Garden Glimpse: December 2023 Recap and January 2024 Planting Plans

🌱 Welcome to the Garden Glow Up podcast! This inaugural episode features special guest Jerra, a seasoned gardener blending her Dominican roots with Florida’s gardening challenges. Get ready for a deep dive into December gardening in the Sunshine State.

🌿 Key Discussion Points:

Tropical Gardening 101: Amy and Jerra decode the unique aspects of gardening in tropical and subtropical climates, where the growing season takes a fascinating reverse route compared to temperate climates.

December Gardening Updates: The duo shares experiences and insights from their December gardening adventures, exploring the nuances of gardening zones and the unexpected surprises that come with it.

Looking Ahead to January 2024: Discover the exciting plans Amy and Jerra have for their gardens in the upcoming month, and get inspired for your gardening journey.

🌻 Connect with Jerra:

Insta @jerrasgarden
TikTok jerrasgarden
Facebook www.facebook.com/jerrasgardens
YouTube @jerrasgarden
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/jerrasgarden

🌼 Special Announcements from Jerra:

Spring Garden Collaboration: Jerra is orchestrating a vibrant collaboration project featuring gardeners from across the country. Subscribe to her YouTube channel for the January reveal!

Live Classes: Join Jerra’s live classes on YouTube:

Sunday, January 21st at 4 pm EST: Planting and Growing Heirloom Tomatoes.
Sunday, February 25th at 3 pm EST: Getting Started with Backyard Chickens.
Spring Garden Sale: Enjoy discounts on all seeds and plants on Jerra’s website until January 15th. Act fast to bring home some green goodness!

🌸 Wrap-up and Gratitude:
Thank you for tuning in to the Garden Glow Up podcast! If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments. Keep growing, keep glowing, and stay rooted in the joy of gardening. See you next time!

#Gardening #FloridaGardening #TropicalGardening #GardenGlowUp #DecemberGardening #JerraInTheGarden

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They can follow the directions on seed packets when to start seeds that’s a little bit more accurate for them but for us in Florida those directions don’t apply so that in itself is a nightmare if you’re a new Gardener because you’re reading those directions you’re planting

It you know how it says but your garden is failing so you feel like you’re the the problem you just you know you’re not a good Gardener no it’s just nothing is hatered the general information out there is not catered to floor climate specifically so you have you have no

Choice but to go connect with other Florida gardeners you know wherever that might be and learn from them hey there wonderful listeners I’m Amy your host from the garden glowup Channel and I’m thrilled to welcome you to the very first episode of The Garden glowup podcast today I’m joined by the

Incredible Hera and together we’ll be diving into the world of vegetable gardening in Florida for December 2023 and spilling the beans on our exciting plans for January 2024 whether you’re in Florida or in a tropical or subtropical climate this episode is tailor made for you now for our friends who are new to

Gardening the growing season in tropical climates is entirely different to temperate climates we kick things off in the fall and grow straight through the spring and wrap it up just as summer kicks in so at this point we’re about halfway through the growing season a warm welcome to Hera a gardening Guru

With roots in the Dominican Republic and a lifetime of Green Thumb expertise you can find her active on various social platforms check out the show notes for the links and her website where you can snag some of the seeds she recommends so Hara Spill the Beans how did December treat your

Garden December was really great actually um I I have to say compared to last year because last year I got hit by two hurricanes back to back like you know a lot of other Garners so that caused um and one of those was in November so all of the destruction and

Everything from all of that carried into December and it really it killed all my tomato um fall tomato crops it caused diseases and pests to go crazy because the extra moisture and everything um contributes to that so I had a really rough time last year this year I didn’t

Get hit directly um also Florida has been kind of in a we we received a lot less rain than what we normally do which is not good but it also helps a lot with controlling the pass diseases so my garden right now looks really good and the other unusual thing I guess every

Year is a little bit different you know um another unusual thing about this winter and December specifically is normally my first like cold Frost moves into the area the very last week of December and when I move by cold is freezing temperatures where you know I’m actually worried my plants would get

Damaged or something um and that happens on the DOT the last week of uh of of the last week of December for like the last five years that I’ve really been tracking it but this year it hasn’t arrived so I don’t know what that means a lot of people predicting this winter

Was going to be one of the coldest um I believe it started a little earlier because I got my first you know cold front in like the 40s in November which is odd usually that happens in December as well but it’s just it’s just showing how unusual you know Florida Winters can

