Citrus

In this part of Florida, citrus trees can grow and thrive with a bit of protection when the temps really dip. We have 7 Navel Orange trees and 2 Pineapple Orange trees in large 45 gal pots. These are too heavy to pick up, so Bill has epoxied these to pallets so he can lift them with a forklift attachment to the tractor and move them into his shop when subfreezing temperatures threaten. We have 2 Temple Oranges planted in the ground (pictured above) that are so happy with their location and soil that we must top them off every year to keep them to a 10' height so that we can wrap them in frost cloth. Finally,we have a Lime tree in a large pot that sits on the driveway on the east side of the house. Lime harvest is more continuous and spread out than many other citrus and they hold well on the tree, so they are available many months of the year. I use them quite a bit for cooking and seasoning, so I prefer this tree close to the kitchen.

We coddle the potted Navel and Pineapple Oranges and relocate them whenever the temperature is predicted to drop below 28 degrees. The Navel Oranges are the best fresh eating orange, sweet and nearly seedless. Pineapple Oranges provide the best fresh squeezed juice I've ever tasted. So yes, it's worth the 30 minute move process that occurs several times during the winter. The Temple oranges are not nearly as tasty and we wouldn't be devistated were we to lose these. As a result, we only wrapped these with frost cloth this past week when the temp was predicted to hit the upper teens. (19 degees was our official low). They have survived several hard freezes uncovered, with no fruit loss and minimal leaf damage. Although they are not the best orange (actually a tangelo) for fresh eating, they make a surprisingly good juice that freezes well, as opposed to the Pineapple that is better fresh. Because they are in the ground instead of pots, they produce hundreds of fruits rather than the dozen or two from a potted tree. The experts say that citrus trees will be damaged at 28 degrees and killed at 26 and below. The Temples survived 23 degrees unprotected and 19 degrees wrapped. The Lime tree unprotected was unfazed at 23 degrees. Although the Lime is in a warmer mico-climate, as it sits on concrete and is protected by the house, it is supposed to be the most temperature sensitive of all citrus. I'm thinking that established citrus will acclimate a bit to cold weather and would like to see more research done in this area. Areas of Florida just a bit south of us grew citrus on on a large scale until a devastating freeze wiped out major groves in the 1930's.


Orange Salad

Navel orange sections, with sliced banana and pecan halves. Amazingly good and easy.

The Fall/Winter Veggie Garden

Cabbages planted in October will be ready for harvest in February.

We love onions! I have three beds of these, Savannah Sweets and Granex (both Vidalia type sweet onions). These are planted 4" to 6" apart and will form bulbs as the days lengthen. They will be ready to harvest in April.

Dwarf Sugar Snap Peas planted in beds 3" apart. These are good cooked for just a few minutes with butter, but are awesome raw. Sweet and crunchy, great added to salads.

This is my favorite lettuce, Sierra. I plant this variety along with its sister Nevada exclusively now. They are a Batavian type lettuce, a bit of a combination of the the color of leaf lettuce and the crunchiness of head lettuce. The only difference between the two is that Sierra develops a red tinge to its outer leaves as it matures. I originally planted these because the Batavia lettuces are slower to bolt in the heat, but discovered they also tolerate a bit more cold than other lettuce varieties. They have come through 23 degree freezes with no damage. I sow these in 4 or 5 rows to a bed, and thin to 4"-6" apart when they are a few inches high. At the above pictured stage I harvest outer leaves, a few weeks later I start cutting every other plant allowing the remaining lettuce plants to fill in and develop. Planted this way, a small bed 3' x 6', will provide all the lettuce we can eat from November through May.

Unlike the spring/summer garden, the fall garden in this area is a leisurely, ongoing process. The spring garden simplified is plant everything (corn, tomatoes, squash and beans) on or around the middle of March. In reality of course, I always try to get a few things planted in mid to late February to stagger the harvest, but have to frost protect for the inevitable March frost. Anything not planted by mid March is subject to demise from heat and it's accompanying bugs and disease. This results in a time consuming planting frenzy. In contrast this was the fall garden timetable:

October 6-planted carrots, cabbage, lettuce and turnips.

October 20-planted onions, spinach, lettuce and carrots.

October 23-planted carrots, spinach and lettuce.

October 27-planted onions, carrots and broccolli.

November 7-planted onions, peas and potatoes.

November 8-planted strawberries, cauliflower, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, and garlic.

December 6-planted potatoes, carrots, spinach, turnips and parsley.

December 20-planted carrots, potatoes, spinach, peas, and cabbage.

