Time to grow sweet potato slips

It’s time to start growing sweet potato slips for this year’s crop in our north Florida area.  Find what you need to know in some of our previous posts:

Growing your own sweet potato slips:  https://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/2021/04/growing-your-own-sweet-potato-slips.html

Update on growing sweet potato slips:  https://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/2022/04/update-on-growing-sweet-potato-slips.html

and at UF/IFAS:  https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/sarasotaco/2020/12/04/edible-gardening-series-question-of-the-week-sweet-potatoes/

and at this post from Sow True Seeds on how to grow big sweet potatoes:  https://sowtrueseed.com/blogs/gardening/5-tips-for-growing-big-sweet-potatoes?utm_source=Sow+True+Seed+Community+Newsletter&utm_campaign=654171c852-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_07_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5f4c126e35-654171c852-10027825&mc_cid=654171c852&mc_eid=67f1104403

Wednesday in the Garden

 

Tools out, ready to garden!

Our (Wednesday report this week is from Peggy McDonald, former garden coordinator, who is standing in for Cathy Alfano, current coordinator, while she’s out for a while. Peggy’s update gives a vignette of what goes on in the VegHeadz garden every Wednesday.   The busy VegHeadz are really something  Thanks, Peggy. for the garden report and the photos!

It was a glorious day in the garden, here are a few of our activities.

The area where the roselle was growing -- how about Yacon in the sun? We have it growing in the shade in the Forest Garden, but not in the full sun. Will it get bigger, will the tuber harvest be bigger? We are still open for other suggestions.

Michael brought his string trimmer and made fast work of cutting down the weeds around the bamboo and sugarcane. Peggy started but did not finish laying cardboard and mulching this area. We counted 5 new loads of mulch just inches from this area so it’s very convenient.

Mary sowed buckwheat as a cover crop to attract beneficial insects around her flower bed. The seeds only need to be scattered and raked in a little. A light dusting of mulch keeps birds from making off with the seeds. There is plenty more buckwheat seed for everyone. We should plant it throughout the garden to feed pollinators, predator bugs, and bees from our hives. Remember the delicious dark honey the bees make from it.

We marked the area for 14 sunflowers on the East side of the garden and started to weed and put some fine mulch around. Mary made a funny face when I asked if she, Marie and Jeannie had finished the 110 foot row. Let's just say it’s a work in progress.

We have sweet potato sprouts where we grew them last year, imagine that. The mushroom compost soil has been reordered and arrived today.

Joanne continues to weed and mulch around the two flower beds on the South Side.

Vegetable Garden updates:
· Linda harvested carrots and planted two Edamame plants in the D beds. She tied up our flowering Cilantro again. I want to collect seeds, but it keeps falling over.

· Cathi braved the ants to turn the compost bins and planted zucchini and cucumber seeds in the A Beds.

· Glenn worked on trellising his Square foot beds,​ we'll have to wait to see what his vining crop will be.

· Nancy worked on the containers in the Patio Garden. Today she planted sunflowers and aji dulce pepper and will add container eggplants when they get a little bigger. Her last addition was Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry. It will be pretty cascading over the sides of the 15 gallon pot.

· Louie replaced annual herbs or ones that died in the cold. Herb garden additions- Thai and Sweet Basil, Thyme and Lemon Thyme. Tea Garden bed- Rosemary, Lemon Balm, Edible Lavender and Marigolds.

· Michael used a rebar stake to kill a few newly sprouting old banana stumps.

· BJ and Linda weeded the Library Seed Bed #1 and noticed the labels for this year's crops, but nothing planted yet. We may need to get a set of the seeds distributed at the Leon County libraries from Extension Agent Molly Jameson who heads up that program.

Compost garden soil mix.  We keep it under
wraps to prevent leaching

Michael is working on maintaining the
extensive banana mat.  The bananas plants are so
 prolific we have trouble keeping them thinned out  
enough to produce fruit.

We kill the core of older plants that 
have produced fruit so new plants have
more chance to grow and produce.  
The old plants will continue to grow,
but they only fruit once.  Rebar 
kills the core.

The roses Kwan Park planted with the arbor he built at the garden entrance
are blooming beautifully.  Thank you, Kwan!

Time to prune bananas

Peggy, Keith and Linda are part
of the banana crew who are returning 
 trunks severed by Mike’s
reciprocating saw to the
banana mat to decompose and
provide nutrients to the emerging new growth.  

