Category: Garden, Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables and herbs in a Florida backyard.

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

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 eaten 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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