rexsmom's Blog

Well when I moved to Florida 28 years ago I had to relearn gardening. Quite disheartening because I had fantastic gardens in the Midwest and I couldn't wait to have veggies all year round. But I really had to read, talk to people and learn the basics. The humidity will wreak havoc on all plants here as far as mold, wilt and the nasty stuff. The real trick here is planting the hardy garden stuff real early like January and the other stuff corn, peppers etc around the end of Feb. If you want onions from seed start them in little trays. But it is just as cheap if you plant them in Jan from bulbs. My okra is going crazy..it loves the heat and not too much water. I never thought of putting tomatoes under shade cloth. Ummm? I might try it. I grow tomatoes in pots. I can't get them going good directly in the ground. I have a cherry tomato vine that is going on 2 years old and still producing on a trellis. don't ask me how..it just is.

Rexsmom, Get your onion "starters" from little bulbs. UNLESS you want to start them from seedlings INSIDE, which can be a pain! They come in all varieties, everything from scallions to vidalias to garlic and chives. Be careful to plant them ROOT side down! (It's east to mistake the roots for the stems) Don't give them too much water, either. GOOD LUCK!!!!

That's the way I did it up North which help them from being damaged from the acid rains in which everyone else suffered from! I even built a small green house to start all the seedlings and had a wood burning stove in it to keep them warm. IT WORKS!

TAllen, if you smoke, that is why you can't grow tomatoes. If my husband touches my tomato plants, they die. He is not allowed to touch them. It is called "tobacco mosaic virus" and is spread to plants by the chemicals in the hands of humans that smoke touching the plant.

Last year we did our garden in pots on the screened porch, that worked pretty well. It's kinda a pain in the butt getting them all watered everyday, while the shade cloth makes a regular garden work just fine once installed.

I'll keep y'all posted as the dead heat of summer kicks in.

Rex ~ not only can't I grow tomatoes nothing I try to grow works. That is interesting about smokers though never knew that. I don't smoke but my mom did for years and she had some of the best tomatoes on the block...go figure. As for killing the bamboo and cactus I haven't a clue how I did that. I read the little cards and followed them exactly as written. I babied them like crazy but within just a few weeks the bamboo was turning brown and on the way out and the cactus just ended up looking like prickly prune. That is when I just gave up.