March 31 update

Sunny and hot has been the name of the game this past winter and nothing has changed a bit all thru March. My Peach tree dropped all it's blossoms which means no peaches for me. There were a couple on the tree but they just shriveled up and fell off. I think it is because of the lack of cold this year. Other warmer season veggies that usually grow slower this time of year are moving along real well. Let's get to some pictures of what is going on in the garden.

First here is a little of what I have been harvesting. This year the eggplant have been fantastic and along with cooking them I have given several away.

The onions are doing very well. I thought they were supposed to be sweet onions but when I tried one it was pretty hot. They definitely are not sweet like Florida Sweet Onions.

My broccoli under the shade cloth is beginning to grow more rapidly. I will thin them out in a day or so.

Just a pic across the the garden.

The Fordhook Lima beans are getting blooms all over them. I am still trying to figure out why I only got about a 30% germination rate with them. Two cucumbers and Calendulas are in the containers at the bottom.

A shot of the Celebrity tomatoes in the pots. All look real healthy and are setting lots of fruit.

Here is one almost complete disaster.  I only have four potato plants from all those Colorado Rose seed potaoes. I dug around in several spots  and found they rotted. The temps at night only got down into the sixties and the days were typically mid to upper eighties and I followed the directions that came with them. Even the smaller ones I planted whole in the pots rotted except for one. Disaster no doubt.

Another shot across the garden.

Celebrity tomatoes setting fruit from the above pictured bed.

Here the cucumbers are beginning to vine so I will be putting up the trellises for them. Also for the butternut squashes. The carrots need to be thinned but otherwise are doing great.
 

Here is a single Everglades tomato that germinated under the solar panels. It is just a volunteer from last year. It has never been watered and gets stepped on all the time but takes abuse and comes back stronger every day. The fruits are really tasty with strong tomato flavor.

The broccoli doing fairly well even though it has been attacked by Harlequin bugs. They started out on the mustards and once those were pulled made their way onto the broccoli. You can see the damage on all the leaves. It doesn't seem to have hurt the heads too much though. Makes me wish I had some chickens to munch on them.
 

Both beds of beans are doing fantastic. I have picked several pounds from the green bean bed and now the purple beans are beginning to set flowers out.

My pac choi and lettuce bed is about all matured. The Harlequin bugs really attacked the pac choi just like the broccoli. I am planning on planting beans there next.

Here the Beef Master tomato doesn't want to quit. I thought it was ready to be pulled but it just keeps ending out new runners and setting more fruit.

A Roma Grape tomato I picked up at Lowe's is setting fruit and growing well/
Carrots are planted along with it in the bed.

My favorite way to eat eggplant. Slice them then dip in egg and milk batter and coat with an Italian bread crumb mix. The mix is made with the Italian bread crumbs and add a little sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and granulated garlic all to taste. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and coat well with extra virgin olive oil. Lay the slices in on the coated foil and then with a brush dab each slice with more oil.
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Then flip them over and back into the oven. Depending on how thick the slices cook another 12 to 15 minutes. I find 1/4 inch or thinner are done after 12 minutes or 1/3 inch or so need about 15 minutes to be done and slightly crispy.
Then top off with spaghetti sauce on your plate and enjoy!!

My Red Lady papaya are fruiting real well. None are ripening as of yet though.

The Carambola is flowering again. I like that they fruit all year long so you aren't left waiting too long for more.

Here is a batch of insect eggs on one of the tomato leaves. I plan on leaving them to see what develops.

Late Blight it appears suddenly showed up. Since I found this I have been trimming out the infected leaves each day and spraying with Serenade and then copper. I normally don't use the copper fungicide but Late Blight is highly contagious and spreads extremely fast so I am not taking any chances.

Here is a project I am working on. Since growing lettuce here in the summer doesn't work outside as it is way too hot I figured I would try a small grow light in the house and see if I get success from the cooler temps inside. I also read that bitter lettuce may also be caused by longer days as the lettuce sees this as time to begin going to seed. My strategy is going to be to keep it dark and only give it 8hrs of light per day.  I will put it on a timer in a spare bedroom

That's all for now. My big project  to start working on next is to set up a drip system through out the garden outside. Hand watering is just taking up too much time since I enlarged the garden last year. Also a drip system will lessen the chances of getting diseases on the leaves since the water never splashes on the leaves.