September is another tricky month in our unique South Florida gardening calendar. Fun fact: September is the second rainiest month of the year (the most rainy being June) with an average of 10 inches of rain for the month. Its also still intensely hot and humid in September, despite fall decorations showing up at the grocery store and pumpkin spice lattes being advertised online. We always spend lots of time telling new customers and enthusiastic inexperienced gardeners to "be patient and keep waiting" through the month of September because it still is really quite early to do your fall planting. That being said it's certainly not too early to prep your garden for fall, install new gardening spaces, or start a selection of seeds for your fall garden. 

Prepping your garden: 

Taking time in September to prep your garden for fall will pay off when its planting time. If you've cover cropped your garden you'll want to consider chopping down and incorporating those cover crops now so that they have some time to decompose and compost in place before planting. Also, if your garden has been languishing empty through the summer it likely has some pesky weeds in it or big old diseased plants, so get them out of there and cover your soil with a thick layer of hay so they don't just come back with a vengeance. When we prep a garden for planting we also perform a technique called "double digging" which is essentially just loosening all of the soil with a shovel. This aerates the soil, reduces the compaction that likely occurred during summer, and also if you do have roots from nearby trees creeping in this process will kill them if done properly. It's hard to explain double digging because its so simple people tend to think they must be misunderstanding... but basically you just put a bit of muscle into using a shovel to dig every square inch of your garden up. Once you've got a shovel full of your garden soil and theres a hole where it used to be you just drop it back in there, it'll break up upon impact and naturally loosen up that way. If you encounter roots, use the sharp shovel to cut them and remove them. 

One more thing... if you have compost and organic granular fertilizer to add to your garden thats best done at the same time as your fall planting, so that none of the nutrients go to waste in the meantime. 

Installing a new garden space: 

September is a great time to build yourself a new garden or expand your current one! Our classic raised bed that we encourage beginners to build (or have us build for you) is a 4 x 8 foot raised bed made out of pressure treated pine from the lumber store. The wood we buy is 10" x 12 x 2 and we cut it down to a 4 foot and an 8 foot length for each side. We also use 4 x 4 posts in the corners and carriage bolts to secure it all together. Heres a pic for reference if you'd like to build yourself one to those exact specs: 

After laying down your wooden bed you'll want to add a liner like the one we sell, so that neighboring trees don't send their roots there to look for water and nutrients (trust us, they will do it, they can literally smell the new rich soil when you lay it down), and then soil. Soil is a whole thing, because there are so many contradictory opinions about what you need to have in your soil and what you should buy for it. Don't let picking the right soil get too daunting. All commercially produced soil is basically lifeless and nutrient-less. For example, when you buy the bagged stuff from a big box hardware store, that material is primarily chopped up woody material and peat moss, and its been pasteurized aka sterilized (its required by law so it can be shipped safely from state to state). If you buy soil from a local producer like us its a bit better, because we don't pasteurize the soil and its made from local ingredients, but its still not perfectly balanced, doesn't contain much composted material, and doesn't contain the vital nutrients your plants need to thrive. We like to think of it as a filler, on top of which you add the good stuff to make it alive and healthy. Think of the soil as the flour in the cake, and the microbes, bacteria, worms and other living goodies found in your homemade compost is the yeast. Ok we're gonna run with the cake baking metaphor here.... the last essential ingredient for plant success is a granular organic fertilizer... the sugar! Oh, and then once it's all mixed in, water and bake in the sun! 

Our soil mix is made of composted woody material, humus (thats completely decomposed organic matter), pine bark (thats for drainage) and coconut coir peat moss blend (thats for holding water). This filler soils basic role is to keep the water content of the soil balanced, thats why most of the ingredients are either for moisture retention or moisture drainage. Read more about our soil mix here, where we sell it to hundreds of DIY gardeners every season. 

There are lots of other options for building a garden space besides the classic wooden framed bed. We love using corrugated metal Vego Garden Beds for gardens where people want the plants higher up (so they don't have to bend down so low to interact with the garden or so their dogs don't jump in them). We also love these cedar planters from Gardeners for people who want to put their gardens on hardscaping or pavers or patios and balconies.

If you're more interested in going serious DIY you can also build yourself an in ground garden. This involves having a space without much root competition (so a space thats at least 20 feet from all major nearby trees in all directions) and a bit more elbow grease than other gardens. You'll first need to clear the space of all plants including grass, then lay down some cardboard and then mound new soil on top of that cardboard layer and shape it into a plateau into which you plant. 



Here is an in ground bed in progress. Roots were removed from the area, the native soil was mounded up, then cardboard added and finally a plateau of fresh new soil. 



Here is the same space being planted. This will only last one season but it was more affordable to make because it doesn't have a wooden border or a container. 

Seed starting for fall: 

Seed starting is one of the trickiest parts of home gardening, which is why companies like ours exist in the first place! Theres a lot to be said for letting the experts grow your vegetable starts. If you're doing it yourself not only do you need the know how, but you also need somewhere safe to keep them (they cant get rained or nor can they handle full sun exposure), plus you need a stash of specialty materials (germination mix, cell trays, under trays, misters) and of course you need to go online and buy a packet of seeds for every single plant you want to grow (at 3$ a packet plus shipping). Or, you can head to your local specialty organic plant nursery (thats us!) and pay us 4$ a piece to do all of that heavy lifting for you! 

If you do want to try yourself your first task is to watch our seed starting video on youtube or consider joining the new "Secrets of Seed Starting" workshop we just added to our events calendar. That video is jam packed with all of our favorite techniques and materials we use to get good results and healthy seedlings. 



You might be wondering when you should be prioritizing all of this activity! If you are building new garden space do it whenever, just cover the new soil with hay to protect it until you plant it. If you are starting seeds, keep in mind that we start selling 5 week old tomato seedlings on October 15th. So we start our tomato seeds (and kale, and cilantro and almost all of our plant varieties) on Monday September 13th. While we start them in cell trays like the one above we "up pot" them into 4" pots at 3 weeks old, to get them even bigger and stronger before they get planted into gardens. 



If you need supplies for revamping or building a new garden hit us up! Our nursery in the Redland will be open every Saturday from 10-5 and we have lots of soil, compost, fertilizer, and seeds for you to use on your September projects. We also sell raised bed kits, which come with everything you need to get started plus we will deliver them! We are super duper here for you as you head into your first or your fifth gardening season, and we cant wait to see you at the Heirloom Tomato Seedling Sale, this coming October 15th - 17th. 

August is one of the hottest months of our tropical climate growing season, as you must feel every time you step outside your door. If you have a raised bed vegetable garden its likely either completely empty or its got a few struggling herbs hanging on, meanwhile your perennials and tropical fruit trees are likely thriving and growing like teenagers. If you haven't planted anything summer friendly yet its definitely not too late. September is the second rainiest month of our season (June is the first) so theres still lots of humidity and rainfall ahead of us to help establish your banana circle or mango tree (check out our July blog post for more info about designing and planting a food forest for your backyard). 

The main focus of your August gardening to-do list should be resting. Not just laying on the couch resting, but allowing your soil to rest, and be revitalized. That doesn't mean just ignoring your garden, on the contrary there are a number of techniques you can execute in your garden to help the soil rest and regenerate its nutrients so that it will be at its very best come fall. 

