Garden Journal March – June 2022

Spring of 2022 blossomed with exciting changes for our garden. It was finally time to start prepping the garden for it’s move to a new homestead.

My husband Mike and I had finally found some rural land outside the city to purchase. It set into motion our long-awaited exit-strategy of leaving Suburbia and pursuing a rural lifestyle.

Months before we even found the property, I began transitioning my plants from in-ground to potted. Many of my food producing plants were perennials, along with the trees and shrubs. I was able to source pots of various sizes to pot up the plants and prepare them for an hour and fifteen-minute drive to their new home.

The transition of moving from the suburbs to the countryside was a welcome change, although very hectic.

I used my Plant-Moving Checklist to keep track of all my plants, when they were potted for the move, and where they would be replanted on the new property. You can find these super-helpful sheets in my Etsy Shop: HomesteadByDesign.

May in the Garden

During the month of May, the last of my Brickyard variety tomatoes ripened and several volunteer cherry tomatoes gave us some tasty fruits.

I pulled 46 onions from the raised bed and let 6 go to seed. This was the first time I had ever grown onion for seed. I put small sachets around the seed heads once the tiny flowers started dying off to collect any seeds that might fall out. By the first week of June, I cut them off the stems to finish drying in a paper bag in my pantry.

Two huge Seminole pumpkins grew from the spring vines and I planned to harvest them the last week before we moved. I’ll use some of their seeds when I plant my fall garden.

The passionfruit continued to blossom heavily and many large fruits soon grew on the vigorous vines. I believe planting them right next to my compost pile really helped them grow. I do not plan to grow anything near my next compost pile because the roots quickly found their way under the compost.

There were many other plants producing as well:

• Pigeon peas blossomed and formed pods.
• Rosemary blossomed and grew vigorously.
• My favorite lemon tree produced 2 fruits.
• Some of the dragon fruit grew over 7 feet tall!
• The cranberry hibiscus, sugar cane, and passionfruit all exploded in growth.
• The longevity spinach and Okinawa spinach spread into a beautiful ground cover in the garden.
• The katuk produced its first few berries.

June in the Garden

June of 2022 was the most exciting time in my suburban homestead garden since I first move to the rental property and started planting a garden.

Once we closed on our rural property, every weekend I would take plants out there to replant, or keep safely shaded under a huge oak tree in our new front yard. It was a hot month with temperatures hitting close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit some days. The large oak was the perfect shade tree to protect the potted plants from the harsh heat and sun.

Some of the first plants I moved were all the shorter lemon trees that would fit in my truck, the potted pepper plants, potted herbs, three pineapples, a rosemary bush, and some small potted succulents.

The rosemary and pineapples I planted directly into the ground. The rest of the plants I temporarily stored under the large oak.

The next weekend, I transplanted 7 moringa tree seedlings, 2 cranberry hibiscuses, all of the beauty berries,  several sweet potatoes, and the mints.

Despite the heat, everything survived their transplants except one rosemary bush. No doubt it was transplant shock for such a large bush, as well as the high temperatures that came the week after I planted it.

Moving plants in the summer in Florida is probably one of the worst times to move, but due to our closing date, I had make-do with the time I had.

I replanted my orchids into the branches of the oak. They immediately took a liking to their new home and the roots are already bound tight against the bark. I can’t wait to watch them blossom in the tree!

Exploring the New Property

Two of the three acres of our property is pasture that had been abandoned for about 15 years. I was excited to see what native plants had begun to take over the land.

As I explored the fields, I stepped gingerly around blackberry briars still thick with red and black berries. There were small oak trees and wild cherry trees scattered around the property. Grasshoppers were jumping out in front of me as well as many other insects. Birds were singing and a noisy woodpecker’s almost non-stop alerts added to the busy-ness of the morning.

My happiest surprise were the many passionflowers sprawled across the grassy areas. The pale lavender flowers were climbing up small shrubs, strong clumps of grass, or even just sprawled across the field. Many of the vines held one or two green globes of unripe fruit.

This native flower of the southeast United States is a larval host for several butterflies including the Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing. The fruits are edible; the leaves and blossoms can be made into a tea that has been known to calm nerves and ease inflammation.

Some other wildflowers I found while exploring were: Ceasarweed, Dull Meadow-Pitcher, and Bushmint. I was only able to identify these with the help of some of my Instagram followers who ID’d my pictures and clued me in to a better plant ID app. Thank you to my followers!

Let’s Get Moving!

As the countdown to moving day moved closer and closer, I began cutting stems and branches of several plants to create starts for my new garden.

I cut a handful of healthy bundles of both longevity spinach and Okinawa spinach, and started them in a jar of filtered water. I did the same with a couple dozen cranberry hibiscus stems too. All three of these easily grow new roots by simply placing them in water and a warm area to grow.

I sowed two dozen freshly podded pigeon pea seeds into some good soil and they quickly sprouted. These plants are going to become one of my “chop-and-drop” legumes for quickly adding nitrogen and other elements around my fruit trees.

Gradually, weekend after weekend during the month of June, I was able to move most of garden to the new homestead. I still had all of the tall trees to move, the sugarcane to dig up, a few blackberry canes, all of the dragon fruit, and couple of ginger.

I would use the moving truck (a 10-ft. box truck) to move this last bunch of plants. The enclosed truck would protect them as we traveled.

At the time of posting this, it is only a few days until the move.

I’ve never moved a garden before, but thanks to some quality time planning it out, things so far have run smoothly.

I’ll let you know how things went by September. I have so much to do to start building the new food forest, raised bed gardens, pasture, flower beds, and more!

While I’m away from the blog, follow my gardening adventures at my new Instagram feed: @growingomaraacres

Thanks for following my gardening journey. An exciting adventure awaits!

See you in September!

Alisa