New Garden Video

In order to show off my pumpkin patch I made this little youtube video. I'm really not a video expert. It was the first time I made a public youtube video, so my notes were a little off. I was getting used to the editor. I hope you like it though. You will be able to get an idea about how I am growing the herbs and pumpkins that I use in my products including Holy Basil and Calendula. I wasn't able to point out every herb, maybe next time.

Free Seeds With Purchase: New Section in my Etsy Shop

Be sure to check out the new section in my Etsy shop for free seeds with purchase.  Right now I have Seminole pumpkin, Arugala, and Luffa seeds listed.  There will be more to come as I take pictures of plants and gather more seeds.  Hope you find something you like.

 Update as of July 28th: Now also Amaranth and Black eyed peas

How does my garden grow? April update

Back in March I posted about Spring planting and what I had planned for my garden. Some of the seeds I planted have come up, while others have not. In between there have been a lot of volunteers coming up and I have planted some starts and new seeds. In the first picture you can see my raised bed looking lush and green and in need of being thinned out a bit.

My butternut squash didn't come up at all from seed. I think they were too old, but the tenacious Seminole pumpkins have come up on their own again. I think I may transplant some to the back yard later. Tomatoes have also come up on their own all over the place, 2 plants surprisingly in a big pot on top of the chicken pen. Of the first seeds I planted this Spring Amaranth and Red Clover have been the best germinators. I am just about ready to harvest Amaranth leaves which should leave more room for the other plants that are coming up in the raised bed like the Egg Plant and Pepper plants starts. I found a recipe for preparing Amaranth leaves last week. Previously I had grown the Amaranth for seed, which is fun, but the winnowing is a bit time consuming. Below you can see the Amaranth leaves up close. I purchased the Amaranth seed from Echo. The plants really produce a ton of seed if you let them.



Down below my mulberry tree I also started some organic snap beans in a big pot. I thought they could grow up the mulberry tree as well as the Fo Ti vine which is currently climbing it. My friend picked up these seeds and also watermelon and lettuce seed which I'm trying out. We have a great new source for organic seeds in Daytona Beach. Check out Access to Organics on Mason Ave if you haven't been there yet.



Here is my easy access front porch kitchen garden. You can see the lush new Stevia leaves in the lower pot. The plant did well overwinter, and I will be picking off leaves to dry soon for teas. I also have rosemary, thyme, pinks and violets on the front porch. Kid toys and crystals tend to make their way into these pots.



Sadly I lost all my Vana Tulsi (Ocimum gratissimum) plants in the freeze, so this year I'm starting over with a different variety of Holy Basil, Green Holy basil, Ocimum sanctum. You can see them coming up here in my basil pot if you look closely.



How is your Spring Gardening going? Is everything planted yet? Are things coming up as planned? Leave a comment. I would love to know.

Catching up in the Garden

Eighteen days was quite a few to be away from the plants and chickens. There were 30 inches of rain here while I was gone. Luckily everything drained well and there was no flooding or severe leakage.

My Moringa Trees and Lemongrass are looking lush. Strangely the chickens have not rediscovered the Moringa since they grew up after the frost. I guess that just means more fresh greens for me until that happens. The lemongrass is bushing out so nicely. I started all the little bunches from a few stalks each just 3 months ago.




Speaking of chickens, the little peeps turned into awkward teen agers while I was away. I will have to add their pictures later, but the good news is they now spend their days foraging under the oak tree where they are safe from hawks. Buffy started laying eggs of course the day after we left. Her eggs are brown, but not quite as dark as my Rhode Island Red's eggs. Here she is in a picture I took of her today. She is the sweetest of the 5 chickens.


My raised bed is doing well, so I started culivating one more raised bed to plant later this month. In the mean time while I wait for vegetables to come in in my yard we are already harvesting peppers and zucchini at the Fair Share Garden, (tomatoes too if you count the green ones that I fried) for lunch. These are some pictures that I took on Saturday.



The Seminole pumpkin mound is going to be dense and productive:


Speaking of Seminole Pumpkins, I have a fresh batch of pumpkin soap that is back in stock. I've been playing catch up this week taking pictures of new products.


These zucchini rows are going to be awesome in a month or so. We are also growing cukes and Malabar spinach to the left and black eyed peas to toward the back of the zucchini.


The butterfly garden at Fair Share is in full bloom right now. I have been neglecting annuals in my garden for too long. I must add some. They are so great for attracting pollinators.



The herb spiral is really filling in. I need to add some rosemary and a few others that are growing up in flats, Some of the herbs that are doing really well in it at this moment are Lemongrass, Rose Geranium, Mugwort and Holy Basil. I will be giving an herb demonstration with fresh herbs from the spiral at the garden on the morning of Saturday, June 20th. Check back in or email me for details.

Weekend Garden Adventure: I Spy a Tomato Hornworm

I came in two hours later than usual to the garden work party on Saturday morning at the Fair Share Garden. I found these amazing tomato hornworms, Manduca quinquemaculata, when I got there. I spotted two of them when I came in and checked the beds for weeds and pests. They were perfectly camouflaged among what was left of the foliages they had been consuming. Hornworms are large and are best controlled by picking them off the plants. Here is an informative page I found about hornworms.

Inpromtu insect workshop.


Look at how much foliage they took off this stem! It only takes them about an hour to do that.


These larvae were about 3.5 inches long. The adult is the Five-spotted hawk moth.


Here I am with the Rose Geranium plants that are coming in so nicely. No bugs there, just sweet little pink flowers. These plants are so great for Florida gardens. The grow year round and start easily from cuttings. This is the same Rose geranium that I use for making infused oil, or vinegars. Specifically I use it my Rose Geranium Deodorant Spray and Rose Geranium Conditioning hair rinse.


Photos by Fair Share Garden volunteer Patricia Shaw.

Fair Share Urban Garden & Artisan Market: Earth Day Celebration

The Fair Share Urban Garden will be hosting an Earth Day fund raiser the morning of Saturday, April 25th. The event will feature workshops for all ages and an artisan market with fair trade crafts, natural herbal balms, soaps, functional pottery, fused glass and found jewelry, native plant seed sales, and more.

Workshop schedule:

9:30 AM Container Gardening with Master Gardener Myrna Moore. FREE

10:30 AM Children's Introductory Garden workshop. Children under 12 should arrive in play clothes and bring vegetable food scraps that they have collected for composting. They will paint a clay pot with a baby tomato plant during the class. Parents are encouraged to pre-register their children online at AquarianBath.com, $10 per child to benefit the garden.



11:30 AM Celebrating the “Green” Way by Ciana Maglio of Green Halloween® FREE

12:30 PM Presentation: "Sundials in the Garden" Why isn't the Sun due south at noon? Is the Sun ever straight overhead in Daytona Beach? Come learn about the Sun's motion through the sky and how to tell time with sundials. Paper sundials will constructed and demonstrated. This workshop will be led by Jason Aufdenberg who is an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach and a Fair Share Urban Garden Project volunteer.



The Fair Share Urban Garden & Artisan Market is located at 345 White Street in Daytona Beach behind the Daytona Beach Lion's Club at the corner of White Street and Willis.

The Fair Share Urban Garden Project is a sustainable urban agriculture program of Salt of the Earth, Inc., a local 501 (c ) 3, nonprofit organization. For more information visit or contact Joel Tippens at fairsharegarden@gmail.com or 386-451-9003.

Sundial photo by SEWilco with permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this photo under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".