My two times in Costa Rica, and Tim's many visits to his wife Kathy's native Columbia, we were served in soups chunks of corn cob with giant, chewy, starchy, tender, almost white kernels. Tim is not fond of it but I loved it as someone who does not enjoy modern sweet corn. It took quite a bit of Googling but I found two South American varieties. "Peruvian Giant Yellow" corn has big kernels, but this one has me very excited! I got 35 seeds for $5 after shipping and this March I will plant them in my moist fertile east bed filled with roses and pentas. This will be the first time I've grown corn in easily ten years. "Giant Cuzco". John

More Sissoo Spinach

http://survivalgardener.com/sissoo-spinach/

Someone in Costa Rica was reading my old gardening column in The St. Pete Times and asked me if I'd ever heard of this cool veggie. It sounds wonderful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw3ER-SNkmA

A great overview of using beans.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/21-how-to-cook-beans?utm_source=Facebook_Paid&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Guides&utm_campaign=kwp&kwp_0=156744&kwp_4=1081463&kwp_1=503075

Today I am planting these multiplier onions in a large Water Wise Container Garden next to the comfrey that Jim Porter gave me. These tiny bulblets are in a small paper bag kept in my produce drawer since summer until today. Tampa is SO not the desert southwest where I have lived in my youth but I won't know if I don't try. John.

http://www.crookedskyfarms.com/iitois-onion

For anybody I've shared seeds of the forage rape 'Bonar' with, these are now five weeks old in a baby pool Water Wise Container Garden by my avocado tree. The soil is about six years old, is home made compost containing quite a bit of Publix brand cheap unscented cat litter (made from calcium bentonite clay), one sprinkling back then of dolomite, and has been fed over the years with kitchen gray water and dilute fish emulsion now and then. This it been fed just once with organic 'Mills Magic Rose Mix'. And these plants are still babies! Raw or cooked the leaves are mild and tender, no fibers like in collards. If I still lived in Denver I'd be growing 'Bonar' as an extremely cold hardy crop.....years ago I gave seeds to a rural farmer east of Tampa.....we had a BAD cold front that made Tampa BROWN with severe cold damage.....his 'Bonar' was not even touched by a sustained 14 degrees! John

I have moved Water Wise Container Gardens I made from recycling bins from the south bed to my kitchen garden beneath the drastically cut back avocado tree, filled each with wonderful compost from very old five gallon Water Wise Container Gardens, and begun planting seeds like these 'Evergreen White Bunching' onions. The addition of about 20% Publix cheap no fragrance cat litter back then did wonders for this soil due to being made from calcium bentonite clay.

I don't watch local TV, but I saw David Whitwam's latest segment on FaceBook. Smart nice man.

http://www.fox13news.com/good-day/218561811-video

Here is my fifteen year old West Indian avocado tree a few weeks after a VERY severe pruning and, as Oliver Moore suggested, a girdling but with the bark not removed. In the mean time, with all that dense shade removed I am back to gardening in the Water Wise Container Gardens beneath! The new four foot tall goat fence keeps the chickens finally out. I would love it if I FINALLY got fruits from the tree as I planted that pit back then to celebrate my new home in Tampa after fifteen LONG years in Denver.

I have SO many green Raja Puri bananas I will see if I can peel them to make tosotones as done with the plantains in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-chQCzVI1c

Today I cut back easily 80% of a large 'Potato Mint' (Plectranthus species) that had sprawled over much of my northeast street flower bed before I apply Mills Magic Rose Mix organic fertilizer and give the bed a deep watering. I was disappointed that the very center of maybe 20 inches across is where the tubers seem to be growing. The cuttings will get composted. I have never grown this before so hope I enjoy the tubers. John

I am testing four more varieties of garlic that MIGHT actually produce bulbs in Tampa after so many of us having tried so many types over the years, from Cuban to many types of Creole. In Denver garlic was a weed it produced so well! I LOVE garlic....I can't cook without it, so this morning while planting I ate a clove of 'Early Red Italian'. Good flavor but surprisingly mild despite the huge size. Here in Tampa since the 80s I have used the tops like "chives" since I never get any bulbs. If you have never tried fresh raw garlic leaves, do, just by planting a whole bulb from the store. In Denver I grew them in pots each winter in my south and west windows. John