Lasagna Covering
This is a made up term for a technique that we have adapted from the popular "lasagna gardening" technique for building new garden spaces. In lasagna gardening large layers of organic material are stacked on top of each other (like making lasagna) on top of bare soil to build new soil. This technique takes patience as you then have to wait for the whole steamy pile of hay, manure, mulch, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, newspaper and whatever else you've added to compost and turn into soil before using it. To use this technique as a soil conditioner for your raised bed you shrink the whole system and make a "lid" of the ingredients on top of your preexisting soil. We typically add a layer of leaf litter, a layer of old plant material, a layer of horse bedding and then top it off with a nice thick layer of coastal straw. Not only does this protect your soil from being washed away during the heavy rains of summer, it will also suppress weeds, keep your soil life nice and protected (the earthworms and fungal residents will appreciate being protected from the extreme heat) and of course the main purpose of this is that when the summer is through and you are ready to replant for fall most of the material will have composted right in your garden and turned into new soil and organic nutrients. 

It might not look like much in this picture but these beds aren't "empty" they are full of composting organic material protected by a layer of hay, which will keep weeds from sprouting and taking over. 

Cover Cropping
Cover cropping is a very important tool in regenerative agriculture that you can adapt to your backyard garden to help build new soil during the off season, which is now! August is the perfect time to plant yourself a cover crop, watch it grow, and chop it down so that it can decompose and leave your garden perfectly ready for fall. There are many benefits to planting a cover crop. Firstly, the complex web of life that exists in your soil, from worms and bugs to fungus and bacteria, like having roots around to live in, so having live plants in your soil at all times benefits the soil life you've built up over time. Secondly, cover crops suppress weeds by crowding them out, and they protect your soil from erosion by slowing down the movement of water through your soil. By far the most important benefit to sowing cover crop in your raised beds is that once you cut them down and either smother them or incorporate them into your soil you are using that plant material to build new organic matter in your garden. Its basically growing a plant just so you can compost it! 

Here in South Florida we primarily use buckwheat, sunn hemp & cowpea to cover crop. Buckwheat is like cover cropping for beginners since its short (30 days), easy to cut down and quick to decompose. Sunn hemp is a bit more involved (because it can get away from you if your timing is off) but it has an added bonus of being a nitrogen fixer. What is a nitrogen fixer? Im glad you asked! All plants in the legume (bean) family form a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria in their root systems that uses the plant to remove nitrogen from the atmosphere and then sequester it in the soil in the form of nitrogen nodules. To over simplify this process: these plants basically make you organic fertilizer! Not only that but when you cut them down and incorporate them into your soil (at around 45 days) they will also become nitrogen. 

Figuring out how to use cover crops in your raised bed can be intimidating so if you'd like more info on the process head to minute 50 of our summer gardening virtual workshop on YouTube where farmer Chris of French Farms and I take a tour of his cover cropped fields and talk about the process. If you are ready to give it a try and need to buy seeds we sell both buckwheat and sunn hemp by the pound. Stop by our nursery any Saturday from 10-5 or if thats too far Urban Oasis Project sells it for us at their farmers market booth at the Legion Park Farmers Market every Saturday from 9-2pm. 

Young sunn hemp in a raised bed. It will grow for another month and get almost shoulder high before you cut it down and either cover or incorporate it. 

Buckwheat flowers quickly and kills itself after producing seed, making it easier to handle but less long lasting than sunn hemp. 

Well, its officially summer here in South Florida as the daily rain really picks up and humidity is at 90% as early as 6am. If you have lingering spring veggie plants in your raised beds you might see them start to really deteriorate now, since many crops we rely on during the winter and spring don't thrive in such intense wet and humid situations. Thats ok though, it's all part of the cycle of life in your garden. If you've planted any tropical climate perennials you might see them start to really take off and make new growth quickly in response to the added rainfall and long summer days. Did you know that rain water contains vital nutrients that plants need for growth, like nitrogen? Yup. Nitrates are the most easily absorbed form of nitrogen for plants, and thats whats in our atmosphere. When rainwater is formed and falls through the air it absorbs them, and oxygen (which your plants need in their root systems in order to absorb other nutrients), and delivers those two key elements to your plants when they get rained on.

Banana plants are really good reminders of how important rainwater is for plants, because they are literally designed to be like big rainwater catchment systems. New banana leaves emerge from the center of the plant wrapped around themselves like a straw (so they can slurp up rainwater when available) and the mature leaves are arched like an umbrella, so that rainwater can be led either inwards to the trunk where it then drips down to the base of the plant, or outward to drip off the end of the leaf and end up watering the "drip line" of the tree. Bananas grow in clumps, so with each plant performing this rainwater catchment action they all help water each other, and their leaves overlap and create layers of shade which allows for the soil around the roots to remain nice and moist even when it hasn't rained for days. "Companion planting" is a term you might be familiar with that gardeners learn about early on when they are looking for ways to keep their plants pest free. Theres a common belief that marigolds will keep pests away from your tomatoes, and while we are a bit skeptical of such cut and dry approaches to companion planting theres a lot to be said for approaching the design of a planting with the unique qualities and needs of each plant being taken into consideration. For example, what plants would enjoy being in the particularly wet and moist area within the drip line of a mature banana plant? In the planting pictured below we included lemongrass, ginger, spicy peppers, and sweet potatoes on the sunny side of a banana clump, so that they would get a good amount of sun during the morning & mid day, and then some much needed shade towards the end of the day, and they would have access to the water collecting and storing capabilities of the bananas. 



A perennial food system like this is referred to as a "plant guild" and on a larger scale its called a "food forest". Someone designing a planting like this will take a number of things into consideration when choosing what plants to include, but the main way that the plants are organized are in terms of what space they take up in relation to each other, and gardeners look to the way that a forest naturally organizes itself for inspiration. As you walk through the forest you can notice many distinct layers of foliage and different types of plants thriving at each layer. The tallest plants are trees that use their trunks to reach for the sky which is where they make their leaves, because thats where the most sunlight is. Under them are layers of smaller trees and herbaceous shrubs that can thrive in the dappled sunlight provided by the large trees. And down on the ground there are smaller flowering plants, crawling plants, vining plants and a most important element: dead plants and decaying plant material. 

While the above diagram is useful for seeing the category of plants laid out visually, as a tropical gardener you definitely need to ignore the examples of plants for each category :) Your palette of plants is very unique for North American gardeners because your perennial plants need to like heavy rainfall, high humidity and lots of high temperatures too.  If you are looking for inspiration for what type of plants to include you can start by looking to similar climates throughout the world to see what gardeners there are growing successfully. Some climates that are most similar to ours are that in coastal Hawaii, parts of Australia, Southeast Asia, India, coastal parts of Mexico, North Africa and also places a bit closer to us like the Caribbean, Cuba & Puerto Rico. Some of you reading this might be familiar with the concept of Plant Hardiness Zones but you've maybe only seen the map of the United states separated into colorful zones that have similar climates, so here is the map of the entire globe and its corresponding zones. We are in Zone 10, which is the bright yellow one, which as you can see is spread out throughout the world. 

Here are some examples of a small and a medium tropical perennial plant guild with species that thrive in South Florida. 

