Whine-Free Update

Just an update on some of the plants that have graduated from Bucketville to The Bermuda Rectangle (the lot next door where we've spread horse barn compost throughout the year, giving rise to a jungle of Bermuda grass and various other lawn-mower-defying growths....oh for livestock!)

Last year, this lot was flat and bare. Now we have a good collection of test plants going. Seen here are a pigeon pea and some moringas in the background.

We see these both as potentially valuable crops to us beginning now, but even moreso in the future. Rather than back up and reiterate the many uses of these under-utilized (in our country) plants, here are a couple of good links from one of our favorite resources, ECHO (an hour away, practically in our own backyard, yay!)

Pigeon Peas link

Moringa link and Another Great Moringa Resource list from another site

And not pictured in this post, but something we're trying to encourage the proliferation of is the Chaya plant (the link is a download...it's worth a good read) Jack's trying to get some cuttings of our very small plant going in the Bucketville nursery.

If there's anything that can pick me up from the doldrums, it's seeing that some of these plants are hardier than our horticultural learning curve, and the joy of spending time reading many of the resources from lists like this...it inspires me that we have so many underutilized plants that we really NEED to gain the wisdom (regain, more often) to use in our own backyards. And we DON'T have to have fancy equipment...there is so much we CAN do at the most basic level (reminder to self!) Here's such a list...


MJ had recently requested pics of the pigeon pea progress here, so here are a few. We didn't know when to plant them this year, so we may have planted them late...no pods on them yet, but one of our intentions in growing them was as a fodder plant for livestock. (We're working out the growing part ahead of time... no livestock as yet) See how tall this one is? Kaleb's size lends perspective to how much growth we've seen in these in a relatively short time. I think Jack planted the pigeon pea seeds in July, starting them off in (what else? ha) 5 gallon buckets. Things learned?

1. They prefer being in the ground
2. They're vigorous enough to skip the bucket stage and just be sown directly at their permanent site.
3. They prefer a drier location that's not often waterlogged.
4. They really put on growth quickly.
5. Of all our plants, they are among the ones that take the most abuse...heat, drought, extremes of weather. Let's see how they do this winter...
6. They make good nurse plants to give partial shade to smaller seedlings. That's what the buckets beneath are in the pictures shown.

Shown below are the moringas, started at about the same time, or even later than the pigeon peas. The growth is amazing...I think these are in the 8 to 10 foot range high. We were supposed to cut them at the 3 to 4 foot height if we wanted a coppice sort of rotational leaf/limb harvest, but we have to get our act together and read up on it before we start hacking away. Thankfully, there are excellent resources ( see those lists above) to familiarize ourselves with. But to answer the question of whether they'll grow? Yes! They are not much good as a shade tree, but the leaves and the entire tree all have individual uses...the leaves are packed with so much nutrition, they're said to be the cure for malnutrition in most of the known warm-weather world, even where there are weather extremes of heat and drought. And I believe they are cheap and easy enough to grow that their harvests should benefit the entire world at large nutritionally, without science and marketing putting a hefty price tag on it.

Here's some idea of our little jungle we have going. There's something really encouraging about seeing this where before I couldn't get a shovel to penetrate the hardpan. Jack gets the lion's share of credit for the brawn and sweat involved moving a lot of that manure and digging all those holes! He told me once he never knew he could grow things, but I have to say the plants and he seem to have a symbiotic enthusiasm for each other. Most likely my biggest contribution is fueling the plant addiction...ha! (that's not really an exaggeration)

Below, a closeup of a pigeon pea bush/plant

Here is another superstar plant...to say they grow like weeds falls short of describing how, in plastic bins, these things grew so fast they now top seven and eight feet in height...so fast we got preoccupied with other things and didn't get them into the ground fast enough! But the ones transplanted even at this late date are going gangbusters. These are the cranberry hibiscus, also known as false roselle. It looks along the lines of a japanese maple, and the leaves are simply delicious picked at the small tender stage and eaten fresh...they are a fresh lemon flavor, and the color is gorgeous. It's on my To Do list to expand my use of these in the kitchen...I have many ideas I just haven't tried yet. In the meantime, they just continue to grow. Our plan is to keep these much shorter so they'll take on a bush form instead of more vertical leggy growth. One thing we've learned is that the leaves have to be utilized immediately upon picking, or they wilt quickly. They can be prolonged by cutting a branch and keeping it in a vase of water...and make beautiful leaf bouquets that way.

