All my tomatoes are in place and Tom this time I spaced them more because of the simple reason that I got more tomatoes out of the space but it was very difficult to water even with your magic wand.:) I am afraid the community garden are too close, I will take a picture soon.

On Sunday we went to the Lakeridge winery for the festival stomping the grapes, I did not stomp but I had fun listening to the music, talking with some nice people and sampling the wines, my favorite was the Sunblush and bought some.

The vineyard

The festival

There was a big line to do the stomp, winner takes a t-shirt as a prize

And we made a pie with the sand pears that I picked at the farm, they are so good and cheap!

Silvia

Cammunizm - Thank you, this season I have the same amount of tomatoes in the garden but they are scatter wherever there is space and I also left some room to water and spray for bugs and disease.

Other side of the garden

Silvia

Silvia...I know you have multiples of your tomatoes but when did you start the ones in the photo? Last year I was WAY too late and we ended up buying mostly starter plants. This year my timing was a little better and they'll be fine to set out in a few weeks but my guys are no where near as big as yours.

Silvia

I sat down earlier today with my calendar and updated my notes for next year. I revised my Fall tomato seed starting date to be June 15th which is right about where you are. Good to know I'm on the right track! :)

Julie

Wayne

Try the Tractor Supply Company. I believe it is called feedlot fencing. The bad part is that it comes in 16 foot long panels (very hard to transport)

Lou

Silvia

I'm glad you had fun but disappointed you didn't work the grapes, I'll bet Willy and Cheryl did, oh, maybe not Cheryl, she was probably too busy testing the grapes ;-)

Wayne, welcome aboard! They used to call it Cattle Panel, looks like it's been renamed Feedlot panel but this is the one you want...and you'll need 8' T-post instead of 6 footers to stabilize it. Regarding getting it home, where there's a will there's always a way....

Tom

Tom

~dianne

Silvia, I'm just south of the Georgia border in Fernandina Beach on the east coast. We have a 1.5 acres on the marsh and what a lovely place with all the wild life. Grew up in Orlando, so your area brings back lots of memories.

Tom, LOL, looks like something I would do.

You all have so much info and its so much appreciated, thank you.

Ok Dianne, you have Tom beat on how to transport the fence panel. LOL

Wayne

The festival was a lot of fun but Cheryl did not go because she went there last year and won the t-shirt,lol. And we had nice company so we were talking.

And I just came back from the community gardens, they are all so nice and were gardening even in the rain, they staked all the tomatoes preparing for the bad weather. Here are some pictures of the tomato beds.

And I am also preparing my tomatoes for the rain, they are so tall that it was getting hard to put them in the porch, but it is all done, golden grape from you has fruits already.
I picked the last avocados and tons of eggplant, luckily for me a lot of people likes eggplants at the garden. I will be harvesting more sweet potatoes when the rain stops.

Silvia

Silvia

NC - the pear pie is really good and easy to make, you just have to change the quantities to the English measurements. I added more pears that asked for and I think turn out better.

Chrissy - The view is going to change soon because they are going to put some edges around the garden because the people who lives across the street don't want to see. Can you believe it?
On a happy note, I walked around the plots yesterday and saw that they had done a lot of work, some are so nicely decorated with happy trinkets and stuff, some children are coming to learn, it is turning out to be a good place for neighbors to gather and talk about gardening. Will keep updating on their progress.

Silvia

Hi Mary - I am having very good luck harvesting the sweet potatoes. I have my best amish bush porto rico, beuregard, violette, valderman and other bush that I have to look up the name. This year I also added colorette from Echo. Here is the picture in case you did not see it.

Colorette from Echo

Amish bush porto rico

I will take more pictures of the other varieties, some are whitish color, others a little purple. I did some harvesting yesterday and I still have some patch left.

Hi Carmen - We usually make desserts when company is coming because for daily meals they are too rich. Remember I told you about the u-pick farm? I always go to pick there and what I don't eat fresh, I freeze for later.
I also have a young pear tree, 4 different pears in one, hope to get some fruit in coming years. If you make the torte, you can also cut on the amount of cream cheese. I always change the recipes a little bit.:)

Silvia

Mary - Sand Hill is the best place to find the bush varieties, they take a long time to ship but the wait is well worth it. I have not bought a sweet potato since I got the slips from them. The one that I got from Echo is not bush and was bought March 19, so after that it was planted and is all harvested now.
I have them planted all around the fence, I have some other things there like bananas. Because I always have a lot of slips I plant them about 6 inches apart each way and they all at different stage of growth, some were planted sooner than others.
My garden is small but to my luck it produces more than our family can consume so a lot of it is given away.
As far as my favorite is the amish bush porto rico because I like the growth habit, the taste and the production. All the others perform about less but they are still tasty.
Colorette is purple root, yellow flesh, those are the ones that I got big and I am waiting to have people over to cook them into something, I will post pictures when I do.
The other one that I forgot is the Gold Nugget. All the varieties that I have are good for eating.
I will be making a lot of slips hopefully coming next spring to share with others. I will probably make slips of the amish bush porto rico and the other one colorette that is not bush.

