Category: Garden, Growing Vegetables

Five Florida Summer Crops That Need Little to No Attention

Here are five crops that can be planted in a Florida garden over summer. They will grow without much attention, and that keeps you out of the heat.

Gardening in Florida is different to say the least. Summer is hell here. It is simply unbearable to be outdoors. If I get outside before the sun hits the little patch of yard that is my garden, I can bear it for a very short time. The humidity is killer.

However, I love to grow things. I’ve come to realize that there are a few crops that can grow during a Florida summer and they need no attention. That means you can stay indoors during dry spells. Watering every morning won’t be necessary.

Sweet Potatoes

Find a good place in the yard, that can be dug up easily, and plant sweet potato slips. This coming Spring I will be ordering purple sweet potato slips. I plan to plant them in one of my Vegega raised beds once again. I found that digging them up was tough, but I don’t really have any other place to grow them.

This past summer I filled the long bed with sweet potatoes and zinnias. The vines got all tangled in the flowers, so I won’t do that again! The potatoes won’t be dug until the end of summer, or beginning of Fall, but the leaves can be used in salads all summer long.

Vegega metal raised bed, oblong shape
My long oval raised garden bed made of metal, with sweet potatoes and zinnias growing.

Roselle

Roselle plants create calyxes (sp?) that can be used to make tea. The plants will grow from seed, and take off by mid-summer. Each plant grows into a wide bush, so make sure you have space for them. One or two plants will give you a lot of little red tea leaves to save by Fall.

Be aware that these shrubs are not strong. We had a storm come through and it broke the Roselle you see in the photo below.

mulch path in garden around a wide roselle plant
Roselle bush in 2024

Okra (Yuk.. but…)

I grew okra the first year I had a garden. I’d never grown or eaten okra so I wanted to try it. And what a pretty plant! The good news is that it grows like mad. The bad news (for me) is that it is simply disgusting to eat. If you like this vegetable, and live in the south, grow it.

I’ve recently been getting into fermenting vegetables. Supposedly fermenting okra, for at least 4 months, will remove the slimy texture. I may try it.

okra growing in the garden
Okra plants have such pretty flowers

Basil – Specifically Tulsi, or Holy Basil

Basil is tough to grow here in Florida. But once I began to grow Tulsi, or Holy Basil, it simply grew. I didn’t have to work at it, and now it is popping up all over the yard. The only trouble I have is that in Fall the little bugs (aphids?) hit the new growth and I have to remove it. But this basil can take the heat – especially in a shady location. I use it a lot, in cooking, salads, and tea brewing.

holy basil growing in the garden
Holy basil in my yard

Cowpeas

These are dried beans and they come in many varieties. I grow them as a cover crop and not to eat. For this reason I plant them and forget it. Cover crops keep the soil good by shading it and putting nitrogen back in (like green beans). I look at it as a way to feed the empty areas in the garden.

The first year my cowpeas grew so tall that I put stakes up for them to wrap around. I saved some of the dried pods for planting the beans (they are like beans, not peas) but have never eaten any. If you want to save the seeds, bring the brown pods inside to dry before they get moldy from the humidity.

This past summer I only grew a few cowpeas and they stayed fairly small. The flowers attract bees, but the bean pods attract ants. Watering is unnecessary. When the stalks are ready to be cut down, they make a great addition to the compost pile.

cowpea pods on the plant

Plan and Buy Seeds in Advance

Everything I grow is started from seeds. The sweet potatoes are an exception as they grow from slips, or little cuttings. I like to plant directly in the ground, or raised beds, or buckets, because I detest little tiny pots! Seeds are cheap. Yes, it takes longer to grow from seed, but we have a long season here in Florida.

Places I buy seeds:

Just remember that all you plant and grow in summer must be cut down and removed for the Fall planting. Some things, like herbs (the basil), can be left to grow where it is. The basil will re-seed itself, so watch for little plants popping up nearby.

It’s not like you will have plates of delicious food to eat from these crops, but it’s always fun to watch things grow. Meanwhile you will be feeding insects that enjoy the flowers.

divider seedlings plants
More stories from the backyard

Fall Gardening is Underway

Here I have a photo of my Fall garden. It is hard to tell what is growing, and honestly not much in the way of food just yet. The seeds have all been planted except for Kale and dill. I will also grow more green beans along the way when I find space. (I’m already eating a few!)

I need more mulch. More grass needs to be pulled. Gardening is constant, but I am making headway.

The Roselle plants are looking awesome and I should have some red pods for tea soon. (Yup, I’m beginning to pick the pods.)

Roselle stem with flowers and calyxes

I’m growing Daikon radishes once again, even though last year I had so many. I was using them in salads last year, but this year I plan to ferment them!

Homemade compost is being added to all areas of the garden. More compost is brewing in the bins.

Composting

Chopping up the Marigolds and adding to the composter -My Hot Frog.

Onion bags

Fabric bags have been filled half full and onion seeds have been planted. Onions don’t have such long roots. I’m filling all my bags part way and rolling down the sides. They are planted with Texas Grano bulb onions.

Each day new holes are dug – by armadillos I presume – and old holes are getting deeper. This area will mostly hold flowering plants and dill. That way if things get dug up it’s not such a big loss.

holes dug in the garden
Diggers

More about fall… from past years

Adding Buckets to the Backyard Crop Growing System

I’m trying a new way to grow larger individual vegetables in my small garden space. Tall buckets may serve well as pots for tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

Trying to grow food in a Florida backyard has proved to be challenging. Luckily, I have all year long to figure things out! Or, maybe that is not such a good thing. All I know is that vegetable gardening in my little Florida space has not been easy. Now, I am trying buckets to grow my larger plants with deep roots.

