Category: Garden, Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables and herbs in a Florida backyard.

Digging, Planning and Planting a Backyard Food Garden in Florida

Digging and planting a backyard garden takes muscle and planning, but is worth it to pick homegrown food. Here is my small beginner garden in my little Florida backyard.

I live on the central east coast of Florida. As a gardener, who knows quite a bit about gardening – in New England – this area has been a challenge. In fact, I have given up trying to grow my old favorites. Squash and zucchini turns moldy right away and even tomatoes seem to struggle in the heat. All I have had luck with are peppers and eggplant.

Time to change my outlook and ways, and adhere to a new way of growing things in this subtropical climate.

Over the past couple of years I have invested in a few grow boxes. My son made a few raised beds last year. We’ve been growing (or trying to) in these beds somewhat successfully.

This Spring I purchased a Tiller. It was not cheap but it did the work of creating a fairly small garden out back.

garden area tilled earth

I have removed a lot of the roots, vines and horrible grass that grows in tendrils. Next I mixed in three bags of compost.

The “dirt” in the ground here is sand. I never saw a single worm, which is typical. I think it will take a lot more compost over the months to create a decent place to grow things. For now, this will have to do. I can amend later with compost from the Hot Frog.

Spreading bags of compost into a freshly dug garden

First I found some boards to set down the center. I remember from my northern gardening that mashing down the earth is not a good thing. If I can remember to stay on the boards, the remainder of the dirt should stay loose for growing.

Next it was time to plan the layout for planting. I had to think about which things would be long vines (watermelon and sweet potato) and those would be in a place where the vines could go out into the grass.

Okra gets tall, I guess… have never eaten it or grown it … so I planted those seeds along the edge. I only planted it because it’s a southern thing and should grow well.

I saved a spot for the sweet potatoes yet to come, and will fill in the rest with some pepper plants and more eggplant.

My basic sketch for planting is subject to change.

backyard garden planting

I managed to get some watermelon seeds and okra seeds planted. Then an eggplant, which I covered with a piece of rug to give it shade.

It was so hot by then, that I took a break inside and waited for the clouds. The forecast called for rain later, but all I got was tons of hot sun!

Some dill plants went in the corners, along with a parsley plant. Last of all, I threw in some saved Marigold seeds.

Backyard garden planted with seeds, dill, parsley, peppers and eggplant

As soon as I took the rug covering off the eggplant, it began to wilt. They really cannot take the midday sun. I quickly watered the whole garden (each plant got it’s own soaking as I planted it) and put the rug back.

Already I am thinking of moving the okra to in front of the eggplant to give it some shade. I can’t run outside every day to cover it because of the sun. (Side note here – the okra was popping up out of the dirt on day 4!). The seed packet says this okra will be 4 -5 feet tall!

okra seeds sprouting
Okra – tomato cage animal deterrent

Although my summer garden may not do well due to the heat, this section of yard will remain a garden bed. When winter comes I can plant lettuce and kale. Also, I will continue to look for hardy, Florida crops to plant.

Bought My Seeds From Urban Harvest

I found this wonderful gardener online who has a YouTube channel called: The Urban Harvest – Homegrown Education. She lives on the west coast of central Florida and has lots of videos about growing things that actually will grow here in Florida! Immediately, I bought some of her seed packets.

The Urban Harvest website

seed packets from Urban Harvest
Seeds from Urban Harvest

I bought some organic Coconut Coir blocks and have added seeds and other things to the pots. I’ve never used the stuff before and I will compare to planting in dirt.

I’m getting ready to post this on April 15th and noticed this AM that one of my pumpkin seeds has sprouted! More about this unusual, southern Seminole pumpkin to come.

More Gardening Stories on the Blog

My April Backyard and New Garden Plans

My April backyard garden and what I’m growing and harvesting.

Don’t get too excited, I don’t actually have a lot of vegetables growing in the backyard. This is what I do have, and am enjoying at the beginning of April, in central east Florida.

