Day 358 / 7

Ocala, Florida Sunny 89 Degrees

When we started this three years ago, the item at the top of the 'con' side of my pros and cons sheet was the thought of giving up gardening and yard work. Silly me, I do more now than ever. Between my volunteer work in the parks, helping my daughter and my friend Joyce in their gardens in Iowa during the summer months and maintaining my patio container gardens year round, I do more than ever! Perhaps the best part is with all I still grow, I do very little weeding now since the plants are growing in a much more controlled space. One of the things I hoped would happen when we came to Florida is to get a head start on my Iowa container garden. The weather has been nice and warm and very suited to growing things outside.

During January and February when the weather was un-Florida like, the cool weather veggies were thriving in my pots. I've been growing herbs, lettuce and spinach all winter. I've had to cover the pots several nights but the sun comes out each day and life is good for them.

In my brick and mortar days I would have had an assortment of things starting in pods under a plant light in my sun porch, looking out at the snow and ice and longing for the day when the soil was warm enough to put the small plants in the garden. This winter I have harvested seed from my farmers market produce and have Beef Master tomatoes, peppers and a spaghetti squash started in pots. I've also rooted two avocados and they are growing. Last winter, a ranger we worked with explained to me that you need 2 avocado plants to produce fruit, they self sex so no pollinating required. That solved the mystery of why I've been able to grow avocado plants from seed but never had them produce. Since these two were started at the same time maybe they will be like childhood sweet hearts and really like each other! All of my seeds came from the farm to table produce I'm buying this winter. I'll still spend plenty of time in the greenhouses when I get home. It's a bit of a tradition with Joyce and I'm weird, I really like the fertilizer / dirt smell of a greenhouse. Despite my head start here, I'll spend plenty of time and dollars, I can't help myself.

I sit on my patio, soaking up the sun, when I'm not doing my 5 hour shifts at the credit union, and look at the weather around the country and realize how lucky we are to be in Florida this winter. I marvel at the way things have a way of working out. Three months ago we were in a difficult situation. Despite the rocky start to this winter season away, things have turned out wonderfully. We are in a warm pocket of the country, I'm growing things on the patio, keeping a nice tan, meeting lots of really neat people and actively searching for volunteer gigs in Florida for future years.

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  The new avocado couple

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  Tomato starts growing nicely

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  Lettuce on it's third cutting and a nice spaghetti squash getting started.

In six weeks we will be back in Iowa with our family and friends. We are so eager to get back but hope the Midwest has gotten winter out of its system by mid-April when we return. Just in case, the sweatshirts and jackets are still handy under the bed and not yet packed away in totes. In the meantime I'm savoring our time in the sun and watching my saplings grow, knowing in 5 months they will be huge sprawling plants heavy with tomatoes, squash and bell peppers.

Until next time...