January 8-planted kale.

For the rest of this month and into February I will plant more spinach, greens, carrots, lettuce, peas and chard. Small succesive plantings gives us a variety of fresh vegetables through the winter and into the spring. All of the above can take the occasional frost/freeze except for the peas which show damage at below 26, and the potatoes whose tops must be covered to prevent frost damage.

Not only is there a great variety of vegetables that grow in the cooler months, the weeds and bugs are almost non-existant. While we have a few winter mornings in the 20's, we also have many mild weeks when the vegetable garden thrives and it is so comfortable to work outside.

OPL's (Other peoples leaves)

If there is a secret to my gardening success, it is OPL's, or other people's leaves. Unlike Rachael Ray who always say's EVOO, and then explains "extra virgin olive oil" I will hereafter refer to these as leaves. Each year I collect 500-1000 bagged leaves from curbsides to mulch my gardens and beds. I start in November and pick up bagged pine needles but the real scores are in January and February when the oaks start start shedding. It sounds like a lot of work, but I just leave a few minutes early for work and cruise several familiar neighborhoods that have lots of large trees. I can usually find bags of leaves on the curb and toss them into my pickup bed in just a few minutes. The next morning I take 20 minutes of gardening time to dump them into beds and gardens. When I first began this leaf adventure, I was intimidated and only stopped for leaves when no one was around and only picked up in front of homes with no cars in the driveway to indicate anyone was home. Later, as my need for leaves grew, I became more fearless. I now often stop when homeowners are out in their yards if I spy a particularly good stash. I've found everyone is happy to have their waste and labor be recycled than to go to the landfill. Usually I get a strange look when I ask if they mind if I take their bagged leaves, but when I tell them I use them for mulch, they often help load them and tell me to come by the following week when they'll have more. I'm not sure why these homeowners are not raking these leaves into beds or mulch mowing them into the lawn as we do, but their trash is my treasure. Leaves are an excellent mulch, enriching the soil as they decompose and attracting earthworms. They save time by suppressing weeds and water needs and money by providing fertilizer. Occasionally weeds or trash are mixed with bagged leaves and these are sent back to the landfill. I've also had several bags contain plant surprises that now have a place in our yard. Canna bulbs, a bromeliad, daylilies, Redbud trees, and a Loquat began life in a bag of leaves.

I used to wish I could afford to mulch our areas with pine bark or cypress,but I've grown to prefer the more natural look of leaves and pine needles and believe them to be more beneficial for the soil.

I was picking up leaves recently in a neighborhood on a school holiday when several small boys were in the street playing ball. One came up to me and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was going to use these bagged leaves to grow vegetables and flowers. He nodded solemnly and said, " We call you the Leaf Lady".

Yes, I'm a leaf thief.

Eradication

As the last post was about relocating plants to a more favorable environment, I thought it might be a good time for a word about another gardening chore: eradication. Most of the time this involves hand pulling weeds in the yard or smothering them with mulch in beds. And even though I consider myself an organic gardener, I am not adverse to using glyphosate (generic Round-Up) which has low toxicity and breaks down rapidly. I use it to prep lawn areas before planting grass plugs, and in woodland areas to kill plants like poison ivy and smilax-a thorny vine that is impossible to pull. None of these methods has been successful in eradicating the plant pictured above-Oxalis. This weed has been my nemesis for nearly ten years because it is so equipped to procreate. It reproduces in two ways. If it is allowed to flower it will reseed, but it doesn't just drop it's seeds, it launches them as if they were spring-loaded, many feet away. In my case, all over the backyard lawn, although I've seen it show up in many areas of the property, some over 50 yards away from it's original location. Oxalis grows from a bulb, hand pulling only breaks it's stems and the plant produces even more "bulblets" to compensate. Glyphosate seems to bead up and roll off it's leaves, but will eventually kill it with several applications. This is not an option in the lawn where the grass would also succumb, or in and near the vegetable garden. The only way I've been able to partially eliminate this plant is by digging it up. Even this is difficult as the bulbs are deep, 6" or more, and if you don't get the trowel under the bulb the stems break off and the bulb is lost in the ground to reproduce. After ten years of not allowing this evil plant to go to seed, and digging up bulbs, I am just now to the point of only digging up a few a week.

How did this insidious plant come into my life? It was attached to a purchased nursery plant (very common) and as a neophyte gardener, I liked it's magenta blossoms and attractive blue green clover like leaves. I encouraged it. My bad. I've actually seen this in reputable local nurseries around Saint Patrick's Day sold as "Shamrock Plant". Shame on them.