Spring Sprang Sprung

Or something like that?

Beginning to look like spring is finely taking charge of central Florida.

The littlest guy in the area with the biggest mouth, one of many Endangered Green Tree Frog singing on the front porch.

The Snow Birds have packed up and gone back up north however, the native birds are still showing their beauty while bathing, nesting and feeding.

 

Bushes are once again saying Hi!

The Strawberries, Summer Squash and Better Boy Tomato’s have buds on them and everything else is following along just fine, except for this year’s Watermelon plants?

The Vegetable garden is not the prettiest thing in the world however, this is my adaption from a square foot garden, with more than enough food for this family and also this is Florida, the battle ground zero fight with critters not heard or seen in any other part of the Country is ongoing 24/7! The area is full of things that slither, crawl, walk or fly just waiting for their chance at a free meal. I have nothing against sharing, unfortunately the critters do not feel the same way and do not share! Besides it in the backyard out of sight. Over the years I have learned to allow them to share in the compost bin and have been inventing systems to at least slow them down a little bit in the garden. This year playing around with some herbs, Parsley, Rosemary and Basil for starters.

I start the planting in my shed back in January, February and March, keeps a retired person busy. For large plants (Tomato, Egg plant) a large butter bucket, for medium plants (Melons, Beans, peas), Greek Yogurt buckets and plants with short root systems or ones I  want to spread (Strawberries)Sour Cream buckets. Each bucket has a good size hole cut out of the bottom, replace that with a piece of paper towel to be able to fill the bucket with good potting soil, by the time the roots grow to the paper towel, watering would have allowed the roots to continue down through and into the sandy soil (this is Florida). Remember to place a plate of some kind under the bucket until planting into the garden, DUH! 🙂

With this method, weeding the garden becomes a much easier task throughout the year. The bucket helps to start the growth of the plant and keep out many slithering and Crawling Creacher, the fence slows down the walking and flying invaders.

Also the fence becomes a growing cane for vine plants such as Tomato’s, Cucumber, Gourds, Summer and Winter squash, all of the melon plants, Peas and some bean plants. Don’t forget the Marigolds to help keep some pest out.

This year I have included a Hummingbird feeder, this attracts most of the pollinators.

It would be an easier battle to win if I used chemicals however, who would then eat the food? Not us!