Are you wondering what to plant in your garden this June? Stick around because I’m going to share with you the top 15 vegetables you can start in June in your Florida garden, the projects I have going on, and a special tip that will help you get the most out of your garden. So, let’s get started and make this the best gardening season yet!
Summer Surprises: Unusual Resilience of Traditional Plants
Summer kind of snuck up on me this year, which is a shock given the scorching heat. Equally surprising is how some traditional plants have thrived without the usual summer issues. Tomatoes are still blooming, and squash is holding on. But the real star? Tomatillos! Let me share some exciting updates on my summer veggies.
Summer Veggies Update: Tomatoes, Squash, Watermelon, and Tomatillos
My tomatoes are still blooming and setting fruit, which is very unusual for me. My best guess is that the lack of rain has held off the blight. I’ve had a little trouble with the leaf-foot bugs and the stink bugs, but not as bad as it usually is. Squash is another one that surprised me; they are still producing, but I have noticed that the flowers have started to decrease.
I do want to tell you about one new plant that has been doing tremendously, which is tomatillos. Guys, where have these been all my life? Oh my gosh, they are so easy, and they taste really good. Blight hasn’t set in for them; they have tons of fruit, and the bugs are not bothering them at all. I grew them just kind of like as a test this year, and I was shocked how much I like the fruit. It’s sweet like a grape, crunchy like an apple, but it also has this citrus thing going on. Very shocking! I love it.
All my summer veggies are doing very well, and I have kept my promise of neglecting them a lot, which is nice because it’s just getting too hot to do anything in the garden right now. Let me tell you what I’m growing this summer.
Summer Plant Lineup: From Luffas to Sweet Potatoes
I started some luffas a bit late, but they have come up with just a little bit of bug damage. I’m planning on trying them as a zucchini substitute and letting a few of them mature all the way to become sponges. Then I have my Thai Soldier beans, which are coming in nicely. I’ll be using those as a green bean substitute and as a dry bean. The okra got past all their bud damage as a seedling and is starting to get bigger now. I can’t wait to try those fresh; I’ve heard really good things about their taste when picked very small.
The sweet potatoes are getting pretty big; I have one more bed I’m planning to plant them all out, and I’ve just been waiting on my white sweet potato slips that I ordered. I have high hopes for these guys, given that I have not had the greatest white potato harvest this last year. The roselle are doing phenomenal, like usual. They’ve been producing some flowers and calyxes, but they stopped now, and I don’t expect to see those growing again until fall. I ended up growing 10 plants but I started more because I go through these fruits quickly in the fall. I’m addicted to them. They taste like cranberries, so good!
Now it’s just about letting them get bigger and bigger. In the green stalk, I’ve started amaranth, Egyptian spinach, magenta sprean, Ethiopian kale, and red Malabar spinach. Most of these are new to me; I’ve grown a lot of different greens during the summer, but the only ones I’ve really enjoyed are Kiko’s Crump, Ethiopian kale, and cranberry hibiscus. I will do a taste test of all the new ones later in the season to let you know if they’re really good or weird like some of the other summer greens. Stay tuned for that.
I also have some Seminole pumpkins growing up my palm tree; it’s been a bit slow to start. I’m hoping it’s going to pick up here soon. Below the squash is my pineapple circle; they will take a year or two before they start producing, so we are in it for the long haul for those guys. I also started taro, which I’m very excited about. I’ll be growing some as ornamental plants in a pot around the pool for that tropical feel and some in my in-ground beds to harvest the roots. I’ll also be planting some ginger and turmeric for the first time in my garden; I’m really excited to try these and see if I can get the hang of growing them.
Besides these, you can also grow chayote squash, which is outstanding. I haven’t had success growing it yet, but hopefully, I’ll have better luck in the future. Cowpeas like Whippoorwill, which is my favorite type because they are similar to a pinto bean. Once my corn is done, which should be soon, I’ll be planting a bunch of those. Papaya, which can be a perennial in Central and South Florida. You can also do peanuts, pigeon peas, and other tropical spinaches like Okinawa Perpetual Longevity in New Zealand.
