Florida Gardening: My first raised bed garden for vegtables, 3 by jamibad

jamibad wrote:
Hi everyone, Have you all been as busy as me in the gardens??? I have been out there every morning and evening, wow, things are growing as fast as I can pick them. My toms are turning red, thank goodness not all at one time. My string beans are producing, my cukes have been doing great, I have so many, I guess I can make some kind of pickle's with them. My squash are kind of stunted at this time, either finished, or laying low because of the heat, and rain. The cantaloupes are growing, and for some reason, the watermelons get the baby on them, with the flower at the end, but when I go out and check them, the little green pea size ball has either turned black, or fallen off completely. I'm thinking about hand pollinating them, I don't see any bees buzzing around them. Weird, as they're in the same bed as the cantaloups, just on the other side of the bed. My corn is up, has been pollinated, the silk is turning brown, looks like I may have small ears or else they are still growing inside, I never grew corn so..... just waiting to see if the kernels are full and the husk get bigger!!

My flowers that I grew from seed are doing awesome!! I can't believe how my garden fence's are getting covered, or hidden from the flowers. That was my intent, I didn't like the fences sticking out with nothing to hide them. I planted some morning glory's along the fence, they are climbing like crazy, and the blooms have started to open up. As soon as I get a picture with a " bunch of blooms" I'll post them, the 1 picture I have so far, is of the first bloom I saw, I think it was 1 or 2, don't remember which picture I took. My climbing vine's, the jasmie, honey suckle, and other's are doing great, I also stole some little vine's that were growing on my side of the neighbors fence, I used some root hormone, and they took, and are in pots for the time being. I'll wait till all the melons are done, than transplant the vine's. The melons seem to have taken over the one fence, and are now intertwining with the morning glory's, and the honey suckle I have in there already. Once I yank the old vine's out, I'll put the new one's in, for better planning next year. I have to say, I never expected to grow all this in a short time. I'm very surprised with myself! woo hoo!!! I have grown all these flowers from seed, echinacea- purple and white coneflower mix, petunia's, giant peony mix, pansy's, and my favorite cleome's rose queen. I love these flowers so much, such beauty! I also put in marigolds from seed, more of these than any of the others. Amazing to see how different they grow, depending on where I planted them. Some look like a bush, other's look like a large ground cover! I also have spearmint, chive's, basil, dill, and some other garnishes in as ground cover. I bought some buttercups, my neighbor gave me some bee balm, hydrenthis(sp?), and some succulent cactus plants,( I don't remember the names though). My bougainvilleas are doing great, I was a little worried as they lost their color, I thought they were dying, as I did buy the plant, not seed. I guess all it took was some time to get established in their new home!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing some plants, all I know is "all" my beds are filling in! I'm going to look and see what I can plant next for out Florida zone, I have room where I took out the last of the radishes, peas, sugar snap peas, and the rest of my spring onions just came out. I have a new batch going, but in a long planter. They took up too much room in my raised beds, with very little results! I think I planted the seed to early, and those last frost we had stunted their growth. Same for all my peppers. They weren't growing , than I found some worms in them, so I pulled all the fruit, and threw it in the woods, but in the last 2 weeks, wow, they have spouted up! Here again it had to be the cold weather, and planting out too soon. I also planted some later pepper seedlings in buckets, and they are just as big as the one's I put out in early March. I forgot to add, I have egg plants in, and they are starting to bloom, not sure if this is the time of the year for them, but so far so good. I need to get picture's of them. I have a late batch of cabbage, it didn't grow as fast as the lettuce did, it's been up and harvested for 2 weeks now. The cabbage ??? Still waiting! I have a Brussel Sprout plant, that was planted in a pot, around Feb, it's growing, maybe around 28" high, but know little cabbage heads showing! Here again, maybe the wrong time to plant, but if it's growing I let it be. This is my first year, having a raised bed garden, and I was so hyped up, I just went and bought what I wanted, planted it, and here we are today! Next year I'll put more thought into the gardens, actually, already planning it out, but haven't come up with a completed garden yet.

I have to get some things done in the house that I've ignored since we moved in here, painting, finishing up my craft room, which reminds me, I've been away from my mosaic's too long. I may not be here as much as I have been, My last 6 months have been getting the garden ready, and planting, an ongoing thing since Jan, 15th 2013, up till now, and from here on out I should have more time to do other things. Besides that , it's getting to hot and humid to be outdoors between 11am to 5pm, geesh, 5 minute's and my whole head is soaked from sweat, darn thick hair, I take my DH's old tube socks and use them as headbands, they do soak up the sweat that's running into my eye's. Looks funny though, but who cares, nothing worse than having sweaty hair stuff rolling down your face into your eye's. lol!!

So there you have it, an update on my raise bed gardens. I'm so glad I did it!

Oh, and BTW, I have had no encounters with Bear, Deer, or any other creature who lives in the sanctuary behind my house. I have been blessed, thanks to my scarecrow water shooter, and my Spirit House! More to do with the scarecrow though!! I see deer every night walking the dogs, around twilight they start to move around, I went out the front door one night around 10:30pm to let the dogs out for their last bathroom break before bed, and a deer was in my front yard! I know I see them about 5 time's a week! And yet, they aren't chomping on my garden stuff! A well spent $50+ dollars!!!!!
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OK, let's hear your updates on your raised beds, anything that you've been doing! I'd love to hear it, all you who read but don't post, this means you, I know you have things to share!!! Please.....DO !!!!
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Q, Glad you found your way to Flagler Beach! What day was it? I know it get's packed up there, this has been the case since 2005, Daytona has no where for anyone to park, they charge to get on the beach, and if the tide is up, or any other thing that make's it hard to drive on the beach, they close it off to cars. If you have little one's, and a cooler, and all the other goodie's you want to take with you for a day on the beach, it's hard to carry it all for a few blocks. They started coming to Flagler around than. When I moved here from Ormond Bch in 1998, the year of the fire's, there was never anyone parked further than N.10th St, or S. 10th. It was always pretty busy around the pier, but now, wow, you can't get a spot on the beach, you have to go in a block or so! And July 4Th, lol, they use to allow you to park your vehicle the night before, all you had to do was unload it the next day, and set up on the beach that day. Big motorhome's would pull in the night before, and spend the night along A1A, but they have now outlawed that! You have to get up early to get a space, but if your lucky, like us, you just walk to the beach area, or have someone who has no plans to spend the day on the beach, drop you and your gear off, and than after the fireworks, hang out for an hour or 2, all the traffic is headed out of town as soon as the FW are finished, than your friend or who ever come's and picks you and your load up! So much easier. We take our bike's so we can go back and forth to the house, potty breaks, refills on ice.....
I love Flagler Beach on July 4th, we look forward to it every year! This town ROCKS!!!! It use to be a 3 day event, if I remember right, Than it went to 2, now it's a 1 day affair! I think maybe it depends on when the 4th falls. Anyone else reading this remember??? Anyway, when ever you get over here again, d-mail me! We can meet, and have lunch, or?, and talk shop! LOL!!!