Unusual and Possible New Food To Grow in My Florida Yard

Waiting for my new vegetable seeds to arrive so I can get planting.

I’m always happy to find a new source to buy seeds. Now that I know which seeds I will not bother to plant again, I want some new things to grow in my Florida yard.

I am not a big fan of some popular “southern” food – like okra. I’ve had trouble with growing alternatives to bell peppers. My space is small, so I can’t afford to take up valuable growing areas with things I don’t want to eat, or end up not growing.

Our central Florida climate makes growing food a struggle, unless you know what will work (trial and error). After a few years of growing, I am still trying to find good vegetable swaps for things I’d like to have available.

How to Find Vegetable Seeds to Grow in Our Zone

If you are just beginning to grow your own vegetables here in Florida, I suggest you search (YouTube) and blogs, where actual gardeners are growing what you would love to grow. Gardening in Florida is not easy. We deal with heat and humidity that you won’t find elsewhere in the US. We have torrential rains and baking heat. No wonder vegetables don’t want to grow!

Sometimes when you find a local grower who has success they are growing some very bizarre sounding foods. All we can do is try new things and hope we find something yummy that works.

After watching a video by Elise Pickett from The Urban Harvest where Cody Cove Farm was featured, I checked out the website. Both places are located in the central Florida area, so I tend to believe them when they have success with growing vegetables.

Embrace The Newness

So, I can’t have big round juicy “Big Boy” tomatoes, but I can have little cherry tomatoes. If I get good at it, and can find the space, I might have access to little tomatoes year round! It is the good thing about a climate like this.

Not everything will do well year round, but many vegetable plants last for years – this includes tomatoes, eggplant, and kale – to name a few.

If I want to eat closely to what I am used to, I must embrace the new foods.

New – Cucumbers

I gave up after year two when my cucumbers failed. I first planted the Suyo Long cucumbers and got one, or two, to eat. That was the year I covered the cucumbers every night and picked worms off the next morning. I had read that the moth that causes the worms does not move from the south into central Florida until later in the spring season. So, the following year I planted normal “Ashley” cukes, and they never grew. After that, I gave up.

sumo long cucumber
Suyo Long cucumber

Guess what? I am trying once again to grow cucumbers in my yard. These are not normal cucumbers, but “taste like” cucumbers. They are from Africa. *Ordered: Cody Cove Farm sells a few odd types of cucumber and I decided to order some Zambian cucumber seeds.

Growing Tomatoes Successfully – New ESA Seeds

Is it possible to grow tomatoes successfully for an extended period of time? I had Everglades cherry tomatoes for a while, but then they suddenly died. Fortunately they seem to grow from volunteers easily.

*Ordered: ESA tomato seeds. These are yellow, cherry tomatoes. The “ESA” stands for Early Ssubakus Aliana and originates in China. What I like about Cody Cove Farm is that each selection of seeds contains long paragraphs about how they grew on the farm and what to expect. Since this farm is in Central Florida, just a bit southwest of where I am, I would hope to have a similar outcome.

In general, tomatoes grow best in early spring.

New Peppers to Try

Peppers are the one vegetable I can use for nearly every meal. I love the flavor of peppers, whether hot and spicy, or mild and sweet. I add them to my omelettes, cook them with onions and flavor meat and fish. I like peppers cooked or raw.

Recently all I have for peppers to eat from the yard are Cayenne and a few banana peppers. They are delicious, but I’d love a normal sweet pepper. Unfortunately bell peppers don’t grow well here.

So….

*Ordered: Iquitos Sweet Pepper (Grows through the heat of summer) and Cap 455 Pepper Seeds. (Grow in Spring, into early summer.). Both are sweet and not hot varieties.

I’ve never even heard of these peppers, but I am hopeful that they will grow well for me.

No Guarantees

So many things will affect whether or not crops will grow and do well. My soil may not be as great as what they have on these farms. My rainfall will be different and I have less experience with growing in Florida. It’s all an experiment, but I look forward to it.

Trying So Hard to Grow Florida Native Milkweed!

I’m not giving up. Growing milkweed here in Florida is not easy. Winter killed off a lot, so I am beginning again from seeds that were saved and also purchased.

A few months ago my little, white-flowering milkweed plant had some seed pods. I’ve been trying so hard to get milkweed to grow to feed the Monarch butterflies. Milkweed in Florida is difficult.

milkweed pods on the white swamp milkweed

Unlike the big milkweed plants of the north, our southern milkweed grows slowly and makes small, thin leaves. There is never enough food for a caterpillar, it seems.

That doesn’t really matter anyway because the caterpillars are gobbled up by the numerous lizards before they have a chance to morph into a butterfly.

A few years ago I wrote a post entitled, Filling My Yard With Milkweed. It was a nice dream, but easier said than done!

Starting Milkweed From Seed

Each little milkweed pod contains lots of seeds. I gathered the pods to save before all the milkweed blew away. I let one pod do its thing to hopefully sprout plants, but I haven’t seen any growing.

I ended up with a few pots with tallish milkweed stems growing and then the caterpillars arrived.

