Vegetable garden – Hydrangeas Blue

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.

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.

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 — Lettuce growing – with offshoot that will become seed pods

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 setting seed pods

I’ve noticed 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.

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.

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. It is quite interesting.

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

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

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 — tomato plant seedling

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 — Tomato plant today

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Keep Reading

Art Class: Simple Pencil Drawings

03/25/2023

Yellow Flowering Weed: Walter’s Groundcherry

03/21/2023

Saving Seeds: Lettuce and Arugula

03/18/202303/16/2023

Loading…

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

Transplanting Cherry Tomato Plants, Container Gardening

I am growing cherry tomato plants from seeds. The seedlings began growing in March and were started in eggshells. (See my post on eggshell gardening.)

This post contains affiliate links to products I’ve bought and recommend. I could earn a small amount if a purchase is made through my link – with no extra cost to the buyer.

From there, they went into either the container garden or single, larger pots. I’m all for trying different things to see which growing idea works out best. So far, the tomatoes in the big containers are not doing as well as the ones in their own pots.

The tomatoes growing in their own small pots are doing very well. Each day I take them off the patio table and set them in the sun, along with my basil, dill, cosmos and marigolds.

At night I put them back up on the table so the raccoons won’t mess with them.

Two small tomato plants are growing in the box below. One died, and the other is still fairly small. The tomatoes above in their own pots are doing much better.

Two cherry tomato plants growing in a grow box — Cherry tomato plants in grow bed

Transplanting in Florida

Now it is the end of April. These tomato plants have outgrown their little pots so it’s time to re-pot. Since I don’t have a lot of space, I decided to use a tall pot. I prefer to grow plants in the ground, but here in Florida it’s difficult.

I bought one more tall pot, because I have two plants, and spent some time today moving the plants into their new, bigger containers.

I gathered up some Spanish moss for the bottom of the container – a perk from living in Florida. It will serve as drainage. Then I mixed in some Blood Meal and Bone Meal (both links are Amazon affiliate links) with the purchased organic dirt as I filled the pot.

The bottom leaves of the tomato plants were removed, as they should not touch the dirt, and I planted the transplants as deep as I could. Some people plant tomato plants lying down with only the top leaves showing. This creates lots of extra roots for sturdy and hardy plants.

Now my only problem could be with the raccoons that come each night and are nosy and destructive. They like to dig in the dirt with their little paws and mess with my plants.

To hopefully deter them, I places some tray bird feeders around the pots.

tomato plants and raised bed gardens — Both tomato plants in their new pots

The old tomato plant

The tomatoes below are growing in a grow box and the plant has been growing all winter. These were planted in November, and I don’t suggest that. Here in Florida tomatoes should be planted in February or March.

Lots of the leaves became yellow and I trimmed them off. I’m just trying to get the tomatoes to turn red and be edible. I did use some organic spray on the leaves, which did seem to help.

I can’t remember what type of tomato these are, but they grew from a plant I purchased, and not from seeds – probably purchased at Home Depot. I really miss Tenney Farms in New Hampshire.

Tips for growing tomatoes from seed

Start tomatoes from seeds in small containers, such as eggshells.
Use a quality soil, such as Black Gold (Amazon affiliate link) (I bought this type of potting soil locally and paid half the price – so shop around – early in the season!)
Once they have a few leaves and lots of roots, transplant to a larger pot.
When they fill that pot, transplant to either the garden, or a permanent large container.
Be sure they get lots of sun and consistent water all throughout their life. A drought and then lots of water will cause tomatoes to split.
If you are in Florida and your tomato plants are growing over winter, they may have yellow leaves and scarred fruit. It can’t be helped because of the weather! Do the best you can and wait for the warm days to appear. This means covering them at night to protect from the cold.

Planting Potatoes in a Container Garden

My son had collected a couple of big white barrels to use for rainwater catching from the roof. He cut one in half crosswise and built stands for both halves to create raised garden beds for growing potatoes.

I’ve grown potatoes a few times, and fresh dug potatoes are delicious. Now, I have no yard space to grow them, so they will go into the containers.

The potatoes I used were simply old red (and one white) potatoes from the kitchen that had developed growth from their eyes.

I know that most information about planting potatoes says to buy special seed potatoes, but I never have. The reason for buying seed potatoes is to prevent disease, which is a good reason. I already had the sprouted potatoes so I used them. Also, orders are for pounds of potatoes – which I don’t have room for.

Read this page at Microveggie for ideas on where to buy seed potatoes.

The potatoes from the grocery store usually sprout on their own if left long enough, but I’d love to begin with the good, disease free ones, and keep planting from there. Don’t ever use the green parts of potatoes for anything – planting or eating!

March Potato Planting

I’m in Florida, and March is the time to get serious about planting a garden. This year I grew seeds in eggshells and purchased new grow boxes for the vegetables.

Beginning of March: After adding bags of organic garden dirt to the barrel beds, I mixed in some leaves to loosen the soil, bone meal (good for developing good roots) and blood meal. I add the “meals” this because I use these amendments in all my gardens each spring. Otherwise, no fertilizer needs to be added to potatoes while they are growing.

Compost would be nice to add, but presently I am in the middle of making my own compost using the Hot Frog Composter. It might be ready for Fall planting.

planting potatoes in raised container beds

Potatoes should be cut with only a couple of eyes in each piece. Plant each cut piece with eyes facing upward and cover with a couple of inches of dirt.

I put five cut pieces into each bed. This is probably too many. Also, the barrel beds are really too shallow, but I have no other place to grow potatoes. I will see what happens.

We had a lot of rain for a few days after they were planted. My son had drilled holes in the bottom of the barrels for drainage. After a week or so the green leaves began to show. (Leaves are poisonous, so keep pets and kids away.)

As the green stems grow and get tall enough, I am adding more dirt. The potatoes will grow off tubers under the soil. The more dirt for them to spread out, the better. Unfortunately I don’t have much land for growing potatoes in the ground.

Building up the soil around the greenery

Potatoes grow well with green beans planted nearby. This is what my gardening book advises. If your garden is in the ground, and you have space, maybe do this.

When Are Potatoes Ready to Dig?

Once the tops – those green parts – die back, the potatoes need to be dug up. How long does it take? In general, three months, give or take.

It is possible to gently dig around the plants before this to pull up small potatoes for eating. After the plants have been growing for a couple of months, it is possible to carefully dig around and find a couple of small potatoes to eat. In a small household, like where I live, this is a good idea so I won’t end up with all the potatoes being ready at once.

In the ground, I would use a pitchfork and carefully lift the soil around each top. They can really branch out, so dig around.

Because they are in the barrel, I’ll choose a time when the soil is dry (hopefully) and dig with a hand shovel and gloves.

When all the potatoes are pulled out of the dirt. Let them sit in the sun to dry a bit. DO NOT RINSE THEM… just brush the dirt off. Often gardeners will say to cure them, which toughens the skin for storing. If your harvest is large, see what to do here at “How to Harvest and Store Potatoes”.

Potato tops can go into the compost pile. Leaves of potato plants are poisonous if eaten, but can go into the compost to be broken down. Only do this if the plant shows no sign of disease. Read more about composting questionable poisonous plants.

I will follow up with more information about my potato garden as the season progresses.

Category: Vegetable garden

Saving Seeds: Lettuce and Arugula

Collecting Seeds From Lettuce

Collecting Arugula Seeds

How to Save Seeds

May 2022 Vegetable Garden Plants Started From Seeds

Zucchini, Beans, Tomato, and Eggplant