Hugelculture Update

 In spite of the coolest May in many many years, and plants languishing instead of exploding, plants in the Hugel mound are doing better than those in my main garden.  I transplanted some English daisies that survived the winter outside, some Marigolds I started from seeds while we were in Florida, and some Lemon balm along the south edge of the mound.  I try to plant flowers to encourage bees, and the Marigolds tend to also ward off pests.

Pole beans from saved seeds are doing okay - it looks like slugs have found them, but not enough to kill them, and I think they're ahead enough to survive once they start growing on the trellis.

Beets from seed - about a month after planting,]and cabbage and broccoli from seed.

We have some sun and warm weather coming in the next week, so next month's update should be better.

Meanwhile, my pumpkin patch that will get too big for the Hugel mound is also languishing on the hillside that gets full sun all day.  I know they will be happy for some warm sunshine this next week.

Hugelculture and Square Foot Gardening

 

As you can see, this was a weedy steep and unused eyesore in front of the house.  My daughter, Amy, has been telling me about Hugelculture mounds.  I decided this natural swale in the land might work,  Instead of digging a 3' trench, I could smooth from the steep side to the lake side that was coincidentally about 3' lower.

Ron helped a lot using the tractor on the scary slope and doing most of the heavy lifting as we covered the first layer with decaying Alder logs.  Second layer was sticks and branches.

Then came a layer of maple leaves - and then load after load of dirt from one end of the big garden.

After a week of hard manual labor, the mound is complete and planted.  Now we wait!

Lake Placid Area Sights and Happenings

 

Winter is festival season in the South. On Saturday we went to Okeechobee for the Speckled Perch Festival and discovered it was also the weekend for the Okeechobee Rodeo, and a huge bass tournament on the lake.  Fortunately we arrived early and visited all the booths before it got too hot or traffic got too impossible.  

The band was just getting set up at 10 a.m., and the parade participants were lining up for about two miles so all the main roads were getting shut down.

Finally getting a walk in the Okeechobee City park to visit the Speckled Perch Festival last Saturday.  I started this post a couple of days ago, changed the cover photo, and then got distracted, so it doesn't quite make sense. I thought some scenes from around the area were in order.  The cover is of a farm a mile down the road from us.  I always admire the Brahma cattle that hang out by the fence.  This area is obviously in transition from huge farms to residential and commercial areas.  Some of the farms look like this:

Some are hundreds of acres of solar panels, many are orange groves, and many are sugar cane.

Sometimes cattle crossings, complete with cowboys on horses stop traffic on rural roads.

Most of the area was divided into 1/4 to 1/2 acre lots many years ago, and canals dredged to connect many of the large bodies of water.  So there are a lot of small lakefront lots where both a well and a septic are possible.  

Myakka River State Park

 

Myakka State park used to be our favorite park.  We've been on the boat tour many times and the tram tour once.  Always before, we saw so many birds and animals. The only place I've ever seen a Purple Galinul was on the boat tour.  However, even though it was a warm sunny day, the wind was just howling out of the East when we visited the park yesterday.

So what we saw while on the water were white cap waves, and looking back toward the visitor center we could see the smoke cloud of the prescribed burn.  The park ranger told us they burn 10,000 acres of undergrowth in the park every year.

We did see birds and alligators, but they were all in the protected area of the boat basin where they could shelter from the wind.  My advice is if you are going to spend the $20 per person for the boat tour, choose a day when it isn't windy.

Also, if you do take the boat tour on a windy day, even if the temperature is 76 degrees, if the wind is blowing, wear a sweater!

Of course, you will see alligators in the sunny areas out of the wind.  We were told there are between 500 and 1000 alligators in the lake. And the lake isn't that big - one mile across and about 2 and a half miles long.  The weir at the end of the lake usually has multiple alligators sunning themselves also.

Since Myakka State Park is very close to Sarasota and the busy areas along the west coast of the state, it draws hordes of visitors.  Even on a weekday, we had to wait in a line of about ten cars to check in at the front gate, and barely managed to squeeze onto the first available boat tour.  And the huge air boats that used to take people out on the boat tour have been replaced with barges with two 50 horse motors, which can achieve a high speed of about 5 knots, and which can't get close to the shore like the air boats did in the past.  The feral pigs and shore birds along the banks of the lake were only visible with binoculars.

 

Fisheating Creek Outpost

 

While not a State Park, the Fisheating Creek Outpost has signs proclaiming it part of the "Great Florida Birding Trail".  A large campground along Fisheating Creek also has a camp store, washroom, and canoe rentals.

                                        Lots of canoes along the bank of the creek.

While I might be a bit anxious about jumping into a canoe in a creek that clearly has alligators, the nearness of the alligator didn't seem to disturb the little blue heron in his fishing.  We've even seen birds on an alligator's back.  The park docents say that alligators prefer food without feathers.

Oak trees can be pretty interesting - the limbs often grow horizontally instead of vertically, creating a nicely shaded picnic area.

                        Most old oak trees have many epiphytes growing on their bark.

Highland Hammock Annex Park

 Highland Hammock State Park has several areas - the main park offers camping in both developed sites and primitive areas.  Tram tours run twice a day, a CCC museum, camp store, and picnic pavilions are featured in this part of the park. 

We discovered a picnic area with a small lake, scrubby flatwood area, restrooms, and covered picnic area a few miles from the main park.  It has become our favorite place to practice with our drone.  

T

Today we surprised a man and wife who were fishing on the lake when our drone flew over.  We're getting more bold and less fearful of drowning the drone or flying it into the trees of the forest.  

I went to talk to them to assure them our intentions were good and asked them about fishing while Ron ran the drone.  Today wasn't a good fishing day - only one Gar, which they didn't keep - but they said they have caught monstrous bass in the lake in the past.

The picnic area is ideal for launching the drone as it has a cement apron in front of a table and benches where we can sit.

We're getting better at taking pictures of ourselves with the drone.  It can be quite exciting moving the toggles too fast and sending the drone speeding in the wrong direction, bolting into the air out of sight, or plummeting toward the ground.  So far, so good - still on our first set of wings and toggles.

Information sign for the day.  We've been looking diligently, but so far haven't spotted either variety of skunk - or even smelled skunk or seen any as road kill.

Paynes Creek Historic State Park

Obviously this park has seen busier times.  The parking lot is large enough for many cars and boats with trailers, and there is this curious sign just before we got to the lot:

So it must get a lot busier than we found it.

The map shows how large the park is and how many different things there are to do here.

Another informational sign - All of the undergrowth in the parks and most of the huge empty spaces in the middle of Florida are routinely set on fire.  Pine and most palm trees seem to withstand the prescribed fires.

We often see worrisome clouds of smoke and remember a few years back when about half of Florida was on fire.  The prescribed burns supposedly keep the area safer as fuel for out of control fires is minimized.

It doesn't look very pretty when first done, but things grow so fast here that in days it starts getting green again.

 

Payne Creek Park isn't just for canoe people and fishermen, but it does have several places to get into the creek.  It also has a huge playground and several pavilions for picnic parties.  

The visitor center was closed due to Covid, but well-maintained grounds and sparkling clean restrooms at the main picnic/playground area showed it is being cared for.  We only saw two other vehicles in the entire park - both with out of state plates.