Be fluctuates a lot every’s a little bit different um but because we have less rain I didn’t get hit by hurricanes and the weather has been warmer like I haven’t got know damaging Cold Yet the garden is really thriving this is the best um tomato season I’ve ever had

Everything’s really Lush even my squash plants that normally get you know eaten up by tons of worms and lots of powdery mildew and things are looking pretty good everything’s nice and green so I I’m very happy it’s been really good for me I don’t know about other people but

It’s been um an interesting but very good December for me that’s awesome so um for everybody out there Hera you’re in like Central Florida right I am Central Florida I’m located in Orlando I am now Zone 10A used to be 9 B but with you know the updated USDA Garden Z map

I’m now moved to 10A um so that’s pretty much my climate I’m considered a subtropical region of Florida and I’m in South Florida so my zone just got bumped up to Zone 11 um yeah which in my mind used to be for the keys but now it’s South Florida as well

Um the weather around here has been we had a storm that came in about a week ago and just kind of stopped everything because it just it was like this constant drizzle um which was fine for the garden and like you mentioned my garden is also looking very Lush and

Just like things are really getting big and just ready to harvest so things are looking awesome um I will say that for me I the Hurricanes you mentioned didn’t come by for us last year um so I can only imagine how much that just interrupted and the reason I mentioned

That is because right now the biggest obstacle I’ve had in my garden just at the holidays just passed and everything that was in the ground not in the ground but in my raised beds were is doing wonderful but everything that depended on me like all my seedlings have just

Taken a break and everything just like pauses exact like it feels like December was just this massive pause you know like things that we’re doing well are doing well things that you haven’t started like you can’t make that up you know it’s just where it is so well are

Your seedl just out like outside not covered or anything like that no so we got last year for the first time we got frost and it almost killed one of my banana trees but I would have probably not believed you if you would have been like oh yeah we get Frost and

We have to protect our plants I would have been like no you’re in Florida what are you talking about but last year for the first time it happened to me so um I do think that that’s a big difference between like Central Florida andth South Florida is that it sounds like that’s

Way more regular for you and if I get like one day where that happens it happens one time right no I totally agree with you you guys it’s like summer all year round for you guys and to get a frost is probably really odd I would say

Maybe you know 40s low 40s is even kind of odd for you guys but um seedlings and stuff um you know they they need warmth or they just don’t take off they actually just stop growing and like that um so I don’t put my seedlings outside just you know just outside unless you

Know it’s very warm a bright nice sunny day which we do get you know during winter um but in general I I used to start my seeds indoors for that very reason to control the temperature and and make sure that they just really took

Off and grew um but this year you know I have a nursery I have way too many plants to be you know bringing indoors and starting seeds indoors and I have two gardens too so I’m starting seeds for both that’s hundreds of things um so I have shelving units I have little mini

Green houses outside now so that I can start my seeds in there and keep them warm and it’s like nothing has happened it’s like there’s no cold nothing phases them they look great um so that’s you know definitely seeds are more so affected by Colder Weather than like a

Mature plant my mature tomato plants that I started back in or planted in September for my fall crop they’re huge plants by now and so some cold comes in you know low 40s even down to like 32 and stuff like that which is freezing now um they survive because we only get

That little bit of you know 32 or below for an hour or two May at in the middle of the night it’s not enough to kill the plant it might cause a little bit of damage on a mature you know plant but not enough to it but a seing it’s enough

To kill a ceiling so um you know I just I don’t put them Outdoors like that I make sure that they’re nice warm and happy especially right now I’m starting my whole Spring Garden and so those are all warm season crops that are even more so affected by those cooler

Temperatures that’s awesome okay so I want to jump in to what you have planned for spring but before we do that we’ve mentioned the Zone a few times um so I want to just talk about it real quick for maybe people who are hearing about it for the first time

Um would would you like to explain what happened yeah um hold on one second let me get over to a section here about the Zone hardiness changes all right so I actually did a whole YouTube video about this the the updated USDA garden zone map and what that means for you as a

Gardener uh it’s tough because all gardeners when you’re talking amongst each other you know we refer to our Gardens by the zone so I’ll say I’m a 10A Gardener you’re a Zone 11 Gardener and that really doesn’t give a good picture honestly of how similar the climates are um the only thing that

Zones accounts for tells you one thing and that is how cold it could potentially get in any random winter any year in your area that’s it it doesn’t account for other which I feel are more important things to consider about your own microclimate for your garden like

How much train do you get the kinds of pests and diseases that are in your area the type of soil you have how much sunlight like all of these factors contribute to your garden together as one so that garden zone data thing is just one little piece of that puzzle and

