a learning journey
Why I am blogging?
To be completely simple and transparent, I am starting this blog so I can share my knowledge and experience about gardening in the heat of Florida. I started my Etsy shop, click on the banner, a couple of months ago and it has zero hits and I am like WHY?? I have so many great heirloom seeds to sell that grow well in Florida. Native seeds as well as veggie garden seeds that I sell at the time of year that they will do well. Even if you don’t make a trip to my Etsy shop, I still want to share, and for you to learn what I have learned over the years. I am a third generation home gardener for food security. Victory Garden if you will.
My grandmother transformed her back yard into a garden. That was Philadelphia, where no gardens really exist, but there was food security. Even as a kid I remember rows and rows of all sorts of veggies, and being Polish there was a lot of cabbage. Also peaches. I remember a lot of peaches. My dad had a lot going on in our little plot growing up. We always had fresh something between his garden and my grandmothers garden. And now my daughter is a 4th generation home gardener.
So here I am in South Florida since 2007 growing stuff. Sick of orange/pink hard tomatoes.. Mangoes from the grocery store with no taste. Pineapples that are green. I never knew they were supposed to be yellow, did you??
I have made many mistakes but I have it right now. RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME. You do not have to depend on the supermarket for produce. off season produce sucks, and until you have tasted fresh fruits and veggies that you have grown in your own garden, then you will never understand the difference. Grow heirloom so you can save seeds for next season and your harvest will be perpetually free. When you have heirloom plants that do well and produce what you want, you will want to save seeds from that plant because those seeds are now naturalized to your garden conditions.
And I am not just speaking to Florida people. Learn to grow in your area. You need food security at the least. AND you need to taste stuff from your own garden because nothing compares. NoooooTHING. You are going to eat a tomato, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber from the supermarket and be like what is that? Plus you know what you put in it. Be as organic as you can….organic fertilizers, soil, mulch. Mulch in place/chop and drop as long as it is not diseased. Make your own compost from scraps. Ditch the blue stuff!
I planted a couple of mango trees. Got my first harvest of Kent mangoes this year in 2024!!!! My Haden mango tree is doing well. I aborted the flowering until next year because the tree is too small yet to hold fruit. But next year it is game on. Papayas, Bananas…..
So, you want to start a veggie garden in Florida with traditional stuff like tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, etc, but have failed miserably in the past? The time to start is in the fall. I have garden beds everywhere. Some are for perennial Florida plants like passion flower/fruit. It is November right now and I have roselles, 11 tomato plants, 4 cucumbers, peppers of all sizes and heat, radishes….regular and diakon, carrots, lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, brussels sprouts. Pineapples take a few years, so I have a lot lol. The problem with growing veggies in the summer in Florida is the heat and pest pressure. A tomato plant might thrive undercover in the summer, but the flowers will die and not produce fruit if it is over ninety degrees.
Now, when all that is done, the December to February cold will bring on the mango flowers.
Don’t forget to plant flowers for pollinators!! Marigolds. My new all time favorite is borage. Borage attracts bees. Bees pollinate your plants
Florida Gardening Seed 