Miami backyard garden

[maxjohnson]

March 2016, Overview

[maxjohnson]

Now the tomatoes.

in order: aunt's ruby german green (tall)
cherokee purple (inside paint strainers)
kellog's breakfast (wooden trellis)
barry's crazy cherry (multiflora)
silvery fir tree (carrot leaves container)
delicious (pink container)
garden peach (golf balls)
black cherry (overhead trellis)

[ChiliPeppa]

Now that's just gorgeous!

[Barb_FL]

Really nice garden; everything looks so healthy; and you're growing in the ground no less. What did you do to prepare the ground/nemotodes for your tomatoes?

[maxjohnson]

I only started gardening at the end of 2014. I have to admit I spent a bit of money to buy local compost to add to the raised beds since. My soil is typical Florida sandy soil, it does seem to have nutrients, but no water retaining ability so watering was an issue. Lately, I caught on the concept of Back to Eden gardening, so all I do is mulch now. My plan is to not repair the raised beds when they rot, and to grow on the ground eventually, as the mulches will breakdown and add organic matters back to the soil.

Actually the tomatoes are dying of late blight. My first time growing tomatoes was great, but then came the whiteflies infestation (#1 enemy) so I couldn't grow any for almost a year. I had to quit growing any nightshade plants for the last half of 2015 to reduce the whiteflies. And cleaning out all the shaded parts of the garden. Improving airflow and removing shades was a big factor in reducing them. For now I decide to not grow tomatoes at the later half of the year which is when they seems to be most active. I've became a bit paranoid so I remove any sick or yellowing tomato leaves that may attract them. The other problem are ants (#2 enemy), which is prominent feature that came with this property because of the stone pavements in the backyard. So sealing the gaps and applying diatomaceous earth wherever they come out. They seems to attracts all the bad bugs, I tried buying ladybugs and pray mantis once but the ants just gang up to eat them. I don't know if DE kill them, but it certainly detracts them, I sprinkle DE below all my containers and the ants no longest nests under them.

My friend have a big problem nematodes, I don't think it's too bad for me, I do see sign of them in the roots at time. Some of the recommendation seems to be adding organic matter and mulching which is what I'm doing.

I'm not all organic. I did aerated hydroponic as well at first, but the cleaning and maintenance was too much work. This also coincided with aerated compost tea, eventually I realized it was a waste of time so I just mulch instead. So now I have two Aerogarden indoor for basil and lettuce.

[Cole_Robbie]

Nice pics. Gotta love those Florida bugs.

Borax will kill ants; mix it with a little sugar. I had good luck killing whiteflies with a bio-insecticide called Met52. And there are beneficial bacteria products for nematodes.

And there's a long thread on here about diluted bleach as a preventative spray. That might be something to consider for your blight issue.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

I only started gardening at the end of 2014. I have to admit I spent a bit of money to buy local compost to add to the raised beds since. My soil is typical Florida sandy soil, it does seem to have nutrients, but no water retaining ability so watering was an issue. Lately, I caught on the concept of Back to Eden gardening, so all I do is mulch now. My plan is to not repair the raised beds when they rot, and to grow on the ground eventually, as the mulches will breakdown and add organic matters back to the soil.

Actually the tomatoes are dying of late blight. My first time growing tomatoes was great, but then came the whiteflies infestation (#1 enemy) so I couldn't grow any for almost a year. I had to quit growing any nightshade plants for the last half of 2015 to reduce the whiteflies. And cleaning out all the shaded parts of the garden. Improving airflow and removing shades was a big factor in reducing them. For now I decide to not grow tomatoes at the later half of the year which is when they seems to be most active. I've became a bit paranoid so I remove any sick or yellowing tomato leaves that may attract them. The other problem are ants (#2 enemy), which is prominent feature that came with this property because of the stone pavements in the backyard. So sealing the gaps and applying diatomaceous earth wherever they come out. They seems to attracts all the bad bugs, I tried buying ladybugs and pray mantis once but the ants just gang up to eat them. I don't know if DE kill them, but it certainly detracts them, I sprinkle DE below all my containers and the ants no longest nests under them.

My friend have a big problem nematodes, I don't think it's too bad for me, I do see sign of them in the roots at time. Some of the recommendation seems to be adding organic matter and mulching which is what I'm doing.

I'm not all organic. I did aerated hydroponic as well at first, but the cleaning and maintenance was too much work. This also coincided with aerated compost tea, eventually I realized it was a waste of time so I just mulch instead. So now I have two Aerogarden indoor for basil and lettuce.

Hi Max. I think you need to read and join this thread: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ghlight=Fellow
Its all about how we Floridians handle our whitefly and nematode issues. Late blight doesn't really affect us but early blight and Septoria do, but they are manageable. So are whiteflies and leaf miners. Nematodes, if you have any, you have a full infection. And all of Florida is thoroughly infested with Root knot nematodes, no amount of soil amending will ever get rid of them, they are in every square inch of all of Florida. We mostly all garden in containers with solid bottoms and an overflow spout, SWCs, or over a plastic barrier to keep out the nematodes.
Yellow sticky traps put out at every 5 feet will virtually eliminate your whitefly and leaf miner problems. They last the whole season. Make sure to get only the Seabright Labs ones as the sticky does not cruelly trap lizards and even birds like most of the cheaper ones do. I learned about that the hard way after I cheaped out for about only a dollar and a bird was trapped, when I freed it, it lost several flight feathers.
Anyway, here's a photo. The tiny ones are whiteflies, the others are leafminer and etc. all strongly attracted to the yellow.

[rags57078]

Nice garden , Good Job

[peppero]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing �� with us.

Jon

[Imthechuck]

our climate is quite challenging, sometimes success and others failures...

[maxjohnson]

Cherokee Purple. Phenomenal.

[alexita]

Great pics - Your tomatoes look delicious and your garden delightful! Are those black olive leaves as mulch in pic #2?

[maxjohnson]

Just random leaves I collect from the neighbors. I'm not really verse on trees. I also use wood chips, wood shavings, and straws.

[wildcat62]

Making my mouth water.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by wildcat62

Making my mouth water.

Yes it does look good.
Yesterday I had my first tomato since last year.
Worth