The Japanese eggplant are beginning to grow and I just ate one sliced and fried for lunch. The sun is a bit much for the eggplant. Adding my umbrella during mid-day seems to help with wilting.

eggplant umbrella shade
Shade for the eggplant
harvesting red potatoes
Red potatoes

A day or two ago I dug up one raised bed of potatoes. All the stems on the potato plant had turned yellow and died, so I dug to see what they looked like. They look great! Now I am letting them sit and dry out.

As is true whenever I search for vegetable information, I get “northern” growing advice. Store potatoes in a cool dark place – like a cellar! That is not going to happen in Florida. So my potatoes are on the porch sitting in a pan to let them cure – I hope.

I’ve discovered that sweet potatoes are the thing to grow here. More on that later.

Growing Poblano and Squash From Grocery Store Vegetables.

When I cook, I often save the seeds. They usually go into the composter, but one day I tossed the spaghetti squash guts into a raised bed. And squash began to grow. So I let it. And now I have this little squash! I don’t know if it will ever be big enough to eat because the plant looks pretty bad.

Nothing likes the extreme humidity here.

growing spaghetti squash
spaghetti squash
Poblano pepper plant
Poblano

A few weeks after throwing poblano pepper seeds into the garden, the pepper began to grow. At first I didn’t know which kind of pepper it was (because I am growing all kinds), but when I saw the actual pepper, I knew from the shape.

Going to Seed

The arugula flower stems have been going to seed. The arugula grew quite well during the winter months, and then tall flowers grew. Now the stems are full of seed pods that I am allowing to dry. Each little pod has a ton of tiny black seeds.

arugula seed pods
Arugula seeds

Digging Into the Earth

I broke down and bought a garden tiller so we could dig ourselves a garden. I can’t even run the thing because the grass and roots pull like crazy, so my son did it for me. I am now removing the chopped up grass clumps and roots.

We’ve only used raised gardens so having a ground garden will be an experiment. We have raccoons and cats constantly in the yard. I don’t know what they will do to the garden. Its been a year since I bought the Hot Frog composter, and some of that dirt will go into the new bed.

More on creating that garden in another post.

More stories on this blog

Saving Seeds: Lettuce and Arugula

How to go about saving seeds from lettuce and arugula plants.

Gardening in Florida is still a new thing for me. Even though I have lived here in Florida for many years, I never had a vegetable garden until recently. Typical tropical plants and flowers I understand, but I never had time to try to grow crops like lettuce and arugula.

Finally, I think I am beginning to get the hang of it. I realize I can’t grow what I used to grow in New Hampshire’s short summers. I’ve tried to grow cucumbers and squash without luck. Maybe the seeds were bad, I don’t know. This is such a different climate. Everything is backwards as far as planting seasons.

Lettuce and arugula (and kale) like cooler temps. I planted those seeds in Fall. They have done well over the winter months, even with Christmas temperatures in the 20’s.

Now it’s time to save the seeds. My plants began from a company called Seeds of Change. I bought the seeds at my local Home Depot. The seeds are certified organic, and nearly everything I planted has done very well. I absolutely recommend this brand of seeds.

kale seeds organic

Collecting Seeds From Lettuce

The lettuce was planted in with some peppers so I didn’t have much space. I wasn’t too hopeful for it to do well. But it did! I never ate any because it was bitter, but I have collected the seeds to try again next season. I’ll have to save space for a lettuce garden.

lettuce seeds
Lettuce seeds
Dill
Kale
Arugula

Now that it is March, the hot weather is on the way, so I want to let my greens go to seed so I can collect those seeds. I’ll save them inside the house to plant in the Fall.

I’ve never had luck growing lettuce so this was a complete surprise. My lettuce was a mix, so I am not sure which types these were. But one of the plants sent off this long shoot which ended up hanging over the side of the garden bed.

The green leaves ended up dying back and the stems became full of seed pods!

The spiky, thin stems each held dried pods holding little black seeds! I have collected a bunch of them.

I’ve also collected seeds from a flowering lettuce stem that produced dandelion type heads. Once the weather gets cool again, I will plant them and see what happens.

Lettuce in the garden
Lettuce growing – with offshoot that will become seed pods
Seeds from lettuce plant
Crazy spiky stems that hold lettuce seeds.

