Category: Garden Supplies

Things needed to create a garden and wildlife friendly yard. This category includes books and articles, attracting birds, bees and butterflies, being organic, garden tools, fertilizer, composting and creating good soil, using amendments, and raised beds.

Building a New Garden Path

The past winter and spring months have kept me busy in the garden. The planing, planting, weeding, and watering has been a first priority and I’ve neglected the walkways. Also, I still don’t have my own vehicle and must depend on getting rides to the yard shop. Between all that and the weather, I’ve put off buying the items needed to build my new garden path.

yard back corner with lawn
Yard 2023 – grass
black mulch walkway in 2023
old dark mulch walkway
cardboard ground cover
Cardboard down to kill grass

Even though I had put cardboard and mulch down about a year ago, the mulch has broken down and the weeds are coming through. A new path is a good reminder of where to walk too! I know where my veggies are planted, but other people don’t, and if they venture into my yard, they could crush little growth that is difficult to see.

Cardboard and Mulch

Saving cardboard boxes is a regular pastime at my house. I stack them up on the porch, along with shipping paper that comes in boxes. Anything that I won’t use gets burned in the burn barrel, or put out for recycling. The cardboard collection is large, so I had no trouble filling up the walkway.

I had to have the mulch bags to hold the cardboard in place so the wind wouldn’t blow it around.

garden work
back to front
cardboard and mulch
front to back
mulch walkway backyard
Mulch path
mulch garden path
2024 – New garden path!

My son drove me to the Yard Shop to pick up some bags of mulch, and I was in business.

I’m an older lady and know my limitations when it comes to yard work. So the first day I put out the cardboard and set the bags of mulch on top. Thankfully the mulch was dry and the bags were easy enough for me to move.

The following day, I opened up the bags and spread them over the cardboard, adding more cardboard in places that needed filling in.

And there it was – my new garden path!

I’d like some flagstones, or slate pieces, to put on top of the mulch. Maybe I will pick some up at some point.

We also picked up a few bags of mushroom compost and potting soil, which I am mixing up 50/50 in the wheelbarrow and putting around the plants that are currently growing.

Our weather here on the east coast of Florida has been beautiful and fairly cool for about a week now. Have to get this stuff done while we can. Oh, and I just ordered a collection of veggie seeds for the year… will be writing about that soon.

Happy gardening!

Stories for the gardener…

March Garden Update

This is a quick post about what is growing in the garden in March. Realistically, I can’t keep up with my blogs, photos, work, and gardening. In summer I should…

Keep reading
by Pam

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Three Ways to Begin Vegetable Gardening in a Small Space and Not Using a Raised Bed

Want to grow your own food but don’t have much time, space or money? Start small with a grow box or fabric pot and see how it goes.

If you have been bitten by the gardening bug, but don’t know where to start, I suggest you start small. A small space is easier to manage especially if one person alone will be tending it. I am not covering raised beds that cost a lot to buy and / or build. The garden ideas I mention here are inexpensive to create.

Take your time and abilities into consideration. Begin with a small, manageable space outside, such as a grow box, fabric pots, or little area of the yard to plant. All of this works for growing flowers too.

Chijimisai greens
Grow box
grow bags
Fabric pots
garden building
Cardboard & dirt

Plant For Your Climate

No matter where you live, do some research about what grows well in your area. I made the mistake of trying to grow the same types of veggies I grew in New Hampshire when I moved to Florida! It was a disaster and I became very discouraged. 

I live in east, central Florida where gardening can happen year round, if the correct types of veggies are planted.

Grow Boxes Keep Everything Contained

I started my Florida gardening journey with a few grow boxes. I bought them at Home Depot and filled them with potting soil. This was a great way to get started without having to dig up the yard or do sheet mulching. The boxes are on rollers which makes them easy to move on my patio.  Weeds can’t grow in, but you will see some pop up.

The downside of grow boxes is that they are not very deep. But, I have grown green pepper, eggplant, and tomatoes in these boxes. If you attempt this, keep it down to one large plant per box.

grow box gardening
Bell pepper plant
grow boxes with dirt ready to plant
New boxes filled with soil
growing vegetables in garden grow boxes
Larger plants growing in the boxes
worm box
Storing pots on top
grow boxes with seedlings
2023 Winter Greens

These boxes will easily hold some herbs or greens such as spinach, arugula and lettuce. A flowering plant, such as a marigold could be added, or plant scallions along the edge.

Raise some worms

The boxes are also great for starting worm families. I am not a worm grower, but when I added a few worms from the yard to a box they multiplied! From there the worms can be added to other boxes, or back into the yard. Worms are excellent for making the soil better.