I can't get enough of this color...

Here is a closeup of the moringa leaves, with morning dew. All parts of the moringa are edible. The leaves can be cooked, or dried and powdered. They are edible fresh, too, but have such a strong peppery flavor that way that a little goes a long way. Cooking them or drying them for additions to soups and so on de-intensifies the sharp flavor significantly, and it's not very noticeable...but oh, the nutrition! Super great, and responsible for keeping whole populations of third world babies from malnutrition, and mothers in milk. Don't get me started on breastfeeding as a topic :) My baby is 21 and I was fortunate enough to be able to nurse her for a great start in life. Ok...back to the post :)

One of the few branches of medicine I'm really enthusiastic about :)

Well, that's about it, but no post is complete without Kaleb photos. I'm sorry about my rant in the last post. Besides my hubby, Kaleb is a bright light every day...how can anything be really terrible when you have 100% devotion and adoration from this soft and loyal companion?

Regal canine... and his squeaky toy.

He's not always asleep on the floor. I took these pics to illustrate that wherever I am, he accomodates me, but HAS to be next to me. I love those instincts. I have to be careful not to step on him sometimes...he's truly a Velcro dog.

See what I mean about having to be careful? This is the wheel of my computer chair...as I am sitting in it.

Love is...my own personal bodyguard glued to whatever I'm near, if he can't be glued to my person. Love you, Kaleb!

And of course, the frog leg pose always makes me smile!

Thank you so much to you all for encouraging me after my last post. I really love you guys!

I know it's time to go now because Kaleb's run out of patience and trying to get my attention with a very insistent wet nose. I'm not alert enough to read his mind just now, and just got a blank stare from him when I asked him if little Timmy is trapped in a mine shaft. Plus we're in the wrong state for mine shafts. But outside we go for some air and sun :)

I Guess You Can Grow It In A Pot

A mini-watermelon, grown from seed bought in a packet at the hardware store. I can't remember what type, but it grew in a bin, waiting being transplanted into the ground...a day which never came. I don't recommend treating plants that way, but hey, it still bore several small fruits! We thought this one was a loss because there was a large hole from something eating or gouging the side, but when I cut into it, it had never penetrated to the interior.

One fruit is just big enough for a single portion. Or if you're really in love with your husband and don't mind sharing, two portions ;-)

The taste test will be tonight after it's finished chilling. I wanted to make sure it was fine on the inside, with no unexpected visitors (after inspecting the hole in the side). Looks great...can't wait to try it!

I like the idea of the mini melons. I think we'll have to keep them on the menu for next year's garden...with less neglect :)

False Roselle/Cranberry Hibiscus Update

Back in early June Jack planted Cranberry Hibiscus/False Roselle seeds. Here was the initial post after they had first sprouted...they certainly weathered the heat and extremes well. From those very small seeds emerged what appeared to be red maple seedlings. It is now early August, about three months total, and many of the plants tower over me.

The leaves are very similar to a red maple, or Japanese maple, sometimes appearing purplish with green tints intermingled, and sometimes tipped in vibrant crimson (especially the newer shoots and leaves).

These will benefit from getting cut back, since they are a bit lanky and need to be pruned in order to get a good bushy habit. I think that should also promote more flowers, too, as these will likely be blooming later in the year (let's see...it's our first time around with them).

We got them started in the plastic bins, but it's clear they need to be planted out soon. We're figuring that since they naturalize pretty easily in Florida in general, that they'll stand a better chance with freezes if they're in the ground and their roots can be better established by then. If they die back, they'll likely regrow from the roots. Again, let's see.

