second season vegetable garden

[onethatcares]

I'm lucky to live in a zone that allows me to plant 2 gardens a year, Zone 10A, West Central Floriduh on the peninsula of St Petersburg.

I just finished my winter hopefuls. tomato plants, 6 black prince, 6 green zebra, 6 purple bumblebee (all indeterminate and all are supposed to fruit no larger than 4 oz in size, 4 lemon cucumber plants, 4 crooked neck squash, 4 zucchini squash, 6 collard plants, 4 curley leaf kale, 6 bok choi, 6 brussel sprout, bush beans, and a short row of sno peas.

The dirt looks really good third year in with a base of leaves/straw, a 4 inch layer of topsoil (cheap stuff), a layer of compost, a layer of miracle grow planting soil and a 4 inch covering of straw for mulch. I know, I know, I should have had the soil tested but the worms and organic matter were looking so good, I neglected to do that.

Everything is in raised beds, really just outlined beds. , some beds larger than others and one 12 ft x 12 ft three row bed for my greens. Smallest bed is 3 ft x 4 ft.

My flowers, mostly wild are attracting pollinators and the wood chip paths are breaking down nicely. This started out as a food forest or back to eden project 3 years ago. I've now read too much about b to e and am going to only use straw and a small wood chip mulch layer.

I store 500 gallons of rain water, last year the rain fall was not as expected and my a/c condensate water was not enough to keep up. I will be picking up two more 55 gal rain barrels this weekend. I hate to pay for city water and the sewerage fee. I'm a cheap date in that area.

Anyway, I'll keep ya'll posted and hopefully put some pix up as I learn to do that.

Peace,