A Chunk of Lawn Becomes a Native Garden

The showy tickseed coreopsis decorates the edge of
the front meadow. Native bees & butterflies love it!

The view from my office has been improved dramatically since I removed a 12 x 14-foot section of lawn and added native plants.

"Last September I began this set of garden adventures with the purchase of some Elliot’s love grass (Eragrostis elliottii) at a native plant sale. I knew I was going to reduce the tongue of lawn out into the front meadow and wanted to have the grasses to set the area off.

A well-managed edge hides or distracts from a weedy interior.

It was recommended that the grasses be placed three feet apart so they’d have room to grow. So I began, yet again, to remove a large chunk of lawn. I started by clearing the space for the grasses and then creating a nice gently curved line for the lawn’s edge so the lawnmower could easily make one single turn to get it all. I removed the St. Augustine grass over the next couple of weeks and then I covered the bare areas with a thin covering of pine needles. The holidays came and went before anything else happened."

Continue reading over on the Native Plants & Wildlife Garden blog to learn about the next two stages of this project: Adventures in Creating a Native Garden.

The end result of the native garden for now. 

One advantage of timing planting projects at this time of year is that Mother Nature might pitch in on the supplemental irrigation. Sure enough, my back lucked out because the rains have come and I won't be hauling heavy watering cans out to the meadow!

The Official Wet Season Begins in June

rainfall

Tropical Storm Andrea on June 5, 2013

Unlike most of the east coast, which receives 3 or 4 inches of rain each month on average, Florida has a five-month wet season starting on June 1.  During the wet season, we average almost twice as much rain as during our seven-month dry season.

Right on time, a tropical system has been dumping oodles of rain on us. We've already received more than six inches of rain in June, which is above the average total for the whole month. Plus in May we had more than ten inches of rain and that's normally a dry month.

Be sure to turn off your irrigation system, when it's so wet!

Green Gardening Matters!
Ginny Stibolt

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Spiderwort and carolina rose

I've been busy doing other things, aside from gardening, but have been enjoying the lush green of spring, without the hot dryness that summer will bring.  My gardening companion and I had an opportunity to talk about wildflowers and gardening with native plants last week on Your Day (listen to the archived show), aired statewide on SCETV radio -- lots of fun! It's always great to encourage people to learn more about our Southeastern natives.

I'm still in the midst of harvesting the last of the cool-season greens and sowing warm season squash, amaranth, and cucumbers, and still am putting in peppers and tomatoes. It's been slow to warm up in the mountains, even with the stone raised beds.

Standouts in the pocket meadow right now are Penstemon digitalis and Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) with lovely purple Verbascum and Verbena flowers echoing the color of the phlox nearby.

The recently planted Carolina Rose (Rosa carolina) is loaded with flowers, which are actively gleaned of their pollen by sweat bees.

In the bed below the house, a lovely spiderwort (Tradescantia) with lime-colored leaves has been visible from the studio door. 

Individual flowers are open only for a day, but are quickly replaced by fresh ones!

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Bye-bye Broccoli: Hello Summer!

Good-bye broccoli! What a bounty we've enjoyed. From the initial harvesting of the main curds (heads) at the end of November through the endless come-again spears until last week, there have been more than 40 harvests!

Broccoli sprouts from the root. I'd never seen or noticed
 this behavior before.  I separated them out and planted
them in a large pot that I put in the shade by the potting
bench.  It will be interesting to see if I can carry
them over until fall.

Transitions in the garden

There's always something going on in the vegetable gardens. I finally removed the old broccoli plants that had been keeping us supplied with all the broccoli we wanted for six months. When I removed these gnarly plants, I noticed that two of them had produced a bunch of sprouts from the roots. I have separated out the sprouts and have planted them in a large pot, which I placed in the shade. Will they last through the long, hot summer?

I sowed the seed for the original broccoli plants on Labor Day. I'd also planted a second crop in late January; these six new plants are continuing to produce come-again broccoli spears. The new plants will stay in the ground for a few more weeks, but had I known how productive that first crop was going to be, I might have used that garden space for something else.

This huge cabbage was very dense and very sweet. 
What a treat!

 
Meanwhile, I have a few heads of cabbage to deal with. The cabbage in the photo to the left was quite heavy and when my husband cut into the head, we both marveled at how dense it was. Even though it's the end of the cool-weather crop season, this cabbage was the sweetest one this year.

The first dish made from this head was a cabbage, vegetable soup with lots of carrots and onions. After the first servings, we've been enjoying the soup cold and will be eating it for several days. I guess we could freeze it and move on to something else, but we're not upset by repeats of the same dish. We'll probably create a cole slaw or pseudo-Chinese cabbage salad with the other half of the head.

I gave a neighbor a smaller cabbage that was also ready and there are two others still in the garden that will be ready soon. How much cabbage do we need is the question.

Here's an article on the vegetables to grow to save you the most money. Some crops, they say, are not worth the trouble on a purely economic scale: Growing the Right Vegetables Saves $$. What do you think? Do you grow stuff to save money or do you grow it because it's fresher and and more nutritious? Many people have said that growing edibles is like printing money.

The end of the carrots for the season. This had been the third crop of the winter. Half cosmic purple and half orange nantes. Even this late in the season, they are sweet and tender. All the orange carrots went into the cabbage, vegetable soup.

Elsewhere around the garden

Surprise! A squirrel tree frog climbed from the watering can as I was watering some newly transplanted muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). I thought it would jump away, but instead it climbed up the handle of the watering can and then up my arm. Finally, I urged it onto to grass.  Eat bugs, baby!

A Florida native, arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) planted itself out next to the front pond
and in several other mostly shady areas.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) growing out by the front pond.
Doesn't the flower head of this native shrub look kinda like a Sputnik?

