Benefits and Beneficials ~ A Garden Teeming with Life

Zebra Longwing (Heliconiuscharitonia) butterflies were missing from my garden last year. It was sad not to see them. They had been so abundant in years past.

You can imagine my excitement when a Zebra Longwing butterfly appeared again this spring. As a matter of fact, I remember the exact day I saw the first one.

It was Easter Sunday. The family was all here and I made a little squeal as it gently fluttered past me during our annual outdoor egg hunt. This very landing was its destination that day, too.

Since that first sighting this Chaya Spinach Tree (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) seems to be a regular hang out for them. (There are several now.)They are strongly attracted to the rather insignificant blooms that sprout up from the tippy-top of the tree.

The alternate landing zone, where they are seen most often, is on the firebush (Hamelia patens) shrubs. There are several planted throughout the garden (not pictured here). Zebra longwings living in my garden again is like receiving a hug from them.

Sharing the nectar on the Chaya is the ever-present monarch. They can be seen regularly, most any month out of the year. That does't mean I take them for granted. I delight at the lilt of every colorful flight across my garden.

I like knowing my garden is safe for every creature. I make certain of it by eliminating the use of pesticides and insecticides.

Nature has a way of balancing and taking care of unwanted critters when gardeners respect the eco-system God put in place. Even the spiders no longer feel like a threat to me. They are allowed to spin their homes and wait for prey to help with the balancing process.

Milkweed assasin is a mighty powerful worker around here. A favorite bright and eager predator of stink bugs, flies and aphids among other pesky insects. If all they ate was stink bugs that would be enough for me! What colorful attire and handsome profile they adorn to boot!

The rewards and benefits of purposeful gardening are numerous. One welcomed benefit is the discovery of caterpillars feeding off of host plants (Rue herb) installed just for them. I watch them chomp away progressing toward maturity. Butterfly caterpillars never fail to amuse. Seeing them satisfies my desire to provide a safe garden for them to reproduce.

Once in a while we actually get the privilege of noticing where they crawl to make ready for transformation. They often instinctively travel away from the host plant. This fat cat (Black Swallowtail) somehow made it to a neighboring container plant. It found the underside of a stiff bromeliad (Aechmea Blanchetiana).

Within a matter of hours its skin split down the center (I missed it) and formed its cozy home to hang. After a couple of weeks it will make its final metamorphosis into a Black Swallowtail butterfly. I hope it decides to live its short life in my garden and perhaps keep the cycle going.

I place a number of bird feeders throughout my garden. They lure the birds from the limbs of the trees down to human levels for a closer look at them.

Cardinals are plentiful here. We've counted over a dozen at once time as they swoop from limb to limb and feeder to feeder.

Small Carolina Chickadees are also numerous and play well with the wrens, Cardinals, Titmouse, and Mourning doves. They frequently gather at the feeders together.

One of my favorite bird families is the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They have the most distinct soft,rolling call. It is easily recognized as it forages for insects among the tall oak trees.

I've observed butterflies and other pollinators in my garden over the years. I make efforts to identify which flowering plants they are most attracted to for nectaring.

If I notice they pay more attention to a particular variety such as the Florida-Friendly crimson Pentas (Pentas lanceolata) plants, I endeavor to spread that plant around the garden in numerous places.

I realize crimson-colored Pentas is a pollinator's smorgasbord when I see the sun catching the wings of all the tiny critters flying around them.

Can you see the pollen on the edges of this Tiger Swallowtail's wings? It is helping to spread goodness throughout my garden naturally.

A garden teeming with life is full with not only vegetation and but critters, too. My Florida garden has a wide variety of plant materials that attract indigenous wildlife. The benefits of organic gardening allow the beneficial insects and pollinators to live out their life-cycles fully, in freedom. If I happen to encounter some aphids on a plant, I exercise patience. I have confidence predator bugs will find them and rid the plant of pests for me. When I plant edibles I know the pollinators will transport necessary pollen for reproduction.

It's the most sensible and rewarding way to garden. What benefits have you discovered from the beneficial critters in your garden?
Happy gardening,
Meems
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You might want to click here to read my Lowe's Creative Ideas article, Attracting Pollinators, to learn more about how to attract pollinators to your garden.

The Edible Garden Has Bones Too

In my ornamental garden it is the placement of trees and foundational plants that we call the 'bones' of the garden. They are those elements that remain. No matter the season or the hardships encountered it is the 'bones' of the garden that give it structure and form. If chosen correctly these fundamental players of the garden are what we work around to create places of interest with forms, textures, colors, and size variances that please our senses.

