Multi-cropping at a Gainesville, FL organic garden.
As we go into the winter here in the Panhandle the following herbs will do well: cilantro, parsley, fennel, thyme, chives, oregano, sage and dill. Basil is a popular herb but will need to be inside by a kitchen window this time of year. It will drop leaves below 40 degrees F.
Cilantro: Needs full to partial sun, excellent soil drainage, and can be sued at 6 inches in height. The dry seeds are used to make the spice Coriander.
Parsley: Loves the cool weather and will bloom in the spring. Parsley likes afternoon shade. The seeds do take longer to germinate so do not give up on this plant. The root has a strong flavor and is used in holiday dishes. Parsley is beneficial to your health and contain vitamins A, C, K and is also high in calcium and iron.
Fennel: Needs full sun and moist soil. Fennel should not be planted near dill or cilantro because it will cross pollinate and reduce seed production. Fennel is good for digestive health and the shoots, leaves, and seeds are all useful in cooking. This plant also is host to the black swallowtail caterpillar.
Thyme: Needs full sun, well-drained soil and is extremely drought tolerant. Thyme does very well in a windowsill. This plant is highly attractive to bees and creates a delicious honey.
Chives: Prefers sunlight and well drained soil. This can be used for an onion or garlic flavor to your dish. It will need to be divided every couple of years since it grows so well here. Also, very good mixed into butter or cream cheese as a spread.
Oregano: This is the most widely used culinary and medicinal herb. It has tiny purple flowers that bloom all summer. It needs full sun and well-drained soil. Its best flavor is when you harvest the leaves as the flower buds form. The stems can be cut and dried and used in the cooking as well.
Sage: This herb needs full sun and very well drained soil. It is a small silvery leaf plant that is a very popular seasoning during Thanksgiving for turkey. It is also good on other poultry.
Sage. UF/IFAS Photo: Josh Wickham.
Dill: This herb likes full sun as well and serves as a host plant to the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. It is a very aromatic herb used both for its leaves and the seeds.
When harvesting herbs look for leaves that are young and tender with good color. Wash your herbs and pick them as you need them for best flavor, unless you plan to store them. When storing fresh herbs, it is important to know that they lose their flavor over time. They will store in the refrigerator from 1-3 weeks, freezer, and if dried can last up to 3 years.
Christmas is on its way and it’s time to buy those gifts. If there is a gardener on your gift list, consider a gardening gift.
There are all sorts of gift ideas for a gardener and the price range varies as well.
A subscription to a garden magazine may be just the idea that your gardener will enjoy throughout the year. Look for those published in Florida or at least in the Southeast.
You might consider a horticulture book. There are many from which to choose, including those written by local authors. Check with your favorite bookstore and see if it includes a section on local writers.
Examples of books from IFAS/Extension Bookstore. Photo credit: Larry Williams
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension Bookstore has numerous for sale books, posters, DVDs and more. Florida’s Edible Wild Plants is a 154-page book fully illustrated with photos and drawings to assist with identification of many of Florida’s edible plants. It includes a cookbook section with recipes and an important chapter on what not to eat. The popular Your Florida Landscape: A Complete Guide to Planting and Maintenance is a 234-page book packed full of information on landscape plants, common pests as well as beneficial insects. View and order items online at this website. http://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu While there check out the section on “Books for $1,” “Logo Products” and “Pollinators & Native Plants.”
What about a gift certificate to a botanical garden such as Bellingrath Gardens or Callaway Gardens or to a local nursery/garden center?
You could make a gift basket. Be creative. Place small gardening tools such as hand pruners, a garden trowel, gardening gloves, seed packets, seed catalogs or other such items in a basket or five-gallon bucket (always handy for gardeners). Enclose with colored cellophane wrap, tie with ribbon and there you go – a nice gift.
There are more expensive items such as garden carts, benches or decorative garden art for the landscape. What about a birdhouse, bat house, birdbath or birdfeeder? You might look for a unique gift such as a mushroom kit containing everything needed to grow fresh edible mushrooms. A decorative stepping stone, outdoor thermometer, a pack of weather proof plant labels or a bug vacuum might be the gift of choice. You haven’t heard about the bug vacuum? I have one. It was a gift. It’s used to vacuum small insects off of indoor plants or to sample for insects.
Oh, and I haven’t mentioned gift plants. Your imagination is the limit when picking out a gift for a gardener. Your gift may be expensive, inexpensive, handmade, purchased from a store… I’ve been told it’s the thought that counts.
Use frost cloth to completely cover cold sensitive plants. Be sure to make complete contact with the ground and use heavy objects to keep the fabric secure. Photo by Jonathan Burns.
One major aspect that separates North Florida from South Florida is the discrepancies in air temperature. Although the differences are relatively small when comparing Florida with northern states, they can mean a world of difference in the plant world.
