Zone 9 Garden » Vegetables

Today’s Harvest

Dan — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:50:23 +0000

The heat of summer is coming soon, and with that comes a bountiful harvest in my zone 9 garden.

Today I pulled about 25 Roma Tomatoes. I plan to make a fair amount of salsa and to can some of them. My wife and I also like to make caprese salad out of them!

I also harvested 2 large jalapeno peppers and 3 red-hot cherry peppers. These will also be used in the salsa!

Still waiting to be harvested are a few green bell peppers.

Eggplant in Bloom

Dan — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:40:18 +0000

The heat of the summer is starting to show up and with it comes eggplant! Eggplant is a heat loving plant that starts to come into its own in Central Florida as other vegetables are on their way out.

While walking through the garden today I noticed that the Eggplant that I have planted near my tomatoes is finally in bloom!

It will not be long now before I have eggplant parmesan!

A Few New Blooms

Dan — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:15:09 +0000

Better late than never right?

While working in the garden I found a few plants with their first blooms of the year.

Jalapenos

Black Berries

The jalapenos seemed to suffer from the late start due to the long and cold winter we had here in Central Florida. The plant is now fairly tall and looks very strong and healthy, and as of today, seems to be producing!

The black berries were planted early this season from cuttings. I did not expect them to produce anything this year at all, and I am considering pinching the bloom off. I would like the plants to grow large and healthy, so pinching the flower will help divert all energy to growth.

Everything else in the garden is growing very well. I harvested more green beans today, and I think it will be the last harvest from the bushes. The pole beans are just starting to set beans!

Will update again soon…

Garlic Growing Well

Dan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:04:08 +0000

In January I planted a row of garlic in one of my raised beds and it is really starting to grow well now that the spring weather has shown up. The leaves are about 10-12” tall already and growing strong.

This is all soft neck garlic that I got from the local grocery store. I would not recommend using grocery store garlic for growing at home, but I walked by the garlic and the bulb already had leaves growing from some of the cloves.

What type of garlic are you growing?

Square Foot Gardening – Tomatoes

Dan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:06:13 +0000

Today I planted my Tomato seedlings in a 4×4 foot raised bed. I planted them one plant per square foot.

I know that is far to crowded for these plants to be healthy in humid Central Florida, but I do plan on thinning them out once they start to grow vigorously.

I planted 8 Roma (determinate) and 4 Brandywine (indeterminate) with the plan of thinning both down to half.

I also planted 4 black beauty eggplants as well!

Growing Eggplant for the First Time

Dan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:04:09 +0000

I have decided to grow some eggplant for the first time this year. I have picked “Black Beauty” for my first attempt.

Eggplant belongs to the same family as tomatoes and grows in almost the exact same way, and requires nearly the same care. I have started the black beauties in doors and am waiting for them to grow a few sets of leaves before I put them out side.

I look forward to some eggplant parmesan with fresh eggplant as the star of the dish the summer!

Broccoli – Only Side Shoots Left

Dan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:39:47 +0000

The final average day of frost for Central Florida was yesterday and the effects of the warming is starting to really show on my Broccoli. All that is left are side shoots and some of them are starting to look kind of poor.

When the side shoots of a broccoli plant start to look bad and yellow a bit that is normally a sign that it is time to pull the plants and throw them in the compost pile. The only reason I haven’t done that yet is because of my dogs.

My two Australian Sheppard’s love broccoli, and it is good for them too! So I will continue to grow until the sideshoots bolt to fast or just stop producing!

Garlic and Onions Growing Well

Dan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:33:52 +0000

It is still very early in the garlic and onion season but they seem to be growing very well so far down here in Zone 9. There has not been any noticeable bulb growth on either but the green part of the plants seems to be growing well and healthy!

Garlic

I have planted about a dozen Softneck Garlic plants. I believe them to be Artichoke.

Onions

I have planted a little over 2 dozen onions that are granex type sweet onions. I originally planted quite a bit more but have used a few plants as green onions, as originally planned!

Growing Broccoli in a Container – An Update

Dan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:33:00 +0000

(This is an update to Growing Broccoli in a Container)

On October 24th I started to grow a few broccoli plants in containers and here is an update as of today. The plants have grown to about 20 leaves and has a decent sized head of broccoli growing. They seem to be enjoying the cool weather that zone 9 (Central Florida) has been experiencing lately and have really turned all of their energy to producing broccoli. There is still a chance that we may see some 80+ degree weather here in the summer and if that happens it will cause the broccoli to bolt pretty fast. I will be keeping an eye on the weather and hope for the best! Here are some updated pictures:

Growing Lettuce in a Container

Dan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:30:02 +0000

Lettuce is a staple in gardens all around the country. With delicious verities that range from romaine lettuce to bibb lettuce that are all easy and quick to grow it is easy to see why lettuce is so popular. Lettuce naturally has a small, shallow root system. This makes the plant an ideal candidate for being grown in a container.

Here is how it is done:

Sow seed indoors 4 weeks before last frost or 3 months before first frost. Lettuce is a cool weather plant and does best when daytime temperatures are 70 or bellow.

Prepare a container that is at least 2 ½ gallons with a rich potting mix that contains high levels of nutrients and can retain moisture.

Transplant seedling on a cloudy day to the container and place outside in an area that receives 6 hours of sunlight.

Maintain soil moisture as much as possible. Lettuce likes a moist soil and reacts poorly to inconstant soil moisture.

Fertilize with a high nitrogen liquid fertilizer. Lettuce responds very well to liquid fertilizers and because it is fast growing, slow releasing fertilizers are not recommended.

Harvest at maturity. Each type of lettuce matures a bit different but a simple general rule is once the lettuce is big enough to fit on a sandwich it is ready to start harvesting.