Finally, My Sweet Potato Slips Are Here!

Finally I am planting my sweet potato slips, which just arrived mid-June. It’s very hot to be gardening, but I had no choice.

Way back in April I planted the sweet potato slips that I had started myself. And before that – back in January – I had pre-ordered a variety of sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

I had expected them by mid-May. When June arrived and I hadn’t heard anything, I e-mailed SESE (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange). After a few days, I got a reply saying there was a problem with the postal service or something. I got my slips the next day.

Now it is June 15th and finally the sweet potato slips are here. They are basically a bunch of green stems. Pretty much all the leaves are brown and have fallen off. I know that sweet potatoes are hardy, so I am confident they will come back once they are planted.

Sweet potato slips wrapped in a box
sweet potato slips
wrapped the sweet potato slips in wet paper towels
sweet potato slips

I wrapped the stems in wet paper towels and left them on the counter overnight. All three of my raised beds are ready for planting, so I’ll be gardening in the morning.

Long Vegega raised garden bed
square Vegega raised garden bed

Mailing Time is Off For Florida

Sweet potatoes like heat – I get that – but it’s been hot here for months. I could have easily planted my sweet potatoes two months ago. And it wouldn’t have been as hot for me to do the work!

I get that most places aren’t dealing with this climate, but an earlier shipping date would have been nice.

Once I get this variety to grow, I will save potatoes and make my own slips for planting next year and I can plant early. I ordered them to have a variety. It is an experiment to see which ones grow and taste best.

The Sweet Potato Slips

I discovered my box of sweet potato slips on the front porch on June 15th. It has been very hot and humid here for weeks. I opened the box and unwrapped my slips. It was very hot and sunny, then we got thunderstorms, so I planned to plant them the following morning.

I ordered six slips of four different types of sweet potato and I counted 9 – 12 slips of each type when I unwrapped the papers. This means I received many extra slips. I will not have space, I already know this. I was pushing it at 4×6=24 and now I have more like 40-45 slips.

Green stems of the sweet potatoes just after unwrapping
I received more than 6 slips of each type of sweet potato.

The Potato Beds

Originally I had planned to clear some area in the yard to grow things like sweet potatoes. Now, I realize that raised beds work better. Controlling the soil and moisture is easier in a container. I’ve already successfully grown many things in my Vegega metal beds.

Over “winter” here in Florida I grew a lot of green beans. I planted them intermittently in all three raised beds. I knew the beans would be gone by the time I needed the beds for the potatoes.

The gardening goal is to always have something growing. Some Tulsi (holy basil) is growing, along with kale and random marigolds. I’m not worried about planting the sweet potatoes among these things. Most of them I pulled out, but it will be a while before the potatoes grow and take over the bed.

Sweet Potato Types I Planted

  • Beauregard
  • Bayou Belle
  • Covington
  • Purple Majesty
Beauregard sweet potato slip
Square Vegega bed with sweet potato slips
94 degree temperature
three fabric pots with sweet potato slips planted

On June 16th, I put on my long UVskinz clothing to keep the mosquitoes off, and got outside by 8 AM. We still have not had enough rain, so every place I planted the slips needed to be watered. I had to add dirt to the bags and some beds. The temperature was 80 with 90% humidity, so it was super muggy to be gardening. I had no choice.

The potatoes were planted before the sun hit my yard, which made it bearable. But I was hot and dirty after a couple of hours of lugging dirt and planting. The leftover slips will go into my compost and I did manage to find space for a lot of the slips. By the end of September into October, I should be digging some potatoes.

I do not plan to have to order slips again. As long as the potatoes grow well, I can create my own slips for next summer. By the way, I believe you can order sweet potato slips early to be sure you get them. That is the way SESE does it.

Native Milkweed That Survived the Freeze

I’m still trying to fill my yard with native milkweed. After the cold spell over winter froze most things back, and killed many things, I have fewer milkweed plants.

All the tropical milkweed is gone. Tropical milkweed is not native, and therefore not a great loss. Three of the four swamp milkweed seedlings I purchased last year have died, but one is flourishing. This type of milkweed grows at a good pace and it is doing well.

All other native milkweed plants are quite small, and they are growing slowly.

White Swamp Milkweed

Below is another type of swamp milkweed. It has tiny white flowers with a bit of pink. I believe this is aquatic milkweed aka white swamp milkweed. It is a host for the Monarch, Queen, and Soldier butterflies. It is a shade loving plant and can deal with partial sun.

swamp milkweed pods
Five seed pods

As of this writing, it is June, and this plant has five pods. When they open, I will collect some of the seeds and try to grow more plants.

Whorled Milkweed

Whorled milkweed has very thin leaves that stick upward. I believe I only have one Whorled milkweed – see below.

Whorled milkweed
Whorled Milkweed
Sandhill milkweed, tiny plant in the ground

Sandhill Milkweed

Sandhill milkweed looks different. The leaves are more rounded. If you ever see this type as a full grown plant, it is beautiful (View images at IFAS). Sadly, these days, in Florida you will most likely have to visit a nature preserve to find it.

