When we think of summer gardening our minds are filled with images of tomatoes, zucchini, corn, and beans.
Yeah…. Erase that image from your mind if you live in the subtropics.
Don’t get me wrong, I love growing all of those things during the “fall, winter, and spring” (the warm and sometimes cool season 😅). Summer gardens in Florida are going to look vastly different from those of our northern friends. I’ve experimented with many different crops to find the ones are the best crops for Florida summer gardens.
For a plant to make my list it has to; take the heat and humidity, withstand neglect, and have almost no pest issues. Cause who wants to spend hours outside in a sauna?
Top Five Best Summer Crops For Your Florida Garden
1. Peanuts
First on the list is peanuts, because I love them so much. These plants are thought to originate in the rainforests of South America. They grow like champs in less than optimal sandy soil and looovvee our monsoon like summer rains.
These are a long season crop, depending on how you plan to use the peanuts they will need anywhere from 5-6 months to reach maturity. I typically sow in mid to late May and harvest in late September or early October. If you are wanting to make some salty, delicious boiled peanuts, harvest them in September. If you, like me, can’t get enough peanut butter then allow them to reach full maturity and harvest in October.
Peanuts have very little pests, if any. In my years growing them I’ve never dealt with anything eating the foliage. This past season some small critter got to a few peanuts before I did, but if the fur I found over the garden is any indication, that little guy didn’t escape the hawks or owls.
They will need to be watered regularly until the summer rains set in. After that you can basically forget about them. Towards the end of their growing season they will begin to die back which is a good indication it’s time to harvest.
2. Sweet Potatoes
I have never grown anything that is so hands off as the humble sweet potato. Once you get roots on a slip and in the ground, that thing will take over. It’s truly amazing. They are really one of the best summer crops for your Florida garden. (I just love peanuts more, :D). If you need a plant that you can set and forget, and I mean literally (I maybe water my vine five times a year at most), this is the plant for you.
These plants will take over so don’t be shy about cutting them back, during the summer especially they can grow several feet in only a week. Cutting them regularly also returns organic matter to the soil, feeding the soil microbiome while also clearing a path for you to walk through.
The longer the sweet potatoes grow the more you will yield. Wait at least six months before harvesting the tubers, until then enjoy the young tender leaves as fresh summer greens. If you are looking to grow a plant that is high reward for little to no effort, you need to start growing sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are a perennial so feel free to dedicate a space to them that’s all theirs. Like all perennials you will get more the older it gets, and as long as roots remain in the ground you’ll have a never ending supply of sweet, hearty tubers.
3. Puerto Rican Black Beans
To be honest, this year is the first year I’ve grown Puerto Rican black beans. For the past several years, beans were my bane as a gardener. Hard to believe when beans are considered one of the easiest plants for beginner gardeners. I tried kidney beans, stallard beans, green beans and hardly yielded a thing. Not so with these guys. I planted them under some corn stalks to use as trellises. Well, they climbed up… and kept going. In no time at all they took over that whole section of the garden, and like the sweet potato vines, I’ve had to cut them back as well.
These beans produce long pods with 15-10 black beans per pod. They thrive in our heat and are quite a lovely plant too. The flowers are loved by native pollinators, even hummingbirds! Guys, I didn’t realize hummingbirds live in Florida and I’d never seen one before until my beans, both the black and the noodle, started flowering. Truly an awe inspiring moment.
4. Chinese Noodle/ Yard Long Beans
If you have children who are picky eaters, especially about their veggies, then perhaps growing this fun plant might have them interested enough to try eating some. I set up this crop a lot like the black beans. They did well growing up some corn and did eventually outgrow the stalks. They don’t take over as aggressively as the black beans. Consider growing a red or purple variety as they are easier to harvest and the kids love the colorful noodles.
The great thing with this crop is that you are harvesting the immature pods, which prompts the plant to produce more flowers. The yields increase over the span of the plants life and also has very few pests. Whereas a typical Kentucky Blue bean wouldn’t be able to perform in our summers. Use these beans the same way you would green beans with the added benefit that these beans are stringless.
5. Luffa
If you’ve lived and gardened in Florida for any length of time, then you know growing squash, especially in the summer, is a real challenge. Although luffa isn’t necessarily a substitute for a classic summer squash (luffa is a gourd afterall), it is edible, it loves our climate, and the mature dried fruits are actual home grown sponges. Talk about a versatile crop.
These plants will need some kind of trellesing or they will also take over your garden. Are you noticing a trend here??
Luffa is a long growing crop so start them around the same time as the peanuts. Because these plants are so happy to grow in our climate they have very little if any pests.
Note: If you are growing something and it is being covered in pests and eaten to bits, that’s a good sign it is not growing in the conditions it prefers. A stressed plant is a tasty plant to the buggies.
6. Honorable Mention: Sugar Cane
The only reason sugar cane isn’t in the “top five” is because it’s not a veggie or fruit. However, this beautiful plant is just as easy as the rest of the above crops. It has basically no pests, requires little care on your part, and can also be grown as an ornamental. If you are growing in a suburban HOA and need an “edimental”, sugar cane is a great option.
To grow sugar cane, you are going to start with a cutting. (Seeds will not be true to type.) You can root the cutting in a bucket of water, or go ahead and sow directly in the soil. The mature canes are peeled and juiced. Sugar cane juice contains many health benefits. It can also be cooked down into a syrup and used for sweetening your favorite recipes.
P.S. That’s peanuts growing in front of, and to the side of the sugar cane 😉
If you are growing in a subtropical environment, try adding one of these crops to your garden this summer! If you’ve tried growing these plants before, do you agree that they are the best summer crops for a Florida garden? Let me know in the comments 🙂
Happy Growing 😀
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