Planting Moringa Tree Seeds

I’m getting to know about the Moringa tree, which is also known as the miracle tree because of its many health benefits. It should thrive in my yard and I just planted some seeds.

Just a few days ago I knew nothing about the Moringa Tree. After watching some videos about planting for central Florida, I decided the Moringa had to be added to my yard.

I’ve been discouraged by trying to grow vegetables here in Florida, and finally I realized that I need to plant differently. The Moringa contains lots of good healthy stuff and the leaves can be eaten right off the tree. I need it!

During my YouTube search, I came across the Urban Harvest channel. The woman in charge – Elise Pickett – lives on the west coast of Florida and has turned her yard into a beautiful food forest. (See the link to her channel below).

One of the plants she raved about was the Moringa tree. I can’t find that video right now because she has soooo many… and I still need to watch most of them. I’m in zone 9B and my research finds that the Moringa can grow in zones 8-10.

Moringa tree seeds
Seven Moringa seeds came in the packet

I planted them as is into three pots – one per pot. I also planted two seeds right in the ground, out in the side of the yard.

Later, when I came in to cool off, I found this video about how to plant the seeds. The gentleman suggests taking the outer layer off… Oh well, I’ll see what happens.

Mooring tree seeds
Planting Moringa seeds

The first Moringa seedling appeared ten days after planting. None of the others have sprouted yet. I also put one seed into the new coconut coir to see if it germinates faster.

Moringa tree seedling
Moringa seedling

Moringa tree images from Pixabay

It is also called the drumstick tree.

Moringa tree leaves
Moringo flowers
Moringa tree flowers
Moringa seed pods

Visit the Urban Harvest YouTube site here, with advice for a Florida gardener.

I ordered some seed packets from the Urban Harvest and got the seeds within a couple of days. It is April, which is leading us into the hotter months here. Not much likes to grow during summer, so I may wait to plant most of my seeds until Fall.

I’m off to plant my garden! Blog post to come.

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.

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Quick and Easy Summer Garden Recipes

Many of my northern friends are getting ready to plant seeds indoors in time for June gardening. These simple little recipes helped me use up an overload of zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other lovely home-grown vegetables.

As I was looking through my little notebook about gardening, I came across a page of simple recipes I’d made in the past. Specifically, the food was meant to use vegetables I was growing in my New England garden.

In New Hampshire I tended to have lots of squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Late in the season I’d have wonderful tomatoes, if the blight didn’t get them.

A lot of these veggies I can’t seem to grow here in Florida, but I wanted to write out the recipes to save. You don’t really need a recipe, just the ideas to work from depending on what you are picking in the backyard. It all depends on where you live and what you are growing.

Stuffed Zucchini (Boats)

Slice zucchini lengthwise in half and scoop out the middle. Chop this and fry with onion and garlic – also ground beef / turkey – if you want. Mix in chopped tomatoes, or tomato sauce and parsley. Put mix into hollowed out zucchini, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 40-50 minutes. (350)

Photo credit: Pixabay

Tomato Salsa

Cherry tomatoes or big tomatoes, chopped. Also chop parsley, chives, onions, garlic. Cucumbers and / or zucchini can be added. (Hot peppers, bell peppers, also work).

I used to eat this along with some plain, whole milk yogurt as a type of dip with chips. I could not grow peppers in the north, as they like warmth, but here in the south, they grow very well. Tomatoes like the heat also and I can easily grow cherry tomatoes.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Cucumber Salad

I wrote this recipe down after going out to eat at the Bantam Grill in Peterborough, NH. I don’t have their recipe, but the basics used were chopped cucumber, with thinly sliced radishes and onion. Mix with some sort of dressing (oil & vinegar) and crumbled goat / feta cheese. It seems that many other good things would go with this, but I was always looking for a way to eat all those radishes I grew. Their version was served with salmon. If you are ever in the area, eat at the Bantam Grill… the food is wonderful and they use local ingredients whenever possible.

Here in Florida, I can’t seem to grow cucumbers.

Easy Pickles (Sweet)

If you end up with tons of cucumbers, try this easy pickle recipe that does not require canning.

7 cups of thinly sliced cucumber, 1 cup of onion and 1 cup of bell pepper – also thinly sliced. A mandolin slicer (Borner mandolin is what I have – this is an affiliate link to Amazon.) is the easiest way to get this done. Mix one cup of sugar and 1 cup of cider vinegar together and then mix in the vegetables. Add some celery seed and put into large mason jars. Store in the fridge (and maybe share with the neighbors). These pickles last for a few months, but eating them fresh is best.

More like this:

Photo credit: Pixabay

Thank you for reading

My First Moringa Tree Drumstick Bean

Two Moringa trees are growing in my backyard. I’m in Central Florida and the trees grow great all summer, but slow down the remainder of the year. Hurricanes, or strong wind, will knock these trees over. I had to cut mine last year because it fell over the garden. New stalks have grown and I…

Mid-summer Update on the Vegega Raised Beds

It’s mid-summer and here in my Florida backyard I have mostly flowers growing. I’ve used my three Vegega raised beds to hold some things and some are doing better than others. More amendments for Fall will be needed.

Art Class: Simple Pencil Drawings

Sharing some photos of my nature pencil drawings done through an online course.

