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.