Florida Urban Homestead

I have had a lot of questions about “Organic” foods and what it means. One is am “Are you an Organic Gardner?” The answer to that is yes and no. the yes part is that I raise my food in Organic soil that would meet the USDA standard. I also do not use non-organic pest control or fertilizers. The no part is that I am not certified by the USDA to say that I am Organic if I were sell my crops. A lot of the questions also are about the different terms they see on food packages. Here is the rundown:

100% Organic means that the product is made up of ingredients that were all raised, harvested, and processed in a Organic environment that meets the USDA standard

Organic (or USDA Organic) means that 95% of the ingredients as above, the rest of the 5% must be from a list of nonagricultural substances or ingredients that are USDA approved or be not available as Organic such as baking soda and citric acid.

Made With Organic Ingredients means that the product must contain at least 70% Organic ingredients and will not bare the USDA Organic Seal.

I hope this info will be of help, I tried to condense it down as much as I could from the USDA  guidelines.

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When the Florida summer heat is as bad as it is right now, it may seem like a waist to think about gardening. The truth is that right now is the perfect time to start seeds and even plant a little. Here is a break down of what can be started indoors, or planted outdoors in August in the sunshine state.

Outdoors:

Watermelon

Okra

Peppers

Pumpkins

Southern Peas

Collards

Corn

Eggplant

Indoors: (for September planting)

Tomato

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Celery

Leek

Lettuce

Cabbage

Cucumbers

Now is also a great time to get the soil ready. I am adding compost, rock dust, and other nutrients to the soil and turning it in. A weak solution of about two tablespoons of bleach to five gallons of water can be sprayed onto garden tools, stakes, and cages to prevent spreading any viruses or other diseases from one season to another, I do this in my driveway. I have also employed a large 50 gallon drum, I picked up from a mask making business that used to contain natural latex, in order to mass produce compost tea. It’s also a great time to hatch a plan on where you want to plant things because it can be important to rotate your crops from season to season. When it comes to the garden, there’s no time like the present.

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Yesterday was a day of sweet sorrow. Two of my tomato beds died out and I was forced to pull them out. With the pulling, I also had a glut of tomatoes bot green and red. I did what any tomato lover would do, make a tomato sandwich with my favorite mayonnaise and make a big pot of pasta sauce for dinner. Now is my time to replenish the beds that gave me so many great tomatoes. I have my compost ready, later this morning I will go get my rock dust and some composted cow dung and perhaps some mushroom compost if I can find it. Some of my new crop is already growing. I have some Roma, Maroglobe, and Rainbow Mix tomatoes growing in the Florida room as well as some peppers, eggplant and some papaya and cucumbers. Over the next two weeks I hope to have three new beds installed and stuff growing in them. It can be disappointing to see a bed of toms die, even when you are expecting it like I was because they were determent tomatoes; however, I will be exciting to start anew with young healthy plants. And I still have two beds of Beefsteak tomatoes growing and flowering.  So to my dead tomatoes and cucumbers, may you compost in peace.

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It’s mid July and the heat is on! Highs are now in the mid to upper nineties everyday along with very high humidity. While my indeterminate tomatoes like the Beefsteak and Beefmaster are still going strong, my pour determinate tomatoes like Homestead are calling it quits having finished their growing and fruiting cycle. The cucumbers are starting to burn in the midday sun, the pumpkins are slowing to a crawl. In fact, unlike my friends to the north, a lot of the garden starts to slow down this time of year, but not me! Mid August is just weeks away, and I have to get ready because mid August starts the beginning of a brand new season here in Central Florida. With any freeze here five to six months away, if at all, there is a lot of growing time left in the year. Already I have some seeds started. In the tomato section I have heirloom Roma, Mariglobe, and Rainbow Mix. I also started some

Mariglobe Tomato

Marketmore cucumbers, Green Zucchini, Round Yellow Zucchini, and sweet peppers. I am looking to get even more seeds in the next few weeks. In September or October it’s time for Bok Choy, and radishes, sugar snap peas, carrots, collards, and more. As I pull out the old plants, it’s a good time to amend the soil. I will be adding lots of compost like I always do, plus something I will be trying for the first time, Rock Dust. As I explained in an earlier post, Rock Dust adds in trace minerals that get lost in the rainy season. I will perhaps add some bone meal to prevent blossom end rot, and Epson Salts to help prevent a magnesium deficiency later on. I will also be adding several new beds before the start of the next season, so I have to get cracking. It’s a lot of hard work perhaps, but well worth it. There is nothing like a home grown tomato, or any other vegetable for that matter, not only because it tastes better, but because I know where it’s been.

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Sometimes I see something that reminds me of a line in a movie that most of us have probably seen, “Jurassic Park”. It’s the seen where the good Doctor Ian Malcolm says “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”  This line came back to me today as I read about Grafting, no not trees, but tomato plants.  It seems as though someone got the idea of grafting tomato plants to anything the could think of in the Solanaceae family that includes Eggplant, Tomatoes, Peppers, potatoes, and even tobacco!  Yes you can now have tomatoes grow above ground with potatoes underground.  But is it a good idea?  I’m not sure.  Should we get people used to getting cherry tomatoes off potato plants?  Potatoes produce cherry tomato-like fruit that even ripens red but it is poison!  Ok, ok, I know that is a reach for the horrors of grafting but you should Google this stuff.  Pour little tomato plants, so young and fresh next to their little eggplant buddies, and then  WHACK, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!  Oh the horror, I shiver.  I know I don’t think twice about grafted fruit trees, but this is just, uh, odd.  Oh who knows, perhaps it is the wave of the future and we will all look back some day and laugh.  ”Oh can you believe we used to grow tomatoes on tomato plants?  I mean really, you couldn’t even smoke the leaves!”  It could be that way some day, but a part of me hopes not.

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Vegetable Gardening in Florida

A book by James M. Stephens.  A Book Review.

Vegetable Gardening In Florida

This is a great book.  Out of any book I have read on gardening, it is by far the most useful to me.  Like the title says, it is geared to Florida gardens.  It talks about the decreases, pests and other troubles that visit our gardens here in the Sunshine State.  Stephens gives us the benefit of his decades of experience as Florida Cooperative Extension Service.   He gives basic advice for the novice, all the way to the seasoned Gardner.  This is a must have for anyone who has grown a garden up north because Florida is a horse of a different color when it comes to planting seasons, and this books handy charts explains them in full detail with when, what, and where to plant the vegetables we love.   It even has charts that tell you the recommended variety of each crop for this area.    I picked up this book a couple of years ago on Amazon.com, and I haven’t put it down since.  I highly recommend this book  to anyone who, like me, is taking the leap into urban gardening in Florida, a must have.

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So just how are my tomatoes doing?  How about those cucumbers?  Well, now you can see!  I will always show you the good, the bad, and the buggy when it comes to my organic urban homestead garden.  hope you enjoy!

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