My grown daughter lives in New Hampshire and I live in Florida. She had an idea of how we could share some time together. She signed us up for an online drawing class! The class was offered through a local nature conservancy called The Harris Center. (Link at bottom of page.)

We had four weeks of lessons and drew something different each week. Our homework was to find the item to draw.

Each lesson was an hour long and we did Zoom meetings. This was a bit of a learning curve for me, as I had never done a Zoom meeting! But it was fun.

Our first lesson was practicing shadows and gradient color using a pencil. Also, we had to draw a rock.

Florida is not known for having rocks, but I did have a coquina rock, which I chose to draw. Class was at 7:00pm so lighting was not good in my house.

pencil art practicing shadows
Shadow practice and rock drawing
rock drawing in pencil
Coquina rock drawing

For each lesson we would begin drawing along with the teacher. This took about half the class time. The rock on the left above was done with her, and then I had about 30 minutes to draw my coquina.

Lesson #2: Drawing a Stick

We were drawing from nature, so our second lesson was about drawing a simple stick and showing the shadow. Both sticks, in image 1 were done with the teacher in the first part of the class. The second photo is my stick drawing which is pretty awful….!!

At the start of the lessons we were told to have a good eraser, and I didn’t have one. She used the eraser to create white spaces on the image. I couldn’t do that, so my stick was just dark. And the end looks like a dog head…. haha…!

Draw along with teacher
My stick

Lesson #3 Draw a Leaf

The class was full of New Hampshire residents. I was the only outsider. While they were bundled up in sweaters, I was sitting on my porch in a sleeveless shirt with the fan blowing.

It also meant that my gathering of subject materials would be different from theirs.

When it came to drawing a leaf, since it was February and the dead of winter in the north, they had to either draw a dead leaf, or a Beech leaf (I think). They tend to hang onto the trees longer.

Being in Florida, I had loads of leaves to choose from, but I figured I’d draw a dried leaf also. I’m not sure what kind of leaf I collected, but it ended up being my favorite finished drawing of the class.

Draw along with teacher
Pencil art big leaf
Drawing my leaf

Lesson #4, and Last Lesson: Draw an Animal

When the teacher mentioned that our last lesson would be drawing an animal, I was not too happy. I’ve never been good at drawing wildlife, and I really don’t enjoy it.

But she had us draw a little hummingbird for starters, and I think mine ended up looking okay.

For my own animal I chose the Sandhill Crane because I had a good photo of one that had come into our yard. It really needed a lot of detail, and I ran out of time.

Pencil art hummingbird
Hummingbird drawing lesson
pencil drawing of sandhill crane
Sandhill Crane

After each lesson we could share our drawing if we chose. I shared the Crane drawing and explained I was not in New Hampshire and this is why I chose this for my animal.

Once the Zoom meeting was over my daughter and I would share our drawings with each other. We had a lot of fun and it was a good way to do something together while living so far apart.

Read more about the Harris Center for Conservation Education based in Hancock, NH.

One Summer Morning

July is nearing an end and the garden is teeming with living things.

Surprising Success: Growing Dahlias from Seeds in Florida

When my daughter gifted me a packet of Dahlia seeds, I had little hope that the plants would grow. I often feel that way about “normal” things trying to grow in this jungle. I live in zone 9b. My daughter was a little bit obsessed with the Floret flower farm. It was (is?) a show…

Yellow Flowering Weed: Walter’s Groundcherry

Putting a name to this yellow flowering weed in my landscape. Walter’s ground cherry is an interesting little plant.

While clearing out some weeds that are encroaching into the backyard, I kept coming across this little plant with fuzzy leaves and yellow flowers.

I’ve identified it as Walter’s Groundcherry.

Walter’s ground cherry plant

The little yellow flowers hang downward, as do the pods that form that will hold the fruit. I’m still learning about this plant that apparently has been growing next to the lawn since I moved in.

Recently, with the addition of more raised garden beds, I’ve been in the yard tending to the plants. Also we are tilling up a place for an in-ground garden. That will make the yard considerably smaller, which is fine. The yard is mostly weeds anyway.

Walter’s ground cherry flower

The photo below shows a couple of the little pods forming where the “cherry” will grow.

walter's ground cherry
Florida wild ground cherry
Walter's ground cherry

According to this article at Wild South Florida, The little ripe fruit is edible – the key is that it must be ripe. I’m not into eating wild things, but I always think it’s good to know, just in case.

Stages of the “cherry”

The little lanterns go from green to yellowish to dried up tan in color. I kept waiting to see the “cherry” but the husks remained closed.

Today I picked four lanterns in various stages and opened them up. From what I’ve read – and I am not sure, and wouldn’t take the chance – the bright orange fruit is said to be edible. However, the green cherry and all the husks are toxic! I won’t go near anything that is toxic, so I’d never put this in my mouth. But I was curious about the inside.

The green cherry is unripe. The yellow / orange seems to be in the ripe stage. Then another orange berry is partially turning to seed. The last two are very dried and gone to seed.

I’ll continue to clear out the weeds, but will leave some of the ground-cherry. It’s good to know what is growing and what to pull out and what might be kept. This little plant is bothering no one. The flowers attract bees and some wildlife enjoys eating the cherries.

Keep reading the blog….

Pretty Flowers in the June Garden

Lots of flowers are beginning to bloom in June. Here in central Florida we have a jump on growing, but look forward to growth just the same.

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.

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