Things That Thrive in July!

The temperature every day hovers between 90 and 100, at night it rarely gets below 80°.   It rains every day, and then the sun shines, creating a steamy humid soup. When you wake up in the morning, your windows are fogged up with condensation from the humidity, even at 5 a.m.  In north Florida, and pretty much anywhere in the Southeast, this is how it is in July. 

All the tomatoes are gone except a few hardy cherry varieties.  The summer squash has slumped and disappeared. The peppers are still hanging on, but they’re not blooming.  You’ve harvested your last green bean and your last ear of corn. The best eggplants have been picked and eaten and okra requires that you go to the garden every day to harvest.  What do you do with that much okra anyway?  Spending time in the garden is a hot sweaty ordeal.

There are some plants which make your efforts worthwhile. Most any type of cowpeas will thrive at this time of year and it’s not too late to plant them. Keep up with your okra and eggplant and they’ll continue to produce throughout the summer and into fall. Nurture your peppers and as soon as the weather cools a little, they’ll start producing again. 

Pictured below are some other plants which will reward you with refreshing flavors and trouble-free gardening. Many of them are perennials which come back every year with no help from you. How much easier can it get?

Thai Ginger (Alpinia galangal)

Galangal blooms.  The leaves can
be used to wrap fish or vegetables
for steaming and the rhizomes 
are used much like culinary ginger. 

Native Dune Sunflower (Helianthus 
debilis) blooms all summer,
comes back every year,
and attracts and feeds helpful 
insects

Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) provides
a wall of blooms along the edge of the garden

Dune sunflowers surround the
pole holding Purple Martin gourds.

Pole beans and a tropical cucumber relative

French Marigolds provide ground cover
and fight nematodes

Gulf fritillaries and many other insects love the Tithonia.   Here they find food, habitat, and prey.  

Okinawa spinach, another heat-loving 
perennial. 

Asparagus provides a wispy contrast
to other garden plants as it stores up
energy for its spring harvest of shoots.

Sochan or Cherokee Greens
(Rudbeckia laciniata) provides
fresh or cooked greens all summer

Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus
tuberosus)  This is a
smaller variety – Dwarf Sunray.
Rhizomes provide crunch to 
salads and stir fries.  

Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
grows under the partial
shade of a Loquat tree. Use a 
small knob of the rhizomes in
smoothies; reported to
reduce inflammation. 

Chayote (Sechium edule)
completely covers a large trellis.  
The mild light green fruit can be 
used like summer squash.

Culinary Ginger
(Zingiber officinale)

Comfrey blooms

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
Feeds pollinators and accumulates 
minerals from deep in the soil.  

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) a type of gourd.
We are always amazed when the
melons appear.  The red flesh around the 
seeds is moist and slightly sweet.  Younger green melons are used
in stir fries and Asian stews. 

Native Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) is a

pollinator plant that blooms from spring until frost,  

populated by a large variety of bees, butterflies and
helpful flies and wasps.  It is also a legume, harvesting
nitrogen from the atmosphere for itself and surrounding plants

Chill Hours

Peter’s Curcuma bloom

Something is different about fruit production in our area this season. Many of our master gardeners have noticed that some of their fruit trees are bearing larger crops of fruit this year despite the snow and prolonged cold we experienced during the winter.

Last winter when it snowed, the temperature rarely, if at all, exceeded 45° for a period of at least a week. We had snow on the ground for a full seven days in some areas, an exceedingly rare occurrence here. This substantially increased the number of chilling hours experienced.

Some fruits such as peaches, apples, plums, and others require a more prolonged period of cold than we usually experience in our North Florida area. 

 Chill hours, or chilling hours, refer to the total number of hours during a plant's dormant season (typically winter) when the temperature is between 32°F and 45°F. These hours are crucial for certain deciduous fruit and nut trees to properly break dormancy and begin flowering and fruit production in the spring.  We usually grow varieties here that require less chill hours, but even they benefit from a prolonged period in the specified chilling range.  Hours below 32° do not count toward chilling hours, and other factors also go into the calculations.

