Update on my vegetable and herb garden.

The tomatoes are doing well and we already picked some grape and cherry tomatoes. The fat boy tomatoes are growing nicely but they are weeks away from ready.

This year I have a couple of eggplant plants and they are growing very nicely. My only problem is--how do I know when they are ready to be picked? If anyone out there has any ideas, please let me know.

Most of the herbs are doing well except for the sweet basil. This is the second year that the leaves turned brown and the plant looks sickly. My local nursery tells me that it is a problem from the growers that supply the plants; maybe next year I will grow my plants from seeds.

The winter tomatoes are in the ground

This weekend the weather was perfect for outdoor activities in South Florida, the temperature was in the mid 70’s and we had beautiful sunny days. A perfect time to work on my tomato bed, and herb garden.

I purchased three types of tomato plants, sherry, grape and a hybrid call “Better Boy”. I also got a couple of eggplants. This is the first time I try the eggplants will see how they do. I also added Parsley, Oregano, Dill and Italian Basel to my herbs

I had been working on the tomato bed for a couple of weeks adding cow manure, peat moss and organic compost. Every year I have to add to the soil if I want good results from the garden. Our soil here is very sandy and unfortunate the area where I live has about 2 feet of crush rocks on top of the sand, added by the developers to avoid flooding.

Last year weeding the tomatoes kept me busy all winter long; this year I am trying something different. My neighbors told me that putting a newspaper under the mulch would do the trick; I’ll let you know if it works.
This winter I am planning to sow more seeds in my garden, I purchased the mixture with the cardboard boxes that are supposed to be bio-degradable, I am trying both ways, the old way planting seeds on the ground and this fancy mixture. Will see what works better.

I also decided to repot all my orchids; I am told by an orchids expert (and I am not one of them) that this should be done every year to keep the orchid plant healthy and blooming year after year

Tomato growing season is over

As many of you gardeners in the northern hemisphere are getting ready to plant your tomatoes those of us from warmer climates are finish with our growing season.
This year was a very disappointed season most plants produce small fruits if at all and the leaves frizzle. I was not the only one, my neighbor and my dad’s plants were the same.
Last week in our local paper in the plant clinic section there was a question about this year poor tomatoes plants performance. The Plant Doctor answered, that this year the plants were infested with a virus and that there was no cure, they came infested from the nursery. Next year I am growing my own from seeds.

Pentas from around the garden

The first crop of Tomatoes is in

The first Cherry Tomatoes of the season are in, sweet as ever. This year my tomato plants are not doing very well. Most of the flowers are dropping and the leaves are shrivel. I don’t know if this is a sign of to much water or a deficiency in the soil. I’ll take any advise from all you northern experts out there. I also had to be on the look out for Hornworms and and a brown slug that I have never seen him before.
This year, I prepared the soil a month before planting. I mixed the soil with compost, peat moss and slow releasing fertilizer. I don’t like to use much fertilizer after the plants are in the ground, I only use the Scott liquid fertilizer.

Everything else in the garden is doing well except the tomatoes. Oh well them are the breaks, may be next year I’ll buy a book on how to grow tomatoes in Florida or I should concentrate on flowers.