All potted, white swamp milkweed went onto the porch while I traveled. When I returned home, the caterpillars were big and the milkweed was nearly eaten. After another day, I had to place the caterpillars outside near the milkweed in the ground. And sure enough, the caterpillars all disappeared.

caterpillars eating white swamp milkweed

Resorting Back to Buying Milkweed

This time I bought milkweed seeds and not plants. All but two plants died over the winter, so I went the cheapest way.

My new milkweed seeds came from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) where they do not charge for shipping! I bought zinnia seeds and butterfly weed seeds (orange flowers), along with red, swamp milkweed seeds.

Hopefully the plants will grow nicely in the pots until next spring, when I will plant them in the ground.

milkweed seeds planted in small pots

Here are my eleven pots with milkweed. The small pots contain recently planted seeds. The bigger pots have the stalks (after being chewed) from plants begun from seed in July.

butterfly divider flowers

Fall Garden Planting Time Coming Up

Fall planting time is nearly here for those of us growing food in Florida.

We are closing out the summer heat here in Florida. It’s been hot, as it’s been for so many people all over the country. It will still be hot for a few more months, but occasional cooler evenings may show up.

I’m looking forward to planting Fall seeds and harvesting my Roselle and sweet potatoes. Fingers crossed I might have a few Seminole pumpkins too!

Roselle plant growing in the yard.
Roselle plant – August 2026

This past spring I planted a few Roselle Hibiscus seeds in the grassy area of the yard and they have grown very well. No buds have begun to grow yet, but I look forward to harvesting some in a month or so. I lost my frozen roselle pods this year when the refrigerator broke down. It’s been an expensive year.

I have sweet potatoes to dig soon too. I think I will give them another month at least. It will be a job but I hope to have a decent haul.

Summer Food From the Garden

Over the summer I’ve been eating Cayenne peppers, Tulsi basil, kale, and occasional Everglades cherry tomatoes from the garden.

holy basil growing in the garden
Holy basil
Seminole pumpkins freshly picked from the garden.
3 Seminole pumpkins

I never knew that kale would last in the heat, but it has. I will pick the leaves and chop them to add to an array of foods.

My little bulb onions have been used up and the harvest was small this year. I think a lot of that had to do with the very cold spell we had.

Planting Plans

This fall I plan to plant bulb onions, carrots, and bush beans. I no longer experiment with veggies that don’t produce well, or that I do not want to eat. This leaves more space for the good things I want a lot of.

I feel pretty confident in what I am planning to grow. I always have good luck with Contender bush beans – no soaking, no innoculent – I just push them into the dirt and cover them. Nearly every single bean grows. I stagger the planting and have beans all during the cooler season here in Florida.

I’d love to grow some long beans as I’ve heard many good things about them. The Scarlet Runner bean interests me because it has red flowers the hummingbirds like. However, long beans need a trellis or something, and that means I would have to somehow make such a thing. I think they grow in summer months, so we’ll see. I’m not sure I am up to it.

Thanks for reading.

Mid-Summer and We Have Mushrooms

July mushrooms in my Florida yard. A very large reddish-orange one and some smaller types hidden in long grass.

Well, it’s Florida so you never know. I guess mushrooms can show up at anytime, even mid-summer. I don’t claim to know a lot about mushrooms, but they have always interested me.

Today I have found these large, reddish orange mushrooms in the grass under a big oak tree. I had to get my hand (and foot) in there for size comparison…LOL. This is the front yard “lawn” which is mostly weeds. The mushrooms seem to be growing from the oak tree roots (maybe).

underside of the reddish orange mushroom
large, red-orange mushroom in the grass
Dark orange with red mushroom top

A week or so ago I was ripping up some tall grass along the side of my Vegega garden bed and found bunches of mushrooms (below).

I can’t find the names of these mushrooms, but wanted to share the photos.

I always discovered interesting mushrooms in the woods when I lived in New Hampshire. Fall was an especially good time to search for them. It was fun to take a walk in the woods and see what was out there. I miss it.

I find it odd to see mushrooms in July in Florida. It seems like a weird time for them to grow. Quite honestly that big reddish mushroom is a bit scary looking. It seems like something so strange belongs in this state.

I took one more mushroom photo (below). It looks like an old and new version comparison with the dark set in front and newer growth behind.

Just for fun, I have included a Zebra Butterly on my yellow dahlia. A morning surprise in the garden.

Smooth top rust color mushrooms
Zebra butterfly on yellow dahlia flower

If you know what these mushrooms are, please leave a comment.

Growing Native Milkweed in Florida

Year two and I’m still trying to fill my yard with native milkweed plants. After the freeze, my plant number has dwindled but seed pods are showing up, which will help.

We all know that the Monarch butterfly needs milkweed. I’ve been trying to grow my own native milkweed in my Florida backyard for two years now.

