Category: Garden, Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables and herbs in a Florida backyard.

Sweet Potato Harvest in August

My sweet potato plant was ready to dig and I got a funny-looking, but excellent harvest.

Sweet potato slips were ordered and planted in my Florida yard this past April. I’ve read that they should be ready in 90 to 100 days. It’s August, and time to check for a crop.

One of the 12 slips, received back in April, was planted in a grow box. That plant did great! It had many vines sprawling everywhere all around the ground. I was able to eat the leaves in my salads as well. None of the other sweet potato plants, planted in the ground at the same time, look this nice.

Grow box – 1 slip planted
sweet potato vines
Grow box with sweet potato plant

Today, August 2, and it’s been over 100 days. I decided to dig and see if the potatoes were ready. The sweet potatoes (Beauregard variety) I harvested are not huge, but slim and long. I think they will be delicious!

The crooked ones formed because of the box. They were a bit packed in. This was not the ideal location to grow, but I’m happy with the amount that grew.

sweet potato harvest
Sweet potato harvest!
digging sweet potatoes

The Dig

It is exciting to have a harvest that comes from underground. Gardeners are unable to really see what is growing until it’s time to dig.

I loosened the soil and reached in with my hands and found the biggest potatoes just under where the slip was planted.

Grow box with dirt
Pulled
dirt removed from grow box
More potatoes beneath the drain mat
gardening dirt
Dirt moved to pail and fabric bag
rinsed grow box
Rinsed box

The grow box was emptied of dirt, which was full of roots – and more sweet potatoes! When I pulled up the black drain piece, I found three more potatoes at the bottom.

While pulling up the vines, many had rooted in the ground. I found a few more small potatoes while doing that. I’m emptying the box to create a better system for drainage. It also needs new dirt and amendments for whatever is planted next.

All the vines went into my Vegega raised bed. I’m using it as a compost pile until I can get some dirt. All these nice vines will help fill it.

sweet potato on a root
Ground root sweet potato
sweet potato vines as compost
Filling Vegega bed

Buying Sweet Potato Slips to Plant

Sweet potatoes grow from slips, which are little plants that are set into the ground. Nurseries grow them and ship them out when it’s time to plant in your location.

This past year I ordered from Annies Heirloom Seeds. I did not know when the plants would arrive. Minimum order was 12 slips, which I really didn’t have space for. Of course with my luck, they arrived right before I left for vacation for 2 weeks! I had company and then I flew north. I barely had time to get them into the ground, and a few I didn’t.

It was hot and rain-free while I was away – of course – and I couldn’t care for the little seedlings like I should have. Currently, I have only 7 more plants growing. They need longer to form the potatoes, so I’ll check them later in the season.

sweet potato slips are wilted when they arrive.

I plan to buy my sweet potato slips from SESE in December, which is when pre-ordering begins. I like that I can get only 6 slips instead of the 12 (minimum) at Annies. They ship to various locations when it’s time to plant and ship from mid-May to June. I plan to have some good beds or ground areas ready by then. This next year, I will be ready!

Curing Sweet Potatoes

I had to search for info on curing the potatoes and found it at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They have a page full of information, if you are wondering about how to care for slips, plant, grow, harvest and cure sweet potatoes.

They need heat, and they grow very well here in Florida, so northerners probably can’t grow them. I’d like to know.

To Cure: Let dry outside, shake off excess dirt (don’t rinse or damage the skin), and place in a humid environment (no problem there!) for 7-10 days. For long term storage, keep in a cool area away from light. Click the link above for full page of information.

sweet potatoes curing in boxes on the porch
Curing on the porch
sweet potatoes curing in sun
Sun for less than 30 mins

I look forward to eating these potatoes. The garden is not giving me many crops in this heat, so finally having food is awesome!

butterfly divider flowers
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Garden After A Year

In the beginning of 2023 my plan was to create a small vegetable garden space in what little bit of yard I have. I’ve been blogging about some of my journey, and this page has photos of the before and after. A lot has been accomplished in a year.