Silvia

Silvia

Thank you. I am including the link for sandhill sweet potatoes, if you scroll down it is there.
Luther told me that he got porto rico bush variety from the steele company and when he saw the leaf of the amish porto rico he said they are different. You can always call the owners of the farm and talk to them because I don't know when they will be shipping.

Silvia

Time went quick and is almost time to pick summer squash

And today I will be picking some butterbeans and more eggplant. Cherry tomatoes have fruit on them.

Silvia

Tom

And here are 2 vines of winter squash that I am growing for the first time Sunshine, it is also doing well

And the cherries have some fruit set.

Silvia

Silvia

I've got 8 mature Solar Fire mater plants but no bloom set, nights here still 86F so I don't have much hope that they are going to do anything :-( I do have some Sara's Galapagos that have set but you know that's just a tease! I set all my fall tomato plants yesterday, two weeks early for me so we'll see how it goes.

Yikes! Looks like your brother's place is going to take close to a direct hit. Just like my friends in Eleuthera. Have you heard from them in the last day? Did they move to higher ground or a shelter?

Tom

Looks like you have been busy as a bee. I don't know of anyone with the energy that you have.

I dug my sweet potatoes and I was disappointed in the amount they produced. I only got a couple five gallon buckets. I did a taste test and they tasted very similar. Yours might have tasted slightly better. Here is a picture of some of the potatoes.

My Sweet Potatoes

My fall vegetables are doing well. Had my tomatoes tied up well for Irene. But thank goodness we didn't get any wind and only an inch of rain.

Luther

My Fall Tomatoes

I have several types of fall butter beans, limas and what we call down south, snapbeans.

My Fall Assorted Beans

Happy gardening to all,

Luther

And talking about the garden, I am keeping very busy most of the time using and giving away crops, yesterday was the day for the collards, the eggplant and the avocados. I am really surprised that people who were born and raised in Florida are new to the best crops that we home gardeners can produce, like everyone is saying praises about the Brogdon avocados, and the question that I get when I give the green glaze collards, "are these collards? but they are so pretty! no sign of bugs or ugly like in the stores, the neighbor that I gave even smelled them,lol
And the friend that I gave the eggplants said, I cook the whole bunch and they were not bitter or anything, they were great!

In the fall I don't grow as many squash or cucumber plants because of the nematodes being active and number of bugs when is hot. I grow only the compact summer squash and a couple of winter squash, they are doing well in the containers.
Tomatoes are getting big and struggling with the heat, you are probably hotter than me, I can see the tomatoes not liking the high temperatures, some do better than others for me when is so hot.

Started seedlings for collards, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, some herbs

And some views from the garden, eggplants and butterbeans

Bush green beans

The mini orchard

Hi Luther

Nice pictures like always! Sorry that you did not get a lot of sweet potatoes, maybe the soil was too rich. I have mine all around the garden where I only amended with used container soil.
And Luther I have to tell you that yesterday I was working in the garden and Willy said the same thing "I don't know how you doing, but you never sit down" lol
Your set up for the tomatoes is really high class like in the growers systems.:) I just learned a new thing from the community gardens, they bought some cheap wood sticks 2x1 for under a dollar and cut in half, they are 10 foot long but they are sturdier, so I got some this morning for the tomatoes that I have all over the garden now, like this one.

Silvia

I am growing sweet potatoes, popcorn, cucumbers, tomatoes, a giant pumpkin, eggplant, purple bell peppers, and more. I just give them the absolute minimal attention until it gets cooler.

Oh and everyone feel free to try alpine strawberries. The plants I grew from last year are still alive and perfectly healthy looking. There's no fruit now, but I hope to have some in the winter. Unfortunately most of my plants were dug up and killed by squirrels and I only have two or three left. I plan to start some more seeds as soon as I get motivated.

Remember the lime seeds you sent me? I started three seeds and so far two have germinated...I still have about twenty more seeds to play with :-) They're in the three Jello cups in the front row.

Tom - I just got in touch with my brother in Long Island, he is fine but got no electricity.
And your set up looks so good like the best experimental lab, I am glad the lime seeds germinated for you. I also have 3 seedlings going. Soon I will probably have to use the whole porch for seed starting, a lot more people around here are getting into the new hobby, good tasting veggies!

Silvia

I hope this is my best tomato season :) After all the bugs and disease in the spring, I went back to my previously more successful concrete driveway method. It is not as visually attractive or handy, but results are important.

I think the giant pumpkin is an Atlantic Giant, but I'm not sure. My dad sent me the seeds. He got it from a guy that got it from a pumpkin at the Circleville pumpkin show. It's growing in the earthbox along with a Jarrahdale pumpkin. I am sometimes imprudent. I don't really have big plans for a 1,000 pound pumpkin. I'd be happy with a 30 pound pumpkin. Just by attempting to grow a pumpkin, I am already the blue ribbon winner in my neighborhood because no one else grows them.