Tina Locklear-Woodall

Central Florida Gardening - February

2012-02-05T21:31:00.002-05:00

Spring is here early in 2012 and it was a gorgeous day to be out in the garden. Lot's of yummy things growing. Due to the unusually warm season I have a bumper crop of tomatoes at the wrong time of the year! Yay! First time I have made spaghetti from scratch - turned out yum!

Link to home made sauce recipe - Home Made Spaghetti Sauce

Anyhoo - check out the two links below. This spring you can have your own home made sauce! :)

Here are two essential Central Florida Gardening links for the veg heads out there -

List of To Do's - February Central Florida Gardening Guide

List of what to plant - Central Florida Veggie Guide

Stop Censorship

2012-01-17T23:28:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and Boutiful Gardens to All!

2011-12-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Christmas is a wonderful time and a challenging time, no matter what your faith is and/or family circumstances.

May everyones garden have a bountiful harvest and not have the weeds choke the life from it.

DIY Compost Bins

2011-11-19T23:27:00.001-05:00

My awesome hubbie made DIY compost bins for me last weekend!! Better yet, the price was pretty darn cheap - they were made from free wood pallets. Can't beat that! :)

There is tons of information on the internet about making compost bins from wood pallets. However, to save you the search below is a good youtube video on making them. Very easy and highly recommended!

Note - I'm not sure why she added the netting on the bottom unless it's to keep critters out. However, many don't find it necessary and don't do that. I didn't.

Orange Crush

2011-11-11T19:59:00.001-05:00

What do you not give a 5 yo 2 hours before bedtime? A drink full of pure sugar.

What is said 5 yo doing right now? RUNNING LAPS around the living room.

What is hubbie doing right now? Grovelling to wife and saying "Sorry, he will never do that again!".

A Garden Mystery

2011-10-28T22:35:00.002-04:00

Something has been eating my broccoli and cauliflower plants leaves. Nibbling down to the stems and stripping all the leaves off. ~grrr~

I first thought I was dealing with a caterpillar but couldn't find them, but I sprayed with BT anyways. Nope, still more damage.

Then I put on row covers. Whatever it is tried to chew through the row covers to the plants. Did more of a gumming like a baby teething than any real damage.

I thought I had won at this point, but nope. The critter (I now think it's a critter and not an insect) figured out how to get under the row cover! ~bleah~

Tightened row covers up. Success? Nope. Now it's after my lettuce. ~ugh!~

So, today I covered the lettuce with a row cover.

This weekend I need to do some cleaning in the garden area. In the area there is a corner where there are lots of bushes and great places for a critter to hide. When cleaning I wouldn't be surprised if I flush something out.

I hope it's not cute. It's hard to maim and kill something when it's cute.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Pet Cockroaches

2011-10-09T02:22:00.003-04:00

Yes, my son now has pet cockroaches. Three of them to be precise. Ewwww!!

Favored son is really cute with them. He talks to them and makes them a cute bed at night. It's actually sweet to hear him playing with them.

Luckily they are plastic fake ones or I would have had to break a little boy's heart and smashed the $#@%^ out of them!

How did son get his plastic fake pet cockroaches you ask? Because of the nice pest service that had a booth at the Orlando Home Show.

If I see that nice gentleman again, I'm going to give his kids a toy that is very LOUD and ANNOYING. To show my gratitude of course. :)

PS - I think I might need to cut back on some of the cartoons he is watching. One of them is about a planet where the insects talk and have super powers... That might be the source of his friendliness with pests. I hope thats the reason....

Gardening Humor...

2011-10-04T11:22:00.003-04:00

This struck my funny bone. :)

An old Italian gent lived alone in New Jersey .

He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

* Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa *

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

* Dear Papa, Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie *

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

* Dear Papa, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you, Vinnie*

Source - Urban Survival

Gardening update...

2011-10-03T23:03:00.000-04:00

Aarrrggghhhh!! The seedlings got SCORCHED!! Okay, now that I've gotten that out...

Finally the weather truly has cooled off. I'm going to replant half of my earthboxes with cool weather seeds and for the other half I'm going to buy plants from Home Depot. This way I have veggies soon to satisfy my craving for fresh garden veggies and yet keep developing true gardening skills.

On a postive note, I found out that Winter Garden Feed and Seed carries onion bulbs, garlic bulbs and potatoes (November). The onion and garlic bulbs were planted over the weekend. I'm thinking for the potatoes this year I'm going to try the barrel method. Depends on my mood when the time comes.

As for the garlic and onions I can't wait to see how that turns out! Yummmm!