This small guild has one large midstory plant which is a papaya tree. We like to encourage people to skip the overstory tree when planting a small system because those trees get so large that even after just a few short seasons they will create so much shade and canopy cover that little can thrive around their base, and also in a suburban backyard sometimes just one Mango, Avocado or Mamey tree can take up most of the yard when mature! So, we like to skip that layer and start with the mid story, which should be made up of small or dwarf variety fruit trees, like bananas, starfruit, mulberries, guava & papayas. Under the papaya tree we have chosen to plant a cranberry hibiscus as the shrub layer, which is a really beautiful plant with edible deep purple leaves. Up next is the herbaceous layer which can be made up of both annual & perennial plants, like lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, spicy peppers, eggplants, and a bunch of other climate appropriate plants that ideally get no taller than your waist. The final layer is that of the ground and ground covers. As a way of simulating the environment on the forest floor we add a thick layer of natural wood mulch (that is, not bagged mulch from a store but material made by tree trimmers doing work in your area on a variety of tree species) around all of the plants to protect the soil from drying out and to create an environment where things are constantly decomposing and composting. Trees and other perennial plants thrive in an environment where they can have fungal networks existing within their roots, and fungus' like decomposing leaves and woody material, which is why so many mushrooms are found in forested areas. 

 The system pictured above is just a bit larger and includes some more diversity because of its scale. The midstory planting is made up of a dwarf banana variety and a guava tree, planted far enough apart for them to both have the space to grow comfortably even when mature (about 10 feet apart). Under them a roselle hibiscus and some edible leaf taro make up the herbaceous layer and get about as tall and wide as a human with their arms outstretched. The herbaceous layer is made up of moujean tea, native to the Bahamas and used to make tea, spicy peppers and garlic chives, which have amazingly resilient root systems that allow them to grow and regrow year round. The final layer of mulch is topped with a groundcover, which is a plant that grows along the ground and spreads itself as it does so, eventually making a matt of foliage that you can walk on. Our favorite edible ground cover is sweet potato, but non-edible plants are more than welcome in plant guilds too! Perennial peanut, puffball mimosa, and frogfruit are our favorite useful (but not edible) ground cover options. 

If you have the space in your yard and the desire in your heart to include a perennial food system in your garden plan, we definitely recommend giving it a try! Now is the best time of year to plant something like this because of the rain & humidity. You'll be amazed at how fast your plants grow if planted in the rainy season. Do yourself a favor and plant a banana before leaving town for a few weeks. When you come back home you can marvel at how quickly its grown in such a short time and with no tending from you. 

And if you want more information consider watching our Summer Gardening Workshop for FREE on YouTube.  

June is the true start of the rainy, humid & extra hot summer here in South Florida. It rains an average of 6” during the month of June, with average temperature highs of 88 and solid 100% humidity day and night. This is an incredibly challenging environment for plants that aren’t used to it and aren’t meant to grow in humid and wet climates. Luckily for us there are a bunch of cool plants, and in particular fruit trees, that thrive in this climate. We think June is the perfect time of year to plant new tropical fruit trees, because you get them in the ground right as the rain starts up. Tropical climate plants love rain and they love the humidity, so if planted now they will grow so fast through the summer you’ll be amazed!

Our favorite trees to plant are ones that produce fruit within the first year and also don’t get so big that they become the only thing in your yard 15 years later (hello mango and avocado, we see you being huge trees all over town). These fruit tree specimens also act as a great “canopy trees” if you’re hoping to plant yourself a Food Forest Guild. A food forest is a perennial planting that mimics the way nature designs a forest but uses all edible or useful plants. And a guild is a grouping of plants using that design system. Heres a diagram to help explain what a guild looks like. The idea is to choose plants that need different space in the air and on the ground so that they don't have to compete for those resources as they grow. These plantings are low maintenance because most of the plants are perennial (that means they grow for more than 1 year) and so they grow slower than veggies and require little inputs outside of regular fertilizing, mulching, and weeding.

Drawing courtesy of: https://midwestpermaculture.com/2012/07/hugelkultured-swale-with-linear-food-forest/

If you’re considering adding a perennial guild to your landscaping or just want to add a fruit tree or two to your yard here’s the low down on our top 5 choices:

1. Guava
Guavas are one of our favorite fruit varieties to grow for home gardeners. They are easily grown, delicious, and a high yielding small tree; a two year old tree potentially producing hundreds of fruit per season. Pink fleshed guavas are incredibly floral, pungent and aromatic. These trees are in the myrtle family and produce beautiful flowers and thick leaves. Guava remain quite small and should be considered a “lower canopy” food forest tree. Beware worms in the growing tips of your trees (if they show up and do damage simply spray with Organic Thuricide) and fruit flies laying their eggs in your immature fruit (commercial guava groves put mesh bags on all fruit to avoid this pest issue). 

2. Mulberry
There aren’t many berries to be grown in here south Florida. Sadly, most berries - blueberries, blackberries, raspberries - don’t appreciate our heavy doses of humidity, but the Mulberry doesn’t mind one bit! This perennial, medium sized shrub, or tree, grows quickly in most soil types and is easily propagated from cuttings. It also responds positively to heavy pruning and shaping so you are in control of how big this tree gets in your yard. Planting this tree in full sun will help with fruit yield, but it will still do well in partial shade. Mulberries can be eaten fresh, used as fillings for tarts and pies, as a base for syrup or to make jams and jellies.

3. Banana
Bananas are some of the most popular and rewarding fruit we can grow in a backyard in the tropics, and people love it not just because the fruit is so delicious but also because it can take just one year from planting to get your first fruit. Bananas need a bit of management in order to be super happy and productive so make sure to check out these resources for some tips on feeding, pruning & mulching. We also tend to favor dwarf varieties (with heights around 8-12 feet) because they are a bit easier to fit into a yard and maintain. Take advantage of the fact that you get to grow bananas by planting a variety that you cant get at the store, they taste way better!

Banana Growing in the Florida Home Landscape, by IFAS 



4. Red Lady Papaya
Red Lady Papaya is the one fruit we grow at our vegetable farm because it’s so easy to grow, delicious and bountiful. The first and most important thing we love about the Red Lady is its delicious flavor. Once you have a perfectly ripe homegrown Red Lady you'll never want a store bought papaya again... truly, we know that many people don't ever want a store bought papaya, because they have the reputation for being not sweet, unflavorful, and stinky. But Red Lady is different... allow the fruit to start ripening on the tree, then leave it on the counter as it gets even darker and richer orange soft skin, and then it will be perfect and sweet for eating. 

The Red Lady Papaya is also a heavy and reliable producer of fruit. Planted in the summer and given proper nutrients and plenty of rainfall your papaya should yield you about 80 pounds of fruit in its first year. Fun fact: papaya aren't considered trees, but rather are herbs. Their thick trunks are hollow and remain green through the plants life, making them easy to cut down once they've fruited, and quick to compost. 

Papayas are also beautiful trees (herbs) with many uses. Papaya fruit, seeds and leaves contain the enzyme Papain, which is the source of commercial meat tenderizer and aids in digestion of proteins. Wrap your meat in a papaya leaf instead of buying tenderizer, and consume the seeds fresh or dry for a digestive boost. Papaya seeds boast many other medicinal uses including as a natural contraceptive, so avoid eating them if you're trying to conceive or pregnant. We hear its common to add dry papaya seeds to peppercorn grinders in India so that small amounts of papaya seeds can be regularly and effortlessly consumed, as anti microbial and anti parasitic medicine. 

5. Moringa
Moringa is a super food must in any tropical home garden, growing well in our climate and tolerant of sandy, poor & disturbed soils. 100g of fresh Moringa leaves contain about 9.3g of protein, 434mg of calcium, and 164mg of vitamin C, in addition to protein, vitamin A and B, and a rich profile of trace minerals. The tree seasonally produces seed pods, also known as ‘drumsticks,’ considered a delicacy when young. As a food crop, trees can be kept low and frequently coppiced, encouraging production of fresh leaves within harvesting height. If left uncut, trees can grow fairly large and can fall down easily in strong winds. It would be hard to fit all of the information about Moringa in this short description, so we urge you to go online and research the extensive uses and benefits of this ‘miracle tree’. Moringa leaves can be added to salads and eaten raw, or added to stews and soups, or used fresh or dried in smoothies and shakes. Any way you can consume this incredibly nutritious leaf you should! Moringa has also been shown to increase milk production in breast feeding mothers.

