The rainy season has arrived! It’s hot and the humidity is ramping up. If you’ve been waiting on the rain before sowing your seeds, love lazy gardening by the way, now is finally the time to get some seeds in the ground! And then walk away 😀 cause who wants to spend hours outside in a sauna? Here’s the best seeds to sow in June.
Growing Conditions In June
Welp, it’s hot, wet, and humid 😀 The perfect time to start heat and rain loving seeds. The last of the tomatoes are being harvested and taken out as well as any other traditional summer crop of our northern friends. The garden may look a little bare this time of year, especially if you’ve been waiting on the rain. However, the seeds to sow in June will grow so fast, you’ll have a jungle in no time.
The average day time temps will be in the low to mid 90’s on average. The UV index is 11 and the pest pressure is pretty high.
Any plant that doesn’t love these growing conditions will be decimated by bugs this time of year, as well as fungal issues.
Moral of the story, don’t grow crops that can’t take the heat and humidity.
Instead, grow these crops listed below 😀
What seeds to sow in June
Cucurbits
You’ll notice a lot of repeats from last month to this month. While you can sow all of these seeds in May, by waiting until June you’ll have a lot less watering work to do… basically none 😀
No summer squashes this month. Winter squashes and gourds for the win 🙂
- Kent pumpkins – I’ve personally never grown this variety but I’ve heard it does phenomenally in the heat and humidity.
- Seminole pumpkins – a Florida native similar to acorn squash. Grows reliably well here which is no surprise since this is it’s home
- Gherkin cucumbers – I’m trying these guys out for the first time this year. They have small seeds and will need to be kept weed free and well watered to sprout. We shall see how it goes!
- Luffa – these guys are absolute champs. The immature fruit is edible and the mature fruits provide natural sponges for use in the home. They produce so much organic matter that they are a winner in my garden. I don’t know about you, but coming up with enough green material to make compost can be challenging.
- Kikinda – This is another gourd that is also edible. Apparently the fruit is very tasty in stir fry’s. I tried growing these last year but the landscaping guys cut it down before it could produce :/ The foliage is soft as velvet which is great if you have sensitive skin. This one won’t make you all itchy
- Chayote – Super delicious tropical summer squash? Not quite sure what category this plant would fall under but it grows similarly to the gourds and pumpkins. Long vines, loves climbing. This plant starts from a rooted fruit. The seeds are hard to remove without breaking so a whole fruit is used to start the next plant.
Legumes
- Chinese noodle/yard long beans – these guys are amazing. They taste just like your traditional green beans except each bean is 12-18 inches long! They are beautiful in the garden and kids love them. You can grow these all year round if you want to supplement the water needs during the dry season.
- Puerto Rican black beans – These beans also produce super long pods filled with about 20 beans each. They grow so prolifically you may need to cut them back from time to time. They make beautiful purple flowers that all pollinators love. Even hummingbirds!
- Asparagus peas – Sometimes called winged beans, these produce good sized pods that taste like a sugar snap pea wrapped in a bigger package. The larger the pods the tougher and stringier they become so it’s best to harvest while they are only a few inches long. These produce baby blue flowers and grow happily straight into fall and early winter.
- Black eyed peas – Super easy to grow and super productive. We grow a pink hulled, red eyed variety because, why not? You can sow these all throughout the summer. So, if you all of a sudden have an empty spot in your garden, throw a couple of these seeds in the ground and they’ll take off.
- Peanuts – this is the seeds to sow in June that I get most excited for every year. What can I say, peanuts are delicious? Well, the ants would agree so if you have trouble getting your seeds to germinate before the ants get to them, soak the seeds in the hulls overnight in some water and sow them, pods and all, and that should take care of the problem. Once established and the rains come in these guys are just as hands off as the sweet potatoes. If you do notice your peanuts yellowing prematurely add a handful of Epsom salts around the base of the plants every couple weeks and they should darken to a beautiful green in no time.
Sweet potatoes & Yams
Sweet potatoes are one of the easiest, most beginner friendly, lazy gardener bff. You can take a sweet potato from the store, allow it to produce slips, pop the slips off and then pop those into the ground. If you are looking for a particular variety look around at local and online nurseries for slips to purchase.
If you’d like to know more about how to grow sweet potatoes check out this post.
Eggplant
If you love eggplants then celebrate because they love our summers! Sorry, I don’t have to much to say on these guys since we don’t eat them around here, but they sure are pretty.
Garlic chives
Garlic chives will grow year round here. They look lovely and taste great. Great substitute for garlic or even green onions.
Lemon Grass
This is such a lovely plant, plus every time you walk by it you are blessed with its sweet aroma. Great plant for it’s culinary uses but also the amount of organic matter it produces. If you don’t have deciduous trees around you to provide you with brown material for compost this guy is going to help out a ton.
Tropicals
- Sugar cane – this is a beautiful plant that every Florida gardener should have in their backyard for the sole reason of the organic matter it produces. Just like the lemon grass, this crop will provide priceless carbonaceous material you need to make your own compost and mulches. If you are interested in growing a garden that isn’t solely dependent on outside inputs, then add this crop to your backyard.
- Ginger – ginger is great to grow in the shadier parts of your garden. It can be a little slow growing, but be patient. When the weather warms and the rains fall it’ll finally decide it wants to grow.
- Turmeric – this will grow a lot like the ginger. It loves the heat, rain, and a bit of shade. It will do best if it isn’t constantly soaked though, so maybe plant this in a raised bed or in a higher spot of your garden.
- Taro – if you have a wet spot in your yard that nothing will grow in, through some taro there. It loves to grow in a bog. Once the weather dries up a bit taro will begin to die off. Allow it to die back just like you would potatoes before you harvest them.
- Water chestnuts – like the taro this is a bog loving plant. You could probably grow both the taro and water chestnuts together and see how they do.
Flowers
The beans will produce flowers that bring in a lot of the pollinators your garden will need. But there are other flower seeds to sow in may that will add beauty to your garden and of course, bring in more good bugs.
Some of my favorite and easiest to grow are:
- Marigolds
- Coreopsis
- Rudbeckia
- Sunflowers
- Zinnia’s
Native Florida flowers are also great to grow in your garden. They want to be here so you can trust that they won’t up and die on you during the summer heat and rain.
For more on Florida native flowers visit www.flawildflowers.org
Check out this free Florida Gardening Guide for more Florida specific gardening tips!
What are some of your favorite crops to grow through our hot, sweltering summers? I’d love to know 😀
Happy Gardening 😊
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