When I came across these old photos from last year I thought it would be fun to show the difference.

Before…. and …..After

small backyard garden
2023 Planning future vegetable gardens
mulch path in garden
2024 Path to the back – Roselle bush

For much of the past year I have been working to create dirt spaces and pathways. Occasionally I have also grown some veggies! I can work outside year round, which is beneficial, although there is little rest.

The Roselle hibiscus bushes have grown like crazy. They were grown from seeds planted in Fall. The Moringa tree has also grown after slowing down for the winter months.

cardboard new garden
2023 Expanding gardens
growing garden summer
2024 Summer greenery

Before I had a chance to finish writing this page, the garden has filled in even more. Some plants really enjoy the extreme Florida heat and humidity.

It is now July, so this photo is after about 1.5 years of gardening.

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More Zinnia Love

I’ve really been touting the benefits of zinnias recently and I can’t seem to stop!

bee on flower
Bee in center of hot pink Zinnia

Each morning I check on the garden. The iPhone is in my pocket because usually there is something to photograph.

Sometimes the little armadillo waddles through the garden, or maybe a turtle will come up out of the woods. And there is always activity around the zinnias.

grasshopper on zinnia

One afternoon I watched the amazing Giant Swallowtail butterfly wander from one zinnia patch to the next. I tried to get some decent photos but he was continuously flying and wouldn’t let me get too close. That orange zinnia was his favorite.

giant swallowtail on orange zinnia
A magnificent butterfly
giant swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail

The photos don’t do him justice. This is a butterfly that is larger than most I see, but his wings are also floppy, for lack of a better word.

I found this video which will show you the swallowtail flying (very beginning of video), which is exactly what I saw, but couldn’t capture. This woman goes on to mention a bunch of plants that will attract them. The wild lime tree sounds perfect, if only I had a decent size yard.

Check out this video by a woman in Alabama who raises Giant Swallowtails when she finds them on her citrus trees. I’m not sure why she doesn’t just let them live on the tree, but I guess some people enjoy raising them. Her garden is stunning! I need some citrus trees.

white zinnia flower
White zinnia, or very pale pink

The brightly colored zinnias are the ones that attract everything, but now I have a whitish zinnia! It is lovely.

Each day, very early or very late (it’s July in Florida!), I sit for a bit in the garden and just observe. It’s when I see a hummingbird flitting over the zinnia patch and drinking!

garden

The flower and vegetable garden at the side / back of my house is very small. I can sit in one spot and see most of it.

I hope you can find time in your busy life to sit still and observe what is happening in your yard. If nothing is happening, maybe consider hanging a bird feeder, or planting some flowers. Currently, there is a blue jay family that comes for seed and water each day. The babies are noisy.

I don’t like where I live, but I’ve made it more tolerable by creating this space that is alive with nature.

My Yard Before the Gardens! Boring…

Below is a photo of how this area looked when we moved in! Some people like this nice, neat, grass look, but I find it depressing and certainly boring!

I’m sure the grass was sprayed regularly for bugs, like most people do around here. Nothing interesting at all was growing on this lot. Only the banana trees in the back corner gave this space any interest. And I think they came from the people behind us.

Florida house backyard
House backyard in 2016

Dead Zinnia Bouquet

As the zinnias get old, I pick them and bring them in. These fading zinnias will go into my seed saving box once they look completely horrible. They are no longer perfect, but I can enjoy them nonetheless. I leave the flowers growing outside for as along as possible for the butterflies and bees. I only cut them when there are plenty more blooms to feed the bugs.

dead zinnia bouquet

Read on…

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Do You Feel Like a Failing Gardener?

It is sometimes difficult not to feel like a failure when it comes to gardening. When we have high hopes, but the crops simply won’t grow, what then? Chin up, we are all on the journey together.