Now you may be thinking…. Fruit trees are cool but what about my veggie garden beds? What the heck do I do with them during June and through the rest of the summer!? there are a number of options for you to consider in how to manage your raised garden bed during the summer.

One option is to plant a summer garden. This option is awesome for people who will be home most of the summer and want to keep experiencing their garden. In South Florida we can grow some pretty fun crops during our tropical monsoon season which are considered exotic and rare in other parts of the country. Things like ginger, lemongrass, Asian eggplants, hot peppers, roselle hibiscus, taro and sweet potatoes! A lot of common kitchen herbs grow during the summer as well, for example rosemary, thai basil, garlic chives and mint. There are some challenges to growing a summer garden, like keeping it weed and pest free. Pest pressure increases during the hotter and more humid rainy months because they reproduce faster, and the same can be said about weeds.

Another option is to put your garden “to bed” using the lasagna technique, which refers to adding layers of organic material to your garden that will break down over time, resulting in nutrient-rich compost that will help your plants thrive in the following growing season. We suggest layering the fresh plants that you are removing from your garden with horse manure, top soil and finally a layer of straw to cover the surface of your garden which will keep it weed free and pest free for the long summer months of June-September. Through the summer the material will basically compost on your garden bed and will slowly decompose, turning into new compost & soil right on the spot. In October your garden soil will be richer and more pest free than before for even better Fall crop results. One key to making this technique work is making sure that the top layer of straw (coastal straw can be purchased at any local feed stores) is super duper thick so that it doesn’t decompose and instead acts like a weed barrier to keep the garden weed free while it sits.

Another great option is planting cover crops in your raised bed. Cover cropping can sometimes be confusing to explain but basically you plant a specific plant (in Miami the most popular ones are Sunn Hemp & Buckwheat) very densely in your bed and once its mature (30 - 60 days) you cut it down and compost it in your garden bed. This is also a technique used for soil building, weed suppression, and continued pest management. If you’d like to try cover cropping we sell Sunn hemp & Buckwheat seed per pound on our website where you can also learn more about each type and how to manage it. The bonus to using sunn hemp is that is sequesters nitrogen in the soil for you, which basically means you are growing yourself organic fertilizer. Buckwheat is great to use because its fast growing and easier to cut down and incorporate into your soil… plus pollinators go absolutely nuts for the flowers. Cover cropping is a big part of organic soil based farming practices so we love to encourage home gardeners to give it a try on a smaller scale. 

So wether you cover crop your garden, replant it with summer crops, or choose to plant yourself a perennial food forest guild, theres plenty to still be done in the June garden! 

Storm clouds, blisteringly hot days, and humid evenings... welcome to May in South Florida. May is a bit of a transitional month here for gardening. Its the last chance to plant some heat tolerant annuals, and also the first chance to go ahead and replant your garden with summer loving longer term perennial food crops. We've noticed over the year that the main reason why people decide to stop gardening altogether for the summer is the big learning curve with getting to know all of the new and unusual varieties that like the summer. So this blog post will focus on our top 10 most beloved summer perennial veggies and herbs. 

May is basically like, the most transitional month between the last of the annual vegetables and the beginning of the perennials & fruit trees, and the below varieties kind of symbolize that hybrid of seasons for us. Some of these are annuals, some are perennials, and all of them are perfect for May. All of these varieties should last through the summer if treated properly and they can be planted in your raised bed or your landscaping depending on how much space you have available. If you've only ever grown in a raised bed consider adding a "food forest guild" to your back or front yard landscaping to provide a permanent home to some perennial food crops. 

Check out this article about food forest guilds & the accompanying diagram which easily helps explain the planting design for a food forest. Basically, gardeners take design inspiration from the way that forests naturally organize themselves so that all of the plants can live harmoniously together in a small space instead of fighting for space in the system. One of our favorite modification to the food forest guild system is to remove the "upper canopy" plant, which is typically a very large fast growing fruit tree that will make lots of shade and requires the most space. Sometimes adding an upper canopy tree to your backyard can be a bit too much, so you can use a mid-level canopy tree like a papaya, mulberry or a banana as the largest specimen in your guild and then surround it with smaller annuals and perennials like the ones in the below list to round out the system. 

Without further ado here comes our top 10 list. All of the plants on the list can be sourced from our nursery in the Redland during our Summer Plant Sale which is happening Friday, Saturday & Sunday May 7,8th and 9th (more info can be found here) but we will also have them available throughout the summer. Happy planting!



OUR 10 FAVORITE MAY FOOD CROPS: 

1. HOT PEPPERS
Hot peppers are a great choice for a May garden because they love a lengthening day, and they love the heat and humidity. In climates like ours without frost peppers are technically perennials and a good healthy nematode free pepper plant can become quite a formidable presence in your garden, turning into a big bush and lasting years before loosing productivity. The hotter the pepper variety the easier is it to grow in the heat. We're not sure why thats the case but a guess is that the amount of capsicum in the whole plant is higher and the bugs don't like the taste! Bugs are going to be the one thing that might negatively effect your pepper plants health as one of the negative features of summer gardening is that the pest pressure increases. Keep an eye on the underside of your leaves where aphids and whitefly like to hide from your inquisitive eyes, and if the growing tips of the plant get krinkly or shriveled up that means you have a two-spotted spider mite issue. 



2. GARLIC CHIVES
Garlic chives are the closest thing we can come to growing garlic, or something that kinda tastes like garlic, here in South Florida. Garlic Chives are literally indestructible and will be the very last plant standing in your garden no matter what challenges are thrown at it. The root system of this plant is incredibly robust which means it can handle dry conditions and low nutrients pretty well. Cut your clump of garlic chives down to the base whenever you need to use it in the kitchen and two weeks later your plant will be fully grown again! Garlic chives make a great ingredient for stir fries, stuffing dumplings & gyoza. 




3 & 4. LONGEVITY & OKINAWA SPINACH
Longevity & Okinawa spinach are plant cousins so we are including them together in our list. Longevity is a lime green leafed plant while Okinawa is a big more showy with dark leaves and bright purple undersides of the leaves. Summer greens are all a bit weird, and they all have funny names with the word spinach in them, even though none of them are related to or very similar to spinach! They are commonly referred to as spinaches to give people an idea of how to cook them, since they are all a little slimy if overcooked (like spinach is) and are basically mildly flavored green leaves. Okinawa & Longevity are perennial greens and they make low lying shrubs that spread and grow in low branches. they make a great ornamental ground cover in your food forest too. 

5. WINGED BEAN
Winged bean is by far our favorite weird warm weather vegetable. This beautiful bean is scalloped ruffled and winged, and when you cut it in pieces they look like little throwing stars. The plant is easy to grow and the entire thing (leaf, flower, bean & roots) is edible. This is a vining plant so you'll need to make sure to give it lots of space and support from a fence or trellis and keep an eye on the young pods to make sure aphids don't attack them when they are small. Include a winged bean in your summer garden and you'll be harvesting the asparagus flavored beans all summer long. 



