Wednesday in the Garden

Controlling rampant summer crops was on the agenda in the VegHeadz garden today. Field peas (cowpeas, Southern peas), sweet potatoes and Seminole pumpkins have been spilling over onto pathways and into pollinator plants and adjoining beds.  This is a good time to chop and drop the peas. They are great at providing nitrogen and organic matter for future crops.  They also produce delicious fresh or dried peas.

Garden coordinator, Carole Hayes, reports that the vines were trimmed back where they were encroaching. Cutting Seminole pumpkin vines and sweet potato vines will not hurt the plants. Just avoid cutting off a developing pumpkin. The sweet potatoes will actually benefit from pruning as they can put more effort into producing the expanding roots we call sweet potatoes and less into foliage.  Save the trimmed sweet potato leaves for use in smoothies, salads, or cooked as greens   

Planning for the farm tour on October 15 is also well underway. Some topics on the agenda are ways to use and preserve your herbs, interpreting soil tests, and garden amendments to supplement elements that are out of balance as determined by soil tests.

Fall crops are being planned, and planting will begin when conditions warrant.  Planting of some fall crops can begin as early as the end of August and will proceed through the end of October and beyond, with each crop being planted at the best time to encourage success. Succession planting is also good to ensure hitting the planting sweet spot and to provide harvests over a longer period   Just make successive plantings of the same crops every week to two weeks to take advantage of changing conditions and to provide mature crops over a prolonged harvest period.

A major element in successful a garden is planting your crops during the optimal period for germination and survival. The “Vegetable Planting Calendar for North Florida” link under Resources in the left sidebar gives you all the information you need to decide when to start seedlings indoors if you choose, when to plant from seed, and when to plant seedlings, either home grown or purchased. 

Eggplants, okra and field peas harvested today.