Summer is the time when gardeners like to brag about their gardens. Pictures are everywhere, on all social media sites, of gorgeous flowers, spacious and manicured backyards, fruit trees, lovely vegetables, perfect plants, and so on. It’s enough to be quite depressing.

If, like me, you sometimes feel like you are failing miserably at gardening, I’m here to remind you that most gardeners don’t share their failures! Every yard has some FAIL moments. And most importantly, we don’t all have the same advantages.

Problems With Peppers

As soon as I wrote a blog page about how happy I was with my pepper plants, they promptly began to die. No kidding. I pulled up my last Ancho poblano plant the other morning. One of the Nu Mex has also bit the dust, due to being stuck in a pot without correct drainage.

The two remaining green tomatoes on my last tomato plant refused to turn red, so I pulled that plant up too. Tomatoes don’t do well in Florida in summer. It was time to re-use the pot and get it ready to grow something else.

dead pepper plants
Dead pepper plants (and tomato)
pepper roots

Let’s see, what else is currently failing in my garden? The Seminole pumpkin plants are doing almost nothing. Two of them have long vines, but not a single pumpkin. Are they growing too late into the season?

None of the watermelon plants look decent, and last year I ate three nice, delicious, watermelons!

Last Year…

What happened this time? I think I planted too late and then I was gone for 2 weeks. We’ve had a drought too.

watermelon eating
Raccoon marks on watermelon
2023 watermelon

I had counted on doing a better job of growing all these things in my second year of gardening. I pictured a stash of pumpkins to last me until next season, and enough watermelon to share with the neighbors. Instead, I have nothing to eat from the garden but basil, some onions, and a few small eggplant.

eggplant and onion
Rosita and purple eggplant, and onion from the garden

I kind of feel like a miserable failure. And looking at videos from other Florida gardeners is not helpful. Their crops are bountiful. Their plants look fabulous. Their gardens are organized, and producing, and the raised beds are filled with great compost.

I look at my failing crops and wonder how much more money I have to spend to get to the point where I have some good dirt for growing. But, I don’t garden to save money. I garden to have food from my yard.

Right now I have a lot of “cowpeas” in the ground. They are (mostly) growing nicely. This will supposedly help my soil by adding nitrogen.

Cowpeas among veggies
cowpeas

If you feel like me, that your yard is working against you, try looking on the bright side. All that stuff that is not growing can help build the compost pile!

What is doing well in the yard? My flowers, specifically the Zinnias, are beautiful. My pineapple is growing. I see more butterflies, bees and hummingbirds than ever before.

When I get to see the little creatures that are enjoying the plants that came up from seeds I planted, I remember that I am on the right track.

grasshopper on zinnia
Grasshopper
green anole lizard
Green anole

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Expanding the Garden Over the Past Few Years

My Florida vegetable garden journey began in 2021. Here’s what I’ve accomplished in the past three years.

Once I chose to go into the backyard, and begin seriously growing vegetables, I realized I had a lot to learn. I also needed a lot more space.

Summer 2021

I learned to garden in New England. When I moved back to Florida I hoped to be able to grow some vegetables at least. In the summer of 2021 I purchased three, red-orange grow boxes and put them on the back patio.

These boxes have a tube in the corner and watering is supposed to be done through the tube. The idea is to pour water into the tube and water the roots. I also water from the top.

garden in grow boxes
Garden grow boxes
garden grow boxes
New grow boxes
Gardening in grow boxes
Tomato, pepper and eggplant

I bought my boxes at Home Depot and they are similar to this style available at Amazon: Emsco Group Bountiful Harvest Raised Grow Box (paid link). They have rolling castors so moving the box on a patio is pretty easy.

Grow Box as Seed Nursery

One issue I have with these grow boxes is that they are not very deep. The lower area of the pot is reserved for water to accumulate, so they are more shallow than they appear. These pots are perfect for starting seeds. Once the seedlings are big enough, they can be transplanted to bigger pots, or into the ground.

