Beating the End of Summer Blues

 

End of Summer.  Persimmons just
beginning to ripen

Dog days, doldrums, the dregs of summer.  It’s that time of the year when it’s still too hot to feel comfortable anywhere but inside, while the world has moved beyond summer to football games, school days, and business as usual.  You’re thinking about your fall garden, but it’s just not quite time to plant.

How about creating a pick-me-up by making tea mixes from some of the fading plants in your yard and garden. Herbal teas also have health and wellness benefits.  Depending on the variety, they might reduce inflammation, relieve stress, boost immunity, and improve sleep. 

Most tea ingredients can be used fresh, but are better when dried or dehydrated because removing water concentrates their natural flavors and extends their shelf life.  

Beyond the camellia (Camellia sinensis), the leaves and buds of which are harvested to make white, green, oolong, and black tea, there is a host of possibilities for tea ingredients and flavorful syrups to supply additional taste treats and preserve the flavors of summer.  You can enjoy a cup of your own unique tea while perusing the fall seed catalogs.

Some lesser known options for tea leaves are fig, loquat, passionfruit, citrus, and mulberry. 

Fig leaves provide a flavor surprise

Harvest: Pick young, tender, healthy, undamaged leaves in the morning after the dew dries. For loquat, gently scrub off all the fuzzy underside hair. 

Clean: Wash all leaves thoroughly in running water and pat completely dry.

Chop: Remove tough center stems (especially on loquat and mulberry) and chop the leaves into smaller, uniform pieces. 

Dry: Spread the pieces on a mesh screen, use a food dehydrator at 95°F–115°F, or bake in an 140-170 °F oven for 30 to 60 minutes or more until completely crisp and brittle.

Store: Crumble the dried leaves slightly and store them in an airtight, dark, cool container for up to a year.

Brew: Steep 1 to 2 tablespoons of your dried mix in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes.

You can expand your garden's flavor profile using other common trees and perennial plants: 

Blackberry or Raspberry leaves add a mild, earthy, tannin-rich base similar to traditional black tea.
Lemon Verbena or Lemongrass provides a strong, bright, and sweet lemon scent to balance earthy or bitter leaves.
Mint offers a cooling, refreshing aroma that blends well with fruit tree leaves.
Peach leaves add delicate, floral, and fruity undertones to your herbal mix.
Hibiscus or Roselle delivers a tart, cranberry-like flavor and a deep red color. 

Citrus rinds or zests can also be dried alongside the leaves.

These are just a few of the many options available to make your own unique tea blends.

To add even more fun and flavor, make some herbal and botanical syrups from readily available ingredients to mix and match with your tea. Expanding your syrup collection can transform your home-dried tea blends. Simmer your ingredients in a standard simple syrup base (equal parts sugar and water) to extract their flavors, then strain out the solids.

1. Prepare the Base: Combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Heat over medium until the sugar dissolves completely.
2. Infuse the Flavor: Add your botanical ingredient (see prep below) to the hot syrup.
3. Simmer and Steep: Lower the heat and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 15 to 30 minutes as it cools to deepen the flavor.
4. Strain and Store: Pour the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean glass jar. Store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 weeks.

Fresh. Bay Laurel leaves

Ingredient	Preparation Method	Flavor Profile Added to Tea
Fig Leaf	Wash, lightly toast in a dry pan to activate oils, and tear 2–3 leaves into the syrup.	Coconut, vanilla, and green walnut. Adds a surprising, creamy tropical warmth.
Bay Leaf	Add 3–4 fresh or dried bay leaves directly to the simmering syrup.	Herbal, woodsy, and slightly floral. Gives tea a sophisticated, savory, and warming depth.
Basil	Bruise 1 cup of fresh leaves to release oils; steep after removing syrup from heat so it stays bright.	Sweet, peppery, and anise-like (licorice). Extremely refreshing, especially in iced citrus teas.
Grape	Crush 1 cup of concord or wine grapes; simmer until they burst and release their juice.	Rich, tart, and deeply fruity. Adds a bold, jammy sweetness and a beautiful purple tint.
Banana	Slice 1 ripe banana into rounds and simmer until soft; strain carefully without pressing the fruit to keep it clear.	Sweet, tropical, and buttery. Pairs beautifully with earthy or spiced black and green teas.
Corn	Simmer 1 cup of fresh sweet corn kernels (and the cob, cut into chunks) in the syrup.	Toasty, sweet, and starchy. Adds a comforting, mellow, cereal-like sweetness.
Ginger	Simmer 1 cup of thinly sliced, unpeeled fresh ginger root in the syrup base.	Sharp, fiery, and pungent. Adds a spicy heat that cuts through heavy herbal flavors and warms the throat.
Spiced Vanilla	Split 1 vanilla bean lengthwise and add 1 cinnamon stick and simmer gently in the syrup.	Warm, spicy, and mellow. Adds a slightly sweet, comforting glow.

