Category: Garden, Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables and herbs in a Florida backyard.

New Vegetable Seeds From a Local Florida Farm

I’m very excited to plant some new vegetable seeds from a local – central Florida – farm. If I can get these peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to grow, I will be very happy.

My new seeds have arrived from Cody Cove Farms. Now I need to know a little about when to plant and grow the veggies. I’ve already learned that “normal” veggies don’t like to grow in my Florida yard. It can be hard to find food I want to eat that does grow here.

The Cody Cove Farms product pages (follow the links below) have a lot of information with each item they sell. This is a farm based in central Florida, and I am thinking that if they can grow it, I can grow it. Shipping was fast, and I like that each packet has the date it was packaged.

It will be easy to find out what to do with these four seed types I bought. Follow the links I provide to their product page and see photos and read all about these vegetables.

Iquitos Sweet Pepper

According to the information for the Iquitos pepper at Cody Cove, this pepper is well suited to Florida. It comes from the rain forests of Peru. They are sweet peppers, without heat, and are very productive.

They grow well in summer.

I will plant them in pots now (Fall) and see what happens. I’m hoping for some good tasting peppers that grow without much issue. I already have cayennes, so I don’t need more hot peppers. I need flavorful peppers I can use with most everything I cook.

Peppers should grow well here, but I have a hard time. I’ve tried many varieties, and even grew a few green bell peppers, but plants don’t live long and I get very few peppers.

Iquitos sweet pepper seeds packet
bees divider

Cap 455 Pepper

Here is what Cody Cove Farm says about this pepper:  “This pepper is one hundred percent free of heat and has thick, sweet flesh.  Eating this pepper approaches the experience of eating a small bell pepper.” YES! Sounds perfect.

Grow this pepper from spring into summer. They possibly don’t like the extreme heat.

I will plant seeds now (September) in pots, to put out in spring.

CAP 455 pepper seeds package
bees

Zambian Cucumber

I can’t wait to grow this Zambian cucumber. It is such a crazy looking thing, with spikes on little round balls. It comes from Zambia, Africa and is a little known food item. It intrigues me!

This is a Spring and Fall vegetable.

I’ve had no luck growing cucumbers but maybe this variety will work for me. And hopefully I will like eating it. They say, “it tastes like a high quality cucumber”.

I need to get going and plant this one!

Zambian cucumber seeds packet
bees

ESA Tomato

The ESA tomato seeds are for yellow, cherry size tomatoes.

Typical of tomatoes, these need to grow in spring.

Tomatoes don’t like Florida heat – although I have one Everglades cherry tomato plant that is still hanging on. I get about 2 red tomatoes a week!

The ESA grows tall and sprawls – similar to Everglades it sounds like.

ESA tomato seeds packet

Seed Planting Strategy

All except the cucumber seeds need to go into small pots to get started. Since the cucumbers will grow in Fall, I will have to find a location outdoors for the seeds.

I’ve just had a complete overhaul of my yard due to the clearing of land right next door. It has thrown me off my gardening game. I no longer have any shade – as they took down every tree. It’s disgusting, but I need to adjust.

Possibly, I will dig the sweet potatoes from one of the raised beds and plant cucumbers in there. I have some work to do, but it is so hot out there.

More gardening stories for you…

Unusual and Possible New Food To Grow in My Florida Yard

Waiting for my new vegetable seeds to arrive so I can get planting.

I’m always happy to find a new source to buy seeds. Now that I know which seeds I will not bother to plant again, I want some new things to grow in my Florida yard.

I am not a big fan of some popular “southern” food – like okra. I’ve had trouble with growing alternatives to bell peppers. My space is small, so I can’t afford to take up valuable growing areas with things I don’t want to eat, or end up not growing.

Our central Florida climate makes growing food a struggle, unless you know what will work (trial and error). After a few years of growing, I am still trying to find good vegetable swaps for things I’d like to have available.

How to Find Vegetable Seeds to Grow in Our Zone

If you are just beginning to grow your own vegetables here in Florida, I suggest you search (YouTube) and blogs, where actual gardeners are growing what you would love to grow. Gardening in Florida is not easy. We deal with heat and humidity that you won’t find elsewhere in the US. We have torrential rains and baking heat. No wonder vegetables don’t want to grow!

Sometimes when you find a local grower who has success they are growing some very bizarre sounding foods. All we can do is try new things and hope we find something yummy that works.

After watching a video by Elise Pickett from The Urban Harvest where Cody Cove Farm was featured, I checked out the website. Both places are located in the central Florida area, so I tend to believe them when they have success with growing vegetables.