Even hardy cauliflower leaves can be damaged by cold winter nights in the Florida Panhandle. Photo by Molly Jameson.
In most of North Florida, our USDA plant hardiness zone is 8b, which means average minimum winter temperatures are between 15 and 20° Fahrenheit (F). We therefore can experience hard freezes, which happens when temperatures are below 28°F for over five hours. These types of conditions are capable of “burning” the leaves of even the toughest winter vegetables.
Fortunately for our winter gardens, average minimum winter temperatures are in the lower 40s, high enough not to damage winter garden crops. When we do have lows close to or below freezing (32°F), there is one very cost-effective method that can help keep crops and landscape plants protected. This is the use of a material called frost cloth.
Frost cloth can moderate air temperatures six to eight degrees. Photo by Turkey Hill Farm.
Frost cloth, which can be purchased at most plant nurseries, is a breathable polyester fabric that is light weight and heat retentive. When used correctly, it can moderate air temperatures about six to eight degrees. This is typically all that is needed to get us through our mild North Florida winters. It is also relatively inexpensive, and if cared for, the same cloth can be used for many winter seasons.
Large blankets or bedsheets can be used as frost cloth substitutes, but whether you are using actual frost cloth, or something pulled from the linen closet, it is very important to use it correctly to be effective. The cloth must touch the ground at all points, as it works by trapping heat that radiates from the soil. It also increases the humidity around the plant, aiding in temperature moderation.
“Lollipop” trees will allow the heat from the ground to escape, giving the tree no cold protection. Photo by Jonathan Burns.
For sensitive landscape plants and fruit trees, it can be more difficult to fully cover the plant with the frost cloth to trap the heat, but it is just as important. When driving around town on a cold night, I inevitably encounter a few “lollipop” trees. This is when the foliage of the tree is wrapped in frost cloth, but the cloth does not reach the ground, and is typically tied off at the upper trunk of the tree. All heat moving upward from the soil will go right around the cloth, giving the tree essentially no protection.
Wire or PVC hoops can be used to help secure frost cloth and keep the cloth from damaging sensitive plant stems and leaves. Bricks, sticks, soil, or garden staples should be used along the perimeter of the frost cloth to prevent nighttime gusts from blowing the cloth off your garden beds or landscape plants. In the morning, remove the cloth once air temperatures reach about 50 to 60°F.
Fall is the season for leaf color changes on many plants, but we are often concerned when we see evergreen plants with brown leaves. Learn what is normal browning for evergreens and when to seek more help from UF IFAS Extension Escambia County.
There are many problems that can plague a plant in our environment, from fungi that love the humidity in North Florida to insects that chew through leaves. One less common but interesting source of stress for plants comes from…other plants?
Most plants are content to gather energy from sunlight and nutrients from the soil in which they sink their roots. Some species, however, have taken up thievery as a lifestyle. Parasitic plants are those that take the nutrients they need to grow from other plants. Some rely completely on their hosts for nutrients, others are able to produce at least some of their own, while yet more can live on their own but steal nutrients if another plant is conveniently nearby. Furthermore, there are some plants and similar organisms that may seem to be parasitic, but actually do no harm.
Mistletoe is a common sight especially in the winter when trees’ leaves have dropped. It relies on its host for water and nutrients, though it can produce energy from photosynthesis. Being evergreen has led it its adoption as a symbol Christmastime, and it has historically been important to other cultures such as the Celtic druids. Too much mistletoe can weaken a tree, and removing it can help to reinvigorate one that is struggling. Physical pruning is often the only method available for its removal, and this can be difficult on a tree of any size.
Yellow tendrils and white flowers of dodder.
Dodder has a strange appearance, looking like someone threw a batch of angel-hair pasta all over a plant. There are ten different species of dodder in Florida and they may be found on a variety of host plants. This parasite is leafless and takes all it needs from its host, and cannot survive independently; though it germinates from the ground, it has no true roots. Controlling an infestation of dodder involves removing affected plants or at least pruning off the branches that are hosting the parasite. Herbicides will kill it, but they will also kill the host.
Ghost Pipe flowers
Ghost Pipe may be seen flowering from early summer through autumn, typically in woodland areas. It does not take its nutrients directly from a tree, but instead from mycorrhizal fungi. These helpful fungi attach to a tree and act like extra roots, assisting to absorb nutrients in return for energy from the plant. The ghost pipe helps itself to both nutrients and energy and does not bother to photosynthesize for itself, which gives it its stark white appearance.
Lichen may grow profusely on trees, but does not harm the plant.
There are also plenty of harmless plants out there, such as Spanish moss and resurrection fern, which grow on trees but are not parasitic. Lichens, while not plants, are similarly prolific on the bark of trees, but do no harm.
For help in identifying a potential parasitic plant, contact your local Extension office.