At a distance, their color here appears a dark plum color. Up close, the leaves are works of art, in every shade of plum, purple, violet, mauve, and the red spectrum. The veins are burgundy red.

We have tried eating both the tender emerging leaves (the dark red ones you see here at the tips) as well as the medium-sized leaves in teas. I've never tasted sorrell, but some folks describe the flavor as similar. To me, they have a mildly tart lemony flavor. The small tender leaves are very delicious in salads...we really like them! The other larger leaves are my current favorite in hot tea, especially combined with other medicinal tea plants. Right now I make a mix of fresh leaves of the false roselle (cranberry hibiscus), comfrey, moringa, and yerba buena...I feel good drinking it and even though I've been sick on and off this summer with a very stubborn respiratory infection, I do believe the tea helps give me a boost to build my immune system, or at least that's my hunch :)

I was delighted to find this video by Green Deane...fun and informative...check it out if you have time :)

But here's where the False Roselle is in its glory...with the blazing sun backlighting its leaves...this is the view out my dining area window (the only window visible from my kitchen), and when the sun is trying its best to wither and melt down everything in its path, the plucky false roselle's leaves gleam like jewels.

We are definitely keeping these for the longterm...they are so easy to grow from seed, they aren't bothered by extremes of weather, except for freezes, they are perrenial to our area for the most part, and for areas that have cold, they are easily grown from seed after the frosts. Prune them? They flourish and the pruned bits can be stuck into the soil to propagate more plants. They're delicious in salads and in stir fries...and teas.

When they flower, the blooms are a more delicate-looking version of a hibiscus, pink with purple veins, and though the flower has no taste, it is beautiful in salads. I can't wait to try them the way the ECHO global test farm recommends (check out the search bar for more about ECHO...we love them and use their seeds)...to pick them when the buds are closed near dusk and then to blend them with lime and sugar and serve as an iced drink...fresh limeade with a gorgeous pinkish glow...mmm!

When a plant is this versatile, I'm all about trying to think of how to use it in other ways. I wonder if the more tender medium-sized leaves could be used in recipes that would usually incorporate grape leaves, and if they might even be preserved for the longer term in brine the way grape leaves can. I haven't ventured much into the realm of making dolmas, but I've had some Greek food before, and eaten bits wrapped in grape leaves and thought them delicious. I wonder if the taste and texture of the false roselle leaves are close enough to grape leaves to serve as a delicious alternative with lemony undertones? Or if it would taste good flavoring a vinegar? Or included in jars of pickles (my grandma put grape leaves in hers along with the garlic and dill, etc) when canning. Or boiled with sugar and made into a simple syrup?

At any rate, if you have a hunch to try this plant, do! It's a great pollinator attractor and can be grown in clumps in the landscape, edible garden, or flowerbed.

We'll keep you posted as we transplant it and see how the bloom time goes, and how well it weathers our winter and some benign neglect from time to time. And I'll see if we can play with it a bit in the kitchen, too! If you have any ideas along those lines, let me know...I love to experiment :)

A Handful of Harvest

These Persian limes fruited even after our transplanting the trees in the most disadvantageous time of year. Their roots really needed to spread out, and we were afraid of losing them entirely if they had to endure the summer in pots. We lost our Meyer lemon trees from last year that way, and didn't want a repeat.

These beautiful little guys are about as big as a VERY small chicken egg.

So many of our harvests at this point are handfuls (or handsful, for the English teachers out here)...3 limes, 6 figs, a handful of raspberries. But we'll eat them! Here's a somewhat blurred closeup of the figs we enjoyed tasting out-of-hand last night...





The exceptions to the handful harvest so far this year have been the tropical pumpkins and the purple hull cowpeas, and now okra. Even though our patches of those are small, they yielded well, and I can see how some judicious planning as far as times of year and how many plants could bring us in a modest bounty with some left over to preserve.