6. SISSOO SPINACH
Sissoo spinach is like the kale of summer veggies. Its super easy to grow, easy to cook with, tastes pretty good, and lots of people know about it so its popular with our customers. It doesn't have many pest issues (but worms will eat it. they eat everything....) and it thrives in lots of different situations, from partial shade to full sun. Harvest the first few inches of growth for the most tender leaves and eat them lightly cooked. As with the other "spinaches" if you overcook Sisso it will become gooey and unpleasant. 



7. TARO LEAF
Taro is a really cool and beautiful summer veggie that produces two unique yields because its leaf and its root are both edible. As the plant matures you can harvest the outer leaves for use in the kitchen, and after about 8-12 months you can harvest the whole plant and use its tender tuber too. Most people are like... "what the heck is a taro root" and then they realize... taro chips! those white chips with the little red squiggles in them are made from taro root, and you can use it much like you would a potato... mashed, cubed and baked or fried. 



8. LEMONGRASS
Lemongrass barely needs an introduction since its quite a popular herb in lots of different delish cuisines like Indian & Thai, however did you know that it grows super well down here in South Florida? Or that its essential oils help keep mosquitos out of your garden? Indeed! Besides being a prolific and easy to use herb & tea plant, lemongrass can also be used in natural bug repellants and other body products. Lemongrass is luckily also very easy to propagate, just rip a piece out by the roots, cut away the top of it to leave just a few inches of plant and stick it in the ground. So long as it gets consistent watering until its rooted itll happily make a new plant. 

9. THAI BASIL
While we Americans may not consider something like Thai basil a vegetable there are cuisines worldwide that literally treat it like spinach, or kale! Cake Thai, Miamis most authentic Thai restaurant, has a tofu dish thats literally like 50% tofu 50% Thai basil leaves and its soooooo delish... While Genovese basil (aka Italian) loves the heat it absolutely hates the humidity, so luckily for us its relative Thai basil loves it. Use in herbaceous salads, in Thai stir fries or curries, and as a filling for spring rolls. Allow it to flower and the pollinators in your yard will thank you. 



10. CRANBERRY HIBISCUS
Cranberry hibiscus is another super cool leaf that is really unique to summer and adds a welcome splash of color, texture & tart flavor to an herbaceous salad. The hibiscus family is full of fun summer friendly food plants like roselle, okra, and south sea salad tree, but cranberry hibiscus is definitely the prettiest with its dark purple maple shaped leaves and its baby pink hibiscus flowers. Prune your cranberry hibiscus regularly and it'll get nice and bushy and try to get it a spot in your garden in full sun because the more sun it gets the deeper the color in the leaves. 

Here we are already in April, where did the season go!? We consider April one of the last opportunities to plant and harvest annuals before the summer comes and wipes them all out with its intense heat and rainfall. April is a great month to also plant transitional perennial crops that will survive into or through the summer if you have some space opening up in your garden. If you planted things like kale & tomatoes in the fall those plants might be nearing the end of their life cycle by now. Many home gardeners get a bit attached to their plants because they've cared for them for so long, so they don't want to pull them out (aka kill them), but annuals are meant to grow, produce flowers, fruit & seed, and then die (or be pulled out). We sometimes get comments from people like "my beans were doing so well, producing so much food for me, but then they just stopped and now they're just sitting in my garden for months not doing anything...whats wrong with them?" to which we respond: "theres nothing wrong with them, they're just done making you food! pull them out already!". So, pull it out already is definitely a theme of April gardening. It's not too late to remove a spent crop and plant something new, especially something quick growing, like asian greens. 

"Asian greens" is a whole category of delicious and super easy to grow heat tolerant crops in the brassica family (the family that includes radishes, kale & broccoli) that we love planting this time of year. Many of these varieties are incredibly popular staple crops in other parts of the world but are relatively uncommon here in America. But remember, our unique climate is much like that found in Thailand and parts of India & Asia, so it makes sense that we would take inspiration from these areas when looking for cool heat tolerant crops.

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From left to right in the above photos we have asian greens Tokyo Bekana (also known as Pei Tsai), a mix of mustard greens (including mizuna, mz america, southern giant and Japanese red), and purple stemmed Hon Tsai Tai. Tokyo Bekana is a loose headed Chinese cabbage that has lime green soft ruffled leaves and a very crunchy watery main stalk, making it very similar in texture, flavor & use to romaine lettuce. Mustard is a whole class of greens including the most famous one, arugula, but there are tons of other delicious, colorful and ornamental mustards that gardeners can grow for baby salad leaves or large leaves for cooking. Hon Tsai Tai is closely related to broccoli and its stalks are crunchy and sweet like broccoli. 

  

This first photo is of Komatsuna which is a very mild and modest shaped asian green that people often harvest young and compare to spinach. Come to think of it, the second green, Tat Soi, is also often compared to spinach. Traditional spinach hates miami, and these two equivalents love it, so why not embrace them and grow them instead... Tat soi makes a beautiful savoyed cabbage head if you let it mature, and the leaves are treated like bok choi at that point, because they have nice thick interior stalks. 

Seed Saving: 

 Another fun garden activity that is unique to spring is the harvesting and saving of seeds from your plants. Many plants that you might not think make seeds will definitely do so if you leave them in your garden long enough, or if you treat them just a little bit differently. Lets take the medicinal flower calendula as an example.... If you're growing calendula in your garden you are likely harvesting all of the blooms and saving them for medicinal use. Well, if you leave a few flowers on the plant then they will get pollinated, die and turn into seeds! Let the seeds dry on the plant (that means they have fully matured and will be the right age for germination when you are ready to plant them) and then store them in a jar in the dark until next season. Saving your own seeds is an important part of becoming a self sufficient and resilient gardener. While we specialize in selling people plants and seeds we are always thrilled to see people move away from relying on us for materials and into relying on nature and their own garden to generate what they need. And then when they generate abundance, especially in the form of saved seeds, sharing it with their community. Miami Seed Share is a local non profit project that collects and gives away saved seed (through seed libraries and different spots throughout the city), check them out on instagram if you have seed you'd like to donate. 

   

If left on the plant many flowers & fruits will make mature seeds, all it takes is some patience. The calendula left will produce way more seed than you'll ever need for next season! The seeds in the palm right are heirloom Datil pepper seeds, which can be harvested from a pepper fruit so long as it matures into a color (sometimes orange, sometimes yellow, sometimes red). Each plant family will make useable seeds in a different way, so the best way to figure out how to save lots of different seeds is to get a guide book, like "Seed to Seed", which is a bit of a seed saving bible. You can also use seeds in a culinary way! The herb cilantro has so many useable parts including its fresh and dried seeds, which are referred to as "coriander" but are just cilantro seeds! Dill seed, arugula seed (which is called mustard seeds, like what you make mustard out of!), and nasturtium seeds are all edible and useful in the kitchen, so you can also stock your pantry during spring before composting your spent plants. 

Composting: 

Spring is a good time to start a compost pile if you don't already have one for two reasons. No, three reasons! Reason one is that many of our local tree species (like oaks and black olives) are losing their leaves now, and leaf litter is a super valuable (but free and abundant) ingredient in compost. Leaf litter breaks down faster than woody mulch, is full of minerals that the tree removed from the soil, and they are a great environment for microbial & fungal life forms to thrive in. Reason two is that as you empty your garden out of spent crops you'll get to make use of them if you add them to a compost pile. Plants added to a compost pile fresh are referred to as "greens" and they contain lots of nitrogen, a key ingredient for plant growth. Layering greens and browns (dried stuff like mulch, hay, cardboard and our friend leaf litter) is how you make a healthy and balanced compost pile, so spring has lots of greens and browns for you to divert from the waste stream and turn into future plant food. The third reason is that summer is the best season for composting because the microbial, fungal & bug life that makes composting happen (basically life forms eating detritus and pooping it out) is at its peak during the hot and sunny months of summer. If you start a compost pile now it'll be eaten and pooped out a hundred times through the summer leaving you with a much smaller but very precious pile of "compost" that will be ready in time for fall planting. See how that all works?! Its the cycle of life in your home veggie garden! 

