New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.
It’s the end of August and time to dig my sweet potatoes. I will not grow them in a raised be again, and here’s why.
The other day I spent quite a bit of time digging up my sweet potatoes. My bright idea was to use my new, long Vegega garden bed to grow them. I had just filled it with lots of stuff, along with dirt, and it really wasn’t good for growing much. So, I figured why not use it for sweet potatoes?
That was not a bad idea, because I don’t really have ground space for them. But when it came time to dig them, I had to kneel and dig by hand. A pitchfork is generally used to dig potatoes, but in the bed I couldn’t do that. It was a job.
Time to dig (by hand)bucket of potatoesDrying on the porch
I planted the potatoes back in February. They’ve been growing for 6 months.
I’m hoping that I got all of them and it’s a nice little haul. Plenty of sweet potatoes for me. Now they have to dry in a humid location – no problem there – for about 10 days. This toughens the skin for storage, and sweetens the potatoes.
The other problem with sweet potatoes is that they last forever. I mean the ones left behind in the dirt. Even roots will continue to grow and I bet I will see sweet potato vines in this bed for years to come!
Thank you for reading. Here hare more garden stories for you.
Two Moringa trees are growing in my backyard. I’m in Central Florida and the trees grow great all summer, but slow down the remainder of the year. Hurricanes, or strong wind, will knock these trees over. I had to cut mine last year because it fell over the garden. New stalks have grown and I just noticed my first “bean” or drumstick.
The Moringa is a special tree because it is a source of vitamins while providing food in the form of leaves and beans. Even the roots are edible – according to this article. I most often use only the leaves to make tea.
I let this “bean” grow and eventually when I touched it the thing pretty much fell off. It was full of seeds, and lots of ants! So, I tossed it into the yard.
Another bean is growing on the smaller Moringa tree. I do not plan to save seeds or anything. My yard is pretty full. Both Moringa trees are doing well. I love the lacy leaves that provide minimal shade. Bees, butterflies and birds have been seed at the white flowers. Even hummingbirds visit this awesome tree.
Thanks for reading. Please view some of my other garden stories in the links below.
Finally, a caterpillar makes it into a chrysalis and then becomes a gorgeous Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Although I am not having much luck with caterpillars surviving in my yard (thanks to the numerous lizards), I do have one that made it. A new Black Swallowtail butterfly has survived to fly away! And he was sneaky about it.
My yard is not a friendly place for caterpillars, but it is for butterflies. All my Zinnias are much loved by lots of flying critters.
The Monarch butterfly is still flying around, and I’ve seen many Monarch caterpillars, but no new butterflies. Also, the Gulf Fritillary has put caterpillars onto my Passionflower vine.
Occasionally I would see the Black Swallowtail butterfly in the yard, but I have nothing growing for it, or so I thought.
Did you know? Celery is a host plant for Black Swallowtails.
The Black Swallowtail’s Favorite Plants
I know the Black Swallowtail will lay eggs on parsley, dill and fennel. Apparently also carrot and Queen Anne’s Lace (not in Florida). It’s not the season for carrots here. Only fennel will grow for me during summer. I have a few fennel plants in the front garden, but lizards eat every caterpillar that shows up. The dill has long been gone, and parsley is impossible to grow, even in winter. (For a list of host plants in Florida, see this page at askIFAS)
But I do have a big celery plant in one of my grow boxes. I started it from a store bought bunch of celery. This is where I found the Black Swallowtail caterpillar. What a surprise! He was already pretty big when I first saw him.
What? You like celery?Sorry for the blurriness
On July 21st I first saw the caterpillar. He was happily munching away down in the center of this bunch of celery.
On the 23rd, I saw him curling up and attaching to one of the stalks. The next day, his chrysalis was made. Ten days later, he emerged into the world!
Cool huh?Darkening, means nearly time for a butterfly!
Numbering the Days to Emergence
Back when I watched the chrysalis of the Monarch, it took many days before the butterfly emerged. I figured this one would take a while too, and it took 10 days before I saw the butterfly. On day nine, the chrysalis had darkened noticeably. I knew he / she was about to come into the world!
If the weather had been nice, I would have pulled up a chair and drank my coffee next to the celery plant that morning. But it’s way too hot for that. So, I did some inside stuff, and kept checking on it. Around 9:30am I went out and there he was! Sitting on a celery stalk in all his glory! Such a beauty.
I’m not sure if it is a male or female, maybe someone reading this will know. The colors were absolutely stunning!
