review – Hydrangeas Blue

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 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.

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!

I’ve never grown, or eaten okra so I only planted three short rows.

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

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!

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.

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…

Garden Stories

05/27/202305/24/2023

Why You Should Plant Zinnias

05/26/202305/26/2023

How To Increase Worms For Gardens

05/21/202305/20/2023

The Blueberry Bush is Planted!

05/20/2023

Elderberry is Blooming

05/14/202305/15/2023

Building a Flower Garden

05/11/2023

Today I received my second home delivery of vegetables from Worthy Flavors. I wanted to love this company and hoped for great vegetables delivered from local farms. Today I was very disappointed in what I unboxed.

What Came in my Worthy Flavors Box?

Here is a look at the box as it looked when first opened, and the products on my counter after unpacking. It feels a little sparse for the money.

This is the organic box, which at the current time costs $47.95. I had signed up for delivery every 2 weeks. Read about my first delivery here.

Worthy Flavors at FaceBook Lists Box Contents

Below is the list of produce which was to be in each of the boxes. I found this on the Worthy Flavors site on FaceBook. I was looking forward to blueberries and pretty much all the rest.

However, not only did I not receive blueberries, peaches, or carrots, I was pretty disappointed in many of the items I did get.

Below is a photo of everything that was included in my Organic Box. I paid over $47 for this….!

First the good. The little bag of strawberries is good. The tomatoes look very good and need to ripen a bit. The green peppers are not “minis” as listed, but look nice. Sweet potatoes are good and the romaine lettuce is a bit wilted, but not bad. The red onion is fine.

Now the bad. I hate blackberries, which is not their fault, but a downside. I threw them in the woods for the animals. The red leaf lettuce was horribly wilted. The cauliflower looked quite old. (I also got cauliflower in my last box, and it was wonderful.) The leaves on this head were wilted, and there were black spots on the head.

The cucumbers are HUGE! One was smushed and I absolutely would not have purchased these at the store. I haven’t eaten an apple yet, but I would pass on apples that come from Florida. I’ll probably make a little crumble using them.

Where are the oranges (good ones- my last box contained dry and tasteless oranges), grapefruit, lemons and limes that Florida is known for? In fact, I had hoped to receive crops that were in season by month in Florida.

On top of the fact that much of my produce was disappointing, I now have four more water bottles that I don’t want.

Not only that, but my water bottles have no ice in them when I unbox. I’ve seen videos where the bottles come still partially frozen. I only live a few hours north of the location of Worthy Flavors in Florida, so why wouldn’t my bottles have ice? It is winter here, so not super hot. What would happen in summer?

My guess is that the Worthy Flavors box is packed ahead of time and the ice melts and the produce wilts. Otherwise, I surmise that they are packing gross vegetables on purpose! The cauliflower looks like it has been sitting around for quite a while.

When I pay good money for a home delivery service I expect very good quality items which goes along with sending in-season food. I know that part of that fee goes toward packing and shipping, which is understandable, but when I open the box, I want produce that looks fresh-picked and yummy.

Recycling

I want to be eco-friendly and the packing that comes inside the box claims to be recyclable, but my town won’t take it.

Also the fact that water bottles are included in every box is a bit of a minus for me. I understand the attempt to send something that can be recycled, but I don’t want them.

I do recycle the box and cardboard inside.

Cancelling Worthy Flavors

I have cancelled my subscription to Worthy Flavors. I’d rather shop local and pick out my own good vegetables and spend much less money in doing so.

By the way, when you want to cancel your subscription on the Worthy Flavors site, it comes up as a “cancellation request”, saying they will respond in 1-2 business days. I thought, Oh Boy. But, I immediately got an e-mail from the company saying my subscription had been cancelled.