Happiness is seeds sprouting pure and simple. I’m more of a dabbler and dreamer than a gardener. No green thumb here, I just love being outside with the plants, soil, bugs, butterflies, frogs and assorted wildlife. My Father was a great gardener, we always had something growing well no matter where we lived. I wish he was here to help me. I miss him.
The challenge is how to grow in humid zone 9 Florida or CFA world weather type.
“Outside of isolated sections of Mexico, the southernmost limits of this climate in North America lie just north of South Florida and around southern coastal Texas. Cities at the southernmost limits, such as Orlando and Tampa and along the Texas coast around Brownsville generally feature warm weather year round and minimal temperature differences between seasons. These cities fall just short of having a true tropical climate.”
My Dad with me in Hungary, and then with his grand-daughter in his ever present garden, this one in Chicago in the ’70’s
My Grandparents had a good reputation for very fine produce, healthy fruit trees, fine vegetables. They had chickens, geese, turkeys, pigs, cows and horses, it was a closed self-reliant system. My Grandfather and Great Grandmother were extremely fastidious and knowledgeable about land and animal husbandry, creating a decent, prosperous, good life for themselves and others, until a direct hit bombing on the home destroyed it all.
Today I learned that after harvesting sunflowers, they gave the heads to the children to thresh out the seeds with a stick. The seeds were raked up and saved. The heads were then dried on shelving designed to circulate air, then cut in half to fuel the stove which was made of earth and stone with multiple components; cook top, grill, warming oven and bread baking ovens. The field stalks were plowed under, the kitchen ash was strewn on the vegetable garden so only clean, healthy things were burned. The ash was also used to scrub floors. Ash mixed with water then settled became carbon rich sprinkling water for ironing and making soap.
After reading about feathermeal as a fertilizer I asked how feathers were utilized. Goose down of course went into bedding, all other feathers were always burned and the ash spread on the garden. No feathers or chickens were ever allowed near the hay or livestock in case a dropped feather lodged in the throat of a farm animal. It was a daily chore to check and track the fowl so they stayed clear of the animal feed.
I learned my Grandfather rotated his fields on a three year resting fallow time-frame with cover crops, red clover and hay plowed under.
The original property exists but a new house has been built in the front. Things change.
And Seeds 