We have all the makings for a forest garden but the forest, but do have enough tree starts to group together to realize some fruit before too many years. We are already harvesting moringa leaves as we're able from the saplings Jack grew from seed. They're fast growers, so there is enough to harvest to enable us to collect a small branch once or twice a week for use as tea or to add to foods. It's got an incredible nutritional value, and we're leaning towards trying to incorporate as many of the preventive medicinals and nutritives as possible straight from the garden, since we use no chemicals.

That's also the fun of the handfuls, too...whether a little or a lot, we're not worried about any ill effects. The limes are very small, and we'll only get a few, but I can utilize the whole fruit without any worries about sprays or poisons. That's what's stopped me from using the beautiful citrus we get in the stores here...I have no idea what pesticides are in those lovely skins and just don't want to make marmalade or use the zests or preserve them in any way if they've been sprayed.

Ah well, enough of that ramble for now. I worked last night but there's okra to pick...and no complaints here! :)

I hope you have a great weekend!

Shabbat shalom to you from us...Jack, me, the songbirds, fireants, squirrels, herons, egrets, buzzards, hawks, bobwhites, woodpeckers, blacksnakes, deer, possums, raccoons, bobcats, weasels, denizens of insects, tree frogs, lizards, and rampant Bermuda grass... to you and yours!

Okra Loves...Bermuda?

I cut our first okra pods today, many of which were too large and should have been cut days earlier. I'll be checking the plants daily or every other day now so I'll get them at the tender stage.

The reason I'm impressed with the okra is that they've survived a lot of extremes and still flourished. More of our attention went to other areas of the garden and lot. Early on, we had spread 8 inches (yep, 8 inches deep) of manure and woodshavings from a nearby horse barn over that area. At the time, there was little grass, and very very hard sand underneath. There was also drought for months...all spring.

I was really trying to see a green bean patch get a good start, and our limited time focused more on those than on the okra. The okra was planted in rows alternately beside rows of lima beans. The limas succumbed to our neglect not because we didn't water them when small, but because the Bermuda grass was so invasive and our budget didn't stretch to laying down landscaping fabric or rolls of plastic. We had some boxes, but that bermuda grew overnight. It swallowed the limas alive, and covered the okra entirely. Still, we left the okra sections unmowed...in hopes of what, I don't know, but I guess we wanted to see what would happen.

I'm glad we did! What happened was not in the category of Garden Beautiful, but those okra plants, which we had bungled by planting too closely together and in the middle of a drought, and then neglected to thin or weed, and later discontinued watering...kept on holding their own. Pretty soon their tops surpassed the top of the Bermuda. We were curious to see which would ultimately triumph.

Interestingly, some of them survived, and started maturing. I don't advise anyone to duplicate our way of growing it...we'd have a much better return if we'd planned better, tended them better. But one thing we learned was that okra can hold its own even in the midst of thick Bermuda. It LOVES punishing heat. The deer seem to leave it alone. It also survives days of rain. And neglect. The pods were disease-free, and insects of all sorts were among its leaves, but with no damage noted. These two small patches yielded 4 lbs of pods at first picking.

If I were to speculate, a better-tended patch or set of rows would be one of the easiest veggies to grow here.

It's a keeper! Now the question is...does it NEED Bermuda to grow so well?? haha :)

Calabaza: So Many Uses

I love multiple-use plants, especially if they're really hardy. Our calabazas recently had to be harvested after we found evidence of some borer damage, but what a bounty that one vine provided us!

We harvested over 90 lbs from the one plant, and it gave no evidence of quitting! Here is what it provided us:

1. Leaves for cooked greens
2. Blossoms for fresh salads or frying
3. Immature fruits for use as summer squash
4. Mature fruits for use as storage pumpkins
5. Seeds for roasting
6. Really beautiful variegated foliage and stunning flowers

For more about our experience so far with growing this plant, it's my post today at NotDabblingInNormal...maybe you'll want to try calabaza, too!

Advice Needed: Squash Vine Borers?

