If you are anything like me one of the most difficult gardening areas I find is with getting a new, fresh twist on a tried, but true gardening favorite.
"What are you talking about, Peg," I hear you say....
You know how you Love, Love, Love the idea of a lush and sumptuously planted terrace or deck (maybe your own little Secret Garden Room)?
This little pic is just outside my office window. Now it's a smallish courtyard, but to be able to look out the window and see flowers and Life, just makes my heart flutter.
And now I'm thinking of all the pictures I've seen in my gardening books, magazines, TV shows (...it IS spring here in Central Florida, you know....) and how I can reform the courtyard just outside my window that I've struggled with for so long now.
So now I've ripped out the St. Augustine grass - although it is the go-to lawn for residences around Central Florida and the mandated lawn type by most Home Owner Associations, it's listed as an invasive species by the County Extension Service, go figure! And don't even get me started on the fertilizers, insecticides, and WATER this type of lawn requires to maintain the minimum aesthetic green color.
Sorry, I got sidetracked. Back to the courtyard.... So the grass is gone and the wire baskets on the left brick wall are still there, but a bit worse for wear. I need to freshen the plantings and soil. The drip irrigation on them works for most types of plants except those plants that like to dry out between waterings. I have the drip set for 1/2 gallon an hour for 30 minutes each day (that's a quart of water per day) and have found that's the minimum I can set it to because of the hot afternoon sun. Any less water and I have crispy cultivars.
So anyway, no grass, just mulch and a quite prolific grape tomato plant - the indeterminate type - that is sprawling around and producing boatloads of awesome-tasting, luscious fruits. What is surprising to me about this tomato plant is that it is a volunteer plant that grew from a dropped seed from last season's grape tomato plants that were growing in containers, since as we all know, tomatoes can't thrive in the native sandy soil, in large part, due to the nematodes that infest the soils.
I don't know how this little trooper made it, but I and my family is really happy it did. It's been a long time since we were successful in bringing that impossible-to-replicate, vine-ripened tomato flavor to the table, even if it is a small bite at a time from My Central Florida Garden.