A place for some compost

At the time, I did not have a compost area, or my Hot Frog, so my fruit and vegetable skins, tops and leftovers were chopped and added right to the soil in the box. Mostly I added banana skins and coffee grounds, and I didn’t overdo it.

My boxes are similar to the ones in the Amazon link below. They come with a tube where the water is supposed to be added, but I treat my boxes normally, watering from the top, unless it’s very hot and dry.

Grow Box With Wheels at Amazon (paid link)

Fabric Pots For Vegetables

Fabric pots come in many different sizes and can work to grow small amounts of vegetables. Either use one bag to grow a large type plant, such as eggplant or tomato, or fill it with carrots, greens, or herbs, that can be grown closer together. The pots are usually taller than the boxes, but not as wide. Be careful not to overcrowd vegetables. 

Vegetable Root Depths – a General Guide

I wrote a whole page about Gardening in Fabric Pots and my experiences in New Hampshire and Florida. Dark colored pots can help warm the soil for growing in the northeast and other colder climates with a short growing season. In Florida, I like the ability to move the pots out of hot sun as needed.

grow bags
Fabric pots
Cauliflower plant
Cauliflower in fabric bag
Lime tree in fabric pot
Lime tree in fabric pot

Most pots have handles and can be carried, or dragged, to a new location. Do this before watering, or when the soil is fairly dry. Be aware that water runs out of the bottom and sides of the fabric.

Buy Fabric Pots at Amazon (paid link)

Sheet Mulching in Small Spaces

This small gardening idea would be a permanent addition to the yard and is recommended for someone who knows they want to garden, and will continue. Sheet mulching will kill the grass. This is also a time intensive way to garden.

If you have never heard the term “sheet mulching” it is simply this; not digging up what is already there. Cover the lawn / garden area with paper / cardboard with dirt or mulch on top. (Buy dirt and mulch = expense.)

Why do it this way? If your yard is grass, as many are, and if you are not heavily spraying or using chemicals on the grass, things will be living just beneath the surface. Worms tend to be crawling around the grass roots. You may not like bugs, but they are necessary and all have a role to play.

Using a rototiller or digging with a shovel, disrupts whatever good is already there. Putting down cardboard or newspaper leaves it all alone. Yes, the grass will die, but the dirt will remain in good shape. But this is just the beginning. Amendments to the soil and fertilizer will have to be applied. This is the start of “real” gardening.

Also, please note that cardboard and newspaper will break down and eventually weeds may begin to come up. More cardboard can be added, or mulch, but this is an ongoing process. Sheet mulching just gets you started.

My yard, Spring to Winter using cardboard

cardboard in the garden
Sheet mulching
cardboard on grass
Boxes down at the hibiscus garden
cardboard boxes in the garden
Getting the garden area ready last spring

Above – Spring and summer cardboard. Below – Dirt added for garden space (Fall and winter seasons).

garden with beans and veggies
Veggie garden expanded
garden building
Cardboard beneath dirt
interplanting beans, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower

If you choose to go this route, save boxes and / or newspaper and plan to spend quite a bit more in dirt and mulch. A ground garden needs to be weeded continuously, unlike boxes and bags. Probably the biggest problems with gardening normally, in the ground, is that critters that will destroy crops. I deal with destrucion by raccoons and armadillos.

My Thoughts on Grow Boxes, Fabric Bags and Planting in the Ground

I use all of these types of gardens, but I began with a couple of grow boxes and expanded from there. I’m still expanding, saving cardboard and buying dirt and mulch. In Spring 2023 I dug up (yes, dug) an area for the first phase of my garden and I am continuing to expand.

Each type of garden has its own good points. Gardening in the ground is a lot of work, but the plants have space to expand as they need. I’ve always believed that anything planted in the ground will do better than in a confined space. Some things, like watermelon and pumpkins, need to be in the ground.

Seminole pumpkin vine
Seminole Pumpkins
Seminole pumpkin growing in the vine
New little Seminole pumpkin

Vegetables that normally grow and die by winter don’t always do that here in zone 9b. Anything that continues to grow for years could work in a fabric bag, leaving garden space for other vegetables. My boxes are used mostly for greens now, or as nurseries to begin plants that will be moved to the garden when they grow.

Time vs. Food

I am an older woman with a job, but my kids are grown.  I have a lot of time to garden as I want, and I do it all by myself. Consider the time you have and want to spend gardening, and figure out what you want to grow (eat) the most. If it’s herbs you’d like for cooking, a grow box is the way to go. If you love fresh tomatoes, maybe a large fabric pot or two would be best (one plant per bag).

