Gardening through the Winter

In Florida, temperatures rarely reach a freezing point where plants will completely die. However, certain plants still struggle to grow, and can even die at temperatures above freezing. The best way to prevent plants in your personal garden from dying is by using protected agriculture methods. While greenhouses are rather expensive for hobbyist gardeners, there are numerous other methods that are much more affordable. One of these is the low tunnel. By bending either metal or another flexible material to form a semi circle structure above the garden, and by stretching a plastic covering on top, a protected area can be formed in which plants can thrive.

Low tunnels are a temporary structure and because of this, the plastic on top can be removed to allow daily access to plants. Low tunnels are perfect for home gardeners because of their affordability. A large number of low tunnels can be created with few resources.

To garden through the winter, even in Florida, protective structures are necessary. These structures are especially necessary if the gardener wants to grow tropical fruits. These fruits grow in regions that are hot year-round. Because of this, structures such as a greenhouse or high tunnel, that increase the internal temperature are necessary to grow tropical fruits.



Example of a Low Tunnel

Composting and Succulents

The food scraps I produce on a daily basis should be composted instead of being tossed into the trash and eventually making its way into a landfill. When food rots in a landfill it goes through anaerobic decomposition. During this process it releases methane into the air. Methane is the leading cause for the smell prevalent at landfills, and also in garbage cans. It is also a greenhouse gas contributing to the warming of our planet. When food scraps are broken down in soil, and in compost, this decomposition is aerobic. In aerobic decomposition, CO2 is produced instead of methane. This gas is much less harmful to the environment and can even be used by plants during photosynthesis.

Unfortunately, I do not have a garden in my apartment, or adequate time necessary to break down my food scraps in a compost heap before I have to move. You need land to be able to keep a compost pile well away from anywhere it might cause a bad smell. I feel that starting a compost pile is not very realistic for most college students but it is something that I have a strong interest in. It makes perfect sense for somebody with the time, land, and means to turn kitchen scraps into compost instead of letting them rot in a landfill.

Propagating Succulents

City Gardening

If I were to have my vegetable garden in a city such as New York, as opposed to Gainesville I would have to change many aspects of my current garden. For starters, all of my plants would be placed into containers with a growing medium as opposed to soil.

When living in the city, many people don't have the time to perform all the maintenance necessary in a garden, the right pot and growing medium can help lighten the daily load. This medium will have a much higher water retention rate and thus can be watered less often. The pot chosen should have adequate drainage as well as the ability to keep the root systems moist even on hot days.

Because of the expensive prices in New York City, I would also want to have an indoor hydroponic garden for tomatoes, peppers, onions, and some leafy greens. This would help me get through the coldest months of winter when all plants outside will freeze. Indoor hydroponic systems are used to help fight weather and supply nutrients to the plant roots directly through water. Because of this they take up relatively small spaces and can even be boosted with artificial light if sunlight is not an option.

Some Jalapeno Poppers I Made

Organic Gardening

After watching lectures this week, I feel like I have good understanding of the history of organic gardening. I found the classifications of organic grades, and the requirements for them to be very interesting.

In order to be an organic gardener, you have to be less concerned with profits than you are about sustainability and safe crop production. By planting a diverse assortment of species you can ensure that your garden is full of different kinds of life all benefiting from each other in symbiotic relationships. Pests are naturally attracted to a glut of produce. This is why large scale crop productions often need to use pesticides directly applied to plants in order to control disease and pest problems. By diversifying what we put in our gardens we can prevent nature from trying to counteract the large amount of produce with pests and other harmful things.

By reducing the need for pest control, we also reduce the need to apply chemicals to our plants. When we apply chemical treatments harmful to pests, trace components often get into the fruits that we consume. These components can be harmful in various ways, thus we need to be careful with what makes its into our garden soil.

I honestly can't remember

 the exact plant this is, maybe Bok Choy?

Bee-Friendly Spaces

In general, bee friendly spaces can be created by paying careful attention to products used on plants, and the plants chosen for your Garden. While some chemicals can be very effective in eliminating fungus and disease, bees can also be damaged in the crossfire. In general, bees are attracted to flowers and will visit a Garden with more flowers. This can be used to a gardener's advantage by carefully mixing various sweet-smelling flowers among the the different beds.

