Green Bean Bonanza, Sad Tomatoes and more...

Remember those Blue Lake Bush green beans I planted, the ones that had been in the freezer for 12 years? Well, I cooked up a whole pot of them last week. I wish I had taken pics, but I didn't. I actually cooked them at a friend's house, because I had a kitchen fire on Christmas Day and don't have a working stove right now. Yeah, I'm a clutz. I left grease on the stove. Good thing I wasn't cooking a Christmas dinner! There are some upsides to not celebrating Christmas, although, if I'd had a house full of people, maybe the damage wouldn't have been so bad.

Anyway, the beans are putting forth another flush of blooms, and I have some harvesting size now, so I'll be picking them and doing the crock pot thing with them. I expect to get quite a few beans from these plants before I have to replant them.

My tomatoes aren't quite as healthy as my beans. It seems the Early Girl has been hit by a blight, because all the bottom leaves are dying and falling off. The fruits are being eaten by some sort of bugs. I need to spray them, but I hate to use poison. I've been taking cuttings from the plant, but if it has a blight, they won't do well either. Sad.

The lonesome little Japanese Eggplant is loaded with blooms and tiny baby eggplants. One is harvesting size. The sad part of that is, I love fried eggplant, but have no stove. I guess I'll try to boil some water in the microwave and blanch and freeze them. I had good luck with my eggplants living a long time last time I planted them, so hopefully I'll have the same with these.

I cut the tops off of turnips and planted them, but I haven't really watered them a lot, so they're not growing. It was really an experiment to see if I could get turnip greens out of them.

I planted lots of seeds, some I got in trades and some herb seeds I bought. I am really praying the Cherokee Purple tomatoes come up. I've always wanted to taste those, but they are way too expensive at the store. They're heirlooms, so I can save seeds.

I also have some Grape and Cherry tomato seedlings growing. I don't know why I have so many tomatoes, because I don't really even like them!

I really need to get some squash and cucumbers into the ground, but I've been so busy, I haven't had time to prepare the garden spot on the other side of the yard. I'm going to try hard to get that done this week.

I have some volunteer watermelons coming up in the compost pile. I'll probably leave them just to see how it goes.

Guess that's all for now. Happy Homesteading!

Growing Tomatoes in a Sub-Tropical Climate

Homegrown Tomatoes Are Easy in South Florida If You Know How

The most frequently asked question by gardeners when they move to South Florida is "how do you grow tomatoes?" In South Florida, you grow tomatoes primarily in the winter. This is because our growing seasons are reversed from the rest of the country. Read More...

New Community Just For Urban Homesteaders!

I searched and searched for a forum that was just for urban homesteaders. As all of you who do this know, we have all sorts of special problems that people on acreage in the country don't necessarily have (they have their own special problems that we don't have as well).

So I created a free community for us. It's at webs.com (used to be Freewebs) and right now, it's just a home page and forums. You do have to register, but I hope you'll all join me there.

http://urbanhomesteading.webs.com

Let me know if you have any problems. The forums are in beta, so they're iffy sometimes.

Enjoy!

Update on Experimental Veggies

So you'll remember I decided to just try a few veggies over on the east side of the house, where the demolition of the house next door gave me a lot more light. I had no idea whether anything would grow there or not.

I had already started a Sweet 100 tomato plant in a pot, which has stayed there, and while I wasn't pleased with its performance this summer, it's doing extremely well now. It's leggy and ugly, and more like a hanging basket than a tomato bush, but it's loaded with tomatoes, as seen here.

This is the tiniest tomato I've gotten from it. Cute, huh?

The eggplant has grown like mad lately, which is unusual, considering the cold weather. Eggplants tend to like it very hot, and are well suited to growing during our summers. Nevertheless, you will see the difference between the 11/14 picture and the 12/14 picture. It now has three eggplants on it, one almost large enough to harvest.

The tomatoes are thriving. The Early Girl now has 9 tomatoes on it, and the Beefsteak has three. Here are the two comparative pics of the Early Girl 11/14 and 12/14.

And the Park's Whopper on 11/14 and 12/14 below

Can't forget the beans! Remember those Blue Lake Bush bean seeds I had had in my freezer for 12 years that came up? Well, not only are they growing, they're blooming! Planning on planting a lot more of these in the second garden planted in January. Again, on 11/14 and 12/14

So my experiment was successful, and I know that I will be able to grow veggies on that side of the house. Mostly, I'm planning on growing tropical veggies there, but knowing I can grow sun loving veggies is something good to know. That is, until they build another house on the lot next door.

Sorry I have been so neglectful of this blog

I've been concerned with writing articles to sell, to keep my house afloat. I will get out this weekend, take pics, and catch it up, I promise. You won't believe how much things have grown!