Once your garden (in whatever form you choose) is ready to plant, determine the right planting time in your area, buy seeds or seedlings, and get gardening! I wish you luck.

Keep reading my garden stories:

The Best Way to Acquire Garden Dirt if You Have the Muscles For It

Changing my small backyard from all grass to a permaculture plot for growing food has been a challenge. It can also be expensive. Although I was dreading doing this, the best way to acquire my garden dirt was to fill the truck with purchased soil. We had to buy in bulk and do some shoveling.

Not only would I have lots of dirt to work with, but buying dirt by the yard is cheaper. I bought two yards of soil which filled the back of the F250, along with two bags of mushroom compost and two bags of mulch.

dirt and compost in truck bed
Two yards of dirt fills the truck bed.

Winter is the Time to Do Yard Work

Now that a Florida winter is upon us, the desire to get outdoors and fix things up is high. After a long, very hot summer, the cooler weather feels great. And by cooler I mean near 80 degrees some days, but cooler in the morning and evening. In other words, it’s more like a normal “summer” elsewhere.

Finding a Place to Store the Dirt

I need dirt. I’ve had the boxes piling up on my porch but can’t put that cardboard out on the grass without some dirt to help hold them in place. I’ve been buying bags of dirt, but that doesn’t go far. I considered ordering a load of dirt to be delivered, but there is no good place near the road for the shop to dump it.

cardboard boxes saved
Boxes piling up
cardboard boxes in the garden
Getting the garden area ready last spring
cardboard on grass
Boxes down at the hibiscus garden

As my garden planning has progressed, I realize that I need more sunny spaces. I want to grow Roselle Hibiscus which will be large plants. They can’t grow where my vegetables area, so the plan is to begin a new garden in the front yard.

The area pictured below is where I believe there was once a flower garden. I’ve found a Beautyberry Bush and Firespike back in this overgrown location. Now it is also full of ferns, and little trees are growing. The only tree I have cut down is the invasive Brazilian Pepper. The front of this patch of ferns gets lots of sun all times of the year. If I can get the Roselle to grow, they will be planted here.

cardboard spread on grass
Broke down some big cardboard boxes for the new front garden

This was where the dirt pile would sit until I needed it. I put down big pieces of cardboard, (see my post about using cardboard in the yard) and we unloaded the dirt onto it from the bed of the truck.

In order to get to this spot, we had to back the truck across the front yard. It meant moving some of the Christmas lights and taking down part of the fire pit. Then, of course, we (my son and I) had to shovel all that dirt out of the truck! It was a chore, but worth it.

cardboard spread on grass
Broke down some big cardboard boxes
dirt in truck
Ready to shovel!
garden dirt pile
Dirt for gardening

From here, I can fill the wheelbarrow and move the dirt to the back gardens as I need it. And the cardboard underneath, will be the spot to plant new things once all that dirt is gone.

The cost for all of it was right around $100. If you live near The Yard Shop in Edgewater, I highly recommend them for dirt, mulch, compost and stones. The people are super nice and helpful.

Now the Garden Plans Can Move Ahead

I have the dirt and I have the cardboard. My gardening plans continue to emerge with more space being made to plant. Over winter I am growing green beans, arugula and Chijimisai spinach, and a few other things.

Skittle is overlooking my garden work, and I’m not sure if she approves or not!

Skittle in the garden

Keep reading my Florida gardening stories

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Recycle Cardboard Boxes For Use in the Garden

Cardboard boxes and paper get recycled into the yard as I plan out spaces for my flower and vegetable gardens.

It might look messy for a while, but cardboard boxes can be recycled as ground cover in the yard and garden. They serve several purposes in fact.

We get a lot of deliveries coming in cardboard boxes and now that I am planting, they have become useful in the yard. I keep all sizes!

cardboard boxes in the garden
Cardboard keeps the ground cool and weeds from growing

I began using cardboard and newspaper when I gardened in New Hampshire. In order to create a new garden space for the following summer, I would layer paper and cardboard over the garden spot and leave it all winter.

Florida growth is different, and quite difficult to control, especially since it gets to grow year round! In winter it slows down, and many vines die back. But, in summer it’s like some horror movie where the vines grow faster than I can cut them back. And everything here grows by vines and runners.

Soil Protectors

Now that it’s hot, I am using my old boxes to keep this bare garden cool and wet as I plan what to plant.