In order to not harm bees, a gardener must be very careful about the chemicals applied to plants. In particular, fungicides have chemicals within them that are very toxic to bees. Any flowers with a particular fungicide on it will actually kill bees that try to pollinate it. Some studies have actually shown bees avoiding flowers that have been sprayed with fungicide. Because flowers and bees have a symbiotic relationship this is also harmful to the flower because it has fewer pollinators to help it spread.

This week we released lady bugs into our garden as a natural way to help reduce the pest population. First we wet our garden, in particular the leaves before releasing a large number of the red and black bugs onto them. It was a great experience, and I am excited to hopefully try the practice one day in my own garden.

I attended class

 but couldn't take a picture without my phone. These ladybugs are available

 for home gardeners to purchase here.

Plant Diseases

Some of the plants in my garden appeared to have some disease. In particular, my tomato plant was looking very sickly. It has had trouble staying up, even after numerous tie attempts and I believe this made it weak and susceptible to disease. While it was hanging down in the dirt, it was more susceptible to fungi and pathogens. Other students in the class seem to have struggling tomato plants as well, but my structural support issues have certainly not helped my particular plant. It seems that maybe the tomato seedlings we transplanted were diseased or the soil is particularly harmful to tomato plants. I made sure to prune the browning leaves, specifically the lower leaves were the most stressed.

I applied fungicide to my plants this week in class and it was an interesting experience. I thought that once plants had a disease of some kind it would be very difficult to control it. Once I watched the lecture I learned that it was as easy as applying a fungicide. I hope that my fungicide is helpful in protecting my plants. I will be able to see the results in the coming weeks. I fear that my tomato plant is beyond the help of any fungicide.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my hydroponic system, 

this is a similar system I found online

Hopefully I Harvest Soon

I am excited for whenever my first harvest will occur. While many of my classmates were harvesting radishes this week in class, I did not have any radishes survive in my garden. This could be due to my mistakes when planting, or I might have accidentally pulled them thinking they were weeds in their early stages.

I have seen a number of small peppers present on classmates' plants. My jalapeno and bell pepper plants still are not showing any fruit, but I believe I am very close to having harvestable produce. I noticed that my tomato plants did not have any yellow flowers, my tomato plant was struggling to stand upright and even after multiple tie attempts, I would notice it on the ground when I returned to class. This week I believe I have reinforced it enough, and I hope it begins to flower and produce tomatoes soon.

I believe I could harvest my single onion this week, it should be a decent size because it has been in the ground for a number of weeks. I plan on waiting until I can harvest at least a few items together, before removing my solitary onion. I feel a sense of pride in my single onion, so I want to make sure it gets the harvest it deserves.

Fertilizing Plants, and Planting

The amount of fertilizer used for each plant was a bit shocking to me. I did not expect one of those scoops to be used for a single plant. In my mind, that would cause nutrient burn, but my plants still appeared healthy after a week of absorbing the additional nutrients now present in the soil. Even without signs of nutrient burn, I would choose to apply my fertilizer over a period significantly longer than a single day.

If the garden was in my backyard, I would try to add nutrients to the soil over a longer period. Because this class only meets once a week, we put a rather significant amount of fertilizer into the soil at one time. This can lead to nutrient runoff into nearby bodies of water. By spreading out our nutrients we make sure the plant and soil absorb as much as possible to reduce runoff. In my own garden, rather than applying all the fertilizer at once, I would spread around a fourth of the fertilizer every couple days. I think this longer-term schedule would prevent stress or burning of any kind on my plants. Because I can regularly tend to a home garden, I would have the luxury of creating my own nutrient schedule.

Cooling Off in the Shade

Adding Transplants and Learning from Mistakes

The quote "gardening is the art of maximizing photosynthesis in our plants"
holds a lot of truth for aspiring gardeners. Because plants primarily use the photosynthetic process to store energy, by maximizing this process, we can grow the best possible plants. This statement summarizes many different factors necessary to have a healthy garden into a single phrase for Gardeners to always be thinking about. Every time we are working in our garden it is important to remember that all small improvements we make should be oriented towards this larger goal.