It is time to harvest some of our calabazas, which are in the pumpkin/gourd/winter squash family. About half of them had some damage. Here is the hole in the stem of one of them, wiped free of the sawdust-like frass from some insect. The stem interior was intact (not eaten out) but something got in right there close to the calabaza. In trying to read up on what it might be, the only thing I could find was squash vine borer.

However, here is another fine calabaza, but the hole, which is no larger around than the diameter of a toothpick, is right in the side of the pretty tough shell. Do squash vine borers drill right into tough shells?

Here's a closeup. The brown stuff, I'm guessing, is frass...otherwise known as bug poop.

The calabaza vines are each 50 feet long, and the older parts of the vines do wilt in midday, which I only now read might be further evidence there are borers in there wreaking havoc. However, I 've not seen any evidence on the vines themselves. I've also not seen the moths that are supposed to be present in the daytime, but I do see a lot of wasps, none of them with the red midsections the borers are said to have.

Does anyone know if this is squash vine borer damage for sure? I went ahead and harvested all the calabazas regardless of size since finding the damage, and 4 of the 9 have the holes...all in different places. Only one has the hole in the stem...the others have a single hole, like above, in the shell itself, some right in the side, one in the bottom.

All advice is welcome! I'm not sure what to do. We've thought maybe of cutting the old vine sections and pulling them and disposing of them off-property and seeing how the new vines do....or alternately, of just pulling it all up and hoeing the area to expose the soil to the sun in case there are any bad guys down in there, and replanting with a different type crop.

Help! :)

Our First Real Crop?

Finally...I think we're going to have an edible crop of something! These purple hulls have exceeded our hopes and have survived our gardening ignorance. And now they're trying to swallow the garden chair alive...woo!



Here's a before pic (below). The Bermuda grass is obvious. Next to the purple hulls were planted Blue Lake bush snap beans. Both were off to a great start. But in the later stages, with the same care, watering, intermittent drought and constant heat, the snaps couldn't hack it. I'm glad we did a test plot to compare these...the ability of the cowpeas to handle the vagaries of our climate at this time of year really stand out.



Here's the After shot...it's a small patch. The cowpeas managed to compete with the Bermuda enough to stand on their own ...
These will be ready to pick before too long...yay!!

Here's the baby calabaza we planted a few weeks ago. The other one is mature and has very long vines going all over the place. This one is so small it barely shows in the picture. This is the Before shot, below... Jack placed freshly-cut willow branches over it, mainly to keep our neighbor, who dumps horse stall manure on the lot, from accidentally running it over.

Here it is as of a few days ago. Calabaza, in reading more about it, is a crop that can be grown as far north as the New England states, if started in plenty of time.



A few of the calabazas never finish developing past the baby stage...they yellow and simply fall off. Some do make it, and we have several on the first plant that will hopefully make it to the harvest stage before long. Here's a pic of one, below...


and another smaller one. We've placed spare plastic lids under some of them when we thought the failure of some of the small fruits might have been due to insect damage from below. We're not sure there's any advantage to placing the lids beneath them, but have just kept them there because they seem to be doing fine in the meantime. We may have about 7 or 8 mature calabazas developing at this time, and several other very small ones that might or might not make it to maturity.

That's the update for now. We've officially entered hurricane season, which is supposed to be wet and rainy, but for us the spring has had very little rain and recently quite intense heat. I sure hope we have some more rain. The few showers that came a couple weeks ago reallyyyyy helped all the growing things!

Rain, Rain...Stay!

It was hot, hot today! And then we finally, FINALLY, got some rain. For two hours.
That's two more hours than we've had for most of the year so far, so it's time to celebrate!
Cornbread started out the soul food fare...

Greens picked from the garden fresh today...purple hull leaves and calabaza (pumpkin) leaves cut in a chiffonade (ribbons) and boiled like turnip greens. It was our first time trying them cooked like this, since we usually sauteed them. They tasted great...milder than collards or kale or chard, even. Perfect with the cornbread, mmm. They nestled next to some homecooked red beans and a small slice of tender roast beef.