So to use that information in your garden basically it’s for when you’re you know shopping around at the nursery for new plants to add to your garden for choosing the correct types of perennial so perennial plants or fruit trees that kind of thing to make sure that they

Will survive your winter and therefore be perennial so that’s it um as using my garden as an example I’m Zone 10A I could potentially see weather down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit and actually over the last couple years I was labeled as Zone 10 or 9B actually for the last few years

Um I was tracking my own data and that is the lowest I’ve seen in my area 30° fhe so I actually agree with my change being bumped up to 10A which is that bracket of the lowest possible being 30 now that is an average though so the calculations the data and everything

That goes into calculating the um you know the the temperature ranges and stuff for each zone is just an average so there’s some years that are War there’s some years that are colder so randomly I would say maybe like for us here in Florida maybe one out of 10 is

Actually colder than that it might drop below 30 Dees fenhe so just you know when I’m picking out fruit trees and stuff I’ll research that cultivar name and pick one that is even just a tiny bit little bit more cold hearty than that 30 range I would say maybe 28 or 25

Degrees Fahrenheit just to make sure that if we do get that one out of 10 years that’s super cold for whatever reason that my garden is okay so that’s it that’s all that um Garden zones um help you with um you know and I feel like when they updated that map it

Caused a stir like all over the internet all over gardening um social media everyone was like freaking out mostly the newbies the new gardeners because they don’t understand yet like that is just one little thing about your garden and it it doesn’t really affect anything else you don’t have to change anything

Really because of that except for what perennials you’re picking for your garden um so I’m whole YouTube video about that because I wanted people to kind of like calm down a little bit like hey this isn’t a big deal I mean it only affects one little aspect of learning

But we need to focus on these other things as well so I also talked about I have a garden journal I take notes um for all sorts of different observations in my garden so that I can uh Master my microclimate understand it and so no matter what the zone I’m in whatever

Changes I’m okay I understand it for myself absolutely one of the things I had noticed was when I first started you find out that people in California are in similar zones but then when you really start understanding your area you’re like well why why can’t I do what

That Gardener over there is doing and then you realize like it’s what you’re saying the Zone it helps you understand when you’re new like maybe what your limits are researching a plant but in reality it’s just like a small indication of like what your area can

Handle and it’s not it’s not like oh okay if this packet says this is what you do in this Zone there’s some flexibility to that I would say and you have to take that into account and maybe follow local gardeners and they’ll they’ll be able to you in the right

Direction exactly you have to connect with your local gardeners wherever we can Facebook groups have been a big help to me I learn a lot from that YouTube channels whatever you got to do because I lived in Texas for three years same Zone as what I was in Florida and the

Climate was not the same okay they got they got our Winters there started earlier we received more cold fronts and it just lasted lingered much longer than you know the same Zone that I lived in in Florida it was so much more colder that I would actually see icicles

Forming off from like street signs and stuff I’m like you never see that here in Florida never see Al in Florida so we were the same Zone and Now gardening there as well but it was very different so again um it’s not going to account for how frequent you’re going to get a

Frost how early your frost date is your first and last um you know your first Frost of the winter season and your last frost of the spring season dates are going to be different even if you’re in the same Zone someone in California that’s the same Zone as me they don’t

Get much rain like it’s a very dry climate it’s more of a Mediterranean type climate when we’re like a rainforest there’s parts of Florida considered rainforest we have a monsoon season so California can’t grow like some of these things you know I I call it jungle gardening like that we do here

In the summer because they don’t have that humidity they don’t have that rain you know certain plants need that and then we can’t grow some of the things that they do because our climate is too wet and it’s like the reverse opposite so zones don’t account for any of that

At all it just tells you how cold the weather May get right I would say for if anybody’s out there and is a real newbie and is just kind of hearing these things for the first time one of the things that did help me for instance is when I

Did look at the zones and realizing that like in my mind if you’re a Florida Gardener you’re a Florida Gardener but now that you’re listening to us talk you might have realized we’re in different zones and we’re actually experiencing different environments and that’s that that was one of the ways in

Which it helped me was to just really wrap my head around the fact that like oh gardening in Central FLorida is not the same as gardening in South Florida and yeah there might be some um some rules of thumb that carry through but you really are going to see

Some big differences which is you know what the zones attempt to address so I would say that if you’re really new and you’ve never really heard about this before just keep it in mind that these things aim to help but they’re not going to capture everything so I think that’s

