Potato progress and other niceties!

Well it's February 10th here and feeling more like Spring every day. Though it has been cooler than last year we still didn't get any freezing weather at all. In anticipation of lots of frost I delayed some seed starting and now wish I would have gone on and started them. We did have one day with a very very light dusting of frost but I don't think that really counts for much.

With the warm weather things are starting to grow faster. Remember the potatoes planted last month? They are doing fabulous. Once the sun started hitting the rows they really began growing. The back rows got moving quicker because they got more sun. As it moved higher in the sky every day the next row would get hit and finally the last row, Here is what they look like now:

Next we have some broccoli. This year I am trying tog grow a few at a time instead of a whole bed at a time to stagger the harvest. At the bottom are a couple kale plants I had extra and didn't want to waste them.

The larger plants are beginning to form heads so it won't be long now for fresh broccoli.

Here is the next crop of  tomatoes along with some of my new seedlings. The tomatoes are one of my favorite varieties, Celebrity.

Two of my pineapples are beginning to fruit. Here is one of them:

The Pak Choi has really taken off along with the Brussels Sprouts. We have already made stir fry out of a few of the Pak Choi. They are really easy to grow and don't take long to mature. You can even use them when they are small so try growing a bunch. There are many varieties of it with different tastes to experiment with.

The Banana Peppers that looked pretty bad when I first transplanted them have begun to come along nicely. Now hopefully some of them will ripen up fully. They end up turning red when fully ripe and that is when they are the sweetest but you can use them at any stage of their maturity.

 

Next we have our sweet onions bulbing up very nicely. Nothing like a sweet onion and tomato sandwich with a little mayonnaise

Next is the garlic. It doesn't look that great. Maybe it needs more shade. This is my first year growing it so it's a new experience for me.

Next we have the carrots along with some more carrots, radishes, and scallions. The larger carrots we have harvested a few and they are scrumptious.

Our lettuce crop is next. Putting shade cloth over it really seems to help especially when we have warm spells as the lettuce begins to turn a little bitter in the heat. As with the broccoli and other things I am trying to succession plant it so we have a continuous supply.

I am trying cauliflower this year for the first time. This variety is called Graffiti and is purple. It is supposed to keep it's purple color even when it is cooked. The vegetables with color are supposed to be higher in antioxidants and other nutrients than the pale colored or white colored veggies.

Next my Florida Prince Peach is blooming and budding out because of the warm weather. The Florida King actually did go dormant this year and has a few buds on it now also but not as many as this one. Hopefully I'll get some peaches this year as we got a big goose egg for peaches last year.

And finally the Everglades Tomatoes that just keep popping up all by themselves are doing their thing. They never get watered or cared for at all and just keep right on going. 

That's all for now. More bed prepping and seed starting on the agenda for this week.