Oh what a wonderful harvest!! All those peppers, my oh my. I've had 3 blooms on my dragon fruit but none produced a fruit, so please keep me posted on how your's do. I have several types, but now I don't know which is which. lol I loved the flowers though. :o)

Christine, Did you grow the Guava and Passion Fruit from seed? Everything looks so green and Healthy for the dead of summer. I'm usually seeing everything dried up around here.

bill

Everything looks fantastic! I love your banana trees.

Oh, how I envy you! What a lovely place you have. But I would like to know where in zone 9a you are that your dragon fruit can survive year round outside. That's an assumption, of course, it MAY be in a pot. The reason I ask is because my dragon fruit is getting big enough that I need to either put it in a much bigger pot or in the ground. But I'm afraid to put it in the ground because we get some nasty cold nights here in the winter. Do you take any special precautions with yours?
cora

Very nice Christine, I too am amazed how well you're stuff is doing considering we're in the middle of summer. My peppers are so stressed I cut them back and gave them all away, telling folks to keep them in the shade until it starts cooling down.

Of course, Miranda is no slouch either, good to see her doing so well too ;-)

Tom

Nice garden Christine! Good job!

Silvia

Unbelievable ...beautiful flowers (in your other thread), and what a harvest....The peppers are impressive
Olya

Very nice. I really need to have a vegie garden this fall.

katkin---I checked the dragon fruit flower this morning. It is still elongating. It should bloom any day now.

deadzone---The cattleya guavas are not in the same family as the tropical guavas which are started from seed. These are started from air layers and cuttings. I bought the passion fruit as a small vine in the spring. My previous one got killed in the hard freeze. One other variety of passion fruit resprouted just fine but the sweet sunrise didn't. I have an irrigation system which helps to keep my yard greened up when we go without rain.

karalynn---I have many banana stocks coming. It seems to be a good year for banana production.

cora---The dragon fruits are planted in the ground. They seem to be able to take temps in the high 20s but with the hard freezes this past winter I wrapped each post jelly roll style with thick blankets (comforters). Held them in place with bungie cords.

tom---I can't believe that the peppers are alive either. This is the shadier part of the garden. Actually, Silvia's ground cherries are so tall that they are making nice shade for the peppers in the late afternoon.

Silvia---Thanks. As I learn from you it will get even better.

Olya---Like I mentioned to Tom, I can't believe that the peppers are still alive. I have been ignoring them because I was expecting them to be dead by now. They have not been sprayed for bugs and they keep growing. The marconi plant, (banana-style pepper) on the right is at least 5 feet tall. This is my first time growing that one. It's a keeper.

ariel---You really should! You don't have to have a very big garden. You don't even need to have any land. Earthboxes are excellent to grow things in. I use them for certain things such as, herbs and cukes.

Christine

Christine,
Great job at gardening.
Enjoy your harvest in good health.
Felix

christine! things look GREAT in your garden... you know, me too with the peppers. for whatever reason, my sweet spot, fat 'n' sassy, and (esp) my flexum peppers are all still producing bountifully... what gives? why this year? all the rain?

i need to get sylvia's cukes!

Your garden is so amazing, this is our first summer with a garden and we did okay. Now we are planning for the fall, Thanks for inspiring us and sharing with us.

Rigo

Christine
My ground cherries made it through the heat and they are flowering now, hope to see some fruit. I love to eat them raw. They do have a different flavor than the other ground cherries. One time I bought in Mass one of a good quality, when I was in the farmers market. The one that I tried in Florida, the Cossack pineapple, it is the one I don't like.

Michael
If you want to try the cucumbers, you will have to put a request with the seed MASTER, you know who I am talking about.lol

Silvia

Silvia, I tasted the ground cherries. They had a mild bitter taste to them. I wasn't crazy about them.

Here are some pics of the dragon fruit flower. It bloomed last night. I sure hope the flower got fertilized!

Christine

Hi Christine

Beautiful bloom! I hope that my dragon fruit bloom soon.

If you don't like the taste of the ground cherries, take them out, some things are an acquired taste. That is the beauty of the seeds, if we don't like it is okay we only loose a seed. It is not like we buy an expensive plant to found out we don't like it. And for that matter a tree, that it takes a long time to grow and then we find out we don't like it.

Silvia

Christine-I am so impressed you are growing all this in the dead-heat of summer!!

The Guava fruit looks beautiful and just like baby pommegranates! So cute. Please tell me about yard long beans. How do they taste and can they be fixed like regular green beans? I need some sustainable plants that can survive in zone HOT-MUGGY-BUGGY 10 !

I'm new to this forum. I just made my first post crying about all the problems I'm having growing sweet peppers. Then I look at your garden pics and see that big beautiful pile of peppers! I feel like going out to my garden, jerking up whats left and planting grass. But I won't. If you have any advice for me I would to hear it.

thanks john

Nice pics. What kind of Passiflora is that? I don't think I have heard of sweet sunrise. Is it P. edulis?

Seriously, the photo of the bloom should br framed. Can those guava be started from seed?

Terrific looking garden and yard!

All the fruit looks wonderful. I'm totally jealous!

Peppers here are still doing well, too. Weird year. I keep ignoring them, but they keep on producing.

Thank you for sharing and for the inspiration!

wt

Green with envy at your green thumb. Wow, gorgeous yard, great pics and wonderful harvest.

However did you get your banana peppers to get that big, mine's are half that size before they start turning red?
What are you feeding those gorgeous plants??

cindeea---Good thing there are some plants that actually like the heat. I planted the yardlong beans in the same spot that I planted the regular pole beans last spring. As soon as the pole beans were done, I planted the yardlongs. They can be used just like regular green beans. The flavor is stronger.

John---Sorry about your struggle with the peppers. Consider your situation a learning experience. When to plant and what variety chosen to grow can make all the difference. Feel free to email me with any specific questions.

jkrup---Sweet Sunrise is a P. edulis. It is just one of several varieties that grow well here. This is the most prolific by far.

Miranda---Strawberry and Lemon guavas are started by airlayers.

wt---Thanks. Do you get channel 15? If you do, then you may get a chance to see more of my yard on TV. The program Gardener's Hotline is going to have me be their guest in November. They are going to be coming soon to film my yard and have me answer questions on growing fruits in Central Florida. This is quite an honor.

leelee---The peppers are growing in a high concentration of purchased mushroom compost. If you saw my springtime peppers, they were huge. They are much smaller now but they keep on producing. They are in a shadier part of the garden and would like a little more shade. In fact, some of the peppers growing at the top of the plants get sunburn spots on them. I would say that the winning combo is fertile soil, adequate moisture, and some shade in the summer (and of course, variety selection).

Christine

Miranda, I forgot to mention that the guavas are cattleya guavas.

The Dragon Fruit flower only lasted until around 11am on Sunday before it wilted. Such a huge flower!

Christine

wow! you have some awesome fruits!
how does your passionfruit taste? I have Passiflora edulis 'Frederick', the fruits grow to about chicken egg size and turn purple. and yummy they are!

I am not sure but I think this is an Indian pink. It came drom Sri Lanka. My The Strawberry Cattleya Guava gets flowers but fruits fall. Help please. I live in Casta Blanca, Spain and temp is no prob. I also Have the dragon fruit some times it flowers. It is in a pot with a palm.