By Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandale
mail@floridanewsline.com
First things first: my admittedly experimental sowing of fenugreek or methi, as I described last month, was an utter failure. Several possible reasons: the seed was too old, I soaked the seed for too long, temperatures were too high, or the soil was too dry (even though I thought I watered carefully). I will try again with fresh seed going into the cooler weather. If anyone has succeeded in growing this plant, which is eaten in Indian cuisine both as a green vegetable and a spice (the seed), I would be delighted to hear.
In the meantime, I’m looking with pleasure at healthy, blooming crops of tomatoes, eggplant, and assorted peppers. Luckily, scouting for insects has turned up very little to worry about. Also, a new one for me, three tomatillo plants are full of flowers. I discovered that they only fruit well when two or more plants are grown together as they need to cross-pollinate. So far I have one small paper lantern-like fruit (https://tinyurl.com/danm2vjv).
I imagine my own gardening efforts are like most people’s; some things work one year and aren’t always successful the next. There are any number of factors to consider, from the uncontrollable like the weather to simple mistakes, like not paying attention to insects and diseases. Plus I think many successful gardeners will keep a log book of their gardening exploits — to keep track of what has worked in the past, and also where they are in applying fertilizer and other activities.
One thing I try to do is rotate crops around the vegetable beds and for this I do keep records of what is growing, where, and when. This summer the long beans are following winter’s brassicas; however, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds because a successful rotation plan depends on the plants’ families. For more detail see https://tinyurl.com/2rf899bj. There you will find the information you need to identify which crops belong in which plant family. Following this advice will help avoid a buildup of pests and diseases in your garden, which is what crop rotation aims to achieve.
The Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii) planted by the city at the front of my property is thriving, I’m glad to say. Its large, typically oak-shaped leaves are a beautiful shade of mid-green. It’s become a resting place for our neighborhood birds. It will soon have a few companions — when we’ve finally decided on a design for the front yard — probably yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria: https://tinyurl.com/8dz9a5zx), possibly a low-growing native palm (Sabal etonia: https://tinyurl.com/2xzapesf), maybe a slender small tree in the blueberry family (Vaccinium arboreum: https://tinyurl.com/y9ptmsur). Trying to attract wildlife is a must for me, so native plants that provide shelter and food are important.
Speaking of wildlife, I found a host of aphids on a tropical milkweed plant (Asclepias curassavica), but there were also several small, slug-like creatures in among them. Looking online to determine what they were, I think they must have been hoverfly larvae, which eat aphids, because the following day I examined the plant to see how the aphids were doing, and discovered that they were no longer there. Further down the plant was another batch, but again the larvae I’d seen before were in among the aphids. And a day or two later there was no sign of either the aphids or the larvae. Natural pest control in action!
Happy summer, folks. May your gardens be productive and your insects beneficial.