In any event, it’s a good fruit year.  One gardener had hundreds, maybe thousands, of plums on two native plum trees in her yard where before there had been very few. Another gardener has so much fruit on her peach tree that the branches are weighed down and three of them broke.

Some fruit bears heavily every other year. Maybe this is the year, or maybe the chill hours have jazzed up fruit production for one season.

What brought this to mind is something unrelated, as far as we know. Master Gardener Peter G. has a turmeric plant (Curcuma longa) that has bloomed beautifully this summer. Turmeric usually doesn’t appear above ground here until late May or early June.  If it blooms, the blooms later in the year at the base of the plant are unobtrusive. 

Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
bloom in the VegHeadz garden. 

Peter’s turmeric, which was started from rhizomes obtained from the VegHeadz garden, for the first time bloomed in glorious color with both male and female flowers. The bloom looks very much like a Siam tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia), which is in the same family.   It doesn’t seem likely that a subtropical plant would benefit from chill hours, and maybe Peter’s turmeric receives more sun than the plants in the VegHeadz shady food forest or maybe it’s a different variety.  (See comments below for further clarification.)

Nature’s mysteries are one of the things that makes gardening so interesting.

Wednesday in the Garden

Just a reminder that cool weather will return

“We came here to grow food but we ended up growing a community…”—Master Gardener Evelyn G.   It’s that community that draws us back every Wednesday, in the heat and the cold and on the glorious fresh and perfect days (too few).  

This is the end of June and our garden is still producing.  In times past as we learned to grow better, the garden would be spent and bug-eaten by the end of May, so our growing season is extending even as the climate warms in fits and starts.  We must be doing something right.  Following is our weekly report from garden coordinator Whitney M.

This past Wednesday was so typical for Tallahassee: It arrived hot, humid, sunny (and hence sweaty) but that didn’t deter the dozen Master Gardeners who showed up to harvest, weed and commiserate under the shade of the “Crybaby Tree.” The gardens were teeming with fresh vegetables ready to pick including eggplant, cucumbers, peppers and beans. Sweetly dancing in the breeze, the beautiful wildflowers popped up seemingly everywhere, gracing us all with their beauty and grace.

Cathy A. and Mary W. answered the call for weedwhackers, ensuring our garden edges and borders are once again neat looking.

George A., under cover of his shade umbrella, went to town on our never-ending battle with nut grass between the veggie and food forest arbors. George has mentioned seeding an edible peanut in this area once we let the nut grass know who’s the boss and that “we ain’t giving up!”  Janis P. and George are working on the peanut idea.  

As always, we weeded and weeded and we kept on weeding:

Nancy G. weeded Bed 9. Joanne S. weeded her beds. Laurie J. weeded her pollinator beds. Jeanne B. harvested beans and lemon cucumbers, thinned her okra and weeded the B and library seed beds. Peggy M. and Camille S. weeded, spread cardboard and put the last of our cardboard down behind the compost bins and shed while Evelyn G. hauled 5 very full wheelbarrows of mulch over and helped spread. Peggy M. also trimmed the roselle and tied them up for support. Emma weeded the patio garden while Louie weeded her “cocktail” and edible flower beds.

We always look forward to treats and cold drinks, especially during the long summer months, and today Louie delivered, bringing us “white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies” (insanely delicious) as well as “cucumber mint water” that was especially refreshing after a couple of hot hours under the blazing sun. The cucumber mint water quenched our thirst so well that several of us clamored for the recipe, and Louie was kind enough to share it.

That’s it for this week – hope to see everyone back in the garden next Wednesday!

Louie’s refreshing water!  Thank you Louie!

Cucumber Mint Aqua Fresca

1 pound cucumbers, ends cut off, skin on, chunked

½ C lime juice, or to taste

1 ¼ C mint leaves

½ C sugar

1 ¼ C water

Place all ingredients into a blender (making sure water comes up to ¾ of blender) 

and puree till smooth.  Pour through a sieve, using a rubber spatula 

to press against the sieve to extract a much liquid as possible.