Time to Harvest Roselle

Photos by Peggy McDonald

Peggy McDonald is the VegHeadz gardener who knows the absolute most about Roselle. She grows it each year at home and in the VegHeadz garden. We call her the Roselle Queen. 

Peggy has started harvesting this year’s Roselle.   Here’s her report. 

The two Roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa, I planted May 1st, 2026 have started to fruit. 

The calyxes are fully formed a month before the winter solstice when they usually bloom. Obviously the plants could not wait another month. All I did was tie them to a T-post and watch them grow, they are now over 7' tall and 5' wide. These plants do have sprinklers so the drought did not affect them. 

This is actually the third year in a row that my Roselle has bloomed a month early.

 I've included one photo showing how to process the fruit for those new to growing Roselle.

Search Roselle in the right sidebar to learn a lot more about growing, harvesting,  and using Roselle, including some recipes.

I am happy there are no signs of the two spotted leaf hoppers, YET!

Summer in the Garden

Hardy herbs love the heat—Rosemary
and Oregano

It’s hot. It’s humid.  The weeds are growing—in our garden it’s nutsedge, a constant aggravation.  If we take refuge in the cool, the nutsedge will win.  So early on Wednesdays, the crew arrives while morning mist still hovers over the plants.  The garden lies peaceful and lush.  Growth is rampant, but at this time of year it’s mostly leaves.  We pull weeds, weed whack grass, stake up plants, cut some back, pick and sample tiny, delicious Everglades tomatoes—they just keep on growing.  Eggplants look good and the okra is coming along.  Sometimes we sit in the shade.  And we’re always glad we came. 

 

Purple Shiso loves the semi-shade
in the forest garden

Tulsi  Basil, also
known as “Holy” Basil.
It makes a refreshing tea.

Can you find the baby
cucumber?

Cathy and Mary pick hundreds of 
tiny tomatoes

The Shade.
We remind each other to take a break and a drink.  
Photo by Peggy McDonald

What to Grow Now—Mid-Summer, Zone 9a

 Volunteer Squash and Gourds
from a Halloween recycling pile
added to the VegHeadz compost bins.

The green beans are gone, the snap peas and potatoes, long since.  The tomatoes are fading but the eggplants and peppers are hanging on.  Summer squash will soon be done, but winter squash will continue to bloom, depending on variety.  It’s time to pull or cut the spent plants.  

Whether you pull or cut depends on the condition of the plants.  If they are relatively healthy when they stop bearing, they can be cut and dropped or added to your compost.  Roots remaining in the soil will still furnish some nutrients for microbes, decompose in place, add organic matter to the soil, and furnish pathways for water and air to reach deep into your soil and avoid compaction.  

Plants such as tomatoes which tend to become diseased, should be pulled and trashed.  If your crop is having a lot of pest problems, or the roots have nematode galls, those plants should also be trashed.  Be careful not to plant varieties in the same family there next year.  Some insects tend to have preferences   

Wondering what to plant in those bare spots?  Any type of Southern field peas (cowpeas) are a good bet.  Plant a type you like to eat such as cream peas or crowder peas, or black-eyed peas.  We particularly like pink-eyed purple hull peas for their taste, ease of growth, and beauty.  They grow thickly, shading out weeds, and can be harvested in about 60 days to eat fresh, cut and dropped or composted, leaving a bonus of nitrogen in the soil for your next crop.  

It’s not too late to plant okra, and sweet potatoes make a great ground cover to keep the weeds down while producing a delicious harvest   Sweet potatoes do require a longer time to fully develop their roots into full-sized potatoes.  Depending on variety, wait 90 to 120 days until harvest.  Avoid planting sweet potatoes where you want to sow an early fall crop.  

Another option is cover crops such as buckwheat, sun hemp, or a summer cover crop mix.  They shade soil, feed soil organisms, discourage weeds, mine minerals, and provide organic matter when dropped and composted in place.  

Strong-smelling herbs such as various types of oregano and rosemary are always good choices.  They are perennials so you can leave them and plant around them to help repel pests during your next growing season.

Or plant some flowers which thrive in the heat and feed various stages of garden helpers—Zinnias, Coneflowers, Cosmos, Gaillardia, Salvias, or Marigolds.