As you can see, there is still a lot of things we can be growing this time of year; they’re just a little bit different than what most gardeners grow. Now let’s jump right into the projects for this month because it’s so darn hot.
June Projects: Tackling the Heat with Smart Gardening
For the next couple of months, my outside projects will be limited. I do have the section in my backyard near my pool that needs some plants added to it. I recently did a video with Jacqueline on her channel, The Wild Floridian. She came over and gave me a consultation for the native Florida garden I’ll be putting in the front and the backyard. I’ve gotten all the plants for the backyard that will help bring in the pollinators and increase the predatory bugs to help bring down the pest pressure for the vegetable garden. So, all I need to do is put those in. Pretty much my only big outside job.
Most of my remaining projects will be indoors. My freezer is packed full; I need to get it emptied out, so I have a lot of canning projects. I need to replenish my very popular soup base that will use up my celery, my onions, some garlic, peppers, and carrots, which I still have a ton of carrots. The last of my cucumbers from my plants are finishing up, and I need to turn those into pickles. I need to make more spaghetti sauce and salsa with my tomatoes and my peppers. I have my strawberry harvest frozen, so I need to decide if I’m going to make jam or switch it up and can a strawberry syrup for teas.
Indoor Projects: Canning and Sourdough Bread Baking
Our garden friends in the north use winter to do a lot of their canning projects when they have downtime. I’m taking a page out of their book and using my downtime here in the summer to get all these projects done. The next project I’ll be working on inside is to restock my sourdough bread products. I usually do these big bread baking sessions and then freeze them so we can use them whenever we want.
I’ll be making sourdough artisan loafs, some bagels, English muffins, and waffles. Elizabeth, my starter, is going to get a good workout. I don’t plan on doing all the baking in one day; I’ll be doing it over a week. Thankfully, all the recipes are pretty easy, but anything with sourdough usually requires overnight proofs of the bread. Sourdough is different than using yeast since yeast rises very quickly, and sourdough rises very slowly. I have a bit of a system in place where I mix the dough in the evening, let it rise overnight, and then either bake it in the morning or just stick it in the fridge if I want to bake it later that day.
Special Tip: Keeping Your Garden Clean for Summer Success
Now we have the special tip, the fun part. That special tip is to keep your garden clean. Things are going to grow super fast this time of year, and that will give the perfect environment for pests and disease. This is the time of year that we struggle with these two things, but you can get a better handle on them now, which will make fall an easier growing experience for you.
First, keep your herbs trimmed short; they grow out of control this time of year, so you may have to trim them as often as you have to mow your yard. Second, if you have some plants that are struggling, rip that Band-Aid off and tear them out now. I know it hurts, but by keeping them this time of year and trying to fight the issues, it’s just going to lead to frustration and bigger infestations that could take years to get back under control. It’s better to just cut your losses and get rid of them now. If your plants are doing good, keep them. I still have tomatoes growing because they are doing well. Don’t feel the need to pull plants if they want to grow. Mainly focus on removing plants that are diseased or heavily infested.
Thankfully, this task does not take a lot of time. Well, I guess it depends on how big your garden is, so you can take a weekend and get them all out and cleaned up. Don’t leave the plant debris in your bed; it will just breed more issues. If possible, when you remove your spring plants, leave the roots in the ground. This will help to keep your beds healthy by not disrupting the soil life and keeping it insulated below. Just take the tops of the plants off.
I know summer gardening isn’t for everyone, but I really want to challenge you to try at least one of the heat-loving plants that I mentioned at the beginning of this video. But I want you to neglect them. Direct seed them, water them in a bit until they germinate and start growing. Then, once the summer rains start, ignore them. Don’t treat them for pests, don’t trellis them, don’t fertilize. Happy gardening!
