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Down here, you can only grow cherry tomatoes in the early spring to mid-summer. I've started some herbs though, and always have fennel going, in the shadiest (coolest) part of one of the gardens. We eat the bulbs, and save the seeds for Italian cooking. It also supports Swallowtail caterpillars, so we share.
Also always grow basil, year round. I love to brush up against it and release the scent.
Anyone growing the 'Mexican tarragon?' It's not really tarragon at all, related to marigold, but packs a stronger punch than true French tarragon. I've had such bad luck with tarragon in the past I'm trying my hand at the Mexican marigold type.
We need rain down here too. It keeps skipping right by my place.
I have Mexican tarragon growing in a display herb bed....it grows beside the scarlet red flowered pineapple sage. I also have cubana oregano in that garden...(its not really oregano either...but smells like it) ..I need to move it as the pineapple sage has encroached over it. German thyme and parsleys have been bonanza crops as well as regular sage (like Thanksgiving Turkey stuffin' sage).
My garden is also in Ft Myers. My Tomatoes are looking great....not ripe yet and onions and scallions are doing well. Japanese eggplant and sweet long peppers and red cajun peppers (both from Home Depot) look great and are covered with peppers. Over in the community plot where I garden....there is a lot of an African Pink basil.....looks and smells like Thai basil...but it is pink and it doesnt form seeds or bolt...just a glorious magnet for honey bees. I bet that honey is divine. Also I never grew okra....but what I planted about 4 weeks ago ....is up and starting to get flower buds.
Elston, I grew Okra here about 4 years ago. Think I started seeds in October, and wow, what a great crop! It does very well down here.
Yeah, I'm growing some Cinnamon basil. Really unusual, you can smell the cinnamon when
you crush the leaf in your hands. Still trying to find a recipe for it.
I've got to try the Thai pink basil. That does sound divine.
How tall has your Mexican tarragon grown to? I think mine (starter plant from Home Depot) was grown in too much shade, it is lanky and laying over on it's side, although it appears to be very healthy. Is yours in full sun?
Elston, I grew Okra here about 4 years ago. Think I started seeds in October, and wow, what a great crop! It does very well down here.
Yeah, I'm growing some Cinnamon basil. Really unusual, you can smell the cinnamon when
you crush the leaf in your hands. Still trying to find a recipe for it.
I've got to try the Thai pink basil. That does sound divine.
How tall has your Mexican tarragon grown to? I think mine (starter plant from Home Depot) was grown in too much shade, it is lanky and laying over on it's side, although it appears to be very healthy. Is yours in full sun?
It is African Basil that I was describing not the Thai....it is like thai basil but I think a much nicer plant and like a mule...it isnt fertile....so it doesnt bolt. Its fragrance is spicy. I will google it and post a link. http://gardening.lohudblogs.com/2008...an-blue-basil/ They call it "blue african basil" but it is really pink.
My Mexican Tarragon is getting over shadowed by the prolific pineapple sage...the tarragon does sprawl and is lanky but it is doing very well and is in bloom.
On May 7th the community garden and eco preserve is having an open house/fair...with a butterfly release, speakers, garden tours, plant sale etc. It is on Shire Lane off Daniels Blvd....behind the Unitarian Universalist Church. $5 admission to raise money for the Eco Preserve.....which is featuring an extensive collection of native flowers, shrubs, trees.....after clearing out all the invasives....it is beautiful and very interesting.
The eco preserve is a fairly large (maybe 7 acres) piece of land that was over run with Brazilian Pepper trees and every other exotic invasive species....it has been cleared out and now is rather park like.....but our goal is to restore it to a pre invasive specie take over...with native flora. We are particularly interested in restoring a natural ecology with flora and fauna. Installing bat houses, inviting bees back and butterflies....a nesting pair of blue birds has taken up residence in our bird box.
I will be hosting the booth for the garden from noon to 2 pm. If you come by I would love to show you my garden. Look for an older bald man with a grey beard....sort of a cross between Santa Claus and Berl Ives. My first name is Bond.
Just read an article that says "dirt" like top soil in the garden......may be similar to and as effective an anti depressant as the medication.... Prozac....you dont take it internally.....you get the benefit by working in the garden. That might account for the peace I feel when I get out to my garden.
