The phrases: switching to nursery mode and small harvests sums up our October gardening. The drier weather of our rainy season finally ended, and we welcomed several good days of rain near the end of the month.
Hi there, and welcome to my monthly series about how I grow a year-round garden in a sub-tropical climate. Each month I’ll share with you observations and other notes from my garden journal. I’ll also share with you gardening tips, monthly harvests, and my favorite resources related to the season.
Here is a summary of what happened in October:
Journal Entries
Week 1
As I mentioned above, I am gradually turning my garden into a temporary nursery. My husband and I have been working on our goals for our new homestead we plan to purchase in 2022. In anticipation of moving, my focus has been on maintaining my potted trees, growing perennials, and saving seeds for our new homestead next year.
This first week of the month, I spent time up-potting several dragon fruit cacti. They are growing very fast! From the 88 seeds that sprouted last winter, I currently have 32 strong plants. I’ve started a nursery pot for cuttings I took when pruning the larger cacti.
My plan is to not only raise fruit to eventually sell at farmer’s markets, but to sell small plants as well. I’ve also added a small high-tunnel to my future homestead design. I’ll raise the dragon fruit in there as well as use the high tunnel to propagate nursery stock.
I also repotted two lemon trees, a spider plant, and two Christmas cacti.
There have been several plants blossoming in the garden this month, including: passionfruit, sweet potato, peppers, roselle, Seminole pumpkins, a few late-blooming beautyberries, self-seeded zinnias, and basil.
My raised bed was empty after harvesting the chicory, so I decided yellow sweet onions would do great in that area. Even though the packaging said to plant March-April, here in Central Florida it is recommended to plant onion bulbs September through December. I thought it was a frugal purchase, one bag of 40-50 onion bulbs cost about the same as one bag of 6-7 onions in the grocery store.
Week 2
The purple hearts were taking over Pineapple Island, so Mike and I took a good hour or so to thin out the plants and put down new mulch for the upcoming winter season.
There are 12 pineapples growing in Pineapple Island. It looks like three or four might produce fruit this spring. They are easy to grow in our climate and many of our neighbors grown them under trees in their yards as edible landscaping.
Week 3
The tomatoes seedlings were growing extremely slow, so I decided to repot them in larger containers with a different potting mix. I had bought a cheap brand of potting mix and it did not drain well. Lesson learned.
I went back to my usual mixture of my own garden compost combined with a reputable brand of raised-bed garden soil. The pots are repurposed milk crates and landscape fabric, and I used bamboo from a neighbor’s cuttings to create stakes to tie up the tomatoes. I plan to continue growing tomatoes in pots due to the heavy damage from root-knot nematodes living in my current garden soil.
Now that the days are shorter and the weather cooler, it will be an experiment to see how these tomatoes grow. Last year at this time I was getting tomato blossoms and small fruits. When I repotted these tomatoes, they were only 3-5 inches tall.
Week 4
Several of the Seminole pumpkins are turning a nice sandy color. They should be ready to harvest just before Thanksgiving. The vines continue to grow, but only produce male flowers. I don’t expect any new fruits until after winter when we get longer daylight hours and more heat. It’s another garden experiment – learning how the pumpkins grow, how long they will grow, how they resist pests and diseases.
The cranberry hibiscus plants are starting to blossom. I’m looking forward to making some tea from them this winter. They are a gorgeous maroon plant that several people in the neighborhood use as an ornamental in their flowerbeds. The leaves are also edible. I’m looking for recipes to cook with them or salad ideas.
Trick or treat!
Mother Nature is always playing tricks on me!
The day before Halloween, I picked up a pot that I had set in the garden several months ago to get a plant used to growing in that location. Underneath the pot was a sweet potato sticking up out of the ground! It was one of the biggest, and most perfect sweet potatoes I had ever grown. What a sweet treat!
Harvest Summary
Food Harvested:
- Sweet potato leaves for salads and sandwiches
- Egyptian spinach leaves
- 1 Seminole pumpkin, just under 5 pounds
- Roselle calyx for tea
- Fresh rosemary for bread and dinner seasoning
- 4 small green peppers
- 8 jalapeno peppers
- 1 surprise sweet potato!
Seeds Saved:
- Chicory
- Seminole pumpkin from fruits harvested in July
- Holy Basil
Gardening Resources:
- University of Florida UF|IFAS gardening guide October
- Grow Cranberry Hibiscus
- Grow onions in Central Florida
Final Thoughts
Here in USDA Zone 9, fall gardening is well under way. Now is the time to plant all those wonderful cool-weather crops such as root vegetables, alliums like onion and garlic, greens, and brassicas such as broccoli, cabbages, and kale.
I’ve chosen to only grow some onions, cabbage, and lettuce from fall into winter. My focus is on what’s currently growing and maintaining my perennials. Most of what I’m currently doing in my garden is now prep work for next year’s move to a new homestead.
I encourage you to try a new fall/winter fruit or vegetable for your garden. You can visit the links I’ve listed in all of my Garden Journal Series for even more inspiration and advice.
Happy Gardening!
Alisa
PS: Look at this amazing banana palm my neighbor is growing on the other side of our fence! It smells like baking banana bread when the blossom is open.
