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.