At the very least, apply a deep layer of mulch to your soil, whether in bare spots or under plants.   The moisture conservation and soil temperature regulation will give your summer plants a huge helping hand.  Summer weeds are a real problem and mulch will help with them too.   

All of the suggested plants are relatively pest free and should survive on summer rains unless there is a prolonged drought.  Turn off water and timers when it rains at least an inch a week.  Water is not cheap and the unending supply is at risk. Plants should be watered if they are drooping early in the morning.  

It’s good to plant things that take little care because it’s too hot to spend much time in the garden for the next several months.   

Stay cool!

.  

Growing Asparagus in the Hot Zones

It’s the middle of June and we’re still getting a 
few new asparagus spears.  Photos by Mary Woody.

We’ve often heard the question, “Can I grow asparagus in Florida?”  As usual, the answer is “Depends,” or “Maybe.”  Depends on the variety and where you plant it, and maybe if the weather cooperates and conditions are just right.   

At the VegHeadz garden in Zone 8b at least nine years ago we planted asparagus in the garden.  (We have since been changed to Zone 9a.)  It was not very successful—full sun, irrigated.   But asparagus makes seeds, and we were gifted with a volunteer plant further down in the garden where it received some shade part of the day.   It survived and multiplied.   We rarely harvested any, except to graze a stalk or two if any happened to be fresh on our weekly work day.   This gave the bed the opportunity to get well-established. 

We eventually moved the roots (called a crown), up into the sunnier herb beds where it also survived. By germinating and surviving in a spot of its own choice, the plant had become adapted to our particular location.  

When asparagus leafs out it takes quite a bit of space, so it was eventually dug up and shared with gardeners who wanted to plant it at home.   One crown was planted in the edible forest, a somewhat shadier area, where it has persisted and multiplied. That is the bed pictured here.  It is not irrigated or fertilized, and it receives quite a bit of shade, particularly in winter.  It is also in a lower part of the garden, which is always a few degrees cooler in summer and colder in winter.  Asparagus needs cold to become fully dormant in winter.   

Simulating Dormancy: In regions with mild winters (like Florida), asparagus will not naturally go dormant. To force a rest period and induce new spring spears, cut all the yellowing or dead foliage back to the ground in mid-winter (e.g., January).

Variety:  The identity of the variety we are growing has been lost to time, but the top varieties for warm zones include:  

         UC-157: A University of California hybrid specifically bred to excel in warm, subtropical climates

        UC-72: Highly productive and resilient to high heat

        Jersey Knight: A vigorous, male hybrid reported to produce large, thick spears and resist crown rot

        Purple Passion: Produces sweet, tender purple spears and performs well in hot southern regions

Planting the Bed:  Plant 1-year-old dormant crowns in late winter to early spring.  Dig a trench about 6 to 8 inches deep.  Place the crowns 12 inches apart and cover with just 2 inches of soil. As the shoots emerge throughout the summer, gradually fill the trench to the top so the roots are sufficiently deep. 

Soil & Sunlight: Plant in a site with 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight, but afternoon shade is beneficial.  Best is sandy, well-draining soil rich in organic matter. Asparagus prefers a soil pH of roughly 6.5 to 7.0. 

The Waiting Game: Do not harvest any spears during the first 1 to 2 years so the plant can establish a strong root system. Allow the spears to grow into tall, feathery ferns. Once established, limit harvests to 4 to 8 weeks in the spring, leaving some spears to leaf out and feed the roots.  

Maintenance: Keep the bed heavily mulched to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and help keep the soil  cooler.  Water during severe drought.  

The final word, you will be able to harvest asparagus and it will be delicious, but it is unlikely to be the fat succulent spears seen in the grocery store in spring.  

To the right of the asparagus is Malabar 
Spinach growing on a small trellis.  
Behind it is our recently expanded blueberry
patch.

We use bamboo from our garden to build simple 
barriers to keep blooming asparagus out of
pathways.  

Open House and Plant Sale 2026

The day began overcast with threatening rain, but we beat the odds. Eager plant buyers formed a long line before the gates opened at 9 o’clock, where we offered for sale over 3500 plants propagated by Master Gardeners from the seven Extension demonstration horticultural beds, as well as Master Gardners’ own yards. The plants were beautiful and buying was brisk.

Many people enjoyed touring the demonstration beds, the orchard and the VegHeadz vegetable garden, food Forest, grape arbor and rain garden.  Hundreds of visitors wandered among the beds, got ideas, asked questions and enjoyed the day.  Kids got to dig potatoes and sample green beans and Roselle tea. Hundreds of packages of free seeds were to taken home to plant in gardens.  We love having people in the garden and we hope they’ll take home some ideas for their own spaces.