Even though we had a hard freeze this year, most of the bananas in our area were not frozen to the ground and still have solid pseudostems, the banana version of a trunk.  Although Extension experts are recommending that pruning fruit trees not be done until later in March or early April, the VegHeadz decided to cut back the bananas in our garden this Wednesday.

They should be cut back until no decomposing tissue is evident on the trunk.  Healthy trunk will be  moist, even wet, but tightly wrapped and dense.  A hand saw, machete or reciprocating saw are good tools to do this rather than a chainsaw. You might want to refer to our post from last year about growing bananas and how to prune them.

Garden coordinator, Cathy Alfano, said it best, “ The garden is looking so pretty these days. Spring is such a verdant and hopeful time, when so much seems possible and all our plants are bursting forth with potential. Thanks to all of you who work so creatively to make it so.”

Other scenes from this Wednesday in the garden:

We love this Tuscan kale plant in Cathy’s
bed.  It just keeps going.  

Louie and Marie are mulching the
pathways around the herb beds.
In addition to controlling weeds,
cardboard and mulch are helping
keep carbon in the garden, not
in the atmosphere.   

Trevor tasted a carrot from 
the 4-H beds.  They are ready to be harvested
at any time. We also harvested some
carrots from our rotation beds.

Peggy is sorting out new plant labels 
for the forest garden.  At this 
time of year, it’s hard to find 
some of the perennials that 
don’t come up until later 
in the spring.  

Peter and Glenn continue with
building the grape arbor.  It
is going to be so solid and 
stable.  

Mary, B.J. and Jeannie are planting corn for the Three Sisters.  
They soaked the corn seeds overnight to encourage germination.  

Janis and Joanne are working on filling up
some bare spots.  Pollinator plants probably 
going here.  Photo by Jeannie Christensen.  

It looks messy, but the bananas will come back strong. Janis, Peggy, Mike, Linda and Joanne.
Photo by Cathy Alfano.  

Wednesday in the Garden

Our old hens have a new roost!   And we’re not referring to our chicken moving team which included Rene, BJ, Peggy, Joanne, Camille and Mary. All hens were successfully moved on Monday to Joanne ‘s very large chicken coop at her home.   Photo by Mary Janik.  

So much is going on in our garden, we’re going to let the photos do the talking.  

We had visitors Cara Rockwell and Erika Rocha Guimaraes of Florida International University, and Genevieve Printiss of the Florida Forest Service who are interested in our garden, and particularly the Edible Forest Garden.  Shown here learning about the pond at the top of the tropical garden, Bed 5,with Horticultural Assistant Rachel Mathes and VegHeadz Keith Post and Peggy McDonald.  Erica is writing her thesis on forest gardens, and she and Cara will be printing a booklet for public information purposes that will include our forest garden along with others they are surveying.  Genevieve is stationed in Quincy and is hoping to include food forests in her agroforestry programs. We hope to hear more from her too.

The Chopper Droppers.  B.J., Cathy, Cathi, Mary, Nancy and Joanne.  Winter cover crops in the beds are being chopped and dropped in place to make way for spring planting.  Some of the cover crops such as mustard were taken by Joanne to feed the chickens.  

Louie is experimenting with different varieties of daikon radishes. She found that when thinning, the radishes she pulled survived transplanting to another location in the bed. The big roots of daikons help prevent soil compaction and bring nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil. The plant is also packed with health benefits and has a milder flavor than other radishes. They’re delicious.

Our many varieties of garlic, shallots, and bunching onions are thriving.  

We can’t decide if this is a wildflower, a weed,  or an invasive because it’s volunteering in several places.  iNaturalist identifies it as corydalis.  It’s a pretty plant.  What do you know about it?   

Nancy, Linda and Camille have been working on the patio garden and it is definitely shaping up.   Can’t wait to see what’s growing in all those pots.  

One of the 4-H beds is sporting a creditable crop of spinach.  That’s really hard to grow here.  We’re impressed.  

B.J., Mary and Jeannie—What should we plant next?

Janis—Gardening is good exercise!  Photo by Jeannie Christensen. 

Aren’t these high beds great.  They bring the work right up where Cathy needs it and the sides are perfect  for sitting.  Photo by Jeannie Christensen.  

Some of our great group of VegHeadz.  Photo by Cara Rockwell.