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FALL FARM
TOUR
Many people enjoyed touring the demonstration beds, the orchard and the VegHeadz vegetable garden, food Forest, grape arbor and rain garden. Hundreds of visitors wandered among the beds, got ideas, asked questions and enjoyed the day. Kids got to dig potatoes and sample green beans and Roselle tea. Hundreds of packages of free seeds were to taken home to plant in gardens. We love having people in the garden and we hope they’ll take home some ideas for their own spaces.
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| A third of blueberry canes should be pruned each year to encourage new growth. |
Detailed pruning instructions can also be found here: https://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/2022/11/pruning-fruit-trees.html
For a complete fruit care calendar for the north Florida area see the left sidebar under Gardening Resources.
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| What kind of beans are climbing so vigorously? |
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| Why are these plants covered and what with? |
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| Why are these plants being grown and what will happen to them? |
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| What vegetable plant provides this interesting flower and what else does it provide? |
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| The plants in these two beds come from the Leon County library. See what you can grow with the seeds available there . |
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| What is the particular purpose for the plants grown in this bed? |
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| These are GMO tomatoes. Find out what species genes have been modified with And what advantage they provide. |
If you are one of the hundreds of people who would have enjoyed tours of the many gardens on the grounds, you will have to wait until next year unless you’d like to visit them and the adjoining orchard on your own any time during daylight hours.
In the VegHeadz garden at the southern end of the property, we were ready to guide you through our many vegetable and pollinator beds. Thanks to Peggy McDonald for these great pictures giving us a virtual tour. As always, photos just can’t capture the wonder of a garden. Again the vegetable gardens and food forest can always be seen and fully appreciated on any day during daylight hours or join us for a personal tour on most Wednesday mornings when we are working there.
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| Welcome to the VegHeadz garden as you enter from the east side through the rose arbor. |
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| To your right you will see pollinator gardens and sunflowers. |
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| There are sunflowers planted throughout the garden. They are great trap plants as they are preferred by stink bugs and particularly leaf-footed bugs. |
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| Our main rotation beds are designated as A-D. This is bed D (actually three beds in graduated sizes). This year plants in these beds include tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. |
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| Rotation bed C. Plants in these beds include corn and beans. |
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| Rotation bed B. Plants in these beds include squashes, cucumbers and melons. |
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| Rotation bed A. Included in this bed were green peas and sugar snap peas. Potatoes were planted in January and are ready for harvest. They will be followed with summer crops—okra, field peas and sweet potatoes. |
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| We also have four small rotation beds. No bed is too small for good gardening practices. |
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| You’ve reached the edible forest garden at the south end of the garden space, shadier than the area where we grow annual crops. Here you would see bananas, loquat, native plum, olive, turmeric, perennial onions and other plants. |
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| At the far back of the garden in the food forest, this artistic trellis supports chayote vines next to a fig tree with ground cover of longevity spinach. |
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| Mayhaw tree, a native with fruit for jelly and for wildlife. Also in this area, peach and elderberry. |
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| Mulberry and wax myrtle anchor this area of the forest along with Satsuma, goji berry, lemongrass and other understory plants. |
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| Heading back up toward the top of the garden, we find a variety of individual “test” beds including various types of pollinator plants, a variety of perennial onions, a bed of pre-1900 vegetable varieties, a blueberry patch, and a patio container garden, among others. |
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| Herb beds, mostly perennials. They now include a number of artichoke plants. So far they are thriving. |
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| This artichoke plant produced five buds, which is the part that is eaten before they open. We’re letting a couple of them bloom. |
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| Adjoining the herb beds are the two beds used each season to grow plants from the seeds distributed at the Leon County libraries. |
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| The central arbor is planted again this year with loofah gourds. The vines will soon cover the arbor, providing shade as you pass through. We love to watch them grow and the yellow flowers are big and gorgeous. |
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| A Cardinal has built a nest in a large plant of Sweetie Pie cherry tomatoes. |
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| It’s fun to visit the 4-H beds next to the arbor. There are raised beds of many different configurations and materials. |
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| Just west of the main garden is the rain garden, seen here through the grape arbor just below it. |
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| We’re really sorry to miss the honey sale held each year with the Open House. The bees in the hives adjoining the garden have been gathering nectar from our plants all spring, including a large stand of buckwheat which makes delicious dark honey. |
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| We even have sunflowers planted between the compost bins. |
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| Adjoining the compost bins, Bananas are already forming. Can you find them? |
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| From the bananas, we circle around the main rotation beds back toward the entrance. Here an eye-catching feature of the garden is the cattle panel arches spanning between each of the rotation beds. Seen through this arch is the center part of our garden, including worktable, storage shed, compost bins, and seating under shade for rest. |
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| More arches |
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| The arches support tomatoes, beans, cucumbers—anything that climbs. |
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| Last, to the right of the entrance as we leave, and maybe the most important, are the many perennial and annual pollinator plants which help to control pests and to produce abundant crops on our fruiting plants. Also in this area are Roselle and yacon. |
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| Something is blooming at almost every time of year. |