The VegHeadz Garden is Blooming and Bearing

 

Most of the people who have been growing the flowers and vegetables that are thriving
in the garden.

The VegHeadz have been working hard to make our garden look it’s best for the open house and plant sale this weekend. Rain is predicted and as much as we need it, we hope it will hold off until after our yearly event is over. Here’s a preview of what you will see if you visit the VegHeadz garden.

Just one view

Peppers

Blackberries

Sunflowers

Yarrow

Nasturtiums

Cosmos

Pole beans

Black Tomatoes

 

Green Tomatoes

Red Tomatoes

Eggplant

Peas

Squash

Biochar Trial Beds Fall 2025 — The Results are Finally In!

The crops have been harvested from the four trial beds in the VegHeadz Garden   Get our report on the results here. 

The biochar trial furnished much new information. The most important thing we learned was that there was no indication that the biochar did any harm to the garden.   Please understand this was just an informal test in our garden. A truly scientific trial would include multiple plots with each different amendment.  It would be controlled under  strict guidelines.  Our test consisted of measuring inputs,  observing regularly, and measuring outputs, but it would not qualify as a scientific test.  Still it was worthwhile and we learned quite a bit. 

The plants tested were collards and daikon radishes. The radishes did not do well, possibly for two reasons. The most obvious reason was freezing.  They were much more drastically affected by the winter freezes than the collards. The other reason is most likely the high pH of the soil. The final soil test reflected pH of 7.5 in all beds and daikon radishes prefer a more acidic environment. Perhaps we’ll grow some daikons and add sulfur to the soil to see if the results differ.  Close observation, testing and comparing in a more or less controlled environment, and recording and comparing results, are the best ways to figure out what’s going on in your garden.

The most important thing we learned was that all our fears about the biochar increasing the pH in the garden beds were unfounded. The pH did increase, but it also increased in the control bed, which had no biochar added. Compost tends to have an alkaline pH in any event, and we feel that the increase in pH was caused by the compost. Again, application of sulfur, peat moss, or other acidifying amendments would most likely be beneficial.  

There was a moderate but positive increase in plant survival, production, and plant health in the bed that was amended with compost, first co-composted with biochar for a period of 6 to 8 weeks with no pH adjustment. This was our most successful bed.  Again, repeating the test with each amendment applied to multiple plots would produce a more reliable result and eliminate the possibility of coincidence and other unknown factors.

For those wishing to use biochar in their gardens, we make the following recommendations, based on online research sources and our experience so far:

• Determine the source of the material used to make the biochar you intend to use and the process by which it was created.   Research sources indicate that the best biochar source material for application in vegetable gardens appears to be lignin-rich biomass from hardwood like oak and softwood such as pine. The best processing temperatures for creating biochar from these materials for use in gardens appears to be 400-700°F. 

• Start with a small ratio of biochar to compost, 5% to 10%, and compost them together for a period of at least six weeks to charge before applying to the soil.  This allows time for micronutrients to infiltrate the pores of the biochar and for microorganisms to multiply and populate the biochar. The mixture should be kept moist, but not overly wet as microorganisms need access to oxygen to multiply.

• Keep track of how much biochar you are adding, particularly if adding in more than one application.  5% to 10% of the soil volume is the recommended application rate according to most sources.  It is not recommended to ever add more than 20% biochar to the soil.  Biochar decomposes extremely slowly, and it cannot be removed once it is added to the soil.

• See the entire report on our Fall 2025 biochar trial here and the biochar handout under “soil amendments” in the Gardening Resources section of the left sidebar on this blog.  The handout includes how to calculate how much biochar to add to achieve the desired ratio in the soil and information about pre-treating the biochar, plus a list of many of the biochar research resources we referred to.

A new trial is under way for spring 2026.  The spring trial involves comparing results when adding our organic fertilizer mix and biochar in various combinations to the trial beds.  Test plants will be peppers and green beans.  

We are also trialing the addition of organic fertilizer to half of the tomatoes and eggplants in the B rotation beds.  The same number and variety of seedlings have been planted on each side of the bed.  It will be interesting to learn whether this makes a difference, not only in growth and production, but in pest and disease resistance, heat tolerance, and length of bearing season.  So far the unfertilized tomato plants look bigger, but they have not yet set any tomatoes.  The fertilized plants have many small tomatoes.  We’ve also added the fertilizer to the potatoes in the C rotation beds.  So far they look amazing.  We’ll see how many potatoes they produce and whether they are free of blemishes.