Tag: florida

Florida Winter Growing Success and Failures

After the long, sweltering summer, I was looking forward to planting crops for Fall and Winter. It has been fun, and definitely a learning adventure. Some crops have done very well and others are on my “maybe again” list.

Most things were grown from seeds I purchased, either from The Urban Harvest, or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE). A few crops (and flowers) grew from my own saved seeds.

Roselle, milkweed and others
eggplant, peppers, mint

Growing plants from seed can be very annoying. There is lots of watering and moving into the sun / out of the sun. And lots of these little seedlings didn’t make it. I will NOT be growing plants in tiny pots again.

Arugula – Yes, Plant Again

Last spring / summer I grew arugula for the first time. Not only were the leaves delicious, but I got to see how the seeds grow. Once the tall stalks dried, I picked the stalks and saved them indoors. Those seeds went into the ground in October.

Spicy arugula
arugula seed pods
Arugula seeds are in these pods
arugula seedlings in grow box
Fall 2023 seeds planted

The dried arugula stalks are so sturdy that they work as sticks. The flowers are also pretty, and good for attracting bees.

More Crops to Plant Again

My list of crops to plant again next Fall / Winter are:

  • Chijimisai – spinach (or mustard) grown from seed grew great and had wonderful dark green leaves. I never bothered to thin the seedlings and they all grew beautifully. I planted a new batch in February.
  • Green Beans – planted mid-October and had beans to eat by December. Got a few worms on the leaves, but for the most part they grew wonderfully. Contender beans have pink flowers. Blue Lake Bush have white. Contenders did the best!
  • Tomatoes – Even though I think tomatoes grow better in Spring here in Florida, Planting them in Fall has given me “suckers” to plant in pots for Spring. (More on that to come.)
  • Broccoli – I grew cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts but only the broccoli did well. I boiled the leaves from all three, but only had a decent head of broccoli to eat.
garden carrots
Danvers
spinach and green leaves
Greens (and one tomato) from the garden

These Didn’t Grow as Expected

  • Hon Tsai flowering broccoli was not a food I enjoyed. The two plants I started in a pot grew the best. The direct sow method didn’t seem to work as well. When the leaves were large enough to eat, I discovered I didn’t want to eat the stuff! I replaced the area with some kale seeds and onions. BUT… the bees love the yellow flowers that form on tall stalks. I’ll grow it again for that reason.
  • Carrots – I would love to be able to grow my own carrots but I have never (up north or down south) had any luck. After months (about 5) of waiting I finally had some carrots. In Feb. and March I was pulling carrots that were started back in October!
  • Beets – I love beets. The seeds were very slow growing and many of the little seedlings were lost along the way. They took a very long time to grow, taking up valuable space in my small amount of garden area. SO… I will grow them again, but for the greens.
  • Swiss Chard, Fordhook – I tried growing chard in Spring and it failed. So, I tried again in Fall, and it did not grow well. Not sure if I will try this one again.
Tiny beets and greens
Beets!
beets and greens with rice
Garden beets and greens cooked and served with rice

Garden Growing Goals

Realistically, I would like to have some type of green growing in the backyard year round. I believe it is doable, but I need to figure out which ones work best for which season.

More stories from the garden…

Can Borage Grow in Florida?

This winter I have been experimenting with growing various herbs and vegetables.

Borage is something I always loved in New Hampshire, but can borage grow in Florida? Well, yes and no. What I’ve found is that it will grow when the weather is nice and cool. 

borage leaves pineapple
Borage and pineapple
seed packets
Seed order from The Urban Harvest
Borage
Borage is not happy in heat

My borage seeds were planted in late October and by the end of November I had one flowering borage plant.

The borage seeds were planted all over my yard. Some were put into grow boxes and some went directly into the ground. I even put a few into a hanging basket.

We’ve had horrible weather, but on nice days you may see bees at the flowers. I’m always happy when anything flowers in my yard.

Florida borage growing
Florida borage flowers
Florida borage flowering
November flowers
Florida borage plant
borage flower in wine
Float flowers in drinks, or add to food

Two borage plants came up side by side in one of the grow boxes. This one has a bunch of flowers. It is growing among the Chijimisai spinach.

I didn’t have high hopes for the borage to grow, so I scattered some seeds beneath on of my pineapple plants (this pineapple ended up being a double) in a white barrel raised bed. The leaves are now huge, and at least one of the plants has flower buds. So of course, it would grow nicely when you don’t plan on it! Next year I will do better.

borage leaves pineapple
Borage and pineapple

None of the borage seeds I planted into the ground are doing much. They are all still very small. The hanging basket plants are very tiny also.

