garden maintenance pt. 5

Alas, my final blog post! This semester has flown by. I have throughly come to enjoy gardening and I have actually signed up for FRC1010 in the spring, a fruit gardening class! This week in the garden I harvested the rest of my zinnias (they appear to have already "peaked" this season), another cucumber, and the last of my eggplants. I don't like cucumbers, so I bought some pickling supplies and I'm going to attempt to pickle my cucumber. The first cucumber I picked I cut into slices and put the slices over my eyes for a few minutes to unwind 8) (that's a smiley with cucumber slices over its eyes). I'm also waiting for one of my bell peppers, which is HUGE, to change colors before I harvest it. I'll probably cut it up and include it in a salad. I really wanted to pick one of my sunflowers this week, but there were several bees pollinating on it, so I just let it bee (pun intended!). Aside from harvesting, I just did some general weeding and raked between my beds.

garden maintenance pt. 4

This week, gardening class was cancelled due to Veteran's Day. However I went and visited my garden Wednesday afternoon to do some general garden maintenance: weeding, building up the beds, raking. I unfortunately had to compost one of my eggplants because caterpillars had begun to burrow into it (nasty!). I picked about one dozen zinnias and some of my beans as well. I am going to visit my garden again this afternoon to pick some hot peppers, my other eggplant, my zucchini, one of my bell peppers, and the rest of my beans so that I can bring these fresh goodies back home to Pensacola, Florida with me on Saturday and prepare some yummy pre-Thanksgiving meals to eat with my family.

Here is a link to link to one of the recipes my mom and I have agreed to try:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-vegetables-with-balsamic-vinegar/detail.aspx

It incorporates my eggplant, my zucchini, and my bell peppers! My mom and I are obsessed with balsamic dressing so I'm sure it will be delicious. These grilled veggies will be a good side to some pasta and garlic bread! :)

The second recipe my mom and I are planning to prepare the day I come home:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=zucchini&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results

ZUCCHINI BREAD! I remember having a version of it a long time ago and I can't wait to make it using the fresh zucchini from my garden!

garden maintenance pt. 3

This week in my garden I got to harvest a few of my vegetables! I picked some zinnias for the second week in a row and I also picked a green bell pepper, one of my hot peppers, all of my lettuce plants, and some of my beans. Luckily for me there were not a ton of weeds to pull and my beds didn't need much reshaping. I sprayed BT and Neem (aphids are attacking my okra plants!) on various plants and fertilized as necessary.

This week our discussion topic was organic/sustainable agriculture. I personally eat whatever is cheapest/most convenient, and as a consequence I rarely buy organic. Stores such as WARDS or the farmer's market are inconveniently located across town, so I am not able to shop at those locations for my produce. I instead shop at the Publix, located a short, 2-minute drive from my apartment. If the price of organic produce is too high (my rule for buying organic is it must be no more than twice as much as non-organic produce), then I will not purchase it. I am more concerned with buying locally rather than buying organic, so I do visit the farmer's market on occasion. When I buy locally I can usually notice a fresher taste when compared to outsourced fruits or vegetables. Contrastingly, I do not think that organic produce tastes better than non-organic produce.
To me, sustainable agriculture includes agricultural practices that benefit or otherwise do not cause harm to the environment. A good example of sustainable agriculture, in my opinion, is the use of biological pest control, rather than spraying harmful chemical pesticides on crops to kill pests. Although these chemicals may not affect the crop's toxicity, making it safe for human consumption, these pesticides may be detrimental to the environment. This EDIS article states that UF is developing an Integrated Pest Management program for strawberry production. Some common garden pests, including  Thrips, Aphids, and Spider Mites, are to be biologically controlled using Minute pirate bugs, Aphidius wasps, and Persimillis, respectively. These natural predators do not harm the environment, like chemical pesticides might.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs180

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garden scavenger hunt!

I made a collage in word, but for some reason I was unable to upload it to my blog! So I took a picture of my collage with my phone (two pictures, to account for scrolling) and tried to fuse them together as best as I could. The above photos picture items I had to find in my garden. 

Starting from top left: photo of (3.) caterpillar, photo of (4.) eggplant flower, photo of (6.) squash flower, photo of (1.) aphid and (2.) whiteflies, photo of (5.) tomato flower, photo of (10.) simple leaf, photo of (7.) weed flower, photo of (8.) bean flower, photo of (9.) tendril, photo of (11.) compound leaf, photo of (12.) red plant tissue, photo of (14.) purple plant tissue, photo of (13.) green plant tissue, photo of (20.) plant you would eat the fruit, photo of (21.) plant you would eat the root, photo of (23.) plant with a virus, photo of (18.) plant you would eat the leaf