North Florida Gardening

[Barb_FL]

By cutting way back Barb do you mean on everything or just tomatoes?

Boy am I looking forward to October.

Just tomatoes; I grow too many anyway. If it is going to be a rainy Nov-March (El Nino) that should be good for everything I grow except tomatoes.

I grow broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, a little basil. I am going to grow broccolini too. We are going away for a month - mid August to mid Sept (I usually start tomato seeds Sept 1), so won't be starting until later anyway.

[PlainJane]

Finally I’ve been able to keep the Gulf Fritillary cats off the passionflowers long enough to let them get established.
Even with 4 vines they chewed them to nubs constantly so I had to start pulling the cats off.

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[PlainJane]

Six wine barrels filled and planted; 2 to go.

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[PlainJane]

The beans elsewhere in the garden were very unhappy with the heat these last weeks so I’ve started new in most of the raised beds.
The Blooming Prairie under the weeping plum were the only batch looking ok.

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[PlainJane]

Not looking so bare now that the vines are getting up there.

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[GoDawgs]

It's fun watching this new garden maturing! can't wait to see that arch covered.

[bower]

I just picked off a half dozen furry fancy cats from my poor little pea plant survivors too. Laughing and weeping. National moth week or something, they had to party but finally, I chose peas.

[PlainJane]

The Diplomat melon plants no longer look very good but are managing to ripen the last few fruits anyway.
The Paloma F1 eggplants are still going strong.

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[PlainJane]

Am attempting to squeak in a late melon harvest plus more summer squash using the wine barrels.
The new Col de Dame Blanc fig is loaded up and I’m really looking forward to tasting it for the first time.
Finally the ‘Inspiration’ passion flower has reached critical mass where I don’t have to pick off most of the Gulf Fritillary cats.

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[Wildcat82]

Am attempting to squeak in a late melon harvest plus more summer squash using the wine barrels.
The new Col de Dame Blanc fig is loaded up and I’m really looking forward to tasting it for the first time.
Finally the ‘Inspiration’ passion flower has reached critical mass where I don’t have to pick off most of the Gulf Fritillary cats.
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I've read on various fig forums that Col de Dame Blanc is a very good fig. How old is your fig?

[PlainJane]

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@Wildcat82 I just planted it in April of this year. It was around 2 ft. tall when it went in the ground.
I have Green Ischia, Petit Nigra and Smith also. Of those 3 Smith has the best flavor but Green Ischia is hugely more productive.
Petit Nigra is for the birds.

[GoDawgs]

@PlainJane , did you get any rain yesterday? We got 2.6" and it was much appreciated!

[PlainJane]

@GoDawgs only .35 of an inch. I had to water the garden yesterday. In the scheme of things glad to have escaped power outages and flooding but really could have used some of the 4” they were forecasting.

[PlainJane]

I watered and fertilized the melon vines and decided to bag each individual fruit against marauders. I’m using the fine mesh produce bags with a drawstring, super easy. So far 8 melons from 5 vines, not counting the tiny ones less than egg size. This round is a mix of Diplomat F1 (honeydew) and Sugar Baby (cantaloupe).
Finally remembered to take a snap of the 4 o’clocks before they close up.

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[PlainJane]

Last wave of zucchini should start flowering soon. In another bed are the new cucumbers and the cucamelons, which I can’t wait to taste.

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[PlainJane]

Sooner or later I’ll have to remove the zinnias so I can fit the cool weather stuff in.

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[PlainJane]

The only place I ever see this huge striped bee is in the passion flowers.

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[PlainJane]

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Sweet potatoes are loving the rain we finally got.

[bower]

Ah the zinnias are gorgeous, sure enough we're in the same place with that change of season stuff. It's so hard to take something out that is pretty. I even have trouble with weeds. Flowering sprouts on tomato plants. But we must cycle on so... everything must go.

[PlainJane]

Productive weekend despite dodging showers and really high humidity.

2 raised beds cleared of spent zinnias and marigolds.
Last 2 wine barrels planted with the David Austin Roald Dahl roses.
Herb garden cleared of stragglers, fertilized and forked over.
Orchard area also cleared of spent annuals.
General weeding and spruce up on all other beds and containers.
3 bags of Fava beans started - Cambridge Scarlet, Masterpiece Green Longpod, Witkiem (all from Prairie Garden Seeds)
Bush beans and a few pole beans tucked here and there.
Shallots, onions, leeks, Brussels sprouts started.
Chives planted out, basil, sage and oregano started.

Much lower humidity today and scads of bees and butterflies all over the place.

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