I have approx. 80 of 'Commercial Mixed Color' bulbs planted in the bed out front that is home to my mailbox, 'Teasing Georgia' climbing rose and perennials and bulbs where as I'd hoped, nasturtiums are pushing up through my first ever use of rose prunings as a "chop and drop" mulch. I bet this long slow soaking rain will have them emerging in a few weeks. By March this bed should look stunning!

http://www.nagelglads.com/

My 'Windsor' fava beans are coming up now in a 1/3 barrel Water Wise Container Garden, and Mike Johnson recently planted 100 in his plot at Big Small Farms near Bushnell. I think this is just the second time I've grown them my 12 years back from Denver, might be the first time. This edible Vetch grew like CRAZY in my Denver gardens and was not fazed by late hard freezes or snow, so I think they will like this damp cooler winter we are having. Very good nitrogen fixer and I love eating them dry and cooked like pintos, or like edamames when the pods are green and plump.

http://www.everwilde.com/store/Fava-Broad-Windsor-Fava-Bean-Seeds.html

Space Farming!

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russian_Space_Farmers_Harvest_Wheat_Peas_and_Greens_999.html

I just ate my first Hong Vit radish ROOT after enjoying the leaves for weeks now...like a mild sweet tender normal radish. It is grown mainly for the leaves.

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_425-116.html

For years I've relied on Water Hyacinths for compost, mulch and chicken food. And now that the ducks are gone I'll stock all ponds and large rain barrels with the EXCELLENT aquatic plant for Florida, Hot Water Cabomba. It is a native, clarifies and oxygenates water wonderfully, and chickens love to scarf it down.

http://www.feedipedia.org/node/160

Jon Butts and Debbie at EcoFarm grow two types of mystery replicating onions....one the tops die back in late spring, which makes me think it is likely a "Potato Onion" (sub-species of shallot). I just checked the other one out front in a rose bed...they are definitely dividing underground and I THINK they said it grows year round. This is the odd one that Jon says that maybe 1 of every 12 sends up a viviparous stalk, kind of like Allium canadense. The plants are quite petite, DWARFED by my Allium fistulosum and "Eliska's Bunching Onion" which I am about 95% sure is a form of A. fistulosum, both of which grow year round and bloom in the spring and never make a viviparous stalk. Here is a pic of the clump that I bought from Jon and Debbie that night at the Twilight Market.They reminded me of slightly swollen scallions.....I will be curious if it grows year round.

On the way to the Imagine Peace art show in Ft. Meyers Maria mentioned to me eating a green for the first time, could not quite remember the name but after she described the taste and texture I asked "mache?" and she said YES! Mild,tender, nutty and SUPER COLD HARDY...in Denver, self sown seedlings would pop up in my gardens when there were easily two more months of snow likely. They were NEVER damaged by late freezes or snows. I've grown it here in south Tampa in mid winter. I wish that more gardeners in snowy climate regions grew it.

http://www.everwilde.com/store/Dutch-Corn-Salad-Herb-Seeds.html

Tim and I and other friends are getting huge crops of aerial tubers of true Yams (Dioscorea species) fallen to the ground after all these winds. Despite my well-earned reputation as a "garbage gut" I've never enjoyed the aerials regardless of how I cooked them...just tolerated them due to a musty muddy aftertaste. So today I boiled up this pot of some for the chickens, tried one, still don't like them. But the chickens SCARFED them down!

Home Made Raw Cat Food

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Bvd3qf2q0

I noticed yesterday afternoon that all my cassavas have 100% defoliated...I wonder if this new cold snap will damage the stem tips?

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=33611

What an elegantly simple and frugal solution!!!

http://www.thegardenprepper.com/diy-homemade-chicken-waterer/

A very well written piece!

http://www.nwedible.com/2011/02/dont-be-urban-homesteader-asshole.html

I just posted on the Barefoot Gardeners forum a question to Jon and Debbie at EcoFarm if their strain of Walking Onion is truly perennial and if it walks. Some years back Allen Boatman and I obsessed on them and the MANY strains, like the Catawissas and more. The kind I grew in Denver that multiplied HEAVILY and walked like crazy, with bases thicker than leeks, failed QUICKLY the three times I brought some here from my Denver yard. A strain that Allen got via mail THRIVED for him at the Falkenburg Jail farm plus in my yard and two friends' garden for three years...but as they entered year four they failed catastrophically, though Mary Jo has one that has managed to survive but hardly thrives. As soon as I hear back from them I'll share what they say. I realize that they are much colder out there than I am here in south Tampa so who knows...might be perennial for them but not me. I loved my giant patch in my Denver back yard!

