The Year I Began The Gardens

From a barren yard to gardens being dug, I’m learning to be a successful Florida gardener.

In 2016 my son and I bought a house in Florida near the east coast. It is a modest home with a small yard. At the time, on both sides we had natural habitats in uncleared lots.

Here’s a photo of the backyard that was posted on the listing, and then nearly 7 years later.

  • Florida house backyard
    House backyard in 2016
  • backyard 2023
    Our backyard, August 2023

Our house sits lengthwise with the garage at the front, so this “backyard” area in the photos is really on the southern side of the house.

This photo from 2018 shows the big banana trees and elephant ear plants in the back corner. Also the yard is mostly grass and not weeds. You can see the hibiscus planted near the house.

Our back corner of the yard looks a bit more open thanks to the numerous hurricanes that have come through since we moved in. The tall pine was taken down when a new house was built.

Florida backyard
Yard 2018
yard back corner
Yard 2023

In 2023 I decided to create some gardens and began digging up the grass. I’d been container gardening, but I’ve always believed that plants do better in the ground.

I bought a rototiller and had my son till up a patch of ground. I removed the grass and some pieces of cement that were buried and began to get the dirt ready for growing vegetables.

I have a Hot Frog tumbling composter which I’d been using for about a year to make compost.

Backyard before second garden
2023 -Changing from grass to garden area

When my watermelon, peppers, okra, pumpkin, and eggplant began growing so well, I expanded to another smaller garden next to the shed. Because it was June, and summer is tough for growing vegetables in Florida, I planted cucumbers (Suyo Long), one tomato plant, and more okra (the rest of the seeds from the packet).

This is also where I planted the blueberry bush I bought at the Farmer’s Market on a whim.

June Florida backyard garden
June garden extension

Gardening is an ongoing experiment. There is always something to do and / or see while walking through the garden. Each morning I pull weeds until the mosquitoes find me.

I’m keeping track of what grows well in this summer heat, and am already thinking about Fall planting.

More gardening stories here:

Easy Healthy Camping Food in Foil Packets

Here’s how to bring along vegetable packets for grilling on a camping trip.

Each time we get read to go camping in our trailer, I create vegetable foil packets to take along.

My son like to grill, so he takes care of bringing the meat. I’m not a big meat-eater, but I always have a small amount. My main dish consists of vegetables.

Paper plate with meat, baked beans and vegetables cooked in foil

Creating the Packets

Close to the camping dates, I shop for fresh vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots, potatoes, and onions. I don’t buy all of these, just what looks freshest and is affordable. (I skipped the asparagus as the price was ridiculous!)

The day before we leave the vegetables are rinsed, chopped and wrapped. Potatoes and carrots will take the longest to cook and need to be cut very small. I add butter and seasoning, like dried parsley and garlic powder. We add our own salt, if needed, after cooking.

chopped carrots broccoli potato
Chopping vegetables
carrots and broccoli chopped in strainer
vegetables in foil

Use heavy duty foil, and place a mix of vegetables in the center of a large piece of foil. About a big handful size. Or, separate out the vegetables according to who likes what.

Top with butter, sprinkle with seasonings you like. Wrap the top first by placing the long ends together and folding over and over to the food. Fold each end in like wrapping a gift.

wrapping vegetables in foil
Tightly wrapped
Vegetables in foil packets
Vegetable foil packets going into the camper.
camper fridge door
Camper fridge

I bought a head of cauliflower, four red potatoes, one onion, and about 5 carrots to make 8 packets to take with us.

We grill the foil food for about 30 minutes.

We ate four packets our first night when my son grilled chicken. We cooked the other four packets the second night, and ended up bringing two back home the next day. So, we had plenty.

I almost forgot to get a photo of the meal! It’s not ready for a food magazine, but you get the idea.

This is a simple way to continue eating healthy away from home. Camping food doesn’t have to be all bread and cheese and pancakes! I don’t eat like that at home, and I won’t while away.

Beautiful Zinnia Flowers Are Useful to Bees

Zinnias are bright and beautiful flowers that also serve as a shelter for honey bees.

This summer I am growing zinnias from seeds. I’ve come to love seeing the new blooms pop out in this mix. Their colors have been stunningly bright. Some blooms have a more flattened appearance and others are very puffy and full.

I grew these from seeds that were planted a few months ago in my new little flower garden.

