Spring Cleaning and Island Gardening Rehab

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that you are all doing well and enjoyed a happy and beautiful day with your mom on Mother’s Day, whether in person or on a heavenly note. God blessed us with enduring and loving moms, and we all should feel so very blessed to have them. I love you, Mom.

Well, I have faith that the Covid crisis that has been endured over the past several months is becoming better, and the return to normalcy is upon us. In all honesty, given my solitary and off-grid lifestyle for over 14 years now, I have felt very minimal homesteading effect from all of this. Not being able to physically spend time with Mom, to hug her and hold her hand and take her places, THESE are the things that have hurt me and my family the very most these past few months. But this too shall pass, and I know that we will soon be able to spend physical time with her. Everyone please stay safe and healthy.

I’ve been trying to do some Spring cleaning, repairs and trash haul-off around the island house. It’s amazing the amount of junk/stuff that can be accumulated around a place. With the help of my future neighbors, Britton & Susan, (their place is gonna look great), the eight 25’+ palm trees in my yard, and one in their yard, have all been trimmed and look wonderful. Yay!! It had been nearly two years since they were trimmed, and they certainly needed it. I just try to do one cleanup and repair task at a time, burning what I can and hauling the larger metal items off. Slowly but surely.

My tomato plants are looking pretty good so far, I’m having to keep them watered at least several times a week since the island has had very little rainfall. And even though I love having the abundance of colorful migrating birds on the island this Spring, they sure are pecking the heck out of my tomatoes that are beginning to ripen. Research says that the birds are not actually wanting to eat the tomatoes, but instead are wanting the water out of them. So I’m gonna try setting up two bird baths, one at each main garden spot, in hopes that this helps the problem. I sure hope it does.

Another thing I’m in the process of preparing to do before next Spring planting season, is to rejuvenate all of my raised beds and containers’ soil. Up until a few years ago, I could rely on every Spring tons of sargassum (seaweed), washing ashore on the island beach. I would haul 15-20 baskets of the seaweed back to the house, rinse it off with fresh water, and then add other carbon and nitrogen materials to it and compost it down to add to all of my garden soil, making a wonderful organic fertilizer. But for the past four years, only a very small amount of seaweed has washed ashore, nowhere near the amount that I need. So now I’ve had to purchase several hundred pounds of dry and liquid kelp and fish meal, crab and lobster shell, composted chicken manure, worm castings (poop), fish bone meal and other assorted organic amendments to help rejuvenate the soil and bring back the needed nutrients. I call this endeavor my “stimulus money garden project”. It will all be worth it to grow that delicious 3+ pound tomato!

I’m also gonna build 10 additional raised bed frames 3’x3’x12” deep, and place them on top of my existing raised beds, giving me a full 20” of organic soil for the vegetable roots to grow. I’m thinking that this additional depth, along with the much improved soil additives and conditions, will make for great gardening.

Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone stay healthy and have a great day.

. I also want to wish my sister, Sherry, a very Happy Birthday!! You are truly the backbone to keeping our family going. I love you, Sis.