Florida Gardening: My first raised bed garden for vegtables, 2 by jamibad

jamibad wrote:
This is the 2nd time I started this, the 1st time, I forgot to send it, now it's 2 days later because I've been busy fighting the flooding in my yard from all this rain. David to be quick and finish this message, I still have inside chores to do, ugh, to much all at once, rain rain and more rain, but ! I love the idea of the fishing pool. I have to look into it. I like that idea, Knowing what's on or in my veggie's as they grow and we eat them is so satisfying, and to know that I can do the same with fish, sounds to good to be true. I'm going to look into it, and just maybe, give it a try.
Sunkissed, Glad you enjoyed your week, or weekend here! Tomoka State Park is Beautiful! Because I live here I wouldn't camp there, but have enjoyed the day time there. I still haven't been to the Flagler Market, have no need because of the garden, no excuse, But you know the saying, you don't know what you have till it's missing. I live here and take everything for granted, the market, the beach, just living in a little beach community. I can't go in the ocean because of my cervical spine, afraid I'll get knocked over by the wave's, the parking has gotten out of hand on A1A, a lot of Daytona Bch. people come up here and use the beach due to the fact it's free, and there is parking along side the beach. In Daytona, you either take a chance and drive on the beach hoping to get a spot, or you park in a designated parking lot, and carry all your stuff a couple hundred feet to the beach, and with a few little one's tagging along, it can be a handful. driving up here is much easier. I stay close to home, unless I have chores to do out and about, I just put a pool in my yard, so I just simply enjoy what I have, here! I do occasionally take the dogs over by the police department/and library, there's a really nice boardwalk that goes through the wet lands, I love walking it with the dogs, enjoying the setting sun, the wild life, and just chatting with the people who are also strolling along for a late afternoon walk. It's so peaceful and beautiful. I don't know if you've been there, but there are a few miles of boardwalk, entertwining through the mangrove's, and trees. Flagler did a great job when they built that walkway. They have benches, and picnic tables with little overhead shelter, similar to what they have along the beach on A1A. You can carry a lunch, and halfway through , stop and enjoy a nice afternoon. I've taken chicken necks, twine, a net and went trying to catch blue crab, yes, had some luck, I see some people fishing the little arbitrarys( sp, or correct word) that run through there, there are quite a few, as it's all run off from the River. I really do enjoy it! But, I'm glad you had a nice time. It's peaceful when your camping, our last trip was down to Sabastian Inlet! Now, that is a great place to go too! They have the camp ground right on the inlet, you see the big boats coming and going, fishing , swimming, nice restruants, and it's 1 way down to the campground and one way out. Similar to going to the Ponce Inlet. Ok, I hope I wet your whiskers! lol, getting you ready for your next camping trip, I know I did mine. I'm ready!!!
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry! I just wanted to jump on here for a few minute's and tell you whats up with my gardens since all this rain started.
1st off, I don't know where they're coming from but I have worms on my Tomatoes, Corn, and found a few on my peppers, and squash!!! This is a new garden, never planted in before, 3 raised beds in 1, with some potted plants too. The other garden was tilled 3-5 time's, and the soil I used was bought from Lowes. The corn garden is OK, no worms found as of yet, but the raised bed garden, ugh! And the worms look different. Some are deff horn worm, but the other's I don't know. I have blasted them with soapy water, bough 7 dust, neem oil, than I went and bought more 7 dust in 1 of those garden hose sprayer thingings. I don't use this stuff everyday, but give it a few days before blasting them again. These worms have almost wiped out my corn, so I think. DH say's maybe I caught them in time, I don't know, but I'm freaking because I have 2 corn fields, 1 with bi colored sweet corn, this is the one with the worms, the white sweet corn is now drowning! I planted the white 2 weeks after I planted the multi colored. The multi has the silk starting to form inside the stalks, and all I can see is damage from the worms. Maybe some aphids too. I'm putting some picture's up here and if anyone has suggestions please, don't hold back, if I have to pull it all, do I have time to reseed the garden or count my loss this year. I am new, and this is why i started this thread. Now I really need help!
