Last November, we decided to walk down to the community garden and check it out during the fall open house. It seems like there’s never been a time when I didn’t want to grow my own vegetables and herbs in a garden…especially in a raised bed. There was a waiting list but it wasn’t long before we laid claim to our very own 4 x 16’ plot at Vista Gardens.

From Winter to Pre-Summer

What to grow was a no brainer…tomatoes of course. We started out with Cherokee Purple and tomatillos at one end. At the other end, we had 3 strawberry plants, buttercrunch lettuce, cilantro, green onions, red leaf romaine, sweet banana pepper and lastly lacinato kale. All offerings were started with small seedling plants except for the green onions, which were cuttings from leftovers (easy to just immerse in a cup of water and watch roots sprout and away you go.)

Near a grouping of 4 beds is a water spigot and hose so it is easy to water…recycled and sustained by solar energy for the community garden. We contemplated putting in a timer, but opted to visit the garden, pretty much daily, mainly to watch how everything grew and blossomed.

Unfortunately, summer hit with the Florida hear and afternoon storms and we had to summarize the plot with cardboard and mulch. Right now, the only plants left are the strawberries, green onions and the banana peppers.

But yeah, it is almost time to start planting again. This time around I will break out some of my stashed heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds…a smattering of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, exotic basil varieties and carrots. However, in this household, we are very fond of roasted turnips and fennel along with rainbow carrots as a side dish so there might be more plantings on the horizon.

Big Fan of Earthboxes

I’ve had my three Earthboxes for several years now…and still odor them. Right now, all that survived the heat of the Floridian summer was my Green Zebra and Roma tomatoes. All herbs were casualties I’m afraid. So sad to watch the basil sadly wilt and even my rosemary.

Not sure what will be replanted in the two open and arid boxes just yet. Time will tell.