All plants are getting about the same amount of sun. They are all outdoors and getting the same rainfall and water. All I can figure is that the soil is better in the boxes which is causing the borage to grow larger.

Borage For Tea

For me, having borage for a tea supply is worth trying to make it grow. Even if it never flowers, I will have leaves. Borage tea, made from fresh picked leaves, is mild and delicious.  Borage has some health benefits also, which you can easily research. I’m interested in kidney health.

Some of my leaves are quite large, and it only takes one to brew a nice, hot cup. It can be made as ice tea for those who grow it in summer in the north. Float some flowers in your drink too!

Borage in my December Garden

The growth of borage from seeds is random in the yard. The cooler the weather becomes, the better it looks. Don’t waste your time trying to grow this plant in a Florida summer! 

borage pineapple mustard greens
borage growing
borage and pineapple
borage seedlings
These little guys never grew
borage leaves
flowering borage
borage center buds
Flower buds in center
small borage plants
Next to tomato

Yes, Borage Grows in Florida

I live in east, Central Florida and yes, I have grown borage. Choose cool months for planting and direct sow the seeds. Be patient because they may not grow quickly.

The seeds form up inside the hanging flower pod. If they ever dry in this weather, I will collect the seeds to plant next Fall.  It will be something to look forward to – enjoying tea and the beautiful, blue flowers once again.

Florida borage flowering
November Borage flowers

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Compare: Soil, Site and Seeds

When something doesn’t grow well from seeds, it’s easy to blame bad seeds. But take into consideration the location of the planting. Does the site have enough sun, or too much? How is the soil? Were amendments added and were they the right ones needed?

I’m not much of a soil tester – okay, I never test my soil. This is probably a mistake, but I’m not ready for that yet. If nothing grew, I would blame the soil completely, but I have had lots of success. I’m not ready to check my soil.

Soil

When the same types of seeds are planted at the same time, but in different locations, comparing growth should tell me something.

In the case of the radishes, which I planted only because I happened to have a packet of seeds, some did way better than others.

radish growing under an eggplant in the garden
Radish under the eggplant
radishes growing in a box outside
Radish in the grow box

The radishes in one of my grow boxes have become very large. I have already eaten one small radish. None of the other radish plants, which grow everywhere in the garden and other boxes, are nearly as big. Most of them get the same amounts of sunlight, so it figures that this one specific grow box has some very nice dirt.

Lettuce was growing alongside these radishes, but it was from seeds I had saved, and the lettuce was bitter so I pulled it up. Now I have carrot seeds planted.

The Carrot Experiment

The carrots which were planted in my first choice bed are doing poorly. I choose the tallest grow box so the carrots would have lots of room for rooks. I had loosened the soil, and added some good stuff. I had high hopes, but they are barely growing.

Carrot seedlings after one month, alongside borage and a pineapple. The borage is not doing well either, so soil problems?
carrots growing in the raised bed

The carrot seeds were planted just about a month ago. According to the packet, they will be ready in 65-75 days. It is hard to believe that these tiny things will be ready to eat in just over a month’s time! I seriously doubt it.

My second carrot planting is in that box with the radishes. I am very sure that the soil is good. If the carrots still don’t grow, I will blame the seeds. The weather is cooler now, and both spots get good sun.

Growing Sites – Choose Many

If you are unsure about growing a crop, select more than one place to try to grow seeds. Everyone knows that most things need sun to grow, so definitely choose sunny locations.

I have two ground garden areas and a bunch of grow boxes and “raised beds”. It is easier to manage the boxes, and the dirt has been amended over and over. I can move them to shade, or sun, as needed.

This year I also added some new grow bags as well.

Interplanting of Crops

This fall I am doing a lot of interplanting of crops. For one thing, I am not sure which ones will do best and which won’t grow at all.

This small garden in my photo contains snap beans, 2 eggplant, radishes, broccoli, 1 cauliflower, 1 pepper, and a blueberry bush! I know it is not optimal, but I am trying to make the best of a small space.

interplanting beans, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower
Fall 2023 garden in the backyard

As was true for my summer garden, I am experimenting with fall and winter crops. Whichever vegetables do well, will be planted again next year. I’m keeping lots of notes.

Seeds

Sometimes it is best to grow crops from seeds. Big seeds can be planted directly in the ground, and I’ve had great success with watermelon and pumpkin in spring, and snap beans now.

Buy seeds as close to planting time as you can, in the hopes that they will be freshest. Packets should have a date. I try to use my seeds within a year.