These grow boxes work well, but they do have a flaw. Because there are holes, dirt can be washed down into the bottom area which should be for water only. Once that fills up, and the box can’t drain, roots become soggy and plants die. This happened to my NuMex pepper plant.

NuMex pepper plant wilting
NuMex in trouble
Grow box with dirt
Grow boxes have a flaw

To avoid the problem of dirt sifting down into the bottom, I clean all dirt out of the box, remove the panel with the holes, and drill holes in the box bottom. A layer of mulch and stones will work for drainage. Now the box is more like a big plastic pot.

Spring 2022

I actually grew a few peppers in 2021. I was so stunned to find that peppers (and other things, like eggplant) would continue to live for years here! Eventually they don’t do very well, but I knew this climate was going to be a challenge.

In 2022 I tried starting seeds in egg shells. It was a fail. Not worth the effort. In fact, starting seeds in small pots is not easy, and frankly, a waste of time.

This was the year I began to compost. I bought the Hot Frog composter (which I am still using).

My son built a few raised beds from wood and white barrels he got from work. I still had nothing growing in the ground.

Hot Frog dual turning composter
I now have a garden back here.
Seedlings growing in eggshells
Not worth the effort.
small backyard gardening
New raised beds in 2022

First in-ground Garden Area, 2023

March of 2023 was when I decided to till the lawn and create some in-ground gardens for vegetables. I bought a rototiller and made a little area of dirt. After that, I began to use cardboard to kill the grass and create more gardens.

Cardboard takes longer, but it keeps all the good grass and topsoil undisturbed. It simply dies from being covered and becomes part of the soil.

To plant over cardboard that is not completely decomposed, use a hand fork and chop the cardboard and earth. Add amendments, and plant.

garden area tilled earth
First garden space
planting backyard garden

Summer 2024

I still use the red grow boxes, although they have faded to pink over the years. These grow boxes are best for growing vegetables that have shallow roots. I now have seven boxes. They are perfect for growing onions, half-long carrots, and greens. I use them as seed starters too.

Wood raised bed
Faded box
May 2024
June morning in the garden

Now, I am beginning to feel pretty confident about which crops to grow. I’m still in the experimental stage with some things. Gardening is an ongoing learning adventure!

vegetable border
Keep on growing…

Growing Suave Nu Mex Peppers

This year I am growing the Suave Nu Mex peppers, which are not going to be hot peppers. They should be orange in color and not red like the hot ones. After starting from seed, I have two plants growing and doing well.

Peppers, of all kinds, would be fabulous to have growing in my backyard. I use onions daily, and I would use peppers too, if I had them. This year I am growing the orange Suave Nu Mex peppers for the first time. (Not the hot ones.)

Pepper plants are tough to grow. I had trouble growing them when I lived in New Hampshire, because they would just be starting to have nice looking peppers, and the season would be over. They were purchased as seedlings, but the the short summer was a downfall. Now, in Florida, I have a long season, but the peppers were still not easy for me to grow.

Disease
pepper plants
Winter pepper seedlings
pepper plants with disease
Pepper plants with disease

I began my peppers from seeds, in small pots. I tried to keep them going over the winter months, but they didn’t do well. Most of the seedlings ended up dying. Then, the older plants got some sort of disease.

Because my seedlings were have such troubles, I waited for Spring (Feb.) to plant the Nu Mex seeds outside in one of the grow boxes. I waited to see what would grow, and ended up with 2 plants. Yup, only two.

It is now June, and I have one Nu Mex still growing in the box where it began. The other has been transplanted to a plastic pot. Eventually, I will re-plant it somewhere.

Suave Nu Mex pepper plant
Suave Nu Mex pepper plant
Smaller plant

Florida Gardening Conditions

  • Hot, heat, sun, blazing high temps.
  • Too much drenching rain, OR not enough rain (we just have over 2 months with NO rain in my area! Temps are reaching over 100.
  • Gardens need sun, but it’s too much for some plants. Must supply shade.
  • Humidity… lots of it.