I'm on his side!

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-01-03/news/os-longwood-yard-neighborhood-dispute-20140103_1_high-grass-weeds-sean-law

When I see the severity of the drought in California I am reminded JUST how much my native Florida has dried up since I was a teen here in the 60s...no one then could have EVER imagined watering restrictions of any kind, much less watering just one day per week and a limited number of hours. So it boggles my mind to know of wealthy homeowners and some rosarians here who somehow obtain exemptions and water DAILY in incredible amounts, in one case seven gallons of water per rose per day on hundreds of roses, or vast swaths of hyper-thirsty St. Augustine lawn. Talk about a sense of entitlement and disregard for the environment, especially the rosarians who also use VAST quantities of pesticides!

I simply can't cook without onions and garlic, and since both are winter crops here in central Florida for years I've been obsessively acquiring and trialing various ones in hopes of getting TRULY perennial onions that grow YEAR ROUND and, hopefully, multiply. Two successes so far is a strain of Allium fistulosom I bought as seeds some years back, and "Eliska's Bunching Onion" (which I feel certain is a strain of A. fistulosum that she bought as loose bulbs in a bin at an Ace Hardware). What is very likely a "potato onion" from an East Indian member of the Tampa Rare Fruit Council is reliably perennial for him and Paul Zmoda for years now, but they go dormant in spring and must be dug up else they rot in the summer humid heat. A couple of months ago I bought at a store a small mesh bag of "boiling onions", feeling they were likely immature white onions sold at a premium price. A half hour ago I harvested leaves to add to home made macaroni and cheese....I looked closely: they SEEM to be multiplying! Time will tell if they prove to be perennial.

Once again I dodged the frost bullet here in south Tampa last night...no damage even on chance Passion Fruit seedlings, dew on my car instead of frost! Woo hoo!

Am using this new cold spell to plant fava beans (actually a Vetch) for the first time in years. Since they loved Denver's heavy, wet and sticky bentonite clay soil I heavily amended the soil in a 1/3 drum Water Wise Container Garden with cheap kitty litter made from calcium bentonite clay, added a few inches of aged oak chips, planted about a dozen, deep soaked with rain water. Incredibly cold hardy crop. The black and white blooms are stunning!

http://www.everwilde.com/store/Fava-Broad-Windsor-Fava-Bean-Seeds.html

The pic of an Arrow Root rhizome in my hand with ferns behind is of the original rhizome that Josh Jamison gave me a number of months ago when we were at a permaculture event at Andy Firk's. They like light shade and damp soil so I planted it in a Water Wise Container Garden made from the the lower third of a 55 gallon plastic drum beneath my avocado tree. It grew very well this summer, reaching about 5 feet tall, then it flowered. The tops died back slowly so today, after a week ago digging up one for Mike to grow, and after 2 months ago digging up one prematurely to eat, I dug up eight rhizomes. I could tell from my fingers' Braille that I left several underground. I replenished the soil, mulched with aged oak chips, then planted maybe 6 seedlings of my favorite collard, 'Morris Heading'. I'll be curious to see if new shoots push up through the collards next spring heat returns. I will try these raw, sauteed/steamed with the lid on, and boiled.

"Eliska's Bunching Onion" is not only perennial in St. Pete and Tampa, it blooms, sets seeds and multiplies heavily at the base. Great scallion type flavor.

I'd love to know after my having grown it for years that for the first time ever my katuk shrub set fruits. A friend in north Tampa had his fruit SO heavily he has seedlings popping up like crazy beneath it!

I had terrible luck with this and the related Okinawa Spinach a few years until learning this summer they like DAPPLED sun vs. the scorching FULL sun I'd grown both in before..now they are THRIVING in 18 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens beneath my avocado tree.

http://growerjim.blogspot.com/2013/07/longevity-spinach-gynura-procumbens.html

A gardening friend in St. Pete shared this on FaceBook and I AM going to try it!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-raise-mealworms

Green Wall project spanning Africa...if only it can span countries torn by war and chaos. Millions PLUS the continent's ecology could SO benefit!

http://www.thegef.org/gef/great-green-wall

Zero frost damage from that system that turned out to be much less cold than forecast! I have just light leaf drop on my katuk.

The potlucks are always awesome, great speakers and programs. I wonder if he'll discuss the radical GMO and doubled chromosome citrus being developed as a response to "citrus greening"?

http://www.rarefruit.org/

Frost coming to my gardens Tuesday night? I'm bringing in potted tropicals Monday!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Tampa&state=FL&site=TBW&lat=27.959&lon=-82.4821#.UshGVvRDss4