Serve with ice, added mint leaves and lime slices.

Scenes From a Summer Garden

Cathi and some of the
vegetables harvested today.  

Enjoy scenes from the VegHeadz summer garden today.   There are still plenty of plants thriving and producing edibles.  

Pole beans

Squash, cucumbers and melons

Cathy and the squash beds

Peggy, Jeanne and Annie tied  up some of the 
Sunflowers.  Newly planted sweet potato
slips in foreground. 

Emma pruned and tied up
her container tomatoes

Mary picked beans
and planted cowpeas in
the forest garden

Peggy and Linda trimmed 
back the Loofah

Tithonia—Mexican sunflowers

Chamomile 

Thai Ginger—Galangal

Numerous varieties of
shallots and other 
perennial onions

One of our best corn crops in years.
This is Glenn’s heirloom variety—
Aunt Mary’s cultivated by
the Atkinson family since the 
1850s

Mexican Tarragon—a member of the
same family as sunflowers and marigolds,
perennial native of Mexico and Southwest U.S., 
substitutes for French Tarragon which 
does not grow well here

Lemon Grass in Louie’s
herb beds

Country Gentleman Sweet Corn 
from the Leon County Seed Library,
grown by Jeanne

Jelly Melon

Double fused
Blackeyed Susan

Feeding the wildlife—
a happy caterpillar
on/in a green bean

Wednesday in the Garden

Pole beans and Jelly melons

Despite a threatening sky and predictions of rain, quite a few gardeners spent the morning harvesting and weeding.  Nancy, Dave, Cathi and probably others were digging nutsedge (cyperus spp.) around the G beds (4 x 4 raised rotation beds).  A much larger patch beyond where they were working will probably get some herbicide. We only use herbicide when nothing else works, and nutsedge is definitely a case in point. Even then it only knocks this pest back for a season or a year, only to regain its former territory– so annoying.

The garden still looks good even though it’s June and it’s been hot, but not as intensive as it will be later in the summer. The tomatoes in bed A have been trashed.  Many of us were absent from the garden for several weeks leaving us vulnerable to summer invaders.  

The tomatoes were infested by what appears to be army worms, judging from the damage.  The entire plants were removed so they won’t infect the rest of the garden. Dave’s GMO tomatoes farther down in the garden have not suffered the same fate.  That’s gardening – random disasters, hoped for successes.

The major amount of work done in the Forest Garden by many prior to the open house is holding well, and the pathways are free of weeds and looking good. Next to be planted there are winged beans for the arbor and cowpeas and sweet potatoes in any open space.  The beans will add nitrogen to the soil and the sweet potatoes will deter weeds.  These reliable summer cover crops will also provide a late summer harvest.

It’s always a pleasure to spend time in the garden with friends, beautiful plants, interesting finds, and colorful vegetables and flowers. 

Yarrow

Pollinator plants to attract pollinators
and predators and feed the honey
bees nearby

Kiwano Jelly Melon growing on
the cattle panel arch pictured above.
A climbing cucumber relative. 
Can be eaten at any stage.  Seedy jelly-like 
Interior tastes like a combination of
banana, cucumber, and lime.  
Deters nematodes.

Early row covers and foil covered 
vines have increased our 
success with summer squash 

Sunflowers

An example of biodiversity— eggplants, peppers, basils, cosmos,
marigolds, maybe more.  Although this bed is immediately adjacent
to the worm-eaten tomatoes, there is very little damage
of any kind to these plants. Strongly scented plants and multiple
species and varieties helps to discourage marauding insects.

The terminal tomatoes

Tomato Insect Pest Management:  https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/pests-and-diseases/pests/management/tomato-insect-pest-management/

Southern Army Worms:  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN263

Tomato Hornworms:  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1206

The tomatoes full of blooms in early May. 
So sad to lose them.