It all went down goooooood :)
This was for later...Jack works tonight. I miss him even before he has to leave. We take whatever time we have for a date. Today's date was warm homemade berry cobbler with cold milk. And lots of kisses :)
We love the sound of thunder. The plants were still dripping when the brief storm let up.
Liquid gold...
I love how the rain beads on the leaf surfaces. These thirsty guys got a well-deserved drink.
This is part of the snap bean and purple hull patch. It's a sprint to see if we can keep the Bermuda out long enough for them to bear.
Here's more evidence of the chase...layering old straw and hay and wheelbarrows-full of old barn manure, and yet the Bermuda skips merrily along.
Marking off a new calabaza sprout with some stick debris and willow whips, to keep our friendly neighbor from accidentally dumping a load or two of stall cleanings atop the little guy.

I hope you had a great weekend! Ours was wonderful. I was with my best friend/beloved and mix in some outdoor sunshine/sunburn and a surprise thunderstorm, and it's my favorite kind of day. The cornbread, good eats, and cobbler didn't hurt, either :)

How was yours?

First fistful of Roma green beans ready for the picking! These were from the initial ones I tested growing in buckets. We'll be planting all our snap beans in-ground from now on when possible...about a third have not thrived in the buckets.

Baby moringa, grown from seed. So far, we have several of them thriving. This is a fast-growing and very useful tree good for human food and animal fodder. We hope to see it grow at least 8 to 10 feet this year. It'll go into the ground as soon as it's big enough. This is a plant we hope to keep a big patch of in order to harvest the fast-growing limbs for many purposes.

One wayward calabaza seed next to the compost bin sprouts into a glorious riot of variegated leaves and saffron blooms. We saw blooms and were wondering if any of them were being pollinated. It's sited near the swale that's overgrown with cattails. The drought this year means there's no standing water, but still it's slightly moist down there. We think we're getting pollinators from that area, though we've seen no honeybees around.
Hello, beautiful! These blooms can be eaten at a particular stage (we haven't tried that yet), and so can the leaves (cooked for greens). A peek beneath the vines found that many blooms have traded in the ruffled yellow petticoat for fertility's sake. There are a lot of little calabazas plumping up under there!


One such baby. Who will get to eat it first...the rabid bugs and ever-present pests of Florida, or us? Only time will tell! Maybe our stunning technique of "weed therapy" will keep the bad guys occupied? (crazy little laugh...ahem...oh how the Bermuda grass is making my life one big weed-battling duel, sorry!) :) I'm beginning to think that the subtropics down here are in a sense one big stomach, and anything on or in the ground eventually will get digested..and that it's just a matter of time to see if a harvest results, before it all returns to mulch again! ;-)
This week, on Survivor...here is a small shoot emerging from the freeze-killed Mamey Sapote (fruit tree) we were growing from seed last year. Grow, baby, grow!

Out at the cowpea patch, one area is doing great and another area is becoming engulfed with invasive Bermuda grass (what else??). The Bermuda lurks under all the other natural grasses around here, barely ever showing its face...UNTIL...one starts watering a garden. Then it calls all its friends, and in a single evening it begins having the sort of garden party it does no good to call the cops to break up. Ah. Well. My Fordhook limas are so glutted with Bermuda, it would kill them to begin (again) pulling it all up. Same thing with the okra...so it's a dead heat to see which (if any) of these will win by a nose...weeds, or plants? If the okra can get some height soon, maybe it'll stand a chance. The limas? Hmmm. The good news is that all the purple hulls and blue lake snap beans are at present SOMEWHAT under control (from the weeds). But they're there. I just keep smothering them time and again with straw, hay, mulch, stable cleanings. Until this crop has produced, there is no hope of turning the soil since it's simply a very very thick layer of composted stable cleanings. Sure, let's go with calling this "no-till," but "no-till" is looking messier than I like at this point.

Oh, the learning curve.

Hey, we're leaning in to the curve...the ride's fun! :)

How grows your weed patch?