The cardboard works great to keep weeds from growing. It is also perfect to create quick walkways. It’s helpful to have some mulch or dirt to put on top, but when it’s wet, and not windy outside, it will stay in place.

cardboard in the garden
cat on cardboard
Fontana enjoys this place to rest

Once the garden area was tilled, I had nothing really to plant. Placing cardboard over the dirt keeps the weeds and grass from filling back in. Fontana likes it too. I’ll be planting here in Fall – oops, I planted here in July. One tomato seedling needed a home, so I planted it here. Also, two sunflowers sprang up on their own! Next I put in some Suyo Long cucumbers, which are supposed to do well in the heat.

  • volunteer sunflowers
    Volunteer sunflowers
  • Cardboard as mulch in the garden
    Summer garden

Outdoor Cat Beds (and Walkway Markers)

I’ve noticed that here in Florida, placing cardboard on grass won’t kill it. The runners just come out the sides and continue on! The grass here is tough. But by using cardboard and then mulch on top, you can make yourself a pretty nice walkway. Once the yard it covered, this will be much more manageable.

  • uses for cardboard in the yard
  • mulched garden path
    Garden path in the works
  • mulched garden path
    New path

Skittle’s Bed

My black cat Skittle has a favorite, shady outdoor spot. She sleeps under the raised, wooden bed my son built. When the cardboard gets wet and dirty from rain, I just switch it out with a new piece, and use the dirty piece for the garden.

black cat sleeping on cardboard
Cardboard cat bed

By the way, even though it’s very hot this time of year, my cat loves to be outside. She stays in the yard, ignores the birds, and comes in every so often to cool off and eat. I don’t know how she stands the heat, but she loves it. This is her happy place.

Did you know that earthworms like paper and cardboard?

I find lots of nice, juicy earthworms under Skittle’s bed! They like that cool space too. Sometimes I will move the worms into a garden bed. I do have a lot of worms in each of my raised beds, which I worked at.

Kneeling Mat For Planting

What is there to say? I kneel on cardboard to plant gardens when there is a good size project to accomplish.

cardboard for kneeling
A piece of cardboard for kneeling while planting

Cardboard Tray For Little Pots

Any time I get these cool little trays made of cardboard, I keep them. They can hold garden things, or be used to move small pots indoors. They won’t work well for pots that need to be watered, but this coconut coir takes a while to dry out.

I also keep some little cardboard boxes in the back of my car. They work well for bringing new plants home from the nursery!

Six pots of coconut coir for seeds
Coconut coir pots for catnip seeds, placed in a cardboard box.

More stories from the blog

Seeds From the Urban Harvest

Growing seeds from the Urban Harvest has been a rewarding experience. My small backyard vegetable garden is off to a great start.

This is a quick review of my experience with the Urban Harvest. This company is located on the western coast of Florida. Elise is the woman who does videos about growing vegetables in this hot Florida climate. I have linked to one of her videos below. She also has a beautiful website with information and seeds for sale. I am so happy to have found her, and very much appreciate her good advice about gardening.

I’m just getting started with my backyard vegetable garden, but so far I’m impressed with the growth from the seeds I bought.

Growing From Seed

Whenever you use seeds to begin a garden, it’s a guess as to how many seeds will actually grow. I’ve had very good luck with my seeds from The Urban Harvest. Everything has grown really well.

If you live in the St. Pete area of Florida (west coast), this company also sells living plants. See more at the Urban Harvest website.

seed packets
Seeds from Urban Harvest

Seed packets cost around $3.00 and all the packets above came from The Urban Harvest even though only two packets contain their label. Shipping was fast. I received a thank you e-mail. In my opinion, customer service is great!

My seeds arrived in April, so I only planted what could handle the summer heat. (The carrots, broccoli and Brussels sprouts will wait until Fall.)

The watermelon and okra were put directly into the ground on April 8th. Of the 12 watermelon seeds I planted, 9 came up. I have thinned them to four plants. I simply don’t have a lot of space for them. (I should have thinned them to 2!)

Watermelon plants day 34
June 4th watermelon on the vine. Almost exactly 2 months after planting.
My largest watermelon – June 4th

Okra

Almost all of the okra seeds sprouted. I transplanted a few of the seeds when thinning the rows, and I don’t suggest doing that. Those transplanted okra plants are not growing as well as the ones I left alone!

okra plant
Okra
okra flower
Okra flower

I’ve never grown, or eaten okra so I only planted three short rows. On May 25th I was picking some okra!

Okra and eggplant

Seminole Pumpkin

On April 8th I put the pumpkin seeds into pots.

Here are the pumpkin seedlings at growing day 10.

Seminole pumpkin seedlings
Pumpkin seedlings – day 10
Pumpkins into ground and doing well.