To end on a not yummy note, I was patrolling the garden for buggies (I have cucumbers and squash growing from seed) and it was time to "man up" and squish caterpillars.

I truly hate the "bug squishing" part of gardening.

Gardening is not for wimps!

Part Hillbilly & Part Injun

2011-10-03T22:48:00.001-04:00

My mother's birth name is Leila Mae. My father's family name is Locklear and he's from North Carolina. The Locklear name typically has it's origins in the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

I've always joked that I'm part hillbilly and part injun - one part of me makes moonshine and the other part can't drink it! LOL

Before anyone gets huffy, the joke is on me and about me, so chill. ;)

Looking at my adorable little boy I have to laugh. Husband is part Irish and English. I'm part hillbilly and Lumbee Indian.

Son, I'm truly glad you have a great sense of humor. You're going to need it!! :)

Fall Garden Is In!

2011-09-11T20:01:00.000-04:00

Whew! Lot's of hard work but the garden is prepped and seeds are in. Hubbie is finalizing watering system. Love that hubbie! :)

If he didn't do the watering system there is no way we would have fresh veggies! I set up great systems but my day-to-day operations skills are horrid. With hubbie setting up the automatic watering system for the garden, I don't need to worry about it. All I do is check things on the weekends and once the plants are growing the key is to keep a diligent eye out for bad buggies and diseases. Yuk!

If you want a garden this fall there's still time. Check out the Orange County Extension Office for current gardening information for Central Florida. Good luck!

Mommy Milestone Reached

2011-08-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I achieved a new mommy milestone.

You're not fair! You're a meanie! I hate you!

For some reason I thought I would have one or two more years before hearing that. It was very hard hearing that from my son, very hard... to not laugh until he got to his room! Hubbie and I sat at the table snickering away while listening to him scream in his room.

That child is dramatic! I think it has to do with his grandmother's acting genes. At least that's where I'm putting the blame ;)

Flower Pot Fridge!

2011-08-10T00:32:00.005-04:00

This is so cool (literally and figuratively!). I'm going to have to try this since we are having 95F temperatures right now!

2011-08-07T00:03:00.005-04:00

Came across this great website, Global Buckets. Their tag line is "Two Buckets on a Mission to Reduce Malnutrition". Essentially, the goal is to make the cheapest possible gardens that work great and can make a difference where people are starving. Check out the videos below and visit their site!

There are times when you want to say it. Can't, but wanna.

2011-07-22T23:08:00.002-04:00

Hospice Betraying It's Roots

2011-07-22T23:03:00.002-04:00

So frustrating and heartbreaking, Preparing Americans for Death Lets Hospices Neglect End of Life.

Review of Crave restaurant, located by Millenia Mall

2011-07-15T22:14:00.004-04:00

I would like to give a shout out to Crave located by Millenia Mall, Orlando FL.

Bill's food was great, my dirty Martini and seafood soup was wonderful. However, my lunch entree was horrid! :(

The reason for the shout out is the manager and server handled things professionally and with grace.

The problem was the kitchen. The first entree came out with the chicken hardened and tough to cut. The second try the chicken meat was "rubbery". You know the texture when chicken has been over-cooked? That was the texture.

I mentioned this to the Kitchen Manager as a heads up. The KM then slid ANOTHER plate of the same dish on our table. I cut a chicken piece in two from the top and it was RAW! ~bleah~

At that point Bill and I found the situation just plain funny. Life happens and the poor kitchen was having a very hard time!

The Manager was very apologetic and took care of our whole tab AND gave us a gift card to come back again.

So for the great service Bill and I give this restaurant a positive review and look forward to going again. :)

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Update - November 19, 2011

Well, Bill and I went back with son on a Saturday evening around 6:00 pm. Early enough to beat the dinner rush and "hip crowd".

To quickly recap our experience: the food was average and the service was adequate. However, for a $50 tab I don't expect that. I expect more. Average and adequate is fine for $25 dinner tabs, not $50.

Crave, thanks for the opportunity to try you out again. However, either restaurants are getting too expensive or my standards are getting higher. Either way, we won't be back.

Preparing for Central Florida Fall Gardening

2011-06-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

Now is the time in Central Florida to start planning and preparing for the next garden season - Fall. The Orange County Exention office is having some classes to help prepare you. Orange County Extension Office

My preferred way of gardening is with Earthbox's. Gardening is hard enough - I like how this takes a lot of the guess work out of things. EarthBox

Take a look at their website, attend an Orange County Extension class and start getting dirty! :)

Planting an EarthBox with Blake & Dorothy (part two)

2011-06-17T23:55:00.000-04:00