Last year I purchased some mail order plants, and also bought a few I found locally. They were all doing pretty well, and I was excited. I also had some tropical milkweed (the bad kind) that fed the butterflies. The milkweed bugs took care of removing the seeds, so I didn’t have to worry about it spreading. I also cut it down at the end of the season, as you should if you grow this type.

white flowering swamp milkweed in 2025
tiny white flowers on milkweed
milkweed pods on the white swamp milkweed
This year- seed pods

Over winter we had an unusual cold spell that killed a lot of things. Even now, in June, the palm trees are still showing dead fronds. I lost three of my larger milkweed plants – one remains. And I have this white milkweed.

I don’t remember seeing milkweed pods last year. I’m sure I would have saved some seeds if I had. But this year, the little white milkweed plant grew five pods. I’ve been checking those pods for weeks and just recently one of them split and began to open.

Seeds in a white swamp milkweed pod.
white swamp milkweed seeds
Planted swamp milkweed seeds in pots

I planted a few of the seeds in buckets with my compost dirt. The rest of the seeds have been saved. When the other pods begin to open, I will save more seeds from another pod. The remainder I’ll leave alone and let Mother Nature do her thing.

The remaining larger milkweed will hopefully get pods this year as well. I’ll do the same thing with the seeds from it.

Florida’s native milkweed types are not very easy to grow. And they grow slowly! I’m convinced they do best in their own natural space – like out in a field or near a swamp. But I do get monarch butterflies in my yard and I’d love to have milkweed for them.

Finally, My Sweet Potato Slips Are Here!

Finally I am planting my sweet potato slips, which just arrived mid-June. It’s very hot to be gardening, but I had no choice.

Way back in April I planted the sweet potato slips that I had started myself. And before that – back in January – I had pre-ordered a variety of sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

I had expected them by mid-May. When June arrived and I hadn’t heard anything, I e-mailed SESE (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange). After a few days, I got a reply saying there was a problem with the postal service or something. I got my slips the next day.

Now it is June 15th and finally the sweet potato slips are here. They are basically a bunch of green stems. Pretty much all the leaves are brown and have fallen off. I know that sweet potatoes are hardy, so I am confident they will come back once they are planted.

Sweet potato slips wrapped in a box
sweet potato slips
wrapped the sweet potato slips in wet paper towels
sweet potato slips

I wrapped the stems in wet paper towels and left them on the counter overnight. All three of my raised beds are ready for planting, so I’ll be gardening in the morning.

Long Vegega raised garden bed
square Vegega raised garden bed

Mailing Time is Off For Florida

Sweet potatoes like heat – I get that – but it’s been hot here for months. I could have easily planted my sweet potatoes two months ago. And it wouldn’t have been as hot for me to do the work!

I get that most places aren’t dealing with this climate, but an earlier shipping date would have been nice.

Once I get this variety to grow, I will save potatoes and make my own slips for planting next year and I can plant early. I ordered them to have a variety. It is an experiment to see which ones grow and taste best.

The Sweet Potato Slips

I discovered my box of sweet potato slips on the front porch on June 15th. It has been very hot and humid here for weeks. I opened the box and unwrapped my slips. It was very hot and sunny, then we got thunderstorms, so I planned to plant them the following morning.

I ordered six slips of four different types of sweet potato and I counted 9 – 12 slips of each type when I unwrapped the papers. This means I received many extra slips. I will not have space, I already know this. I was pushing it at 4×6=24 and now I have more like 40-45 slips.

Green stems of the sweet potatoes just after unwrapping
I received more than 6 slips of each type of sweet potato.

The Potato Beds

Originally I had planned to clear some area in the yard to grow things like sweet potatoes. Now, I realize that raised beds work better. Controlling the soil and moisture is easier in a container. I’ve already successfully grown many things in my Vegega metal beds.

Over “winter” here in Florida I grew a lot of green beans. I planted them intermittently in all three raised beds. I knew the beans would be gone by the time I needed the beds for the potatoes.

The gardening goal is to always have something growing. Some Tulsi (holy basil) is growing, along with kale and random marigolds. I’m not worried about planting the sweet potatoes among these things. Most of them I pulled out, but it will be a while before the potatoes grow and take over the bed.

Sweet Potato Types I Planted

  • Beauregard
  • Bayou Belle
  • Covington
  • Purple Majesty
Beauregard sweet potato slip
Square Vegega bed with sweet potato slips
94 degree temperature
three fabric pots with sweet potato slips planted

On June 16th, I put on my long UVskinz clothing to keep the mosquitoes off, and got outside by 8 AM. We still have not had enough rain, so every place I planted the slips needed to be watered. I had to add dirt to the bags and some beds. The temperature was 80 with 90% humidity, so it was super muggy to be gardening. I had no choice.

The potatoes were planted before the sun hit my yard, which made it bearable. But I was hot and dirty after a couple of hours of lugging dirt and planting. The leftover slips will go into my compost and I did manage to find space for a lot of the slips. By the end of September into October, I should be digging some potatoes.

I do not plan to have to order slips again. As long as the potatoes grow well, I can create my own slips for next summer. By the way, I believe you can order sweet potato slips early to be sure you get them. That is the way SESE does it.