When I initially created my edible garden by removing lawn and starting with two framed boxes it felt as though it was completely "separate" from the rest of the garden. A lone corner all by itself.

As I expanded it, the next season, I purposed to carry out the same principle of good 'bones' in the edible garden. Even the thought of it just 'felt' better. Like it was a more natural way to garden.

Here's how that works for me.

This is the edible garden today taking up the entire side yard with no turf grass remaining. It is completely enclosed by a chain-linked fence. Yes, it's ugly. But it does serve to keep out some of the critters like armadillos and pea fowl roaming the neighborhood. The fence is covered entirely by confederate jasmine vine. This further serves as a wind-break on bad weather days.

Surrounding the perimeter of the garden are perennials and ornamentals. Some of them are in containers and are placed to further the draw of pollinators and to just look pretty. These are the bones ~ because they remain. Not necessarily all at the same time but no matter the season there are plants appealing to the senses.

The entire length of the exterior edging is bordered with bulbine, society garlic, or variegated aztec grass. Each of these blooms and at different times/seasons and each of them is cold hardy/drought resistant which means they are always there even when the vegetable beds are empty and resting. The edging is the bones.

Mid-late summer is when my edible garden rests. Most of it anyway. There are only herbs of oregano, parsley, fennel, chives, mint, rosemary, and basil (barely hanging on) growing. Two (indeterminate- black cherry) tomato plants are defying the odds of summer in an Earthbox (in partial shade).

Gone are the weeds. Finally. With a bit of effort.

A fresh layer of organics including mushroom compost, my compost, and new potting soil have been added to each bed. Mixed in with that is bone meal, blood meal and alfalfa pellets.

I do this in July when the spring garden is spent which gives it about 6 weeks for all this to "cook" before my fall garden is planted.

My Troy-Bilt chipper shredder comes in so handy all year long. Last week when the edible garden was all cleaned up I made some nice fine-mulch to cover all the beds while it sleeps.

Collected sticks and limbs and some bags of oak leaves all processed for use in the edible garden and elsewhere.

The two cedar framed/raised beds remain in the back corner of the garden. I've chosen to hill-up the other 4 beds into a rectangular/oval-ish shape. The center is a swale of sorts allowing for irrigation/rain to seep into the root system of the edibles.

It's a beautiful thing. The interiors (swale) of the beds are mulched with pine needles while the 'hills' are mulched with the finely shredded leaves and limbs.

No matter the season the edible garden is never "just an edible garden". The low-maintenance bones keep it alive and active.

Side notes for my Florida friends:

• Tomato seeds have been sown this week in 4" pots and placed in a partially shaded location to germinate. They will be transplanted to the ground in September.


• Newly planted (direct sown)okra seeds have emerged and eggplant seeds are sown but not emerged.


• Heirloom rattlesnake pole beans are hanging on the vine to dry. This will provide next season's pole beans.


• September will be the month I get my tomato seedlings in the ground and seeds of squash, bush beans, collards, and carrots and brassicas.


• October follows with seeds of lettuces, spinach, radish, kale, and snap peas.


• November is for succession planting.

The fall edible garden can be tricky ~~ according to weather. Last year October was as hot (but dry with NO rain) as August and I had to re-seed everything. Then we had early freezes in December which made the whole schedule upside down. You never know. But the point is to keep trying. We keep learning from our successes and our failures.

What are you growing?

What Organic Gardeners Eat For Lunch

A basketful of freshness is as close as a few steps into the garden.

Spring-like weather in Central Florida is signaling the edible garden to come alive in all its glory.

Cool season vegetables like Blue Curled Scotch Kale (Baker Creek Heirloom seeds) planted in November are all of a sudden putting on growth quickly.

Wando Garden Peas (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) are responding to plenty of warmth and sunshine while loving the cool nights.

Georgia Southern Collards (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) are truly effortless to grow! Really. They are. And if you like greens ~~ their mild, tender leaves will remind you how glad you are to be southern.

Succession planting of a few cooler season edibles were seeded this week:
Petite Rouge Lettuce (Baker Creek)
Little Gem Lettuce (Baker Creek)
Carrot Sweet Treat Hybrid (Burpee)
Radish Cherry Belle (Pinetree Garden Seeds)
Spinach Monstrueux De Viroflay (Baker Creek)

Only a couple of warm season edibles were also seeded:
Rattlesnake Pole Bean (Baker Creek)
Blue Lake Bush Beans (Baker Creek)
Bartering space for squashes and cukes ... hopefully next week I'll get those in the ground.

