Using the beets and greens that have grown over winter in my Florida backyard.
It is January 25th and today I pulled up all the beets. They were growing in a box which I needed for planting and growing green beans.
The beets were small and most were not really beets, but long red roots. However I did get a few to cut up and cook. I’m not sure, but I think maybe beets are mainly grown for the greens where I live. I didn’t have luck with growing actual beets.
Thanks to this site, I knew how to deal with the greens and incorporated them into my beets and rice meal.
How I Made This Meal
Pull beets from backyard and rinse dirt
Separate greens from beets and trim and cut beets for cooking. Simmer in water for 20 minutes, or until soft – my beets were small.
Remove stems from greens and chop
Slice onions (also from backyard), along with garlic
Saute onion, garlic and stems in oil for a minute or two and then add a little water. Cover and simmer to soften.
Chop leaves a bit and add to sautéed mix with a bit more water if needed
Cover and simmer for 3-4 minutes until it all looks cooked.
Squeeze in a little lime juice.
Cook Basmati rice in the beet water – 1/2 cup
If any water is leftover in the pan, dump it into the beets pan. Reserve all that water once the beets are cooked and use it to cook rice.
onion, beet green stems and garlicSaute
This is a waste free meal that reserves all the goodness of fresh picked vegetables. The roots and yellowed leaves of the beets went into my compost pile.
Add salt and pepper and butter… yummy!
Garden beets and greens cooked and served with Basmati rice
It’s the end of the year but garden work is ongoing if you are a Florida gardener. I’ve expanded my little vegetable growing area and have some eggplants forming.
It is Christmas Eve as I write this and yesterday was a beautiful day! I took advantage of the 72 degree, sunny and breezy weather to do some garden work.
First I cleared out the growth next to my vegetable garden. Then, I put down some big pieces of cardboard and covered that with dirt. My dirt pile is already much smaller, so I’m using the dirt sparingly.
Garden expansionWidened the vegetable garden
I’ll leave the new space alone and let the cardboard break down over the next couple of months. This may be a good place to grow watermelon or Seminole pumpkins in Spring. The vines could trail down the edge of the yard or off into the empty lot.
The Eggplants Are Coming in December
The big eggplant plant in the raised bed has ten small eggplants growing! And out back I found one Rosita eggplant – the first one I’ve grown. The Rosita’s have had lots of bug issues, with the leaves being eaten and constant worms. I’m pretty unhappy and will probably not grow this type again.
Changes to the hibiscus gardenFirespike and NasturtiumFlowering Hon Tsai BroccoliRosita eggplant
The Hon Tsai Flowering Broccoli is growing some beautiful, fragrant yellow flowers. Although I don’t like this plant for eating, it’s worth growing for the lovely flowers.
The hibiscus garden has gone through some changes as flowering plants have died off over summer. I’m currently using the space to grow a tomato and some little yellow cosmos plants.
The Firespike, which I began from a cutting, is beginning to get larger. This took quite a while. And of all the nasturtium seeds, only one plant grew.
My first green bean plantings have gone by, but I kept beans on one of the better plants to grow big and dry.
Carolina Wonder pepperBorage and pineappleLetting these beans dry on the plant
One of the Carolina Wonder pepper plants needed some help. I’m not exactly sure what kind of help, so I transplanted it into a fabric grow pot. I’m hoping it will improve.
The borage has gone crazy, and apparently likes the colder weather. Only one plant is flowering, but I am using the leaves to make a delicious, mild tea!
All my seedlings and small pots have been brought inside. Nights have been much cooler than they prefer. I noticed that growth had stopped, and the peppers looked bad. I think it was the weather.
Roselle, milkweed and otherseggplant, peppers, mint
I probably should have waited to start these seeds. Now, I will have to care for them (put them out in the sun, take outside to water, bring them back in) for months until they can be planted.
I’ve received two gardening magazines through the mail already! Planting plans for spring and summer have already begun. Notes from fall and winter are being organized so I will do better next year.
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.
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.
Chopping vegetables
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.
Tightly wrappedVegetable foil packets going into the camper.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.
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.
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.
Eggplants
Okra and eggplant
Shade for the eggplant
Layering the casserole
Spikes on eggplant flower
Lady Bug on Eggplant Flower
My 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
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.
The Moringa is growing well
Flowering plants – Good and Bad
Unknown name
Zinnia
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.
Unknown flowering plant
Of all of these, the Zinnias are an absolute win, as is the tiny yellow-flowering plant in the garden. Its name is unknown.
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 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 began great, then had to be cut back
Zinnia
Zinnia
Yellow cosmos – original plant
Seed from yellow cosmos
Marigolds doing great
Borage is not happy
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
swiss chard
Fordhook chard
I planted Swiss Chard twice, in two different varieties and they fall over and don’t grow.
Butterflies are dropping their eggs, and some of my vegetable plants are looking much better, now that February in Florida has arrived.
Spring comes early in Florida. February is a good time to check the garden for signs of butterfly eggs and newly hatched caterpillars.
Swallowtails Laying Eggs
I noticed the black swallowtail butterfly laying her eggs all over my little dill plants. Now the black caterpillars are crawling around, eating and growing.
A tiny egg on dillThe swallowtail caterpillar
Every day I looked to make sure I could see all three.
Monarch Caterpillars
I’ve recently discovered how bad it is to have the wrong type of milkweed growing in the yard. I have removed all of my tropical milkweed. It looks like the photo below – with red and yellow-orange flowers – and please plant native milkweed instead.