You may wonder why I have such a strange variety of milkweed for my yard. Some of them need dry conditions and some need wet. Last year I ordered some seed varieties, planted them, and kept the ones that grew. All the milkweed in pots were kept indoors over the winter, so they did not freeze.

Unidentified Milkweed

I think these plants are also milkweed, but they don’t have identifying tags. I marked the ground with metal stakes and after the cold had passed, these plants began to grow.

possible milkweed plant

Once again I am reminded of how difficult it is to grow native milkweed. I plan to protect these babies as best I can. If I’m lucky, they will get larger and flower and then I may know which type they are.

I began my quest last year (2025) to fill my yard with milkweed. Thanks in a big part to the 2 days of freezing temperatures we had this year, I lost many plants which I think may have been okay otherwise. It makes me wonder how many milkweed plants, growing out in wilderness areas, also did not make it.

No Cukes in the Garden, But Making Pickles

Making homemade fermented pickles, but don’t have my own cucumbers to use.

After a while gardeners come to realize where to spend their time so it pays off. Why waste efforts to bring in no food? I feel this way about growing cucumbers.

I’ve planted cukes over and over. I’ve tried growing them early, covering them at night, picking off the worms. And all that might be worth it if I got a nice crop, but that has never happened.

My dill plants are mostly gone by, but a few were still green enough to use the flowers for adding to fermented cucumbers.

Fermenting

I’ve done some fermenting in the past. Cabbage and Daikon radish come to mind. When I had an abundance of green beans I tried twice to ferment those without luck. What I really wanted was cucumbers.

For the most part I shop at Aldi. It is the most affordable, but their produce can be old. Instead of getting the little packs of small cucumbers I chose two of the long, wrapped ones.

making pickles in saltwater brine

I love my Weck jars (Amazon paid link). I use them for everything from storing food, to making sourdough starter, and fermenting. The link goes to Amazon, but I buy my Weck jars from the Weck website. It can be hard to figure out what sizes to buy, so let me tell you which ones I prefer.

Weck Jars

In the photo above I am using the Tulip (paid link) in two sizes. The Tulip jar has a wide opening and all Weck jars come with a glass lid. The smaller jars, and I have a few different types, have smaller openings and also come with glass lids. The Mold jars also work well for fermenting.

I buy my Wecks from the website. They come in packs, such as 6 large Tulips, or combo packs. They are cheaper than Amazon, but there is a shipping charge. I prefer to know that I am actually getting the real Weck jars and with Amazon, there is always a possibility they will not be.

What I do to make my ferments using Weck is this: I use a large jar then put the smaller glass lid down inside to cover the food and keep it submerged. I add the large lid to sit loosely on top.

If you know anything about fermenting, it is that the food must stay submerged in the saltwater brine. If it pops up, mold can form and everything had to be thrown away. This is why everything needs to be packed in tight. Once the food begins to ferment, it bubbles and everything wants to float. The smaller glass lid keeps that from happening. The cover lid is not tight – it is just sitting on top, so any overflow from the bubbling can easily escape. This is why my pickle jars are sitting in bowls.

If you want to try this yourself, just ask – these days Chatgpt and AI knows everything. For my two jars I used 1 1/2 Tbsp. sea salt mixed into 4 cups of water. I only used about half to cover both filled jars.

This is day four for my pickles and I plan to try one soon. They can stay out on the shelf for weeks, but the taste will change. A warmer climate speeds up the ferment. The longer they stay out on the shelf, the softer they get, supposedly.

I also have a pH food meter to test my ferments, just to be on the safe side.

Although I would love for these pickles to be made from fresh backyard cucumbers, I have to make do. It is impossible to grow cucumbers in this climate, but I can grow dill. I added some whole, dill flowers to each of the jars for flavor.

I have not made this type of pickle before, but fermenting adds good bacteria to food. It is a bit like eating yogurt for the healthy gut bacteria, but in yummy pickle form. If I love these pickles, I plan to make more, but my dill will be gone. I have saved some dill seeds, which might work too.

Dill flower and dried seeds
Saving dill
Dill seeds drying on the plant
Dill seeds

Are you growing cucumbers this year? Will you make fermented pickles?

More gardening stories from my Florida yard.

Losses and New Growth, Gardening As Always

May is a time when new growth begins after winter die-back. Also the winter garden veggies are mostly ready to pick.

We had a crazy “winter” here in Central Florida with a long freeze that has changed the landscape. We had losses. It is May and many plants and trees are coming back – thankfully – but the two-day below freezing temps destroyed many perennials that could not handle it.

Palm trees in particular still have many brown fronds. Banana trees lost all their green, but have pushed out new leaves.

My large crotons completely died, but there is new growth way down at the base on a few. Same thing for the rubber trees.

I lost my pony tail palm tree, which is say, but it was fairly small to begin with, and the fiddle leaf fig, which is in a pot outside, looked completely dead, but has sprouted new growth.

Both Moringa trees completely died. Their tall branching trunks will need to be removed, but new growth is coming from the bottom.

