Mardi Gras cat

Itty Bitty was being unusually cooperative for this special photo op.

Rain barrel

The first rain barrel is in. It's not pretty, but it serves its purpose. The storage container is a 55-gallon, food grade plastic barrel. This one had a previous life as a greek pepper container and still had a few errant peppers in it when we got it. We added a hose bib fitting about 6" from the bottom and a fitting for attaching to another barrel about 6" from the top. The center part of the threaded top of the barrel was cut out. The lid was then fastened back on with a piece of screen to keep bugs and leaves out. I placed a grill on the top to keep cats, squirrels, opossums, etc. from falling through the screen. The whole thing sits under one of the downspouts from the rain gutter, which was cut to the correct height. The barrel sits up on concrete blocks to add a little extra vertical height.

We got all the parts from the Indigo green store, here in Gainesville, and even attended a class where they supplied all the parts and we constructed the barrels as a group. The construction of these barrels is so simple, we would not have had any problem with it ourselves. But finding all the parts, especially the barrels would not have been easy at all. This store is a fantastic resource for us here in North Central Florida for any kind of green building or household products.

The barrel is about 2 feet vertical and 40 feet horizontal from the square foot garden. We had our first rain early this morning and it worked in principal, with a few minor glitches. (1) The downspout had not been riveted back together (yet) and it came apart. OK, need to finish the job. (2) There is a small leak at the hose bib. Again, easily fixed with a little caulk. (3) And the rate of gravity drainage is very slow. There is not nearly enough pressure to supply a sprinkler, so hand watering was necessary. And it took over an hour to drain the barrel, which was about half full. There are a couple of potential fixes here. First, we will put the barrel up on another set of blocks for a little extra height. And second, we need to work on a distribution method so watering can be done without physically sitting there with the hose. A slow system would not be so bad then.

This barrel is much too small to get all of our irrigation from it. But it's a start. We will add at least two more barrels at the other two downspouts from the house, but only if we can figure out a camouflage method for the one which will have to sit at the front of the house. We could also connect multiple barrels together at the same downspout. The system should work well for our small gardens for most of the summer growing season, when we have generally reliable rainfall which will refill the barrels and reduce the demand for irrigation. The barrels will probably be inadequate for the winter garden, when we can go weeks without any rain.

Sweetwater

Ahhh, Sweetwater! I don't think there's any other place like it on earth. This is old Florida at it's best. A private spring on a meandering spring-fed creek in the middle of the Ocala National Forest. The cabin, built by the CCC in the 1930's, sleeps 12 in two bunk-bed dormitory-style bedrooms. And there's plenty of room on the grounds for tents, hammocks and sleeping bags. The spring has a little platform for jumping off into the cool, crystal clear, soul healing waters. Just a few dozen yards down the spring run, is Juniper Creek, fed mainly by Juniper and Fern Hammock springs. The creek has some of the best kayaking on the planet. It meanders through oak hammocks, grassy marshes and palm groves as it makes its way from the springs to Lake George. Trees bend low over the water in so many places that paddlers have to do the limbo to get under them. The current is strong enough that to paddle upstream is a great workout.

The picture above is John Moran's appropriately named "Paradise Found". That's exactly what it feels like when you are there. The rest of the pictures are from our trip there last year.

Some of our younger group brought hammocks which were strategically placed around the spring and grounds for convenient access to bliss. One of the hammocks was anchored to a tree that had a large active beehive. That was my favorite place to take my book and relax. Except that I rarely got any reading done there. It was too sedating to lie there listening to the droning of the bees.

Another hammock was hung from a huge oak tree that hung out over the spring. That oak tree dominated the views of the spring while providing shade and respite for the locals. What an amazing place! I can imagine that this must have been a favorite resting spot for native Americans who no doubt also enjoyed the cool, crystal clear, soul healing waters, quite possibly under the somewhat less extensive shade of that same magnificent oak.

SF Garden -- Late Winter Update

We have been harvesting some beautiful and delicious carrots from the garden. My one cabbage plant is gorgeous! I suppose I could harvest it at any time, but I think I'll let it go a bit longer. The lettuce is pretty much all gone now. I left one plant for seed production. The beets are still pretty little but I pulled a few of them yesterday. And there's peas, onions, chard, and strawberries still to come.

Now for the broccoli story. Last family dinner night, I decided to pick the one big brocolli stalk and give everyone a bit of raw veggies fresh from the garden before dinner as appetizer. We all tasted it and politely declared it good. But soon it became apparent that the aftertaste left something to be desired. It was a bit bitter, maybe coppery even. A few minutes later, Erica noticed little green things on her computer keyboard. She had been working on homework when I brought the brocolli in. It turns out the brocolli was covered with camoflauged tiny bugs. Live and healthy. And coppery tasting. I learned my lesson -- always wash the veggies, even if you grew it organically yourself. I check the garden almost daily and completely missed this pest. I went out and sprayed some Safer insecticidal soap on the brocolli plants, so I hope that takes care of the little buggers! I'll be checking a little more carefully from now on.




We've had some really cold nights this year. It's gotten below freezing on four separate occasions, and once down into the teens. To protect the plants, we place wire tomato cage supports around the edges of the raised beds. Then we place clear plastic over the frames and hold it down with spare 4x6's left over from making the raised bed. This has worked really well, but would not be the best in high winds or heavy rainfall. We generally wait for the front to go thru before setting up the "greenhouse". It's cheap, easily assembled, and easily stored between bouts of cold weather. We have been toying with various ideas for a more permanent-type greenhouse, but for the number of days that we actually need cold protection here in North Florida, this works just fine.