I thought he might hang around for a while after coming out. The Monarch butterfly had taken hours to fly away. But, I went on the porch to check on some plants and was only away for about 2 minutes. When I went back outside he was completely gone! I missed it!
I walked around the yard to see if he had landed someplace close by, but I never saw him anywhere.
A Black Swallowtail From the Top
Only the closed wings were available for me to view. I believe from the top this one would have looked something like the photo below, which is not my photo.
Before this butterfly “hatched”, I had a black swallowtail laying eggs on the celery and a nearby carrot type plant. Those eggs seem to have disappeared. Or, maybe they are tiny caterpillars hiding down in the celery. I will continue to check.
The fact that my cat Skittle mostly hangs around this area might be why the lizards let this guy get to this stage. Whatever the reason, it made me happy!
Are you following caterpillars and butterflies in your summer yard? I’d love to hear about it.
It’s mid-summer and here in my Florida backyard I have mostly flowers growing. I’ve used my three Vegega raised beds to hold some things and some are doing better than others. More amendments for Fall will be needed.
Over the past winter and spring, I set up some new raised beds. I bought the metal beds from Vegega after watching a YouTube video. Another Floridian had purchased from this company and she had lots of good things to say.
I garden on my own, and it took a bit of time to assemble, fill and plant the beds. You can read my post here. I knew that they would need time to “cook” me up some great soil. Branches, leaves and old growth were tossed in along with compost, dirt, mulch and earthworms. I knew the soil would settle and slowly compost. Still, I planted all three beds with some flowers and vegetables to see what happened.
The Round Vegega Raised Bed
This is my oldest bed. It gets more shade than the others also. I had some lovely Ubatuba pepper plants growing in here, and a cherry tomato. All of them eventually died. I believe it was a lack of good soil and drainage. I plan to add more good soil and amendments as Fall approaches.
Now it is mid-summer and a Tulsi basil is planted along with a few cowpeas (cover crop beans). One Celosia, one marigold, and a small pepper plant are struggling.
An empty, or partially empty raised bed is a good place to set potted plants.
The Long Vegega Raised Bed
My long, oval bed was the most difficult to set up. I love the shape though. It is full of sweet potatoes (I hope – I see lots of vines) with Zinnias around the edge.
This plant mixing was not a great idea. The sweet potato vines keep trying to wrap around the flowers. By September I will be digging up this bed and getting it ready for Fall planting.
My long oval raised garden bed made of metal, with sweet potatoes and zinnias growing.
The Square Vegega Raised Bed
The dirt in my square raised bed has sunken quite a lot. Aside from one hot pepper plant, the bed holds flowers. Many Celosia and a few Zinnias are growing nicely. Like all the other beds, I will add compost and more dirt when Fall approaches.
Plans for Fall Growing
While summer is fine for growing flowers, in Fall I want to grow food! Each of these beds will hold fall crops. Between the big beds, the white barrels, and all my smaller grow boxes, I should have plenty of space for vegetables.
First I have to add more compost. My homemade compost is “cooking” and has been all summer. I’ll use it to amend the gardens, but I’ll also have to buy some. I definitely don’t grow my own food to save money! In fact it costs quite a bit, at least to get started. The point is to have very fresh, organic food to eat. You can’t get fresher than stepping out your backdoor and picking a salad for supper!
Fall is coming soon. The time to order seeds for planting in Florida’s cooler months has come.
It’s easy to forget to order seeds for Fall planting because we only do that here in the south. When the rest of the country is winding down, cleaning up gardens, and raking leaves, our best planting time just arriving.
It is July, and suddenly I realized that Fall will be here in no time. I got busy ordering seeds from my favorite online places.
My Fall Planting List
This list contains the vegetables I will be growing from seed. Most will be planted sometime in October. After lots of trial and error, this my favorites list. I love to eat this food. Some things take forever to grow, but they are worth the wait.
Here is what I’ve ordered, with the company name.
Carrots – (SESE) – take 4-5 months to grow
Bulb Onions – (SESE & Baker Creek) – take 4-5 months to grow
Contender Green Beans – (SESE & The Urban Harvest) – Fast growing bush type. Succession plant all winter. Good for soil too. Have tried others, but love Contender.
Beets – (Baker Creek, golden, & SESE) – Usually stay small, and take a lot of time. But I love beets.
Chijimisai – (The Urban Harvest) – fast growing green with roundish leaves. A favorite winter green.
Arugula – (Baker Creek) – Grew it 2 years ago.
Kale – (SESE) – Not much luck before, but will try again.