That’s what the zones are for right I mean it’s a good starting point of course you know get a grasp for it but then you really need to start learning the little nitty-gritty details about your garden and then Florida on its own is its own animal you know um we’re

Subtropical tropical climates there’s only certain other parts of the United States that are kind of similar so most of the southern states that border a coastline are considered subtropical but they still don’t get as nearly as enough rain as we do but they are considered subtropical and then you move South to

Through Florida More Southern and it’s now tropical rainforest and there’s only two other places in the United States that have that kind of a climate Hawaii and Puerto Rico so Hawaii Puerto Rico and Florida we’re like on our own everyone else is their own thing they can follow the directions on seed

Packets when to start seeds that’s a little bit more accurate for them but for us in Florida those directions don’t apply so that in itself is a nightmare if you’re a new Gardener because you’re reading those directions you’re planting it you know how it says but your garden

Is failing so you feel like you’re the the problem you just you know you’re not a good Gardener no it’s just nothing is hatered the general information out there is not catered to fla climate specifically so you have you have no choice but to go connect with other

Florida gardeners you know wherever that might be and learn from them if we say nothing else today that is like such a gem like Flo Florida and a few places in the US really stand out in terms of our climate and it’s it really is a totally different animal

Which is why I think local gardeners like you are so important because with somebody to show like for me um I just like having a garden to one learn but also like in the hopes of one day being able to feed my family you know like we’re getting there and we’re doing I’m

Doing the seed starting series and like certainly getting there and having little winds here and there but if it wasn’t for local gardeners I would have never gotten this far because there there really are no resources and that’s what I enjoy gardening I’ll put it on on TV and stuff

But a lot I find a lot of the resources are for temperate gardeners and if you’re in Florida that can really throw you for a loop for sure yeah and then like if you’re a northern Gardener you know a lot of people move here from the north

Um and you were a great Gardener up there right you you grew everything when you move down here you’re repeating your method your process for when you were up north and it totally doesn’t work here like all the time I see this you know people trying to grow tomatoes during

The summer ideally you know everyone thinks you know tomato is a summer crop that’s what you associate with but in Florida it’s a fall winter and very early spring crop it’s like the exact opposite so then they get all frustrated as well that they don’t understand you

What’s going on I used to be a great Gardener and moved down here now nothing grows well again you have to connect with Florida gardeners and learn from them I feel so bad every time I see somebody like in South Florida that moves and they’re like I just built a

Greenhouse and I’m like oh you can’t use a green you’re gonna you cloth if you put an AC in it maybe okay okay so with that would you like to transition into January and what are your plans for January and what we local gardeners should be thinking about all

Right so January is all about spring gardening and you know again those Northerners think we’re crazy when I say yeah I’m planting my tomatoes at the end of January that’s how it is here in I’m planting corn as well at the end of January and you’ll never see anywhere

Directions that say to do that but um you know spring gardening started for me um in November actually um I start pulling all my seeds deciding what I want to grow um for the next upcoming season and I make little baggies with months written on it so I know okay

January 1 I got a so seeds for all of this stuff February 1 this is the next round and that kind of helps me first off not miss anything you know Miss A SE or something and just stay organized and pce it out so you don’t feel overwhelmed so that’s kind of

How I strategize the whole thing but I started in November because some crops take three months to like get from seed to a nice transplant size like eggplants and peppers they just take forever they’re really slow to grow get a nice size that I prefer anyways to then you

Know put out in the garden so I started those in November but it’s not too late you know I I started some more in December I got some new seed and stuff and I just you know started those um but yeah it it really starts you know months

Ahead of time in November for me because my last spring Frost dat is the second week of February so I know you sth um Florida people if you get a frost or last spring Frost day is like January something whatever that might be so I’m

A I have a little bit more a couple more weeks of Colder cold weather compared to you guys but yeah so November I already started peppers and eggplants December is hitting the Tomatoes um so all of my tomatoes have been um started from seed right now or because my plants are still

Alive back there we didn’t get a you know a bad cold front or anything yet I can take cuting and just root those and not have to start all the way from seed excuse me um and then January is uh you know other remaining things like cucumbers

Squash lofa Moringa like all of these other um peerbits and stuff like that melons if I decide to um start those early like indoors or something but I will to direct those seeds as much as possible it’s less work and the plants take off faster than if you started

Something earlier um indoors and then planted it out like I’ve compared so if I had a little transplant that I started months ago it’s ready to be transplanted and then I pop in a a seed like a direct seed seed at that moment that direct the seed oops this that direct seed always