Zinnias Growing in My Yard

I have done nothing to these photos, the colors are exactly as they really are!

pink zinnia flower
light pink zinnia flower
bright red zinnia flower
Zinnias
magenta zinnia flower
Beautiful magenta
orange zinnia
Bright orange zinnia
Zinnia garden
Zinnia garden
Zinnia flowers red pink
pink zinnia

The Perfect Flowers for Sleeping Bees

The petals of the zinnia also serve as a shelter for sleeping bees. Each morning I see them tucked among the pink petals of this one flower.

This magenta zinnia, which has a fading bloom, seems to be a favorite for little bees. They look like honey bees, and they crawl way up under the petals toward the center of the flower. I counted four bees, but I believe there were more.

Bees inside the petals

I’ve also caught tiny tree frogs in the petals, but they hop away as soon as I get close.

Zinnias are not the only flowers that make tired bees happy. I’ve seen them within the curl of marigold flowers too. We get accustomed to watching bees gather nectar and usually never think about where they go when they need to rest. Why, a zinnia hotel, of course!

Zinnias
The pink flower is the bee’s favorite

Keep reading…

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

Wins and Fails This Summer in the Garden

It’s July and gardening in Florida has slowed, but some things are obvious wins and some are fails.

My first time seriously trying to grow vegetables and annuals through a Florida summer. I’ve purchase plants and seeds, and transplanted seedlings. A lot of work has gone into my garden area. Some things have done very well, and others are fails and best to be forgotten!

Some things I am still up in the air about.

First, The Wins

Watermelon is at the top of my list for wins. I have harvested three, edible melons. They grew from direct planting and I would have had four, except that the raccoons got one. The vines had no problems, even though I wished I’d had more space for them. These were Strawberry Watermelons which are good for growing in southern locations.

Watermelon

I picked the melons the end of June, and now, mid-July, I have another tiny melon on one of the old vines. Also, new vines are sprouting from the original, so I’ll see what happens.

watermelon preparation outside
watermelon next to foot
Garden watermelon

Eggplant

I’ve grown eggplant for a few years now. I had one plant that grew and grew and seldom ever gave me eggplants to eat! Eventually I cut it down. Now I have about five plants growing in various locations and have been eating eggplant regularly.

The small, Japanese eggplants are eaten fried in a pan. The larger eggplants are usually baked. *By the end of July, eggplants have pretty much stopped producing.

  • eggplant courgette
  • Eggplants growing
    Eggplants
  • Okra and eggplant
    Okra and eggplant
  • eggplant umbrella shade
    Shade for the eggplant
  • Japanese eggplant growing
  • Japanese eggplant plant
  • baking keto eggplant casserole meal dish recipe
    Layering the casserole
  • eggplant flower
    Spikes on eggplant flower
  • macro lady bug beetle on purple eggplant flower
    Lady Bug on Eggplant Flower
  • Eggplant growing
    My eggplant!
  • eggplant
    Eggplant

Okra

I planted okra seeds into the garden and then thinned them once they began to grow. They grew fast, have had no problems, and are hardy. The flowers are very pretty, but don’t seem to attract butterflies or bees. The problem is, I’ve discovered I don’t really like okra!

I was picking a few okras a day and slicing them to fry and eat with lunch. But the slimy, sticky okra just turns me off.🤮. I want to grow food I like, and I don’t like okra. I’ve begun cutting the plants down to add to the composter. But, I’m letting a few okra pods get big and dry out for seeds. A friend wants them.

  • Okra plants
  • Okra flower
  • Okra and eggplant
    Okra and eggplant

Moringa Trees Looking Good

Two Moringa trees grown from seed are planted in the back corner of the garden and look good. I love their lacy leaves.

Moringa tree small
The Moringa is growing well

Flowering plants – Good and Bad

Tiny yellow flowers on plant
Pink zinnia flower
Zinnia
orange cosmos
New cosmos from original yellow

New to the yard this year are the yellow cosmos, zinnias, Rudbeckia, Gaillardia, seashell cosmos, nasturtiums, and Amaranth. Marigolds also grew again, and they are always dependable, but *did begin to fall over and split by July.

Tiny yellow flowers on plant
Melapodium

A delightful reader of this blog was kind enough to tell me the name of the yellow-flowering plant above. It is a Melapodium, and it grows well in hot climates.

Of all of these flowers, the Zinnias are an absolute win.

magenta zinnia flower
Beautiful magenta
orange zinnia
Bright orange zinnia
Zinnia flowers red pink
Zinnia garden
Zinnia garden

Rudbeckia did great for a while, but the heat brought bugs and I had to cut the plant way down.