Bulbine as a perennial border offers plenty of nectar for visiting pollinators.

Existing edibles received another side dressing of Peruvian Seabird Guano Pellets for another layer of organic fertilizer.

Besides the beauty of being in the garden this time of year there is another remarkable gift it affords. It is one of simplicity and yet so ultimately satisfying!

Decide to take a break and cull a harvest right from the ground to prepare a meal. A healthy organic garden salad for lunch in a matter of minutes. From garden to table. What could be better!

What's your favorite edible from the garden? I know I'll be happy to have bush beans again this spring.
Meems

Sustainable Gardening Practices Pay Off

Granted it is the beginning of December and the growing season, even in Florida, is ebbing to a slow crawl.

With shorter days, a lower angle of the sun and not as many hours of direct sunlight some of the tropicals are getting sleepy.
I find myself wishing they would all stay awake year round, like the perennials, but some of them insist on retreating back to the earth for a rest. They'll return quickly in early spring so I really shouldn't begrudge them the recuperation they require.

For all those that slumber there are as many that stay the course right through the winter months. Or until a few hours of freezing temps descend upon us in mid-winter. Oh, let's not think about that today.

Tucked-in tightly together in the understory of mature oak trees most will stay snug and protected during cooler nights.

If there was ever a time to be grateful for good management practiced during peak growing season it is now. This garden is surviving on less attention~~ bordering on neglect ~~ than it has in a long time.

Life has a way of creeping up on us at times. Things planned and things sometimes unplanned. Every now and then life decides to pull on us in ways that make it challenging to get out in the garden as much as we'd like or need to. Every gardener knows what that is like.

Such is the way it's been around here these last couple of months. Not enough days available to spend reveling in what I call 'peaceful lingering'... getting to all those maintenance tasks that add up.

Instead it's been more like stealing an hour or two here and there to keep the garden going.

It's a good thing that extra layer of mulch went down in early fall. As busy times have come my way forcing the garden to take a back seat, fortunately, the weeds haven't completely take over.

Using an organic medium 2-3 inches thick will go a LONG way to keep plant roots cooler in summer and warmer in winter also.

My preference for fall mulch coverage is a mix of medium & fine pine bark or pine needles. In spring the fallen oak tree leaves will be sufficient for an added layer of mulch.

Oh, these photos might give the perception the garden is in tip-top shape. But we all know photos can be deceiving. This gardener can see the endless list of chores I've let fall by the wayside.

While we wait for life to get back to routine I'm praising the low(er) maintenance season of autumn.

Considering the big picture it sure does help to form good overall habits in our routine gardening practices. Keeping this in mind endorses sustainability in the garden should conditions turn to near-neglect either by choice or by default.

Mulching to provide good moisture retention and weed reduction is just one of the practices recommended for structuring our gardens toward sustainability.

Correct plant placement means less stress for the gardener and the plants alike in the long run. We'll be helping ourselves and giving our plants every possiblity of thriving if we take the time to plan and research at the outset.

Other factors like proper irrigation will train your plants/lawn to sink their roots deeper into the soil causing increased drought resistance. Did you know you can actually OVER water which increases the chances for pests and fungal problems.

Installing a separate watering system for the vegetable garden last spring has saved me hours of hand-watering as well as concern while on out-of-town trips. AND... we've got tomatoes!!!

Fertilizing appropriately is key. OVER fertilizing can promote disease doing the opposite of what we desire by weakening plants.

Since we've chosen to eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers organic matter such as compost, aged horse manure shavings, seabird guano pellets, blood meal, and bone meal have been added to existing bedding plants.

The management of yard pests is minimal to none with environmentally responsible practices in place. Adopting the philosophy of allowing beneficial insects to complete their natural feeding cycles we are learning better and better to patiently let them diminish the presence of harmful insects. And in rare cases we hand-pick naughty intruders.

It may seem like a lot of extra work initially to plan out a landscape design that is both function, sustainable, and artistically pleasing. But, believe me, it pays off to think through all the elements with the idea of saving time, energy, and money in the long run.

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I'll get around to visiting blogs again soon... hopefully. Please bear with me as I don't intend to neglect my garden or my gardening friends forever...
Enjoying the moments,
Meems