Collecting Arugula Seeds

I’m sorry to say that I am unfamiliar with arugula. I tried some of the leaves, which are peppery and really good, but without something to mix them with, I rarely ate them.

Now I am letting the flowers grow to get the seeds. I didn’t realize that the stems hold the pods that will dry out and give me seeds, until I noticed them!

arugula flowering
Arugula setting seed pods
Arugula flowers and seed pods
Arugula flowers and tall stems with seed pods

I’ve seen honey bees and many other insects on the arugula flowers. Even if you don’t use your greens or other herbs and vegetables, let them grow and create flowers to help the insects. Also, the stalks dry out to become useful sticks. I used those to direct my watermelon vines where I wanted them to go!

How to Save Seeds

In general, plants will “go to seed” once the growing season is done. Also called “bolting” it means the energy of the plant goes into making seeds to continue the vegetable / herb. Lots of flowers have seeds in the dead flower head and can be saved that way.

marigold seeds
Marigold seeds

Left alone, the seeds will dry, fall to the ground, and self-seed next time. But we can let the seeds dry and then collect them to plant.

The only trouble is, that plants may create seeds in different ways. Some seeds come from the “fruit”, like tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. Others “go to seed” and create seeds from flowers or pods.

Here is a photo of the dill plant that produced beautiful flowers that turned into hundreds of seeds.

Dill flower heads turned to seeds

I ended up with too many dill plants. I dug them up and put them all around the edge of the yard. They are very hardy and don’t need much attention. I love dill and fennel (they are very similar looking) because their flowers attract beneficial insects. I do collect the leafy parts to chop and use when cooking.

Dill and fennel are also host to swallowtail butterfly larvae. The caterpillars feed on the plant and are then eaten by cardinals – in my yard. If you are lucky, some will create cocoons and a new butterfly. Either way, the caterpillars are useful.

More garden stories for you

Starting Vegetable and Flower Seeds in Big Pots

With attention and lots of watering, the seeds I started in larger pots are doing well.

After caring for my seedlings in eggshell pots for weeks, I decided to start some seeds in big pots. They won’t dry out as quickly and are able to stay outside overnight.

I gathered up pots of all sizes that had been lying around and cleaned them out. for drainage I used yard debris, which was a mix of oak leaves, catkins (those long brown things) and Spanish moss. That mixture was pushed into the bottom of each pot before adding dirt.

Gathering empty clay pots for planting
Oak leaves and catkins with Spanish moss

I’ve planted basil, dill, cherry tomatoes, marigolds and cosmos. I used freezer tape to label the pots with the date they were planted.

basil and other seedlings in pots

Growing Basil

Basil can be difficult to grow in Florida, or so I’ve heard. I had some basil plants in the garden that lasted a couple of years, but then they died. Basil does self-sow if you let seeds form. I now have two pots of basil.

The basil seedlings became so crowded that I removed some of the plants by cutting them off. You should cut and not pull when thinning so as not to disturb the roots.

I kept the cuttings to use when cooking! So far, everything looks good and I hope to have nice big basil plants to pull from year round.

Crowded basil growing in a pot
Before thinning
basil seedlings potted
Basil after thinning
basil grown from seeds
Basil one month later – end of May

Cosmos and Marigolds

I chose two types of flower packets to grow from seeds. Marigolds are so wonderful for gardens, because they repel certain bugs that could be destructive. They should be dead-headed (pull off the old flowers) and I rip the flower head apart and scatter it among the vegetables. Every gardener probably includes marigolds when planting. I think certain varieties are better than others, but I didn’t have a lot to choose from at the store.

I bought two flowering marigold plants – see the orange one below – and will see what happens with the seeds.

Marigold seedlings
Marigold
orange marigold
Marigold plant
Clay pots with cosmos and marigold seeds
Cosmos and Marigolds
Cosmos
Cosmos seedlings
Cosmos
little cosmos flower blooming
Flowering cosmos in a grow box

The cosmos seedlings are looking pretty good. A little purple cosmos flower has bloomed in my grow box. That plant was begun in an eggshell pot.

