I learned how to garden

Gardening is a lot of work. But hard work and effort pays off in the end, usually. 

I have learned the importance of fertilizer. Before this class I thought that you fertilize one time in the beginning and then all you have to worry about it making sure your garden is watered. WRONG! In Florida, the soil lacks essential nutrients that fertilizer provides. 

Also, I just thought that weeds were annoying before this class. I had no idea that they steal your plant's water and nutrients. 

I really enjoyed learning about gardening, even though some of my plants died. I plan on having a small garden in my backyard next year. 

November 27th

Today was basically the last day in the garden. It was bittersweet. All I did was harvest a zucchini and my carrots. It was harder than I thought it would be to pull the carrots out of the ground. I kinda fell over when I pulled out the first one haha. I gave Marissa my zucchini. I felt bad because someone stole hers. Now it's time to start my exam!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

In the garden this week I weeded, sprayed for pests, fixed my beds and harvested zucchini, peppers, and cucumbers. I made zucchini bread with my zucchini for Thanksgiving.

yummyyyyyy

November 13th

Happy Veteran's Day! Due to the holiday we didn't have class. I went to my garden on Tuesday and weeded, fertilized and picked stuff. All that was ready to be harvested was cucumbers. I now have 7. I don't really know of recipes to use them in. I plan on just cutting them up and eating them like chips. 

My garden...super yellow cucumber leaves but they yield a lot 

so pretty

I did, however, find a recipe for a cucumber salsa to put on top of grilled fish that I might try: 

1 cup peeled and diced cucumber

1/2 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup  diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon minced fresh jalapeno chile 

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves

Salt and pepper

November 6th

Today was an important day in history with elections, Halo 4 was released, and I got to pick my vegetables for the first time. I picked peppers, cucumbers and beans. It was super exciting. I forgot to take a picture of them and when I got home I made a salad with my pepper and cucumbers:

I also weeded, fertilized everything in my garden, sprayed for pests and I had to remove my squash plant because it had a virus :(

When we were talking about organic food today in class I started to think about why anyone would want to buy organic food. I don't buy it because it is expensive. But even if it was the same price as locally grown food I still wouldn't buy it. There is something about fresh, local grown food that just tastes so much better. My dad has a farm and all of the vegetables I eat when I visit are from the garden. Nothing is better than homegrown and canned green beans. As for organic labels, I think that they are fine but people should be more informed about what the labels mean if they are spending so much money on organic food. I think sustainable agriculture means agriculture that is not only economically good but also environmentally friendly.

Collage!!

October 23rd

This week I did the usual weeding, fertilizing and spraying pesticides. I also made trellises for my tomato plants. I will probably have to do it for my peas next week, but we'll see. I was surprised that I really didn't have too many weeds since I missed last week. When I got out to the garden this week I was a little disappointed at first because my plants looked super small compared to everyone else's. However, I had a bunch of beans, cute little cucumbers, a decent sized green bell pepper and a bunch of little green tomatoes. It was sad having to compost all of it because of the pesticides. I also thought a weed was a sunflower and accidently fertilized it, so we'll see how big it is next week haha. 

As for the lecture, I actually learned a lot. I didn't realize that there's a difference between vegetables. Like, some are flowers, fruits, buds etc. 

My carrots and radishes are roots.

My tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, peppers and okra (or so it says online) are fruits.

My peas, beans and sunflower are seeds.

My cilantro and basil are leafs. 

My squash and cauliflower are flowers. 

My plot

Zinnia-hope it blooms soon

cilantro yay! 

lonely basil

beans 

carrots

cauliflower

eggplant

zucchini

squash

okra

peas

giant fertilized weed 

cucumber

baby cucumber :)

little bell pepper

new trellises

little green tomatoes

October 9th

This week we took a quiz which means no lecture. I didn't have much to do in the garden either. I weeded and sprayed my plants with thuricide and neem. I accidently sprayed a caterpillar with neem and it died. I also planted my cauliflower. I forgot to plant radishes I guess I have to do that next week :/
I was super excited when I went out into the garden. All of my plants are getting big especially my zucchini and squash. I had to replant my basil and cilantro because they haven't germinated.

When I got home I looked in the fridge and the pantry. All of my food comes from Publix and I don't buy organic food so most of my produce is GMOs. I had tomatoes in the fridge. They're TastiLee because I remember Matt saying we should buy those ones. I make my roommates buy them as well. Most of my food is processed. The only fresh food I have are tomatoes and apples. Which is why I can't wait till I get vegetables from my garden!!

My plot

TOMATOES! 

My sad pepper plant

Cucumbers :)

New baby cauliflower plants

Squash on the top and zucchini on the bottom 

peas!

sunflower?

carrots

beans

lonely germinated basil

replanted cilantro

zinnia

so beautiful 

eggplant

October 2nd

Today definitely was not the most fun I've had in the garden. It took me seriously forever to do everything that I had to do. I started with weeding. There wasn't really that much to weed but it gets tedious. Then I sprayed my plants with pesticides. I sprayed my tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and squash with Neem and everything else with Thuricide because it had chewing. I also had to re-fertilize everything in my third row (zucchini, squash, okra and peas) and my beans because they were starting to look a little yellow, which we learned in class is from a nutrient deficiency. I also had to basically rebuild my row things because the rain eroded them away. That took FOREVER and when I went home I literally had dirt everywhere. Like in between my toes, all over my legs, under my nails and even on my face. I also, some how cut my finger in the worst possible place. It's basically a flap of skin now and it's super annoying to type.

Everything was bigger in my garden this week. I was most pleased with my tomatoes. They are kinda huge and are blossoming. I was super disappointed when I saw my pepper plants, though. They had a lot of chewing on them and I noticed that everyone else's had blossomed and one persons already had a little green pepper. My carrots are showing now. They're super cute, although I thought they were weeds at first. My peas are also showing.

As I mentioned before, we talked about plant nutrients and nutrient deficiency in class. There are three essential plant nutrients: environmental, macro and micro. They are all equally important. The environmental nutrients make up about 95% of the plant. They are carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Macro nutrients are phosphorus, potassium, calcium, nitrogen, sulfur and magnesium. Micro nutrients are iron, zinc, copper, manganese, Mo (don't know to say or spell it), boron and chloride. We also learned that the optimal pH for plants is about 6.5. From what we learned in class I'd say that my okra has a Nitrogen deficiency because the older leaves are yellowing. To fix this I fertilized since that is basically what fertilizer is. 

My plot with my newly formed beds

Tomato Bloom! 

My holy pepper :(

New beds with my blood and sweat in them

Eggplants

Little tiny carrots!

Carrot

Peas

September 25th

Growing crops in Florida is different than growing in the rest of the US. Florida is a very hot state. However, it is also a very humid state. It is surrounded by bodies of water on three sides. It is also at a very low elevation. All of these factors play an impact on crops. Since it is hot, the type of crops planted need to be able to sustain in that type of climate. It also affects when you plant. For example, we haven't been able to plant cauliflower because it is too hot. The elevation affects the temperature, humidity and precipitation.

Since last week, my tomato plants have gotten much bigger. My carrot plants are also now visible. Unfortunately, some of my plants have been chewed on. My cucumber plants have been chewed on the most which is super disappointing. So in class I sprayed the plants that were chewed on with thuricide and sprayed the tomatoes and squash with neem. I also planted my peas and applied more fertilizer to my tomatoes and peppers. I didn't have to weed much because there wasn't many weeds. Also, I didn't need to replace any plants because all of my crops looked great!

My giant tomato plants!

:( Cucumbers

Okra

Carrot plant