We are in the last month of the dry season before summer sets in! The nice kept gardens are on the verge of transforming into a tropical jungle. Plan your garden well and you’ll be able to spend most of these hot sweltering days in doors while your heat loving plants take care of themselves. Lets get into the best seeds to sow in May for a successful summer garden.
Growing conditions in may
It’s hot and it’s dry. Newly established plants will struggle until the summer rains start next month. Water your baby seeds and seedlings when needed. Perhaps get those young ones started in the shade of mature crops that are on the way out to protect them from the hot, strong sun.
The day time temperatures are in the upper 80’s on average with several days reaching the 90’s. The UV index is 10, meaning a lot of plants labeled as full sun will actually benefit from a bit of shade.
The pest pressure is high, but don’t worry. Plants that love the heat and humidity will be able to protect themselves from the worst of the bugs.
What seeds to sow in May
Cucurbits
This time of year just forget doing any kind of summer squash. The winter squashes, however, will perform through some of the hottest of our summers.
- 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
The classic Kentucky Blue Bean simply won’t cut it during our summers. However, there’s still lots of beans and other legumes that love our summers and taste just as good, if not better 😉
- 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 May 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
This isn’t one of the seeds you can sow in May, but it is easy to grow from slips or simply the potato itself. I love growing sweet potatoes. They are probably one of the easiest, hands off crop you’ll ever grow. Plus the return on investment is insane! Put them in a spot with plenty of sun, give them lots of water and some organic matter and they’ll happily take over any space they are in. I had great success growing sweet potatoes under a pile of tree trimmings, the yields were massive 😀
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. Perfect 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 once the summer comes in full force.
For more on Florida native flowers visit www.flawildflowers.org
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