I'd be able to offer you plenty of fresh seeds of passiflora suberosa Elston. (blooming right now and setting the tiny fruits) It's native, and the Zebra Longwings and Gulf frits love to lay their eggs on them. You can write me if you're interested.
Sadly, I have a job that Saturday, and won't be able to make it. But I can offer the seeds.
In a few months, I'll also have passiflora incarnata seeds if you need them. Same thing as p. suberosa. Both butterflies love it, but especially the longwings.
I'd be able to offer you plenty of fresh seeds of passiflora suberosa Elston. (blooming right now and setting the tiny fruits) It's native, and the Zebra Longwings and Gulf frits love to lay their eggs on them. You can write me if you're interested.
Sadly, I have a job that Saturday, and won't be able to make it. But I can offer the seeds.
In a few months, I'll also have passiflora incarnata seeds if you need them. Same thing as p. suberosa. Both butterflies love it, but especially the longwings.
I would love to try my hand at growing the Passion fruit vines.....I sent you my contact info in a DM. (at least I think I did.....I get confused on the computer. lol
Maybe some other time you would like to visit the garden. let me know. I go over almost every day.
The japanese cucumbers kyuri are poking up this morning.....big excitement! The Japanese greens are looking good and the okra is growing by leaps and bounds. I have green tomatoes that are harvest size.....just need to ripen up....
The "butterfly lady" is busily planting ornamental beds (nectar producers) in rock gardens around the perimeter of the family gardens. Our gardens consist of 100 4x8 raised beds filled with an organic grow mix. They are laid out on a medicine wheel pattern in alignment with the four directions and divided into earth, air, fire, water quadrangles. Its on a beautiful green area which includes wooded and marshy land....a grassy park like area with a labarynth and a fire ring and studded with slash pines and oaks. The landscapers are making natural islands of native flowering and fruiting plants and trees ..... to make it hospitable for birds and critters and BUTTERFLIES. There is a pond on the edge that provides our irrigation for the gardens....and an aquatic environment for turtles, ducks etc. We found that a turtle had laid its eggs in the mulch pile.
This morning I saw pilated wood pecker in the tree and we have a mated pair of Eastern bluebirds in the bird box....all in all this is a sweet piece of heaven that has gently fallen to earth.....I feel so blessed to go there to tend my garden.
VERY cool!
We in Zone 7A just planted some pinks and a few petunias around a hilled-up hosta bed, in part to hold the soil steady and in part to 'prettify.'
Then, I had started a cabbage stem in water over the winter and we got ready to transplant it into a little pot of dirt. And we found a potato growing in the wheelbarrow of soil. One new potato added to the potato pot!
Lastly, I have an Evil Scheme for my indeterminate tomatoes this year. We grow vegetables exclusively in containers. If it goes well, pics to come. If it doesn't....
Elston, I grew Okra here about 4 years ago. Think I started seeds in October, and wow, what a great crop! It does very well down here.
Yeah, I'm growing some Cinnamon basil. Really unusual, you can smell the cinnamon when
you crush the leaf in your hands. Still trying to find a recipe for it.
I've got to try the Thai pink basil. That does sound divine.
How tall has your Mexican tarragon grown to? I think mine (starter plant from Home Depot) was grown in too much shade, it is lanky and laying over on it's side, although it appears to be very healthy. Is yours in full sun?
I grew okra here a couple of years: it was really easy, from seed, started in June. I don't think I will this year: our farmers market has it really cheap. So for couple of bucks I can get plenty to pickle and some to saute.
As for basil I am pretty much down to just regular sweet basil. I love lemon basil but haven't been able to find it for years here and I did Thai last year; might do it again this year.
You did write me Elston. I didn't even see your email address until I'd already answered you here, so go ahead and read. They will be in the mail tomorrow.
NMNita, we love the flowers of the Okra, so go ahead and grow it anyway.
Of course, we do have the space to do so, know some people may not.
Mulched the garlic and broad beans today with grass cuttings to suppress the weeds that keep appearing every day. Thistles are a pain to dig out!
A few more seedlings appearing too...
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