The way I see it you need help not with the soil but with the bugs! I was born in Florida so I know how thick they can get!

My best advise to you if you want to garden organic is enlist an army of bug killers! Start with a hummingbird feeder and a regular bird feeder or three, right in the garden. Maybe a few birdhouses too. Even an electric bug zapper at night. Then I hope you like eggs and/or chicken. Because making a portable chicken tractor that can be moved every day to a new spot can rid those armies of bugs! Or maybe even a bit of portable fencing moved daily. With a chicken between those snails and the garden they have no hope of reaching your plants before getting gobbled up! A few bugs may try flying in over your guard chickens, but that's when the mercenary air force of wild birds come to your rescue!

Here is how you do that large scale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvj6i...=plpp_play_all

And here is how you do that medium scale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMm3_...eature=related

And here is how you do that small scale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb_P59Mubiw


Next line of defence is chemical warfare...plant style! It is called companion planting and you have many options of repellent plants, plants with natural bug poison and trap crops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companion_planting

Next line of defence is beneficial insects and other biological pest controls. Your own elite army of bugs, fungus, and pest parasites to fight the invaders back. And don't worry about loyalty. The chickens will have standing orders to eat any soldiers in your bug army who try and go AWOL and desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pest_control

Try all those for a year or two and I bet you will be winning your war to stay organic. And remember. The organic gardener or farmer needs to be thoughtful creative and patient. You might loose a few battles before winning the war.

[dustdevil]

Looks nice! Where's the plastic gator eating a garden gnome lawn ornament?

[mikej]

Thanks Scott! I have been reading alot about organic gardening and have been so overwhelmed. Most others have talked about fixing the soil with compost. I could not understand that because I thought muck was compost. I will read up on the links and maybe implement some of them. How about the diseases? You know this humidity down here sure is a good breeding ground for all sorts of fungi.

Edit: Scott, my neighbor has chickens and left the gate open on purpose so they could go in the garden. The scratched some of my plants out of the ground so I ran them out.


LOL Dustdevil. The 11 foot gator from the ditch tried to mate with the plastic gator and ate the gnome. The plastic one did not make it.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by mikej

I could not understand that because I thought muck was compost. ...

How about the diseases? You know this humidity down here sure is a good breeding ground for all sorts of fungi. ...

Edit: Scott, my neighbor has chickens and left the gate open on purpose so they could go in the garden. The scratched some of my plants out of the ground so I ran them out.

1) It is BUT you still have to maintain new compost material to "cycle" through the system.

2) Exactly true so use this to your advantage! 99.99% of fungi are actually beneficial. Usually using a fungicide actually causes more problems than it helps. Let your beneficial microbials fight your battles for you! Think of it like "Activia Yoghurt". When you get sick and take antibiotics, often people get either diarrhea or constipated because antibiotics kills your beneficial gut bacteria as well as the disease that made you sick. This in turn makes you get sick all the easier next time! So they recommend a probiotic or something like active yoghurt to help restore balance. Remember Penicillin was derived from a fungi! Specifically a Penicillium mold, now known to be Penicillium notatum. Fungi can be your friend!

Well plants need a balance of molds, bacteria, and micro-organisms too! If you use a fungicide you risk destroying that balance and having significant disease problems in the future ... so bad that you may end up spraying fungicides forever! Once you loose that balance it can be VERY difficult to get it back. There are many microbial mixtures available to help you though. Some you mix in the dirt, some you put on the seeds and some you mix in your compost. In fact some seeds like beans can be bought with a treatment already applied. But I have found that commercial mixes are less effective than an already diverse microbial environment in your soil. They can help, but a dozen different manufactured treatments can't compete with the billions of micro organisms already adapted to your exact piece of property in Florida!

Then of course you also look for resistant varieties of plants to grow. Between the two, 99% of the time you are golden. There is that 1% though...

3) You have to watch and learn. Those chickens scratched and ate your plants. So also use that instinct to your advantage! The reason they call those mobile chicken cages "chicken tractors" is because by confining the chickens between the rows of a garden, they scratch and till the soil just as good as any roto-tiller or plow pulled by a tractor! Keep the chickens out of the direct row, but instead between the rows and instead of scratching up your plants and eating them, they will scratch up the weeds and eat them! Eat the bugs too! Meanwhile they will fertilize the soil too! But keep them away from direct contact with your crops.

To be honest there is so much information that it really requires you to just dig in and do it. Watch closely and think for yourself of creative ways to adapt the principles of nature to your exact circumstances. Every piece of property has its own challenges but also its own benefits.

[Sun City Linda]

Welcome Mike and thanks for posting the pix. Cute snails, dont have any like that out here. Dont suppose what they do is too cute though

[mikej]

Thank you Linda! Yes they can sure do some damage on my plants especially with the infestation that I had. It looks like the iron phosphate has helped. In the garden yesterday, I only saw about a dozen in the whole garden. I will have to keep an eye on them though. This week I will have to fight the fungal diseases again. Rain today and suppose to rain every day this coming week. I use rotation of copper, sulpher, and reluctantly Daconil.