garden maintenance

Luckily for me, weeding was a very quick process this week! I pulled weeds from the beds and hoed the walkways as per usual. As I was weeding near my cucumber plants in bed 2 I noticed white, disk-shapped eggs and small green bugs on the underside of one of my cucumber leaves. My instructor identified the critters as aphids, who have a reputation to "suck the life out of plants". :( After weeding, I planted my peas, which were finally ready to be seeded. I applied fertilizer to my pea plants as well as to the ladybug pepper plants I had to replant due to an invasive pathogen. Finally, I sprayed thuricide, the organic pesticide that only kills caterpillars to all of my sprouted plants.

My squash plants are thriving in the garden!

Zinnias sprouted this week!

As well as beans!

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An area's climate determines where a plant can grow. A zone map shows the climactic conditions of certain regions and helps gardeners and growers alike decide what to plant in their local area.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Gainesville, Florida belongs to zones 8 and 9 on the plant hardiness zone map.

Gainesville's first frost occurs around November 5th and the city's last frost falls around March 29th. Gainesville's rainy season extends from May through November. Florida's climate generally limits a growing season to cooler months, since the summers in Florida are too humid and hot for most crops to thrive. My garden is watered using a sprinkler irrigation system for two hours a day (one inch per hour) three days a week, which is more than crops in other parts of the U.S. receive.

planting (pt. 2)

This week in the garden was a busy one! Here is a quick overview of what I did:

• Pulled weeds from all four beds; hoed the walkways between the beds

It's amazing how quickly weeds can take root! A few weeds that developed throughout the week already had extremely developed root systems. This week I hoed the walkways between the beds to rid the walkways of weeds as well. What I thought was an ant infestation (orange dirt commonly associated with an ant bed surrounded one of my ladybug pepper plants) turned out to be a parasitic infestation! The leaves of my pepper plants were shrunken and shriveled. :( I had to pull out both transplants and toss them, they were unsalvageable! Luckily since it's still fairly early in the game I transplanted two new, healthy pepper plants in the open spaces. :)

• Seeded the remaining two beds of my garden. All beds are seeded now! 

• Fertilized my garden

In order to jumpstart growth, I  added fertilizer to my beds. To give the fertilizer a place to sit in the soil,  I dug shallow circles around transplants and shallow trenches on each side of seeds with my finger. 

shallow trenches dug on either side of buried seeds

Only one small cup of fertilizer was needed to fertilize the entire garden. Fertilizer was sprinkled into the shallow crevices and then covered with soil.

• Sprayed organic pesticides on plants

This week we sprayed a specific pesticide intended to only kill caterpillars onto our plants using a spray bottle. It was important to essentially cover the plants with the pesticide, as caterpillars will only be killed by the pesticide if they ingest it. 

In lecture this week we learned about the genetic modification of plants. I was surprised to learn that I probably eat a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) on a daily basis. Contrary to common public misconception, GMOs have never caused negative side effects in humans. GMOs enable farmers to produce higher crop yields each season and in general produce larger, fuller, heartier vegetables! 

planting

Aside from an ant ambush on my right foot, the first day of planting my garden went rather smoothly! I still need to label and seed beds 3 and 4 as well as fertilize my entire garden, which I will do on Monday. When I first arrived at my plot, I pulled out all the visible small weeds. Surprisingly some had remarkably long, developed roots! The majority of class this week was spent making sure the spacing between plants was consistent among beds; this ultimately helped make my plot look neater and cleaner. Transplanted plants included Juliet tomatoes, New Girl tomatoes, Anaheim Joe Parker peppers, Gourmet Orange peppers, Red Knight peppers, Lady Bug hot peppers, and eggplant. The rest of the vegetables/flowers needed to be seeded. My lettuce and pea plants were not seeded due to the fact that it is still extremely hot and humid in Gainesville, climatic conditions unfavorable to both plants. Pictured below are a couple pictures of my garden as well as a chart comparing the advantages and disadvantages to both seeding and transplanting!

a close-up of one of my three transplanted Juliet tomato plants
 (the shallow ring dug around the transplant indicates where a small amount of fertilizer will be sprinkled)

beds 1 & 2 of my garden

seeds vs. transplants: a few upsides and downsides to each planting method

garden plot plan

lettuce begin with a garden plot plan