Takes takes off takes off much faster than that transplanted so um you know you got to gauge what’s going to be either start something early indoors or just direct sew it from seeds so January is more of that kind of a focus um and then February is direct sewing seeds for

War weather so like instead of this year I’m not going to start my cucumber seed indoors I’m going to wait to just direct sew them so that’ll be the month of February um along with other melons and stuff like that now um knowing that I’m going to be transplanting some things starting in

January um I know I get at least one maybe two more not severe like freezing temperatures usually 40s something like that and you know tomato seedlings warm weather crops they don’t like that so I am prepared I have um you know I’ll cut the bottom off from milk jugs flip them

Over to make like a little mini Greenhouse over that seedling or flip some cardboard boxes over you know whatever you got to do this year I got some um actual Hoops I’m going to you know uh because I tend to plant all my tomatoes in rows so I was like let some

Hoops this time and set up some cloth and just um do the whole row you know and get it all done at once if you know if we get that kind of cold but um yeah so don’t do that unless you’re prepared to protect your plants otherwise just

Wait until your last um spring Frost Aid has passed but by doing that I uh get a head start on my season by at least like three weeks some sometimes times or more so um yeah January is spring gardening just pure you know planning it figuring

Out where I’m going to plant stu um I draw Maps even of my garden so I can kind of place things around and taking care of all my seedlings fertilizing them getting them to be just as healthy as possible so that I can transplant them out into the

Garden I love what you said about direct sewing because while I’ve been doing my seed starting series The Way way I thought about it was I felt like I had more control if I did everything in seed starters but especially with some of the bigger plants that you were mentioning the

Squashes the Cucumbers I realized that when I transplanted them out they were just simply not they didn’t transplant well and I was really surprised I was like why did this happen and so I exactly what you had said about direct sewing I was like well maybe that’s

Something I need to try a little bit more um in order to maybe get some of these plants that I do know are Vig they’re vigorous growing plants they need a lot of space um but maybe that’s something that I need to attempt a little bit more

And just test them out like one versus the other that’s the good thing about Growing Seeds is that like they’re so cheap you can test you know yeah if you get quality seed like it’s going to germinate some people put a lot of seed and thin out and throw

Stuff away because they feel like oh you know I’m not going to get good germination but if you get seed from a quality Source they’re going to germinate so I literally put one or two tomato seeds in you know I do them in Solo cups I know that they both Al

Always germinate so you’re not wasting seed and time you know thinning things out absolutely so I I agree with you I’ve had um like as I’ve been doing the seed staring series and testing everything out everything germinates and so that was it was encouraging in the

Sense of okay like you kind of have this down and so now it becomes like a sense of finessing like why didn’t this plant do well when I did this you know um so it’s exactly what you’re saying I think with some of the bigger and more vigorous plants I’m going to attempt

Direct sewing them because I thought I’d be like drowning in cucumbers and squashes and that’s not the case when I transplanted them out they really struggled and I was really surprised so um I’ll be testing that out but also in terms of just planting out in the raised

Beds again for some reason I thought if I started everything in seed starters it gives you more control but then what I realized was I felt like I lost out on a lot of time that if I would have direct sewn in the beds some some of the things that I’ve

Direct seone have done much better than the things that I started in the seat starters and that for was very surprising I thought if you like had some sense of control things would naturally do better like okay I’ve babied this seed from start to finish but apparently that’s not always the

Case it just depends like you know us being here in Florida we have that luxury we have such a long growing season that we can wait to direct those seeds um so those bigger crops the Cucumbers the squashes things like that when they sprout they’re big they’re noticeable you’re not going to forget

About it right so go ahead and you know direct sew those seeds out now if you’re a northern Gardener with a short growing you kind of have no choice but to get started indoors to give them a little bit of a head start but you know I find

That when they are in a container they know it’s like they sense there’s no room for them to to go or take off almost like if you you know have a fish in a little fish tank and then all of a sudden you put it in a big one it starts

Growing um it’s kind of like it takes some period of time to adjust and recognize like oh I’m I’m in the ground now I can go crazy um and then they start you know catching up and like putting out that new growth and really taking off and expand but you know if

You’re in a warm weather climate you can skip a lot of that and with the bigger stuff anyways pop that seed in the ground and it’s going to take off super quick and and just be more healthy and vigorous and already adjusted to your climate you’re not going to have to go