Now the pumpkins have been growing in the ground since about April 29th. Today is May 12th so these two pumpkin plants are a little over a month old (photo below) from the time I first planted the seeds.

Seminole pumpkin plants, 5/12
May 12th Seminole Pumpkin plants in the garden

Right now the pumpkin plants are growing upward and I hope they will trail off to the edge of the yard once they get going. I am very excited about these native Florida pumpkins! Search YouTube if you want to see how big the vines grow. They can even grow up through trees and produce hanging pumpkins!

Update on the Seminole Pumpkin: Vines are long (June 4th), but no flowers yet. Leaves are turning yellow and I don’t know why. I’ve trained the vines to follow the edge of the yard.

Seminole pumpkin vine
Seminole Pumpkins

Moringa

I was totally unfamiliar with the Moringa tree. The Urban Harvest sells Moringa seeds and I have a three growing in the yard, and one in a small pot. All seeds that were begun in pots sprouted, whereas the ones I put directly into the ground did not.

I wish I had more space and knew more about their growth habits, height and so on. This will be an experiment. Right now I have three planted and growing, but they are small.

Elise of The Urban Harvest has a few videos where she mentions growing the Moringa tree. See one here: Three Tropical Survival Foods You Must Plant in Florida. She has loads of videos that cover all kinds of things to do with Florida gardening. I’ve already learned so much.

Moringa
Moringa

The Moringa trees are also growing more slowly than I expected. They look good and I guess it will take a while for them to become truly tree-like.

Garden Progress

Creating a garden from a grassy space in Florida takes some work. There are many vines and deep roots to remove from all the natural invasion from the lot next door. Then I am left with sand which must be amended for growing.

In the photo below, I have removed the grass, added compost, planted seeds and seedlings (and added more compost and fertilizer) and watered each morning. From here I will add mulch to conserve moisture and keep the ground cooler. Summer is nearly here and it is already too hot after 9:00am for me to do much gardening.

I ordered a second batch of seeds from The Urban Harvest and will definitely buy more at a later date. I highly recommend this helpful place if you are a Florida vegetable gardener.

backyard garden
My garden before the mulch

All plants are organic, and she promotes sustainable and eco friendly gardening practices. Again, how to find information:

Please keep reading the blog…

Planting Some New Flower and Herb Seeds

Planting new types of seeds purchased from Eden Brothers online.

Finally my seed packet order from Eden Brothers arrived. It took ten days, and I’d actually forgotten about the order because they sent no information updates at all! I’m not too happy with the company for that reason. I chose them because they had the Mimosa seeds.

Now I need to figure out what to do with these seeds, which include Nasturtium, Amaranthus, Powderpuff Mimosa, and Borage.

Nasturtium

I had loads of lovely nasturtium growing in my northern summer garden. I’ve never tried growing them in Florida. For that reason I will plant some seeds into the garden dirt, and the others will go into pots.

The seeds went into the ground around my pumpkins plants and watermelon. Two clay pots also hold seeds. They are the Alaska variety which is pictured below. The leaves and flowers are edible.

This is one of my favorite photos of my cat Skittle sitting amongst the nasturtiums and marigolds in my New Hampshire garden.

flowers of fall
Nasturtiums and Marigolds (and Skittle the Cat) in my NH garden
The full packet of seeds from Eden Bros.
nasturtium flowers
Alaska Nasturtiums grown from seeds in NH

Mimosa Seeds (Powderpuff)

I know nothing at all about the mimosa ground cover except that it has fluffy pink flowers. Most sites talk about growing it indoors, but here in Florida it should grow easily outside in the sun. Because I don’t care if it covers the grass, I’ll plant the seeds at the edge of my hibiscus garden.

This one is also called the Sensitive Plant because the leaves close / move when touched. And, I found it listed at the UF gardening site under Powderpuff Mimosa. I will put a few seeds in a pot and the remainder into the ground.

Amaranthus – Molton Fire (Edible)

Here is a page at UF, Gardening Solutions in the “food” section, all about the Amaranth. I guess it needs to go straight into the garden. Since I don’t have a lot of space left, some have been put into pots.

Borage (officinalis) – Edible

Borage is a herb that grows tall and is listed on this page at the IFAS site as a cool season crop. My Eden Brothers packet says that planting time is Spring, but shelter from “hot afternoons”. I think I will put some seeds into pots for now.

Borage has pretty blue flowers and it is edible. It also attracts bees. It grew wild near my house in New Hampshire, but I’ve never seen it here.

Borage (photo credit: Pixabay)

Herbs & Spices in the Florida Garden – UF IFAS

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