My dilemma is that the boxes are great for starting plants from seed outdoors. But, those boxes are not very deep. They are better for shallow rooted crops. A Nu Mex can be 4 feet tall, and I’m sure it has an extensive root system. It really needs to be in the ground.

Anything growing in the ground in my yard, is open to raccoons harvesting my produce. They will rip the peppers right off the plant, as they do with tomatoes, eggplant, watermelon, and whatever else is in their line of sight. It’s a conundrum.

Raccoon tomato
Raccoon got the tomato
raccoons broke into a watermelon
Watermelon disaster

About the Suave Nu Mex Variety

The Suave Nu Mex (orange) peppers will look like habanero peppers, but won’t be hot like those. It means I can use them in meals without worrying about the heat. At least this is the hope!

Watch this video by Elise Pickett of The Urban Harvest, where she discusses which peppers to grow in Florida and how to care for them.

Suave Nu Mex pepper plant
Nu Mex leaves
Suave Nu Mex pepper plant

The leaves on the Nu Mex peppers are curled on the edges. I’m not sure if this is a characteristic of the variety, or if it’s a signal that something is wrong. The plants both look healthy, and the larger one has flowers. These plants are about four months old.

The Secret is to Give the Peppers Some Shade

The peppers that grew well from seed looked nice, but I was worried about how much water to give them. The sun is so hot, and it dries the ground pretty fast. But I don’t want to overwater either.

After a month of growing my pepper seedlings, one thing I discovered is to give them shade early in the day. They were getting a lot of sun until later in the afternoon, but it was too much.

Other Peppers Growing Well

After struggling to get my pepper plants past the seedling stage, I now have these types growing in my little backyard. I wrote a page about them here.

  • 4 Carolina Wonder Bell pepper plants
  • 2 Suave Nu Mex, orange, not hot variety (this page)
  • 2 Aji Dulce spice pepper / seasoning peppers
  • 1 Ancho poblano (2 have already died, so fingers crossed)

Using Umbrellas For Shade in the Garden

I have set up my beach umbrella next to the fire spike – which droops in the sun every day. I’ve arranged some peppers in bags around the bottom and try to remember to open up the umbrella by noon.

Both Nu Mex plants are near my table umbrella, which I put up to block the afternoon sun. All the pepper plants have begun to do much better now that they have less direct sun.

beach umbrella garden shade
Beach umbrella is up for shade
Suave Nu Mex pepper plant
Nu Mex – will get afternoon shade when I open that umbrella

Epsom Salt and Fertilizer

In Ellise’s video (link provided up this page), she talks about adding Epsom salt (paid link) to her pepper plants. About once a month, sprinkle a little around the plants. I have been doing this with all my peppers.

Don’t fertilize too much either or they will grow like mad, but not produce. Once they begin to grow little peppers, they may need more fertilizer. Some places say to fertilize once a month. I’m still in the learning stages and I’m not good at keeping track of when I fertilize what plants.

Umbrella Suggestions

If you want to use a stand alone (beach umbrella) to shade portions of the yard, be sure to get one that screws into the ground. Mine has the screw part attached at the bottom, with fold out handles to screw it in. The top of the umbrella comes completely out, which is nice if it gets super windy. Also the height is adjustable, and it tilts.

The one I bought (back in 2017) is similar to this one on Amazon (this is a paid link), but I’m not sure the quality is the same. The one I have is currently unavailable.

The plastic screw anchor is easy to put into the sandy ground, or take it out to move. Umbrella anchors can be purchased separately, and then you could find a cheap umbrella to use with it. The problem I see with that set up, is the wind. If the umbrella sets into the anchor, it could come out and blow away.

Another option for shade is to buy a shade cloth. I’ve never used one, but they are big and need to be anchored somehow and tied somewhere. This works best if you have a big area to cover.

More stories for my gardening friends…

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