Embrace The Newness

So, I can’t have big round juicy “Big Boy” tomatoes, but I can have little cherry tomatoes. If I get good at it, and can find the space, I might have access to little tomatoes year round! It is the good thing about a climate like this.

Not everything will do well year round, but many vegetable plants last for years – this includes tomatoes, eggplant, and kale – to name a few.

If I want to eat closely to what I am used to, I must embrace the new foods.

New – Cucumbers

I gave up after year two when my cucumbers failed. I first planted the Suyo Long cucumbers and got one, or two, to eat. That was the year I covered the cucumbers every night and picked worms off the next morning. I had read that the moth that causes the worms does not move from the south into central Florida until later in the spring season. So, the following year I planted normal “Ashley” cukes, and they never grew. After that, I gave up.

sumo long cucumber
Suyo Long cucumber

Guess what? I am trying once again to grow cucumbers in my yard. These are not normal cucumbers, but “taste like” cucumbers. They are from Africa. *Ordered: Cody Cove Farm sells a few odd types of cucumber and I decided to order some Zambian cucumber seeds.

Growing Tomatoes Successfully – New ESA Seeds

Is it possible to grow tomatoes successfully for an extended period of time? I had Everglades cherry tomatoes for a while, but then they suddenly died. Fortunately they seem to grow from volunteers easily.

*Ordered: ESA tomato seeds. These are yellow, cherry tomatoes. The “ESA” stands for Early Ssubakus Aliana and originates in China. What I like about Cody Cove Farm is that each selection of seeds contains long paragraphs about how they grew on the farm and what to expect. Since this farm is in Central Florida, just a bit southwest of where I am, I would hope to have a similar outcome.

In general, tomatoes grow best in early spring.

New Peppers to Try

Peppers are the one vegetable I can use for nearly every meal. I love the flavor of peppers, whether hot and spicy, or mild and sweet. I add them to my omelettes, cook them with onions and flavor meat and fish. I like peppers cooked or raw.

Recently all I have for peppers to eat from the yard are Cayenne and a few banana peppers. They are delicious, but I’d love a normal sweet pepper. Unfortunately bell peppers don’t grow well here.

So….

*Ordered: Iquitos Sweet Pepper (Grows through the heat of summer) and Cap 455 Pepper Seeds. (Grow in Spring, into early summer.). Both are sweet and not hot varieties.

I’ve never even heard of these peppers, but I am hopeful that they will grow well for me.

No Guarantees

So many things will affect whether or not crops will grow and do well. My soil may not be as great as what they have on these farms. My rainfall will be different and I have less experience with growing in Florida. It’s all an experiment, but I look forward to it.

Fall Garden Planting Time Coming Up

Fall planting time is nearly here for those of us growing food in Florida.

We are closing out the summer heat here in Florida. It’s been hot, as it’s been for so many people all over the country. It will still be hot for a few more months, but occasional cooler evenings may show up.

I’m looking forward to planting Fall seeds and harvesting my Roselle and sweet potatoes. Fingers crossed I might have a few Seminole pumpkins too!

Roselle plant growing in the yard.
Roselle plant – August 2026

This past spring I planted a few Roselle Hibiscus seeds in the grassy area of the yard and they have grown very well. No buds have begun to grow yet, but I look forward to harvesting some in a month or so. I lost my frozen roselle pods this year when the refrigerator broke down. It’s been an expensive year.

I have sweet potatoes to dig soon too. I think I will give them another month at least. It will be a job but I hope to have a decent haul.

Summer Food From the Garden

Over the summer I’ve been eating Cayenne peppers, Tulsi basil, kale, and occasional Everglades cherry tomatoes from the garden.

holy basil growing in the garden
Holy basil
Seminole pumpkins freshly picked from the garden.
3 Seminole pumpkins

I never knew that kale would last in the heat, but it has. I will pick the leaves and chop them to add to an array of foods.

My little bulb onions have been used up and the harvest was small this year. I think a lot of that had to do with the very cold spell we had.

Planting Plans

This fall I plan to plant bulb onions, carrots, and bush beans. I no longer experiment with veggies that don’t produce well, or that I do not want to eat. This leaves more space for the good things I want a lot of.

I feel pretty confident in what I am planning to grow. I always have good luck with Contender bush beans – no soaking, no innoculent – I just push them into the dirt and cover them. Nearly every single bean grows. I stagger the planting and have beans all during the cooler season here in Florida.

I’d love to grow some long beans as I’ve heard many good things about them. The Scarlet Runner bean interests me because it has red flowers the hummingbirds like. However, long beans need a trellis or something, and that means I would have to somehow make such a thing. I think they grow in summer months, so we’ll see. I’m not sure I am up to it.

Thanks for reading.

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.

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