But first I needed to figure out when to plant what in my central Florida location. Even the seeds from Southern Exposure can’t be relied on to give Floridians planting advice. SESE sells seeds to the southeastern US, which means many growers don’t live in a Florida climate. The packets mention “last frost” and freezes.

seed packets
Seed order from The Urban Harvest

There are a few things I’ve purchased that just haven’t grown. I’ve tried them at different times, in different locations, and been unsuccessful. It probably means either bad seeds, or the stuff just doesn’t want to grow in my yard. I’m not going to fight with it, I will move on and grow something else.

The South is Nothing Like the North

Although I would love to grow some of the same plants I grew in New Hampshire, the south is nothing like the north.

Borage is one of the failures. It hates the heat, and I do have a few little seedlings coming up, but none of them look great. I’ve read that borage grows great here in Florida, but I don’t believe it.

Nasturtium has also done nothing. Most of the seeds didn’t even sprout. In this case I am blaming the seeds. But I doubt that the plant will like this Florida climate. Sticking with what works well in my area if a good choice and I won’t buy these again.

Experiment and Take Notes

Do your vegetable gardening research for your particular area, and then plant what is expected to grow well. The UF/IFAS gardening site is a good place to start.

Eventually, I plan to have a list of favorites to grow for every season in my area. The mistakes I make now will only enhance my knowledge of gardening.

Orange Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

If you live in the southern US, that pretty, mostly orange butterfly in the yard may be the Gulf Fritillary.

I’ve seen pretty orange butterflies in the yard and never knew their names. It is the Gulf Fritillary butterfly and is seen in the southern US. My daughter in New Hampshire is getting into identifying her local butterflies so I took pictures of this one to show her.

orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly
Gulf Fritillary butterfly

Generally, trying to photograph moving creatures is something I don’t even attempt, but this beautiful butterfly was hanging around the flowers for so long that I figured I’d try.

When I sent the photo, my daughter did not recognize it – no surprise since she will probably never see one in New England. I had to search to identify its name. According to this page at the Butterfly Hobbyist they are abundant in Florida and Mexico.

The Gulf Fritillary especially likes Passionflowers, or Passion vines, which is where they prefer to lay eggs. But in the butterfly stage they visit many types of flowers. This one seemed to enjoy the marigolds.

Gulf Fritillary butterfly
Gulf Fritillary butterfly on yellow marigolds

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The Blueberry Bush is Planted!

Newly planted blueberry bush in my Florida backyard.

I may be excited for no good reason, but I’m happy to have this blueberry bush in the ground.

This is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t buy things on a whim. I know that blueberries are hard to grow, and if I do manage to get berries, the animals will probably eat them before I can.

Florida Blueberry Shrubs

Certain types of blueberry shrubs grow in Florida, and if you want to succeed at growing blueberries here, find the right kind for your location. Normally blueberries need long cold winters. This is why they grow all over the place up north.

Special cultivars have been created for our warm winters here. Rabbiteye and Highbush are the types suggested – no lowbush berries here. Read the link below for more information.

Find good info at the IFAS Blueberry Gardener’s Guide at the UF site.

pine needles around base of blueberry plant

This bush was purchased at the Farmer’s Market. I only know that it is a “blueberry” and is supposedly “self-pollinating”. Three varieties are listed on the back of the card that was attached to one of the stems; Pink Lemonade, Sunshine Blue, and Emerald + Sharpblue.

I’m not one to let a shrub die if I can help it, so into the ground it went. The plan was to put it into the ground in a more out of the way spot, but because of roots, I couldn’t dig there. It had to go where I could dig a large enough hole.

hole dug for blueberry bush

My hope is that it will live and maybe be an attraction for birds and bees.

Although the card claims it is self-pollinating, everything I’ve read advises growing more than one bush. Elise of The Urban Harvest suggests growing a mix of blueberry varieties (link below to her video).

Planting Blueberries – The Urban Harvest

Blueberry season is April here in Florida, so the plants should be fertilized in January, or thereabouts, for a good crop.

planting the blueberry

The plant was very root bound and I tried to open up the soil a bit, then added peat moss, compost and pine bark (in the bottom). I also added some acid fertilizer, which I’ve read I should not have done… but it is too late.

I don’t have the space to create an acid-loving section of the yard for things like blueberries. Some vegetables like the soil a bit acidic, but blueberries require more. This is just one more growing experiment.

Adding soil mix around blueberry bush

I will probably trim those lower branches.

blueberry bush planted

The new garden area is a place where I plan to grow vegetables, which are not necessarily acid loving.

The bird feeder was moved to this open area in an attempt to keep the squirrels away from it.

Cardboard has many uses in the yard. Im using it here to cover the sandy area that was recently tilled. I also used a piece of cardboard to kneel on while I planted the blueberry.

florida backyard gardens

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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:

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