So get out there and enjoy the new and exciting crops (asian greens!) and yields (saved seed, future compost) that the spring garden has to offer. 

March is my personal favorite month in South Florida, but it does come with the bittersweet fact that it's the last call for planting some of our beloved winter veggies like kale and tomatoes. We can still grow quick crops like lettuce, arugula, radishes and even cucumbers through May, but since tomatoes and kale take about two months to mature planting them in your garden much later than March is kind of a lost cause. 

Our nursery stocked the last batch of assorted tomato varieties during the Spring Plant Sale at the end of February and we'll be selling them while supplies last, but moving forward the only tomato variety you'll find on our web store is Everglades Cherry Tomato. This little guy is worth talking about for a bit because we're big fans of this pretty unique tomato variety! Everglades cherry tomatoes are a cult favorite down here in South Florida, and for good reason. Legend has it that these were found "growing wild" throughout the everglades, and after their discovery the seeds were saved and distributed by local gardeners who were looking for a tomato that could stand the extreme heat and humidity of a South Florida summer. Nowadays they're a staple in summer and winter gardens throughout the area. Their tiny size makes them adorable for use in salads, as garnish, and as snacks, and their sweet taste make them irresistible. These wild cherry tomatoes make large highly branched plants that are best grown in a wild and non-trellised fashion. If allowed to grow like a groundcover, left to sprawl and crawl along the ground they can make enormous plants with hundreds of fruit clusters on one plant! 

Allow a few clusters of Everglades cherry tomatoes to stay on the plant and they will happily reseed themselves year after year. If you'd like to save the seeds instead just choose a few very ripe fruits, squeeze the insides out into a jar with water, allow it to ferment for a few days (this simulates the digestive system of an animal and will break down the mucilaginous coating around the seed) and then dry on a towel. 

Despite its tolerance of the tropical heat Everglades cherry tomatoes can be grown anywhere where all other tomato varieties are. A tip for harvesting the tiny sweet fruits: instead of picking fruit by fruit, cut the entire cluster off the vine when all the fruit is most of the way ripe. Alternatively, break the fruit off of the vine one by one with their little green hat on (the technical term is "peduncle") since the fruits skin tends to rip when its removed hastily.

Ok, so what crops besides Everglades Wild Cherry tomatoes should we be focusing on in our March gardens? We have 2-3 months of cool weather left which actually lets us plant a pretty very wide range of veggies and herbs at this point. I like to look at categories of plants one by one to keep my list organized. Let's start with greens because this category has the most potential for late season production. Greens, especially cut-and-come-again greens produce the most food in the shortest amount of time in the smallest amount of space! Lettuces are an obvious choice, not only because most of our palettes are happily adjusted to lettuce so we should take advantage of growing it for as long as we can in the home garden, but also because they are highly productive and the benefits of home grown lettuce are huge. The benefits I'm referring to are freshness, quality and variety. Tender leafy greens are extremely perishable and when you buy them at the store they are typically already days, sometimes weeks old, which means you not only have just a few days to consume them, but their quality is already diminished. When you have lettuce growing in a home garden you can literally harvest on demand for each meal and you'll notice the difference in texture (crispy!) and flavor (bright green flavor). At this point in the season you can still start lettuces from seed or plant starter plants for a little head start. Not at all lettuce varieties respond well to our unique climate so we recommend either buying the lettuce varieties we have at our nursery, or you can use our list as a guide for what to look for elsewhere. We've spent many years of trial and error to select the varieties we currently grow and if you take a look, it's a seriously fun assortment of colors and textures! 

Other worthwhile greens to include in a March planting include dandelion greens, French sorrel, arugula, bok choi and collards greens. Arugula, mustard greens and baby bok choi are crazy fast growing so you'll have an opportunity to plant them 2-3 more times before the end of May when the growing season makes a drastic shift to tropical crops. Collard greens, French sorrel and dandelion greens are all more long term crops that you may even keep in the garden further into the summer months. They are somewhat heat tolerant and have a naturally bitter or sour flavor profile so they hold up better when the weather in South Florida starts to get hot. Planting any of these greens in a March garden will yield good results and make yummy food for your family. 

Another major category of plants to be focusing on right now is culinary herbs. Most herbs can make it through the summer, or at least make it deep into the summer months. The prerequisite is that they are well established by the time the weather gets extremely humid. For example, the hardy Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano and sage will actually thrive and get huge over the summer if the plants are well established early on. March is our last change to get these kinds of plants into the garden safely. That also applies to Thai basil, dill, parsley, scallions, mint and lemon balm. Some of the herbs that definitely won't make it through the summer, but are good to plant right now because they are quick growing and will be harvested before May include Italian basil, cilantro, thyme and cutting celery. Another group of herbs to start taking seriously this time of year are the more tropical herbs like lemon grass, garlic chives, Jamaican oregano, Costa Rican mint and culantro. In a nutshell, March is a great time to plant the widest variety of herbs imaginable! 

Moving on to a more colorful group of plants, hot peppers and eggplants! Did you know that these also grow and produce year round in our sub tropical climate? Certain varieties, especially Asian eggplants and most of the hot peppers, actually thrive stronger during our long hot summer days. They like heavy rains, increased sunlight and they aren't heavy feeders (summer soils usually hold less fertility because the heavy rains was away fertilizers and organic matter at a faster rate). That said, I like to warn people of the pros and cons of growing these crops in raised beds during the summer months. Both of these crops are in the same family as tomatoes and ALL of these crops are nematode magnets :(  Nematodes are the scourge of South Florida gardening. They are present in all types of soil, and thrive here because they like sandy low-organic matter soil. They are an invisible ringworm that feeds on the roots of plants causing a general weakening of the plant and sometimes death, depending on the density of nematode population. Its hard to tell if you have nematodes or not until you pull the plant out of the ground and inspect roots; nematode affected roots are dark or muddy looking, brittle and thick, covered with many small nodules and bumps (compared to healthy roots which are usually white or light colored and fine like hair). Since nematodes are usually present in most gardens it is super important to manage them. There isn’t an easy solution for nematodes which is one reason why they are such a problem. If you know you have nematodes, the last thing you want to do is plant crops that attract nematodes during the "off-season". If you aren't sure if you have a nematode problem, but you know you really want to plant tomatoes in the Fall, avoid these crops during the "off-season" because you'll most likely develop a problem by the Fall. Another pest problem to look out for with this family of plants is white fly. If your garden is prone to white fly outbreaks it might be a good idea to avoid these crops during the hottest months of the year, although white fly is much more manageable than nematodes ;)   

Ushering in February with amazing and consistent weather this year. We've noticed that most gardens are bursting with lush, quick growth. Now is the time to focus on managing your plants by harvesting often, pruning, trellising and keeping up with continued fertility and succession planting.

Most people in South Florida plant tomatoes in the Fall, right around October or November as soon as the humidity drops a little bit. By February those tomato plants should be like, huge. Tomatoes are probably one of the hardest crops to manage because they are so "weedy". They grow fast and get very bushy when they have adequate sun exposure and other needs like regular watering and fertile soil. In our gardening workshops we always make sure to go in depth about tomato pruning because once they get out of control it can be very intimidating to make sense of the jungly mess they tend to create. Tomatoes make new branches at every node, which means they exponentially get more and more dense if they aren't pruned.