Garden Update: This week I replanted some pole beans, because of some improper planting procedure last time. I planted them in a line along the Eastern border of the garden so they could have a proper structure built to support them.  I also fertilized my existing plants and added 2 eggplants and another bell pepper plant. I felt that my garden was a bit empty and wanted to fill at least half of it by the time of our 7 week garden assessment. This was not a requirement, but I hated to see so much of it empty.

On week 7 we will have an opportunity replant some crops from the beginning of the course. It appears that only a single one of my onions survived, So I would like to replant those. My goal is to successfully make a salsa with only ingredients from my garden by the end of th

e course.

Fixing My Transplants

The first person I told about my gardening class was my mother. After moving to New York, she has started growing a number of plants (mostly peppers and tomatoes) outside their rented apartment. She expressed interest in my class and hoped that I would be able to share some helpful tips with her.

Everybody else that I told about my class thought that it sounded like fun, especially when I told them that it focused a lot more on getting your hands dirty, and less assignments on platforms such as Canvas. Most of my classes are online because of my college, this class gave me an opportunity to go outside and get my hands dirty, while still growing some awesome produce I could use and share with friends.

My tomato plant was struggling when I arrived at class. It was being blown over by the wind, and was covered in dirt! I promptly staked it and I hope that next week, after receiving support, it will be much healthier. Sadly, It looks like most of my onions did not survive, I only saw a single recognizable plant. I haven't completely given up hope, but if I do not see a seedling within the next week, I will likely reuse the soil for a different plant.

A Healthy Waldo Seedling

(Day 15)

The Transplanting Process

This week at the Teaching Gardens, we spent our class time transplanting a number of plants aged around 8 weeks old into each of our gardens. I chose 2 jalapeno plants, 2 bell peppers, a Roma tomato plant and a Black Beauty eggplant.

The transplanting process was relatively straightforward. To ensure the future of my transplants, I placed each one in a small mound of compost. This is a much more nutrient-rich medium than Florida soil. Before placing each into a small hole within the mount, I massaged the root ball to help them grow into the soil more easily. I tried being as delicate as possible while transplanting to ensure that no roots were harmed. After that I watered my plants and left class for the day. Because of a meeting I had with IFC at the Reitz at 6PM on Thursday, I was forced to leave class a bit early. I hope that in my rush, I did not miss anything and that I was able to properly complete the transplanting process.

The process was not particularly difficult, but then again, I am only a beginner. I will not know how successful I was until next week, but I hope that by this time next week, I will be writing about healthy transplants.

Zinnia Seedling

Excited to Grow My Own Food!

Since I first witnessed a homestead at a summer camp in middle school, I have been fascinated by the concept of self-sustainability. Because of this, I am excited about the concept of learning how to grow my own food.


I do have some worries about the best ways in which to structure my garden. I understand that it is supposed to be open-ended to let students have full control, but the possibility of not having a successful garden, no matter how small it is, still looms in the back of my mind. I am excited to be growing flowers (Zinnias) in my garden as well as a number of other vegetables. I chose radishes because I thought it would be a great confidence booster to have something fully grown in only the 4-5th week in the class. I also planted onions. My understanding is that they are can be harvested at 6 weeks, but can grow for longer to get larger sized onions. I chose to plant these even though I do not particularly enjoy onions. I am hoping that growing them might give me a better appreciation and allow me to enjoy them more. Overall I am excited to grow my own food for the first time.

Gardening Experience

In terms of starting a garden, I am a complete beginner. I have never had my own garden, only helped others, and worked on a homestead. I have very little experience with caring for my own garden, but I am enjoying everything so far in this class. I spent a number of years at summer camp and I would always take a "homesteading" elective. The camp had a small homestead and seeing them grow their own food, process, and store it had adolescent-me in awe. I thought it was the coolest thing, and I believe this is what helped me develop a desire to start my own garden.

In particular, I would love to feel confident in growing my own food on a small scale. This has always been an interest of mine, but it's something I never saw myself having enough time to learn. Every time a friend, or neighbor has shown me something that they grew in their own yard, I thought it was awesome. It was something that I always had a desire to replicate. When I saw the availability of this class, I knew it was a class I would look forward to each time I had an assignment. I'm looking forward to the next class, where I believe we will start working on our own gardens.