A confused late purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens) has been blooming twice each year since I planted it three years ago. I thought it would just happen once as part of its adjustment after my planting it, but no, both the butterflies and I get to enjoy it twice as much! For more information on this drought-tolerant native see Hawthorn Hill's website.

Keep cool in the garden now that summer is here and drink plenty of water! I'm done gardening these days by 10am.

Green Gardening Matters!
Ginny Stibolt

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Only two public events left on the book tour

Talking to people at the Wildflower Festival in Deland
about my vegetables and my books. A fun event.

The "Flowered Shirt" Book Tour

June is upon us and that means that this whirlwind book tour is almost over, and of the six or seven dates left, only two are public.

1) June 10th I'll be speaking to the Cuplet Fern Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society in Sanford, FL at 7pm at 200 Fairmont Ave. 32773. My presentation is Ecosystem Gardening and it's open to the public. I will, of course, also be signing books afterwards.

2) June 15 An open house event at Sunrise Jubilee Farm in Baker County
An afternoon celebration on the farm at 4:30pm in Baker County. Jennifer Asbury writes, "This is an open house for the Farm. We were invited to be a part of Ginny Stibolt's book Tour featuring her new book 'Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida.' We will also have face painting, hoping for a hayride, looking for some local artisans to join us, a community potluck..(so please bring an amazing dish you can share)." There will also be music. Let Jennifer know if you wish to come to the celebration. Here is the farm's Facebook page where you can send a message so she can send you driving instructions. If wish to attend and you're not on Facebook let me know.

While I've loved the various gardenfests, most of my speaking engagements have been at Florida Native Plant Society chapter meetings and Master Gardener meetings. And what great audiences they've been! They've asked great questions and have bought a lot of books. I'm always in interested in these in-depth discussions about organic gardening and how important it is for the health of our state. Plus both of these groups do so much volunteering in their communities and provide great outreach and education, so I'm pleased that I can play a part in supporting their efforts.

It's been fun to drive all over Florida this spring. The scenery is often spectacular especially where the "no mow" roadsides have been planted with wonderful wildflowers and where the roads go through undeveloped wooded areas. But, as I found out recently, I didn't need to leave Clay County to find beautiful roadside wildflowers: There is a great display of wildflowers just south of Middleburg. I've also seen some interesting birds including bald eagles, ospreys, roseate spoonbills, crested caracaras, and various egrets and herons.  

Florida is a fantastic state!

A flowered roadside in Clay County.

Ironically, this is just across the road from the wonderful wildflowers in Clay County shown above.
Which side is more sustainable?

I was honored to receive the coveted Green Palmetto
Award at the FNPS conference. Yes, of course I was
wearing another one of my flowered shirts!

The Florida Native Plant Society Conference came to Jacksonville!

I was on the conference committee, the publicity chair, and it was a lot of work to put the conference together. We'd been planning it for more than two years. But in the end it was all worthwhile, because everything came off without a hitch. Yay!

To learn about some of the activities and see some of my photos, read my "live Blogging" posts from the conference: Live Blogging from the 2013 FNPS Conference; Live Blogging from the Conference Friday; and Live Blogging from the Conference Saturday.

I particularly loved the three-hour nature journaling workshop taught by Elizabeth Smith that I arranged for and then participated myself. We all received an FNPS bag with a sketchpad, pencils, a nice pen, some water colors, a water brush, which I'd never been aware of before. Now the question is whether I will make myself slow down and actually take the time to sketch nature as I see it. I wrote about it in the first post above.

One morning in the garden...

The dune sunflowers glow in the morning light.

An oakleaf hydrangea flower head makes
this native shrub very showy.

My transplanted longleaf pine is finally going vertical!

Back in December 2008, I wrote about transplanting this longleaf pine. Well, it has taken its own sweet time to finally go vertical. I guess the transplanting procedure really set it back since these pines develop substantial root systems as part of their defense against fire.

More time?

Now that I will have a little more time to garden now that the book tour is winding down and I've been able to scrape myself from the driver's seat. But only a little, I'm already working my my next book for University Press of Florida.

I wish you a happy summer season in your garden!

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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An almost full moon

An sojourn outside this evening as it was becoming dark surprised me with an almost full moon.  It was high in the sky as dusk descended, so was easily visible.

I remembered that the April full moon hike was on the 25th -- the full moon date for May is also the 25th, although tonight's moon looms large!

an almost full moon (May 23, 2013)

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What's New

So Kids, took my mom and my sister out to the GreenHouse. Boy was that fun, the weather was perfect and it was such a lovely country drive. It was part of my mom's Mother's Day gift. We got a lot of really great plants, here are a list of some of them. Thats one thing that I really love about Spring, you get this fun feeling.

So Here is a real interesting plant we got. The Mexican Gherkin Cucumber was on of those really different plants I found. It is an heirloom variety that produces small 1 inch perfect for pickling!

This was another really fun plant, not even because of the uniqueness, but mostly because of the sign...So funny!

This is also really cool, Shiso smells amazing, like a mix between basil and mint. Plus it can be used to color drinks!

I can't wait to see how these fun plants turn out!

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Swapping out cool-season to warm-season veggies

It's been a strange spring, for sure.  But it's finally time to harvest the last of the greens to make room for the tomatoes, peppers, and squash in my mountain raised beds. The early planted tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers have survived, but they vary in how they've coped with the unseasonably low temperatures, too.

The early spring cole crops (direct-seeded) are bolting, although the lettuce that I put in via transplants is still looking great (and it's tasty, too, thanks to cool weather).

I'll be putting in more tomato plants this weekend, as well as sowing beans, squash, etc.!

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