This is certainly a different looking cosmos from what I am used to growing in New Hampshire. Or maybe the plant needs to mature to grow larger.

Actually, the secret is to plant seeds in real good dirt.

The cosmos in the larger pot is looking nice and blooming regularly

Growing Dill

I always grew dill in my northern garden, but have not had luck growing it here in Florida. I do have a few small seedlings in the grow boxes, and now have dill sprouting in this terra cotta pot.

Because I don’t have much luck growing dill, I have chosen to grow fennel. It is similar in that it also grows tall and feathery and has flowers that attract beneficial bugs. Also the Swallowtail butterfly will leave her eggs on fennel, just like parsley and dill.

Dill seeds sprouting in a pot
Dill seedlings

I needed up putting the dill into the potato garden and planted more dill seeds in a large pot.

Dill plant

Cherry Tomatoes

My cherry tomato seedlings were not doing much at first, but now in May they are large plants. I’ve transplanted them a few times and they have little tomatoes on the vine.

re-potting a tomato plant
tomato plants and raised bed gardens
Both tomato plants in their new pots
cherry tomato flowers
small tomato plants
cherry tomato plant in pot
Plants by the end of May

Growing Dill and Fennel in a Florida Garden

Growing dill and fennel in a Florida yard.

I’ve combined these two herbs in this post because one of them I can’t seem to grow. Because dill doesn’t like my yard, I’ve grown fennel in it’s place.

The two herbs are not interchangeable for cooking and seasoning, as they are both different, but as far as gardening goes, they are similar. They are both airy and lacy and have big yellow, open flowers that attract beneficials.

Dill

I first grew dill in my New Hampshire yard. I absolutely loved the flowers that came at the end of the season, which attracted good bugs. Here in Florida I have tried numerous times to grow it without success. This potted dill you see here was grown from seeds.

Aside from the fact that the raccoons dug around in the pot one night, it looks pretty good.

Dill plant

Fennel

Fennel on the other hand grows all on it’s own. It is considered a perennial. It has successfully re-seeded itself in my front yard and I’ve seen caterpillars on it in past years. And often the stalks will last into the following year. Here in Florida that happens with many vegetables.

Unfortunately the brown lizards ate all the worms, so I didn’t see any turn into Swallowtail butterflies.

Swallowtail worm on fennel
Parsley worm which will become a black swallowtail butterfly

Saving Seeds

Both dill and fennel have seeds that form on the flowers and are very easy to save. Because I don’t have luck with dill, I have photos of fennel seeds only.

fennel plant with seeds
Fennel flowers turning to seeds

Fennel easily grows from seeds. I have some plants that have sprung up along the front of the house. This year I saw no caterpillars on them, but I like to have them just in case a butterfly comes by to lay her eggs.

fennel plants

May 2022 Vegetable Garden Plants Started From Seeds

May in my Florida vegetable and flower gardens. See what is growing well and what is not. Also advice on beginning plants from seeds.

Because there are no farm stands to buy Spring seedlings, I started my vegetables from seeds this year.

This page is an update on how my vegetables, and some flowers are growing. The hydrangea that I planted in the yard a few years ago is still doing well – surprisingly. See photos down the page.

Zucchini, Beans, Tomato, and Eggplant

Zucchini seeds were planted directly into a grow box. One plant is hanging on, the other two died. It is not growing well.

The beans are newly planted and doing very well. More about the beans further down the page.

The Cherry Tomato plants are thriving, and the eggplant (not from seeds) is giving me little eggplants.

Most plants have been in the ground, or transplanted to pots, for a few weeks now. We have not had much rain, so I water every day.

small zucchini plant in garden bed
Zucchini
growing green beans
Bush beans
cherry tomato flowers
Cherry tomato
Japanese eggplant growing
Japanese eggplant

The Cherry Tomato Plants

All of the cherry tomato plants were begun in eggshell pots. Depending on where they went when transplanted, it has really made a big difference in their growth.

cherry tomato growing in eggshell
tomato plant seedling
small tomato plants
two tomato plants in garden box

the First Transplanting of the tomatoes

The little seedlings that went straight into the garden grow box are still quite small. In fact, one of them died.

