Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Rain, Rain Go Away - Garden Update

We've had our share of rain lately here in Central FL, and especially at The Compound.  It's now a prerequisite to wear boots in the garden.  Don't stand still for too long or you'll get sucked down into the muck.  It's impossible to pull weeds when it's this wet.  Yes, and what you see in the photo, are all new weeds.  They were pulled last weekend. 

I think we've gotten too much rain and my tomatoes are paying the price.  The leaves are starting to droop, it's very weird.  They droop like they haven't had any water, which is far from the truth.


It's hard to tell in this picture, as this was first thing in the morning.  A few hours later, 1/3 of them were droopy.  This picture pretty much looks like a jungle.  The plants have grown so huge, the cages do not support them.  I've resorted to trying to tie back the branches as best I can to keep them off the ground.  I really shouldn't complain, it's a nice problem to have, considering the slim pickings we've had on previous garden attempts.  I'm hoping the droopy plants come back.
 



Speaking of jungles, here's my celery plant. A jungle of it's own!





















Here's a watermelon on the rouge plant, growing near the rose bushes.  The mesh screen keeps the hens out.  It's one of their favorite places to scratch.  Maybe that's why my rose bushes do so well?!










We've lost a couple of potato plants, and in one case the entire tires worth.  So I pulled the tires apart to see what if anything was growing.  It's definitely not much, but better than nothing.


We're supposed to stay dry this next week.  Hopefully enough to get me to next Saturday so I can pull weeds and mow the yard.

5 comments:

  1. So sorry about your tomatoes! Lord willing, they'll perk back up and produce plenty of fruit for you. :) So funny how different our climates are...we are just planting our potatoes this week, although I do have a few plants that have come up volunteer from last year. You know how I was saying it's been warming up here (I know, temps in the 70s aren't warm where you live, but still...), well, this morning we woke to below freezing! 30 degrees! I ran out to the porch (thankfully it's covered) to make sure my tomatoes which are being hardened off didn't freeze. Thankfully, all my seedlings are just fine. Phew! Have a happy Wednesday! ~Lisa

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    1. We took a look today, and it looks like some of them have come back. I'll know more on Saturday. Sorry it got so cold, but glad to hear the seedlings are just fine.

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  2. Izzy,

    I love your celery plant, mine are growing like crazy too!!!

    YUM watermelon, that is one thing I didn't plant this year. When it's really hot there in Florida a nice cold watermelon will make for a good treat to cool down.

    Did you not have enough space for your potatoes to grow?

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    1. The celery plant is the craziest thing. Grew up all on its own, in an area I've never grown them before. It's been growing for over 6 months now, and it just keeps getting taller and adding more stalks. We leave it totally alone. It's done well all on its own, so why change anything.

      I planted watermelon seed in the garden and they are slow to get started actually. The volunteer is doing really well, and again, I've done nothing to help it along.

      Maybe that's it. Next garden season I'll take some seeds, mix them all in a bag, shake them up and then just willy nilly scatter then in the garden. I'll come back a couple months later and see what's there! Sometimes it seems what I don't bother with does better than what I spend hours trying to care for. But that's life!

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  3. Send some of that rain up here. We need it bad.

    I would say that yes the tomatoes are drooping from too much water. We used to get that here sometimes when the rain was normal although it usually gets the peppers worse than the tomatoes.

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