Moringa tree with new growth at the bottom of dead tree
Moringa new growth
Aji Charapita pepper with new leaves at base
Aji Charapita – coming back
Desert Rose with lots of flower buds and green leaves.
Blooms after dying way back
Holy basil plant growing in a bucket with tall flower stems
Holy Basil grew back
Coral Honeysuckle growing on a tall trellis with lots of flowers and vines.
Coral Honeysuckle did well
Sunshine Mimosa ground cover with pink flowers
Sunshine Mimosa
Swamp milkweed flowering in white
Milkweed

Lost Some Wonderful Milkweed!

Last year I mail-ordered some swamp milkweed from the Grower’s Exchange and it was beautiful. All four plants grew tall and lovely. Sadly, only one of those plants survived the freeze. It was the plant which grew closest to the house.

I also have other milkweed, such as the white flowering swamp milkweed pictured above. All the tropical milkweed is dead – which is a shame because although it is the WRONG kind to plant, it grows fast and feeds Monarchs.

At the present time I don’t have many milkweed plants. Maybe some of the ones growing will give me seeds.

May in My Garden

After all the cold was gone, I planted the remaining Contender bush bean seeds. I have been eating green beans nearly every day for weeks now! They are delicious but I might leave the rest on the plants to dry – if they will. I know this is how to do it in a normal climate, but Florida is different. It will be a new experiment.

green tomatoes on the vine
Organic tomatoes
bulb onions growing
Bulb onions
spring garden harvest of carrots, kale, tomatoes and green beans

Spring is the time to collect good veggies from the Florida backyard. Once the heat is here for good – any day now – the heat hating foods will wilt and die. So, I’m enjoying the dill, borage and green beans for the next few days, or weeks.

May garden photo with raised beds and vegetable plants
My May garden
Horsemint spreading throughout the yard
Horsemint / Spotted Bee Balm
Backyard with cardboard paths and wild growth
Backyard
Eggplant growing
Eggplant in a fabric pot

Eggplant will grow year round, but eggplants to eat are sporadic. During the summer months I will be planting only sweet potatoes and they should arrive any day now. If you are wondering what to plant for summer in Florida, I wrote a page about Five Things to Grow in Summer that need little to no attention.

Enjoy your summer!

So Long For Now

I’ve given it a lot of thought and I really don’t have time to continue writing on this blog. Or, maybe I should say I’m cutting way back. My efforts need to go into starting a new online business.

My knitting blog gets a lot of views and that is where I need to write. Not many people grow vegetables in Florida, and the lack of interest just does not make it worth my while.

It is not the first time this blog has gone dormant. I’ll probably just give it up, but right now I am giving up on too much, so this must wait.

Also it is the end of the year, which seems appropriate to close up shop.

To all who have visited, commented, and read my little stories, I thank you.

(Skittle in my New Hampshire garden. It’s one of my all time faves.)

flowers of fall

Time to Harvest the Roselle Hibiscus For Tea

This year I grew a few Roselle Hibiscus bushes to collect the pods and make tea. Ants are always a problem, but I found an easy solution.

Last week I began cutting off the larger roselle hibiscus pods. Once they flower, the pod, or calyx, gets big with the seed pod inside. The red outer petals are ready to use.

Roselle stem with flowers and calyxes

This year only two large Roselle hibiscus plants were growing in the ground. I learned my lesson after the first year when I had way too many big, bushy roselle plants.

One plant would be plenty for me, but I guess I planted two to be on the safe side. I like to have the petals to make tea.

This hibiscus variety is not the same as the hibiscus that flowers and becomes a big bush here in Florida. The Roselle has flowers, that last about a day, but the pods that come after are what we want.

Orange hibiscus
Decorative hibiscus (not edible)
double orangea hibiscus
Hibiscus flower – no pods form on this one

Dealing With the Ants – No Sprays Needed

Ants are drawn to the pods. If I wait too long there will also be white mealybugs inside the petals also. This year I harvested the largest calyxes (or pods, as I call them) in early October. Many large pods had already formed, but lots of smaller ones were still coming.

I soaked all the harvested pods in jars of water outdoors. This either killed the ants, or caused them to crawl out and leave the pods. By the way, these were not biting ants.

After a bit of a wait, I drained the pods and began to peel off the red petals. All the ants were gone. I found only one mealybug, so I think harvesting early helps with that.

Red roselle hibiscus pods in glass jars filled with water.
Ant removal
Roselle pods drained and ready to peel
Drained and ready to peel
Roselle pods peeled
Peeling

Once the petals were all removed, the remaining green pods went into the compost. I rinsed and dried the red petals and stored them in the freezer. I’ll take them out to use when making tea.

Simple Tea

All I do is boil water and let the petals soak in it for 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I make an herbal tea and simmer the roselle along with Moringa leaves, Maypop, rosemary and basil. Or, I use whatever is growing in the garden.

red tea Japanese pot and cup
Roselle tea
roselle flower
Roselle hibiscus flower

After the harvest of the biggest pods, I cut down the plants, leaving only a couple of tall stems. I’ll collect a few of the pods when they are dried and save the seeds inside. This hibiscus likes the heat and does not continue to grow over the winter in my yard.

The seeds will be planted next year to grow one, or two, new roselle bushes. No more than that!

bees

More fun times in the garden…