Trellising is important for keeping your plants happy and disease free, and for making harvesting easier. The tomato cages you can buy at home improvement stores are the WORST option for trellising your indeterminate heirloom variety. They are designed for keeping determinate tomatoes upright and organized; determinate tomatoes are bushes rather than vines. Heirloom tomatoes and many other popular varieties are indeterminate, which refers to the vining type. 

The most common way we see tomatoes trellised at other farms isn’t entirely useful for home gardening or at our farm because they involve hanging strings from the rafters of a greenhouse. Most tomatoes are grown in greenhouses in the north because they need the extra warmth, but it's still an interesting technique to know about; its principles can be useful. The string is cut to a length longer than the floor to ceiling height, the extra is coiled at the top. The tomato is tied to the string and vigorously pruned to become either one or two leader growing tips, which are either pinned, tied or wound around the string. Pruning is key for this technique, and for all trellising. NO farms just let their tomatoes run wild! The rule of thumb is that all greenery below the first flowers are pruned off, to prevent soil born diseases, and all new suckers are clipped so that the plant can focus its energy on the leaders you have allowed to grow. Professional greenhouse growers like this technique because it allows your tomatoes to grow UP very high, making the most use of valuable space in a greenhouse. 

The “FLORIDA WEAVE” is a very popular method for small farms and giant farms alike. Home gardeners can use it too since it doesn’t involve any complicated construction. Materials are simply a spool of thick twine (we prefer sisal twine because it's biodegradable and can go into the compost along with your plants at the end of the season), and posts called “T-posts” that can be bought at a hardware store. T-posts are manufactured for temporary fencing and can be driven easily into the ground with a “post driver” (a tool made specifically for driving these posts into the ground). These posts are made of steel so once the initial investment is made each year they can be removed and reused. As the tomatoes grow, lengths of twine are woven around them, in a simple 8 pattern, being secured by the posts, which are driven into the ground every 3 plants (see image below). Aggressive pruning is still recommended to avoid plants becoming monsters. The more bushy your tomato forest is, the easier it will be for bugs and diseases to flourish.

When it comes to edible flowers and cut flowers, winter is the best season for annual varieties like pansies, dianthus, marigolds and calendula in South Florida. The blooms are healthiest and most productive during the cooler months of the year. We typically begin selling flower starter plants and planting them for clients in late November and usually finish their season by March or April. Their window of opportunity is short, but oh so sweet. 

Edible flowers can and should be easily incorporated into a veggie garden for many reasons. Technically speaking they add bio diversity, they attract beneficial insects and sometimes repel pest insects. Although they can serve a purpose in the garden, their range of shapes, textures and bright colors along with the many ways we can incorporate them into our lives is probably the most attractive reason to get into flower gardening. Most of the varieties we like to grow for decorating food are pretty small plants that can be tucked into your herb patch, into the corners of your raised beds and they are more suitable for container gardening than most veggies. 

We love edible flowers so much that we've created workshops to show people the many ways to use them. We not only grow a wide selection of starter plants at our nursery, but we also grow them in our demonstration garden to harvest flowers for projects, personal use and to sell at the Legion Park Farmers Market. They are very special during the holiday season and birthdays for decorating charcuterie boards and cakes, for dying foods and for making flower crowns. This year we were particularly inspired by Loria Stern who is the queen of decorating cookies with edible flowers. You must look at her website and instagram! We also love the work of Miami local Valentina Cordero, founder of The House of V, a vegan and gluten free cake and cupcake caterer who does absolutely tasteful work.

Tiffany made a batch of these adorable sugar cookies a la Loria Stern for the holidays.

Muriel has decorated her daughters birthday cakes with berries and flowers inspired by Valentina's work for many years.

Flower crowns are a super special way to connect with nature and flowers. They can be made at the park or on a hike using foraged plants or at birthday parties or any type of special gathering using home grown flowers, foliage and herbs.

Decorating a charcuterie board with flowers always takes it to the next level!

Flowers, petals and seed pods make great arts and craft materials for kids too. Gardens with herbs and flowers are a great way to get kids to spend time outdoors using their hands, their senses and getting creative.

We wanted to share a few technical tips about growing flowers successfully.  They are pretty easy for the most part, comparable to kitchen herbs, but requiring a bit of special care in order to get the most blooms. First of all, full sun is key.  Planting flowering plants in part shade isn't the worst idea, but you'll notice that your plants aren't branching very much and they may have just a few flowers here and there. Most of the flowering plants we grow are meant for full sun production and will get completely covered in colorful blooms when planted in the right location.

We generally promote balanced organic fertilizers for all of your garden plants, but when it comes to flowering plants there is a little extra boost you can give them. Fertilizing with a high phosphorus product such a Dr. Earth's Bud and Bloom Booster when plants begin setting flowers can lead to more blooms. This recommendation also goes for all plants in your garden that bloom in order to produce a fruit, such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. The more flowers on your tomato and cucumber plants, the more fruit you'll get!

Deadheading is a technique that makes a really big difference when it comes to flower production. You should not deadhead the flowers of veggie plants because you'll be cutting away the potential fruit, but for edible and cut flowers it is a must. Basically, when a plant makes flowers the next biological step is a developed fruit and eventually seed production. Once an annual plant makes a certain amount of seeds it is triggered to stop growing and die to make way for the next generation. In perennial plants deadheading encourages continual new blooms. The process is extremely simple and involves cutting away all "spent" or flowers that are past their prime. You will notice that by reducing the amount of "spent" flowers on your plants they will usually send out new shoots and new blooms within days!

Here's a list of some of our favorite varieties to grow in a South Florida winter garden and why we love them! 

We love marigolds of all shapes and sizes because they make the perfect companion plant in the home garden. Not only are they easy to grow and prolific with beautiful blossoms, but they are also completely edible, with petals that can be used as confetti or sprinkles in a salad or on cakes, and very pungent leaves that can be eaten raw in herbaceous salads or used to flavor sauces. Strawberry Blonde and Citrus Gem are beautiful varieties.

Pansies & violas can have a mild, fresh flavor or a more prominent wintergreen taste, depending on the variety and on how much of the flower you eat (a whole flower tastes stronger then the petals alone). Even though you can sometimes find pansy plants at Home Depot we suggest you eat only pansies that are grown organically, without chemical pesticides. Use the pansies to garnish cocktails, soups, and desserts. One reason why we love pansies in the garden so much is because there are so many colorful varieties to choose from. Johnny Jump Up makes dozens of sweet little blooms, Bambini makes rich burgundy velvet blooms and you can only imagine what Frizzle Sizzle Raspberry looks like!

Nasturtium is a super popular kitchen garden plant for good reasons. First off, the whole plant is edible; the leaves can be used fresh in salads, the flowers are edible, beautiful and spicy, and the fresh green seeds can be eaten fresh or pickled like capers. On top of that, the whole plant is beautiful and highly ornamental in the garden. The large lily pad shaped leaves stick straight up making a mounding type growth pattern, and if allowed to trail it’ll hang out of baskets or off of the side of your raised bed. Jewel Mix is a mixed gene pool variety where you never know what color flowers you’ll end up with, although most of them are an orangey-red/ coral thats so brilliant its almost hard to look at. This is the most vigorous variety we grow, but check our inventory for other more unique (and picky) showy blossoms.

Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species that includes the super popular “carnation” and sweet williams. All varieties of this genus are edible and some varieties have a distinct clove flavor. We have grown traditional larger carnations before but they don’t do nearly as well as the small flowers that grow in clusters known commonly as “dianthus”. These grow on super vigorous plants that are almost fake looking they’re so robust, green and shiny, and they make 2-3 foot tall strong stems with multiple flower clusters at the top. This makes them really robust cut flower types, but the petite flowers are also a beautiful edible flower option. In order to use the flowers as an edible garnish remove them from the bitter green “calyx” that the petals come out of and sprinkle the petals in drinks, on confections, or in salads.

Geraniums are super common household plants used for for decoration in pots and in summer landscaping, however the flowers are also edible! Geraniums love the heat, which we have plenty of, but they also like to be kept on the dry side. Treat them as you would your lavender or your sage & thyme plants, by watering just a few times per week and keeping well drained soil dry. 

The borage plant is easily recognized by its white prickly hairs and its bright blue & lavender star-shaped flowers. It grows to about 1-2’ high, with many hollow, almost succulent branching stems. The deep green leaves have sinuous, wavy margins. The inch-wide bright blue star-shaped flowers have prominent black anthers forming a cone in the center. if your plant starts making flowers before it has a nice flush of mature foot long leaves (similar in growth pattern to comfrey) simply prune them off to encourage your plant to make more leaves and roots before it flowers. Once it gets going it'll really pop and you’ll have hundreds of flowers every day. If you just want to enjoy the flowers ands share them with the pollinators then just watch the flowers go! if you're trying to produce edible flowers harvest them every morning before it gets too hot for maximum production. If you buy these beauties from a farm you’ll be paying more than 25 cents per flower! so growing your own is totally worth it…

We grow white flowering sweet alyssum not just because its cute but also because the flowers are edible and smell and taste super sweet and fragrant like honeysuckle. You can plant this sprawling constantly flowering plant in your flower garden, along borders and edges, or in your edible plant raised bed. Sweet Alyssum loves full sun, but it does not like prolonged dry periods so make sure to water it regularly. Deadheading will keep the plants flowering but we’ve tried to do that before and it takes a lot of work because there are so many flower clusters on each plant. If you have a large drift of plants, shearing them by 1/3 would be an easier option than deadheading. They will set new buds quickly. Your in ground Sweet Alyssum plants should not need any fertilizer, unless your soil is poor. Container alyssum plants will need more frequent water and monthly feedings with a water soluble fertilizer.

Pentas is a very Florida friendly perennial flowering shrub that you may already be very familiar with . Pentas develop sparkling star- shaped flowers all summer and winter long in bold hues of red, white, lavender, purple, or pink. Pentas is a sun lover that grows 18 to 36 inches tall and when you harvest the flower clusters often it will flower prolifically. In most parts of the country, pentas is considered an annual, but in very warm regions like ours, pentas is perennial . We first started to see this flower referred too as “edible” by the most famous garnish and specialty crop farm in North America called “Chefs Garden”, in Ohio. They call it “Egyptian star flower” maybe to fancy it up before selling it to the fanciest chefs in America.... and we were excited to learn that our plain old beautiful common pentas flower were technically edible. Besides being edible this plant is also very pollinator friendly and a great companion plant for the garden.

In September and October when we try to kick start our growing season in South Florida the weather is crazy and not hospitable to most of the veggie varieties that are accustomed to more moderate climates. We all work hard to get them to grow and we don't even realize how much the heat and humidity affects them until we get our first cool front in late November. Then we all have an "aha!" moment when it seems to become effortless and everything gets bright green and full of flowers and gardening finally gives you that magical feeling. That aha moment is right now! And it feels so damn good... And we hope a lot of you have been gardening this year and are feeling the magic.  

Now we can finally grow some of our favorite foods like spinach, lettuces of all shapes and sizes, kale and broccoli as well as less heat tolerant edible flowers like violas, pansies & dianthus. It's no coincidence that our Winter Plant Sale scheduled for December 11th-13th is focused on more lettuce varieties than any other time of year! If you bought lettuce seeds online at your favorite seed company make sure they are "bolt tolerant" varieties, because even though its cooler now its still pretty darn hot for cool weather crops like lettuce and many of the fancier heirloom types that draw the eye in a seed catalog will bolt here in South Florida. Bolting is the technical term for when a plant makes flowers & seeds too early. Different plants will do it when they encounter different stressors, so things like not enough light or not enough nutrients will also cause a plant to bolt, but heat is a big factor in the bolting of things like lettuce. If your lettuce is making a stalk and getting tall (and when you break a leaf off there is sap and it tastes very bitter), your plant has bolted. We grow a super selective variety of lettuces that are tried and true for South Florida growing, so if you want to try your own plants from seed use our website as a variety resource and buy yourself the seeds we use from somewhere trusted like Johnny Select Seeds. 

For those of you who have been gardening since the "beginning" of the growing season, now is the time to go big on salad greens and flowers. They will finally grow as quickly, densely and vibrantly as they are meant to. It's like, they get to be their best selves during our peak cool months of December, January and February (and sometimes March). Happy veggie plants grow fast so if you are doing everything right (full sun, fertile soil, regular watering, etc) then you should be harvesting from your garden weekly this time of year. You should give your leafy greens a trim at least once every two weeks in order to take full advantage of your crop. We also recommend quick succession plantings of leafy greens for a continuous supply of productive tender plants. It's very normal to plant a new lettuce patch about once per month and harvest each patch about 2-3 times before pulling it out to make room for the next succession. Same goes for arugula, mustard greens and bok choi. We specifically sell those types of plants in six packs rather than 4" pots. For $6 you get 6 plants which are younger and smaller, but rightly so because they grow so freaking fast you'll be harvesting in a matter of 2-3 weeks! The term for harvesting mature leaves selectively off of your greens plants is "cut and come again" and if you do it right and take just the mature outer leaves without compromising the growing tip (at the center of the plant, where the small new leaves emerge) then it'll make your plants last quite a while. Heres a fun video of someone harvesting this way and explaining it for you. 

You may also be encountering some challenges with pruning and trellising your indeterminate tomato plants if you planted them a few months ago. Tomatoes are very fast growers so they should be really big and happy and full of flowers by now, maybe to the point where you've lost some control. The most popular way to trellis tomatoes in a home garden is the "Florida Weave" and trying to explain it in words would be super silly but there are tons of videos and diagrams online to help you, and its a super simple setup. Heres one good video we like, and a diagram to help out too. 

 If you have something super tall to tie off to (for example Farmers Tiff and Chris put an eyelet screw in the eave of their roof and use that to trellis tomatoes 20 feet into the air) you can try to use a "lower and lean" trellis system and prune your plants to a single leader. This is a bit more advanced seeming because many farms do this in professional greenhouses, but its definitely not hard to do. Check out this helpful video of a home gardener setting up a lower and lean system for his tomatoes and cucumbers. 

If you don't already have a garden, think about starting one. It's one of the best excuses to spend time outside this time of year. Gardening with kids and showing them the process of growing leaves for a salad or herbs for roasted potatoes or tomatoes and cucumbers for snacks is such a beautiful way to spend quality time with family. A garden can be a classroom, a playground and an extension of meal time or snack time. When you have a garden in the backyard and you take family or friends or kids out there to pick a few things for dinner you create casual opportunities for bonding, not just between the humans, but between humans and plants and our inherent and vital (yet sometimes overlooked) relationship with them.