The cherry tomato plants that were transplanted into small, individual pots began to thrive. I think I would plant seeds directly into these pots next time.

From the small pots they went into large patio pots where they will stay. Already they have flowers forming.

potting tomato plants in bigger pots
Transplanting into big pots in April

Bigger plants today

cherry tomato plant in pot
Tomato plant today
cherry tomato flowers
Flowering tomato plant

My suggestion

Planting the seeds in small pots (eggshells in my case) got the plants off to an early start in March, however… I would skip that next time and put the seeds straight into small 4-6” pots instead. Caring for the little eggshells was time consuming as they needed watering often.

But, it has made all the difference in the way I transplanted them. The plants in the garden box are not growing fast at all. The plants I transplanted twice – into good garden potting soil – are nearly ready to give me tomatoes.!

Jalepeño Pepper Plants

The pepper plants are doing nicely. It seems to be one thing that grows well in Florida, mainly because peppers like it hot. In New Hampshire it took way too long for the plants to grow to a size to begin producing – and by then the frosts came.

These jalepeño peppers are in small clay pots for now.

Jalepeno pepper plants

The Dirt Makes All The Difference

We set up new garden boxes in the yard this year. We mistakenly bought many bags of dirt at the local Home Depot that was not good soil. It was supposed to be added to already established beds. We dumped it into the grow boxes and raised beds. Nothing that has been planted in that soil has done well.

Raised bed made of cedar wood
First plantings in April

All we can do is amend the soil with better dirt, so that is what I am doing. But it is too late for the seeds and seedlings struggling in those boxes.

The Black Gold brand is what I had good luck with – this is an Amazon affiliate link. But the Black Gold is expensive if you need to fill a large box or raised bed. I plan to make my own compost and amend the soil with that. Dirt can be improved, but it might take time. Here in Florida we can plant again in Fall.

Potatoes and Green Beans

The white raised beds had been planted with potatoes. They were doing well until the cutworms arrived.

Most every potato stalk has died, so I am filling those two beds with bean seeds. Beans and potatoes are companion plants.

These are bush beans and do not need staking, but I put the cages in to keep animals from digging around in the dirt. Something climbs up into the beds at night and digs. I’ve already lost a couple bean seedlings.

Beans do okay with heat, so I am hoping they will grow throughout the summer.

growing green beans

Eggplant

I’m having better luck with the Japanese eggplant than I did with the regular eggplant. The old one grew into a small tree and only gave me a few eggplants to eat.

At the end of last year I planted this Japanese eggplant plant. I bought it as a small plant.

It has consistently given me little eggplants to enjoy. It quit producing over winter, but now it is going strong. The eggplants are small but are the perfect size for me.

Japanese eggplant growing
Japanese eggplant

No Luck With These

  • Carrots – they are simply not growing
  • Cucumber – small vines, curling cukes
  • Beets – leaves totally eaten by something

Older Garden Boxes

The eggplant is growing in one box, with peppers in the center box and a scraggly tomato plant in the third. I’m waiting for all the tomatoes to turn red and then the plant will be ripped out. It doesn’t have many leaves and is not doing well. All these plants had to be covered at night all winter, and they did not like those colder temps.

growing vegetables in garden grow boxes

Growing Cosmos From Seeds

Plant the cosmos seeds in good dirt in a larger size pot. I began a few cosmos plants in eggshells, but they didn’t do well at all.

Directly sow seeds into big pots and they will create a pretty display.

In my photo here I have two pots and one is doing a lot better. It’s the dirt. The smaller plant was recently transplanted into good dirt and now I’m hopeful it will flourish.

The raccoons got into the other pot and dug up part of the seedlings. The ones left are blooming and look good.

Cosmos plants flowering

The Hydrangea Plant in May

New leaves have grown on my one hydrangea plant and today I noticed there are about five tiny buds. The plant looks nice and healthy.

hydrangea flower bud
Florida hydrangea plant
Hydrangea plant in Florida garden

Keep Reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.