Hurry up and wait
I'm in north Florida. I've been stuck in the house all weekend because it's COLD outside! Yeah yeah I know you northerners don't want to hear it, but seriously it's not supposed to get this cold - which means most Floridians simply aren't equipped with the right cold weather gear. I spent today in bed (by the only south-facing window in the house) surrounded by gardening books (hooray!) and I managed to get my garden late spring/summer planned out.
Since this is my first year with a real yard I'm not sure if this will be too much. There are already beds set up (and neglected) in a large L in my back yard along the fence. It's actually more like a corner desk because there was a pentagonal bed in the corner and two rectangular beds on either side. I'm going to do two tomato plants (one larger variety and one small variety like romas) and probably three bell pepper plants and one hot pepper among the rectangular beds, with herbs all around them (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary). In the pentagon I am going to try squashes, southern peas, maybe watermelon for fun, and in the far back corner where I can't reach I'm going to put snapdragons and black eyed susans to replace the (invasive) elephant ears.
Right now I have oregano in a container in the semi-shelter of my porch, some peas (if they've survived the cold - they were alive yesterday), and some dead half-grown bean bushes that didn't like the cold weather at all, and some small rosemary plants. The problem with having my garden planned out is that now there isn't much to do till I start some seeds which probably won't be for a couple weeks yet. I was going to post pictures of what I had to give some of you a "greenery fix" but now most of my yard is very very sad looking (and it was sad looking last fall from a year of neglect so that's saying something). So now instead you get a mopey picture-less post. ;-)
Oh, for posterity the books I'm reading are:
The Informed Gardener
Gardening in Florida Month by Month (I will probably purchase this one - these are all from the library)
Sustainable Gardening for Florida
Vegetable Gardening in Florida
How are the rest of you doing? Are you planning? Are you just going to wing it? A little of both?
Since this is my first year with a real yard I'm not sure if this will be too much. There are already beds set up (and neglected) in a large L in my back yard along the fence. It's actually more like a corner desk because there was a pentagonal bed in the corner and two rectangular beds on either side. I'm going to do two tomato plants (one larger variety and one small variety like romas) and probably three bell pepper plants and one hot pepper among the rectangular beds, with herbs all around them (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary). In the pentagon I am going to try squashes, southern peas, maybe watermelon for fun, and in the far back corner where I can't reach I'm going to put snapdragons and black eyed susans to replace the (invasive) elephant ears.
Right now I have oregano in a container in the semi-shelter of my porch, some peas (if they've survived the cold - they were alive yesterday), and some dead half-grown bean bushes that didn't like the cold weather at all, and some small rosemary plants. The problem with having my garden planned out is that now there isn't much to do till I start some seeds which probably won't be for a couple weeks yet. I was going to post pictures of what I had to give some of you a "greenery fix" but now most of my yard is very very sad looking (and it was sad looking last fall from a year of neglect so that's saying something). So now instead you get a mopey picture-less post. ;-)
Oh, for posterity the books I'm reading are:
The Informed Gardener
Gardening in Florida Month by Month (I will probably purchase this one - these are all from the library)
Sustainable Gardening for Florida
Vegetable Gardening in Florida
How are the rest of you doing? Are you planning? Are you just going to wing it? A little of both?