That’s about it for the creatures, except for the unwanted white bugs. I hand-picked / squashed a bunch of these that were hiding in the tiny new growth on my eggplant. I’m not sure what they are, but probably some kind of aphid.
Vegetables That Love February
Many of these vegetables were planted late last Fall. They survived the winter and are now beginning to love the warmer nights and not-too-hot days. I like February temperatures also. The humidity is lower and the days are sometimes hot, but bearable. A bit like a summer days in the north.
The pineapple had a lot of brown leaves. I had to cover some of these gardens when the temps dropped to near, or below, freezing.
The plants themselves are looking much better, but I’m not getting to eat from them. I have picked a few cherry tomatoes, a hot pepper here and there, and had some kale chips, which I made from my kale. I use the parsley and dill to cook, but all my basil died.
It won’t be long before the weather is too hot for the gardens to do well. I’m letting my lettuce to go seed so I can plant more next Fall. I do expect to continue to get peppers and also some eggplant soon.
This year I learned about growing greens that will do well here in Central Florida gardens. I have just planted something called Chijimisai. It is supposed to be a lot like spinach. In general, greens like lettuce and kale, must grow in cooler weather. In order to pick greens for salads, smoothies and for stir-frying…
Wish I’d known more about growing cucumbers in summer here in Florida BEFORE I decided to try to grow them during summer. Apparently the pickleworm moth moves northward from South Florida and shows up around June / July – here in Central Florida. The moths lay eggs during the night, and worms hatch that eat…
While using my local, fresh, free range chicken eggs one day, I looked at the beautiful shell color and remembered something. I had read, at one time, about using eggshells as pots to start seedlings for the garden.
The shells were so pretty that I hated to just throw them out, so I began rinsing the broken shells to save.
Getting Ready to Plant Seeds in Eggshells
Here in central Florida frosts and freezes tend to happen in January and February, if they happen at all. By March the weather seldom gets all that cold, but can be chilly overnight. March is the month to plant in Florida.
However, seeds can be started indoors in February, or sooner, to have little seedlings ready to go into the ground by March. I planted mine in the middle of February.
With my organic bags of dirt – Black Gold by Sungro (Amazon affiliate link)- is what I used, and organic seeds purchased, I filled each eggshell and then stuck seeds down into the soil. Keep the egg cartons to use as the plant tray.
Duck EggsI began planting my seeds in eggshells in February
When the weather got nice enough, I put all the cartons outside in the sun for the day. I brought them inside each evening. And checked them often to add water.
Difficulties and Challenges to Eggshell Gardening
Unlike little pots, the eggshells are delicate. One online site said to put a pin hole in the bottom of the shell for drainage. I did not do that because I tried and failed to make a little hole. It is not really necessary as long as you don’t overwater. Also, with a hole in the bottom, the cardboard containers would be wet.
Watering can be challenging. The eggshell pots are very small. They will dry out quickly when outside in the Florida sun. I water the seedlings twice a day, and this is March. Because the pots are so small and I don’t want to overwater and have them sitting in a puddle, I use my pour-over tea pot which has a small thin spout. Alternatively you could use a paper cup or anything that allows you to easily add small amounts of water.
Get the Seedlings Outside During the Day
Each day I put the seedlings – or soil with seeds – outside into the sun. Once the plants begin to grow they will need lots of direct sunlight and also some moving air. When plants grow in slightly windy conditions, it causes the stems to become strong. Or so I’ve heard.
Seedlings are about a month old
I’m lucky enough to be home all day and can easily do this. Even if the plants can sit in front of a sunny window it will be helpful.
All in all, be ready to spend some time caring for the little pots. You can’t just plant and forget.
Choosing Seeds to Grow in Starter Pots
It is tempting to go overboard when picking out seed packets! I’m picturing the bounty of fresh veggies – arms loaded as I come in from the back yard. Realistically, I certainly don’t have space for many plants and seeds are generally good for one year only.
I love almost all vegetables, but must be picky about which ones I will grow. Fresh herbs are one thing I would use often. My basil and parsley has diminished over the years so I wanted to grow those two things again. I also have had difficulty finding dill plants here in Florida, so I am trying to grow that. Dill and fennel plants have flowers that attract the Swallowtail Butterfly.
Flat leaf Italian parsley seedlings – lookin good!
Getting to start plants from seeds gives me the chance to learn what’s what in newly sprouted form.
The basil did pretty well, but something did eat some of my basil. I planted as much as I could, filling all the saved eggshells. I knew that some things would do better than others.
Little basil plants
My yard needs more flowering plants. Some of these eggshells contain marigolds and cosmos. I plan to plant more of those flower seeds in larger containers as well. Flowers don’t have to be planted in the garden – especially when your garden is made up of a few grow boxes. They can be in containers to save on garden space.
Flowering plants in pots can be moved around the yard as needed to keep bad bugs away and hopefully draw in the beneficials.
Larger seeds such as zucchini and cucumber can go directly into the ground. Let’s face it, I would need a lot more egg shells to get everything started. Also, I don’t know how well transplanting will go. More to come on that!
Three cheers – it’s October! I’ve been waiting, and not so patiently. The extreme heat is mostly gone and temperatures have gone down to the 80’s. Then, today it was 67 when I went outside at 7:00am and I put on a flannel shirt! Yes, it is finally time to tackle that long list of…
Gardeners need to be ready to see all types of creatures. Here in Florida we have a lot of frogs, snakes, spiders and other things that can be a bit creepy, but necessary. Some of them are invasive species and don’t belong here at all.
Hydrangeas Blue 