As for the white corn flooded garden, the corn wasn't as far along, but I have a large cedar tree at the bottom of the garden, and it's roots were stopping the flow and drainage of the water. I also had built up my rows of corn and squash to hills, and all the water is laying in the ditches between the veggies. I'll have to post a few time's to show you what I spent my day doing. While we slept last nigh, in addition to the rain, our hot water heater went crazy, flooding the garage. My garage is our family room, shop, whatever. We woke up to soggy carpets, 2 full bags of wet charcoal we just bought for the 1 side of our grill, wood chip, parts from my DH's old car, wood panels, they used wood to make some of the parts on a 1928 Buick, as in running boards door trim, roof trim, I don't know all that they used wood for, but quite a lot, and he was keeping it to make a template for the new parts. That's just a few things that were on the floor. So, while he was getting the garage and hot water heater back together, I was out with my shovel, and hand tools digging trenches to drain the water from my garden. I also unhooked the filter from the pool I just set up, and drained the water below the skimmer, as I was worried about the pool collapsing, because the sand wasn't really that stable under it yet. It kept overflowing, as was the rain barrel, not enough hoses to syphon the water away from everything. Just a mess! BTW, Remember, this is our 5th month in this home, so much to learn and do after this mess, imagine if this were a hurricane, OMG! Glad we got this now, so we know what we're facing! Anyway, to get to the point, He worked in the garage, I dug, heart and soul, body aching with every shovel of dirt I shoveled, trying to dig a ditch to drain the water. Every once in awhile DH would come out and take over, to give me a break, my neck was killing me, but we don't have that kind of money to call in help from a professional. It's DIY, I created this monster, and I get to handle it, the good and the bad! What I ended up doing was getting on my hands and knees, and literately digging the ditches with my hand shovel, and I had root cutter clippers, I actually dug the roots out from this cedar tree, cutting the thin roots, and the real big thick one's, digging till I found the bottom of the root, and digging under it so the water would drain . After about 5 hours, with many breaks, It was done the best I could. The water was moving, it reminded me of a small stream up North when I lived there! The picture's I post here will tell you what I did. Tonight I don't feel too bad, but I know I'll be miserable tomorrow, my hands hurt on a normal basis, as does everything else, I overdid it, but, we can fix this mess now with pvc, knowing that this is a problem, it wasn't a hot humid day as I was working, actually sweating, with 3/4 length pants, garden knee boots with 2 pairs of socks, and an insulated jacket with a hoodie, and another ball cap, I didn't have a rain coat, but till I was done, I was mud from head to toe, and wet, clear to my skin. Than I had to wait to get a shower, cause he was still installing the new water heater! lol, I went out to the rain barrel, got some water, and than rinsed off in the shower! And how was your day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel good, knowing that this won't ever happen again, at least this bad, we will put some reinforcements in, and correct the problem. I forgot to tell you about the pool. It's holding up, rather nicely, we took nylon rope and one of those swimming tubes, cut the tube into 5 inch pieces, ran the nylon rope through the hole in the middle of the tube, and than ran it around the bottom of the pool, to keep the legs together. If one leg would have been wiped out from the shifting sand, which hasn't happened, the sand is staying in place, it could have taken all the legs out. But, I did empty the pool half way, so I don't have to worry about that mess, or replacing the pool should it happen.
Here are some picture's I took today!
#1 first kind of cat found on a tomato leaf, horn worm?
#2 also on a tomato leaf
#3 This cat was on the underside of a squash leaf? Funny that they all look different!!
#4 Hubby getting ready on late afternoon Thursday, to try and get some ditches dug for drainage. To many roots from the cedar tree, being close to the end of the day, his back hurting( he already had surgery, need's more) and it was stiil raining, and dinner was almost done, he gave it up for the evening. Didn't realize what would be the waiting the next day!
#5 The dogs checking things out. This is the corn garden, and this side ( left) of the garden, watermelon, pole beans, and cantaloupe are high and dry compared to the right side!