Anita's

Anita's
My Favorite Jacksonville Garden Shop

Monday, August 16, 2010

Jealous Monday a.k.a Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday hosted graciously by Daphne's Dandelions. The past few weeks I have been looking in sheer awe at the amazing harvest's of all of my fellow gardener's. This week though I really found my mouth watering for all of the yummy tomatoes and melons coming out of your gardens. We had a rather late plant out date this year, by three weeks, in Northeast Florida due to an unusually long and cold winter met with an extra early and hot summer. These weather woe's made for a very short growing season, so I have lived vicariously through you all.

The good news is that fall is just around the corner. I chose some of my favorite tomatoes from spring, Sungold and Mr Stripey, and cut them back to just above where the first "new" plant was forming near the bottom. They should really begin to take off growing in a week or two as we get a break in the heat, and with any luck will produce all the way through the holidays like they did last year.

Growing now, I still have eggplant that will grow through October or so, and peppers that will also continue to grow through the holidays.





I've started my purple peacock broccoli and broccoli raab under the lights. It was so awesome to have fresh broccoli last year that I plan on successively planting every two to three weeks through February.



Other planned fall crops:

Carrots - started my first bucket 4 days ago and will continue to sew every two weeks through March
Pumpkins - this may only be a dream, but the vine is looking good. Planted 4 "Casper" seeds and only one germinated.
Sweet Potato Squash - a winter squash variety, mostly an after thought. They just sprouted and I will be pushing mother nature' limits to get them to maturity.
Beets, onions, lettuce, dwarf pak choy - all will sew directly around sep 15 and will continue to sew every few weeks through spring.
Onions and Artichokes - plant out in October for a spring harvest

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like you've got a great jump on the fall/winter garden. We might be jealous of your harvests then! Keep it up, and I hope your next season cooperates better than this one!
    ~~Lori

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  2. I will certainly be jealous of your harvests in the fall and winter. Usually our ground is frozen solid in November or December. Our off season is winter and yours seems to be summer. Looking at all the harvests keeps me going through the winter.

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  3. Just think, when most of us are digging through a foot of snow this winter, you'll be sitting at your home in nice weather enjoying your mild winter harvest! Your orange pepper and little eggplant are cool. And I love seeing pictures of seeds germinating - just so much potential out of those little babies!

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  4. Those are some nice harvests sizing up. I know, some of the harvests are spectacular aren't they. I am trying purple peacock this year. Sounds great.

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  5. Do you have any advice to another Jax gardener on broccoli? I've never grown it before. Do you have a variety you like? What should I expect?

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