The grow boxes are great, and I’ve grown eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes in them. They are not really deep enough to accommodate the roots of those larger plants. Directly in the ground planting should take care of that problem, right? I don’t have a lot of luck growing things in the ground. The garden dirt is not great yet. Raccoons and armadillos dig things up.

I had four eggplants, which were started from seed, all growing in the ground. Three have died, and one has been growing for 2 or 3 years and never given me a single eggplant!

I cannot keep doing the same thing and hoping it will get better. The soil is constantly being amended, all over my yard. But my thought is to maybe have a flower garden out back, and keep the veggies in the raised beds – or in deep buckets.

I have three raised beds (Vegega metal beds) that are pretty good size. Everything else is either barrels on stands, or grow boxes. I had to take the grow boxes apart last year and drill holes in the bottom to fix the drainage issues. Now they are ready for Fall veggies. But long rooted vegetables need something else.

Buckets as Growing Areas

My son began growing some hot peppers this year and he used Home Depot buckets to do so. Each pepper was started in a small pot, most were started from seed. They are thriving in the buckets!

Home Depot buckets with pepper plants
Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion
Hot pepper plants in orange Home Depot buckets
Chili pepper plants

I’m not sure how well that plastic works for growing food crops, so I bought some “food grade resin” white buckets.(Amazon paid link) They cost me around $6 each. My son drilled some holes in the bottom.

Bear Naked mulch is going into the bottom of each bucket for drainage. Happy Frog potting soil (paid link), mixed with fish bone meal (paid link), as the filler.

Bear naked mulch
white bucket made of food grade resin
Mulch in the bottom for drainage

An eggplant and banana pepper plant have been transplanted. I’ll need to find a way to keep the buckets from being directly on the ground. This is to help keep ants from using the pot to make a nest. For now, I am using some plastic dinner plates underneath. But then…..

I decided to buy new RV levelers (paid link) and use the old ones to keep buckets off the ground! We use these to level our camper at campgrounds, and in the yard. Campers need to be level to use the slide, awning, and keep the water tanks reading correctly. They are heavy duty plastic with an open grid pattern for water and dirt to pass through. They seem perfect for raising pots off the ground!

Camper leveler under a pot
Yellow leveler under the Roselle
Eggplant, first planted
Banana pepper

When pots sit on the ground around here, ants tend to set up house. Fire ants will completely fill a pot unless I am diligent. I hope the leveler idea will work, but I will still have to check for ants.

eggplant growing in a bucket
Eggplant after a couple weeks

The eggplant is thriving, and I have some small tomatoes coming along in a bucket. Another bucket holds little pepper plants. I’ll be thinning them so that only one – the best, healthiest – plant remains.

Tomato seedlings in a bucket
Tomatoes

Vegetables Can Be Perennials Here

Growing in central Florida means that some vegetables can become perennials. Eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and probably others, will grow for years. They will have down times, but the plant will be in that space year after year.

What that means is, the area won’t be empty to use for other crops. Whenever a large plant, such as an eggplant, grew in one of my grow boxes, it took over the whole thing! Each plant really needs its own space. A bucket for each plant seems like a good idea.

Recent Happenings

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End of Summer Garden Clean Up

It is the beginning of September and my end of summer garden clean up is underway.

I happily pulled up all the Seminole pumpkin vines. I managed to haul in my huge harvest (not) of three little pumpkins. Two of them have holes from something trying to bore in.

Seminole pumpkins freshly picked from the garden.
Seminole pumpkins
something eating seminole pumpkin

I’m so over the vines that right now, I am planning to grow nothing next year that vines!

General Summer Grow Box Cleanup

In general my cleanup activities include cutting down old flowers (Zinnias) and cutting back any tropical milkweed. This year I have four native swamp milkweed plants for the butterflies. And the butterflies (Monarchs) are still here.

The grow boxes are being readied for planting. I will use them mostly for growing greens. I can’t wait for fresh greens!

Adding compost

A couple of boxes are holding plants that will remain. Sorrel is growing around this Big Jim (not really very big) pepper plant. I don’t have luck growing peppers, so I expect this one will die sometime soon.

Sorrel is a perennial here and I planted these last year some time. It is a great addition to a salad, but is a bit too tangy to eat alone.

Green beans have been planted and are growing like mad. It’s early for them, but I had a packet from last year, so I figured, why not? Even if they don’t give me beans, they will enrich the soil with nitrogen.

Left box, green beans
Sorrel and pepper

The compost has been cooking and I will have some to add to the new beds. After I pulled the sweet potatoes, I did mix in some of my compost containing earthworms.

Clean up for me means making space for new seeds to be sown. It is still very hot here, so I can’t spend a lot of time working in the yard. Mainly, I need my boxes ready for seeds. And I am planting some things earlier this year to see what happens.

Happy Fall everyone! Wish I was in New England where Fall is wonderful.

Photos from where I lived

sea plane fall foliage lake
Sea Plane, Antrim
fall leaves
Walk toward home
orange maple leaves at edge of lake
At the Lake
green divider leaves long

Digging the Sweet Potatoes and Learning a Lesson

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 potatoes
Drying 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!

divider seedlings plants

Thank you for reading. Here hare more garden stories for you.

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Ordering Seeds For Florida Fall Planting

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.

flowers of hon tsai broccoli
Flowering Hon Tsai Broccoli
dill flowers going to seed
Dill going to seed
yellow dill flower with wasp
Dill flower
Florida borage flowering
November 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.

tall marigold in Florida garden
marigold
marigold in garden

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.

green divider leaves long
Read on…

February Garden Planting

It is the end of February and here in Florida I am getting some seedlings and sweet potato slips into the raised beds.

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Growing Beets in Florida Zone 9B

Beets are a cool season vegetable that can be grown in central Florida gardens. Last year at this time (November) I tried growing…

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