Maybe I waited too long, but I had to order from a few places to get the seeds I wanted. I try to buy organic seeds, but I don’t think Baker Creek’s seeds are organic. Their seeds are heirloom and non-GMO. A lot of my currently growing Zinnias came from Baker Creek.
I have some old seeds, which are dated 2024. I’ll plant the new seeds first and if there is space left anywhere, I will throw in some older stuff.
Seeds Saved For Fall Planting
I’ve cut way down on saving seeds, but some I do save. Dill and borage like cooler weather and saving dill seeds is so easy to do. Borage is a bit trickier. I have to catch the pod before it opens and drops the black seeds out. But, this means I will have borage popping up all over – finger’s crossed.
Hont sai flowering broccoli is another one with easy to save seeds. I like to grow it for the yellow flowers that bugs love. I’m not too particular when planting and pretty much scatter the seeds around.
Holy basil is a recent favorite to grow, and it grows year round. I think it does better in cooler weather.
Flowering Hon Tsai BroccoliDill going to seedDill flowerNovember flowers on borage.Holy basil
Marigolds From Seed, and Deterring Nematodes
I did order some new Zinnia seeds and French Marigolds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The Golden Guardian marigold variety is supposed to be very good at repelling nematodes.
Here in the south, we tend to have to deal with nematodes. They like warm weather. I have been unsuccessful at growing peppers in my yard. My eggplants that are in the ground also look pretty bad. It’s possible I have some kind of nematodes. I need to work on that by planting marigolds – maybe throughout the year. Possibly as long as they have sun they will be happy.
marigold
The Marigolds I have growing now are mostly flower-less. They are very tall. When they quit growing, I will cut them up and mix them into the compost.
Florida’s gardening site has this to say about planting marigolds. Also, on this page entitled, Garden Myths, Volume 1. I still say it’s worth a try. I’ll be sure to write about trying to grow Marigolds during our Florida winter season.
July is nearing an end and the garden is teeming with living things.
July is nearly over. Hard to believe, but I’m glad. It’s not a fun month here in Central Florida. Not that what’s coming is any better. The Hurricane months are the worst. Soon we’ll be watching those storms that build off the African coast and wonder where they will go.
But, that fun is for the future. Today I discovered a big Swallowtail caterpillar on my celery plant! Swallowtails need dill, fennel, parsley and apparently celery for their caterpillars. The dill was gone back in May, and I can’t seem to grow parsley – especially not in summer. I have some fennel out front, and checked for caterpillars, and found none. I didn’t realize my celery would attract swallowtails.
This big guy was just there! I had not seen him while he chewed and grew, down in the center of the stalks. All day I went outside to check on him. I’m certain he will disappear.
The celery grew from a stalk that came from the grocery store. Today, I am starting another celery plant in a glass on my windowsill. It is very easy to grow.
black swallowtail caterpillarcelery started from store boughtFirst little watermelon
Watermelon
I had to pick my watermelon because the stem area was beginning to rot, for some reason. But, I also discovered watermelon #2 hidden under the vines. I covered it with pine needles to try to keep the raccoons away. I like to kid myself that I can outsmart them.
CaterpillarSeminole Pumpkin vinesWatermelon #2
The pumpkin vines (first year) have nearly covered my walkway. I can’t easily move the hose so have to leave it in the middle.
The Holy basil is growing and I’m using it regularly. Firespike flowers are coming out and that will keep the hummingbird happy. The celosia plants are getting tall and should be flowering soon.
Holy basilFirespikeCelosia
Oh The Zinnias!
My garden is full of beautiful Zinnias. I look at each one when I inspect things. I can’t stop photographing them. I only began growing zinnias a couple of years ago, but they have become a favorite. I’ve decided to make dividers for this blog using all my zinnia photos.
This year I have lots of reds, pinks, and gorgeous orange. I have only one yellow, so I’ll be sure to save it. Honestly, I am saving many Zinnia flower heads. Some have grown from saved seeds, but many I planted from newly purchased seeds.
Only one plant is yellow.
Skittle
Skittle the cat has always been my shadow in the garden. She very much enjoys it when I inspect things. I can’t spend much time out there with her now because of the horrendous heat. She seems to love it. As long as she can find an uncomfortable looking place to sleep, she is happy.
Skittle
I’m mostly quite happy as I look through the garden. Occasionally I get depressed at the lack of food, but there is always the grocery store. Good thing.
The Monarch butterflies are still fluttering each day. They usually show up around 9:00am. They land on the zinnias frequently. Their tropical milkweed is not flowering now, but soon the swamp milkweed will be.
Hydrangeas Blue 