Through the whole transplant shock and bringing them Outdoors for a couple hours so they get cool sun and then bringing them back in and that whole thing is really annoying um but yeah that works for us here in Florida but if you’re in the north not so much you you

Probably still have to start seeds indoors for a lot of things absolutely so can you tell us what plants you’re thinking about when it comes to January like which are do you think are the ones we really shouldn’t be missing out on like now’s the prime time to get started with these

Well um it’s going to depend what you like to eat I always say you know pick what you know the fruits and veggies and stuff that you personally like to eat like why are you going to dedicate Garden space and put on all that work for something that you honestly just

Don’t enjoy starts with that like just start thinking about you know what what do you like to eat what do you want to eat it’s consider a spring crop and summer crop because that’s another thing too I like to plant out all of my summer

When I say summer I mean like what the traditional American culture beams a summer crop like tomatoes cucumbers stuff like that um I like to start all that stuff and planted in with um my spring crops at the same time summer and spring because our summer is so hot and

Intense and rainy and diseases and everything that it it kills all of those traditional summer crops so I find I’m much more successful do watermelons and stuff and I know Florida we grow lots of melons the farmers you know even in the middle summer but those are farmers they

Have equipment they have expertise I don’t know how they do it I struggle I personally I struggle with melons um there’s a couple that work out really great for me like the kajari melons I love that one but um so yeah so I started thinking about spring and summer

Crops what do I want to um grow this season and I plant them all or at least start them from seed at the same time in January um by the time April and May Come Around My mindset is now shifting to Jungle crops that’s what I call it jungle crops super tropical heat

Tolerant stuff which tends to be lesser known things maybe you being in South Florida you’re obviously going to be a lot more familiar with those things than um you know people here I’m really familiar with them because my family is from the Dominican Republic so like Yuka

Uh pigeon peas uh we don’t eat loofah but that’s something that a lot of Asian um you know cultures they eat loofah bitter melon um yard long beans so like all these super um heat tolerant they thrive in tropical um climates that’s what I’m planting in April and May and

That’s what’s going to carry me through my summer not these traditional things not the tomatoes and cucumbers I mean I do grow some of the Asian varieties of cucumbers like China Jade is like my favorite um and they do very well you speak you mentioned the kajari melons

And you mentioned the chines Cucumbers I’m taking notes yeah China Jade is I I have quite a few different um cucumber varieties on my website and they’re all they’re all great but China Jade is just my favorite and it’s probably one of the number one seeds and I sell out of it

All the time and I have to keep like pling whole you know crops of it and replenish my seeds but it’s just it’s just fantastic um so I definitely recommend that for Florida you’re still going to get the diseases you know even when something is said to be high you

Know disease and pest resistant you’re still going to get them it just takes maybe longer for them to finally start coming through and actually affecting the plant and that plant or that variety can kind of handle more of it before it actually really starts affecting it so

You still got to stay on top of spraying and managing you know the health of your plants and stuff but definitely you know choosing the correct varieties of things um is going to help you a lot or at least reduce the work of keeping that plant alive and helping you be

Successful at the end of the the day with your Harvest um so yeah January is just finishing up sewing any seeds that I want to do indoors that whole thing planting out um my tomatoes corn um beans well I don’t plant the corn and beans out I start those in 72 cell sea

Trays because the soil is still kind of too cold for me here in Central Florida um so I find uh sewing you can sew those um you know from seed indoors um and then I start planting those out like the first week of February something like that um so yeah

Lots of work January is uh probably one of the most intensive months I would say December and January for sewing spring and summer you know I’m sewing two seasons at the same time that’s a lot and another time of the year that gets real busy with seed sewing is July and

August for all the fall stuff so that’s kind of the cycle that I go through every year yes absolutely um one of the things you mentioned and it it reminded of something in my garden is that for me my eggplant you can always see they’re getting attacked but they will always

Bear fruit and you’re like it it’s just like I don’t know what pests are so attracted to them but they always they’ll always grow they’ll always bear fruit and it’s just kind of like they’re not pretty you know like when you look at it you’re like this is not a pretty

And it would be if it wasn’t getting attacked by stuff but it gets constantly attacked it doesn’t really seem to affect anything else um but it bears fruit so you’re kind of just like well why not you know and you just I let it do it

Thing last year I grew a lot of different eggplants I really went crazy and experimented with them and you’re absolutely right there’s some pests that just go crazy over eggplant more than even my tomatoes and stuff and I um spring and summer I was dealing with so