The yellow cosmos, which has very different leaves from the frilly leaved cosmos, didn’t do well, but the seeds I collected from it, and threw into other gardens, grew great! So, maybe the original plant was not in a good spot. Now I have lots of new little plants growing. One of them is producing orange flowers. This flower has a remnant of its original yellow as a stripe on one petal. See the original plant in the slide show below.

orange cosmos flower
Orange flower, from yellow plant seeds

Borage hates the sun and heat, so I have covered it. Nasturtiums did horrible. Amaranth has done nothing, so I’m not sure yet if it’s a win or fail.

  • rudbeckia or black-eyed-susan
    Rudbeckia began great, then had to be cut back
  • Zinnia
    Zinnia
  • Pink zinnia flower
    Zinnia
  • yellow cosmos plant
    Yellow cosmos – original plant
  • orange cosmos
    Seed from yellow cosmos
  • Short cage for flowering plants
    Marigolds doing great
  • Borage
    Borage is not happy
  • Tiny yellow flowers on plant
    Unknown

Now For the Fails

My vegetable fails for summer were tomatoes and Swiss chard. I had grown a bunch of cherry tomatoes, but really wanted big tomatoes. I KNOW they don’t like the extreme heat. But, I had one plant already growing so I planted it. The plant is looking great, but no fruit is forming. I’m going to let it grow and maybe it will get tomatoes in a couple of months.

Here’s the tomato plant behind a couple of sunflowers. Tomatoes are suppose to be planted in February here, I believe. That way they are all done by the time the real heat arrives.

  • volunteer sunflowers
    Volunteer sunflowers
  • swiss chard
  • Fordhook chard

I planted Swiss Chard twice, in two different varieties and they fall over and don’t grow.

swiss chard

Happy Gardening!

black cat garden yard

More from the blog:

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.

Moving Boxes and Their Many Uses

Did you just make a big move? Many Floridians are new to the state. If you have just made the big move, the cardboard boxes may be overwhelming your space.

We’re featured in Rent.’s 10 Ways to Get Rid of Moving Boxes article. Find out what we had to say here!

More stories from the blog

Picking and Eating Watermelon From My Garden

I managed to grow three watermelons in my Florida backyard this year. Here is how they turned out, and how I figured out when to pick them.

On April 8th I planted watermelon seeds. On June 30th I pick three watermelon from my backyard garden.

As I do every morning, I walked the yard and inspected the vegetable garden. Usually I have a couple of okra to cut (yuk), but my main inspection goes to the beautiful watermelons growing. I’ve never in my long life be able to grow watermelon. This year I had four beautiful melons growing.

As I came to the garden I saw that one of the watermelon vines was pulled back from its usual spot, and then I saw the chewed melon. It was the smallest of the four melons, and probably the easiest for the raccoons to get into.

raccoons broke into a watermelon
Watermelon disaster

I had three more watermelons which were still okay, but they did show signs of claw marks.

I’d been wondering if I would be able to tell when the watermelons were ready to be picked. The seed packet mentioned a browning of the tendril closest to the melon. I wasn’t sure what that meant, so I watched a video and then realized it was the little, curly thing coming off the vine. Sure enough, the ones nearest all my watermelons were brown. So they were all ready to be picked.

watermelon tendril brown
Brown tendril – a sign the melon is ready

Watermelon, From Baby to Being Picked

It took nearly three months, but was worth the wait to have delicious fruit right from the garden! It’s what we gardeners live for.

  • baby watermelon growing on the vine
    Baby watermelon
  • June garden with watermelon
    June 14th garden photo
  • Raccoon marks on watermelon
    Raccoon markings
  • watermelon from the garden
    June 30th, picked my three watermelon

Cutting and Eating

I decided to cut the watermelon outside on the patio table. This mainly comes from my fear of slush pouring out instead of the inside being solid.

Cutting home-grown watermelons from the garden on my outdoor patio table.

Many years ago I worked in the produce section of a grocery store. My job one day was to slice watermelon and package it. As I cut into a big melon, all the insides gushed out all over me and the floor! I never forgot it, and always worry whenever I cut a watermelon.

So I did my cutting outdoors, and I was so happy to see the red inside when I first opened the big melon. Then I tasted it, and yum! I’d grown my very first edible watermelons!

  • inside the watermelon
    Perfect!
  • watermelon cutting board sliced fruit
  • bowl of red watermelon to eat
    Yum!
  • watermelon eating

I’ve only cut the largest watermelon, but it is delicious. Even if the other two are not good, I am so happy to have had one that is perfect.

I saved a bunch of those big, white seeds. I may try to grow more before Fall because we have months of heat still ahead of us.

This type is the Strawberry Watermelon and I bought the seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (the link goes there).

watermelon seeds on glass plate
Saving watermelon seeds

Read more gardening stories:

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