Many um squash bugs or stink bugs because they were attracted to eggplants I guess they were all over them they were laying eggs all over them had to like really keep up with it more so than any other year um you know I I have not grown as much eggplant the previous

Years as I did this year so I do blame it all the eggplants but those plants are tough they survived they survived through my summer they continued producing for me through my summer which is great finding something that will still produce in the that and they’re still alive right now

And they will I have eggplants that survive two sometimes even three years for me um so they last much longer than peppers and tomatoes in comparison so you know and because of that I’ve grown to appreciate them and love them and I try you know to learn new recipes with

Them because I’ll tell you they were not my favorite before um but you know and you know any kind of vegetable and stuff that I’ve thought I did not like uh it completely changed my mind when I started growing it myself um the flavor the texture everything is far super to

Anything you can find at the grocery store and it you know I have not grown something to date that I’ve tasted it and thought I don’t like this you know it’s a world of a difference so egg was one of those things for me I’ve grown to

Really appreciate over the years I grow all sorts of different varieties it’s one of those things that we’ll still produce in the middle of summer in Florida so it’s winner absolutely you mentioned something earlier that I wanted to pick your brain on um you mentioned that you’re growing peppers so

Down here I can grow hot peppers but not sweet peppers really is that a South Florida thing you all don’t grow sweet peppers I think it is um do they stop producing for you is that what it is no they get P they get so I started some and they got

So much scale that it just just I had to I mean and I’m talking about like I had just trans like oh wow these seedlings are doing so nicely I transplanted them out and then they did not do well at all um but I have heard from everybody in

South Florida like if you can get one sweet pepper to grow like consider yourself lucky maybe you kind of hit the jackpot once in your life and that’s it but we have much better luck with um not luck our environment is much better for hot peppers do you are in Central Florida do

Sweet PE do sweet peppers happen for you oh yeah I I grow sweet peppers and I do I grow hot peppers as well and I do notice that the hot peppers are far more vigorous they handle the heat better they still produce in the middle of the

Heat and those plants survive and I feel like not too many pests and stuff bother them I I almost want to say I don’t know what’s the chemical name of whatever it is makes PE pepper spicy but I thought I did some research about it and read

Something that that chemical is in all parts of that plant so nothing wants to eat it you know not even I have not even found nematodes on the roots of hot peppers so yeah they’re going to grow really great in our hot and crazy weather and not be too affected by too

Many pests and diseases I still grow um sweet peppers but I find that they grow much better in spring or in fall and I do you know plant out a whole bunch of them um right as soon as my last spring frosted has passed that’s February I start harvesting like crazy like April

May and then when that heat starts coming they they really have a hard time with that they they stop producing for one they’re not going to produce and I get I tend to get like white ply and stuff like that but most of those are present because it’s just very humid and

Wet and they love I guess wet leaves rppers and stuff like that so I just have to monitor and stay on top of it but if I can get that pepp plant to survive and hit fall time when the temperatures drop it’s more temperate they pick right back up and producing

Again but normally um they’re not peral for me like you know a lot of people will pull out their pepper plants and bring them in for the winter and perennial or whatever but um I just find like with age they really decline in production and stuff like that and they

Just get sickly whatever so I would rather start from scratch with new pepper plants than um you know saving them but you know if you’re up north and you have a very short um warm season saving your pepper plants is is very strategic because you need you need that

Plant to be as big as possible and it you know immediately start growing for you um so that you know differen is there between the different climates here I have plenty of time I’m just going to Res start mine and have nice healthy vigorous plants again agreed

That’s so interesting to know that you can do it I’m very jealous I I love sweet peppers and also like you had mentioned grow what you want to eat which was when I started gardening which that was all I wanted I was like if I could grow because I also like my

My mother’s Cuban so I like if I could grow peppers onions and garlic that’s a Sofrito you know and like that goes into everything we eat and it would just be such a responsible way in my mind of gardening like you’ve you’re going to provide your family with quality food um

You don’t have to do everything you you just focus on the things that you know you’re going to eat um but that’s a lot harder to do than you would think um yeah but in Cuba they are sweet peppers you might want to investigate what cultivars and things they grow there you

Know that’s definitely hotter than us here do you guys use a Kuka if I’m saying that correctly a lot in your cooking um so I I heard about that for the first time within the past year because okay I know the food can be a little bit different between the Dr in

Cuba Cubans are like as this is a rule of thumb do not eat spicy food so literally heard I and I’ve grown up in a kitchen with Cuban women and I heard about katuka for the first time within the past year so I actually do have some

Of it growing out in my garden um but literally heard about it for the first time in the past year but I I agree with you about the cult of ours I didn’t realize that I will look into it and see if I can find the same Cult of

Ours and maybe I’ll have some like that yeah I mean I look at uh the Caribbean I mean obviously my family’s from the Dominican Republic so I to our country for inspiration on what to grow here Asia Africa South America you know those things will grow really well in Florida

It might not traditional like you know well we’re you know Latin American you know descent or Caribbean so we’re already kind of used to eating those things um whereas like typical standard American C and Cuisine aren’t that familiar with them so part of what I try

To do is teach about it you know teach about these other alternative crops because I feel like the rest of the world eats them it’s just not Americans that eat them um especially Yuka I love Yuka I mean I’m Dominican and pigeon pees guas all that stuff and they go

Fantastic in Florida but um so part of my goal this year is to put more cont out there about these props and things that me and my family we grow together on the SEC on my second Garden my aunt’s property she has a couple acres in St Cloud still Central Florida we get

Together there and we we have our garden we grow those bigger uh typical you know Dominican crops there along with chickens and bees we do all of that over there I’m the one that experiments more with like the traditional like bro broccoli and tomatoes and stuff like

That because that’s what I like to eat so I I have it all I have a little bit from all um both cultures or whatever but um yeah definitely taking inspiration from other countries and trying out things um people are you know kind of intimidated sometimes like bitter melon or eating loofah or

Something because you just you don’t know anything about it but I encourage you you know go to your Asian grocery stores or Latin American grocery stores and check out you know try different fruits and vegetables bring them back home some recipes or go eat at you know

Local restaurants and try it I guarantee you you’re going to like it like like it and be inspired to try growing it in your own that’s a great Point um I know that a lot of the things that do well in South Florida gardens are typically Asian

Cultivars um so that’s true of the Cucumbers um things like Thai Basil if you enjoy basil we cannot grow Italian basil in South Florida that’s not going to H I mean maybe you can force it but that’s very unlikely but if you are okay with Thai Basil which gives more or less

It’s the same flavor it’s just a smaller Leaf you’re going to really enjoy it and it’s the red to grow in our climate so you could if you make those intelligent like choices um you can really grow a lot of things that you wanted okay so I did want to point out

One last thing which was you again you mentioned grow what you want to eat UF has a great um planting guide that divides Florida into North Central and South Florida and gives you a good idea as to what you can plant when um I can leave a link in the description box

Below but they break it down month by month so if anybody’s out there thinking about well what can I grow grow and when I’ll leave that um in the description box because I think that was a great idea by that was a great gem by Hera um

And truly there are resources out there that can point you in the right direction so that you you can kind of skip the phase of like well I tried it in June and it didn’t work you know so that’s available yeah I’ve seen those the calendars that they put out the

Monthly calendars and they are accurate I I definitely dug into that you know when I was trying to figure out what you know what to plant what to when to grow these things we getting started um but it doesn’t really explain like seed starting you know because some things take one month

Two months three months all of that you got to backtrack learn how to calculate those things um but at least it tells you like okay you can plant this this month now backtrack now you have to do the work of backtracking and figure out all right I need to start seats in

December or whatever that might be but that that thing is so accurate though it is a great starting point for you know everyone um in the state Florida specifically absolutely okay Hara so do you have any last comments no okay so that’s a wrap for today’s Garden Globe podcast a massive thank you

To our incredible guest Hera for sharing her wealth of gardening wisdom but before you go we want to hear from you please share your gardening experiences and questions related to December and January Garden we’d love to connect with you and see how your Gardens are thriving in different areas drop us a

Comment or send us your questions and don’t forget to mention your location and for more of hara’s magic check out the show notes for links to her social platforms and website where you can sag some fantastic seeds Hera has a fantastic spring spring themed collaboration project Brewing featuring

Gardeners from all corners of the country it’s dropping on her YouTube channel this January so don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button and catch the video and also mark your calendars because Hara has some live classes coming your way first up on Sunday January 21st at 400 p.m. Eastern it’s

All about planting and growing heirloom tomatoes then on Sunday February 25th at 3 p.m. Eastern she’ll be sharing the secrets of getting started with backyard chickens which I think is super cool by the way and ah heads up hara’s running a spring garden sale on all seeds and

Plants on her website until January AR 15th so you better hustle over and get there before you miss out on the sale a massive thank you to everyone tuning in to our Ina inaugural podcast if you enjoyed the show don’t forget to hit like subscribe and drop us a comment

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