While this looks bad, it has a purpose: saving Malabar Spinach seed. The plants are left so that the seeds will mature and dry on the vine. I have tried several ways to save this seed and this is by far the easiest. Only downfall of saving seed in this manner is that the birds eat the berries and then poop it all over the yard (where it grows as a volunteer). After trying to harvest seed several times when the berry is not completely dry on the vine all I receive is lovely, purple-stained hands.
Close up of Malabar Spinach seeds.
Aloe grows so well here that I grow it in a pot or the babies would take over the yard. The fire ants love it too unfortunately.
Happy Ceylon Spinach that self sows itself. This plant grows well in SWFL summers too. Treat it as an annual and yank it out occasionally because root knot nematodes get after its roots.
This time of the year, this weed appears throughout our gardens. We only half fight it since we eat it. Being in the nettle family, some people are allergic to it and get an itch.
Read more here: http://www.eattheweeds.com/pellitory-parietaria-is-a-whiz-2/
Watch a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM86QCcBZN4
A cranberry hibiscus stand. If you have never tried these leaves, put it on your bucket list. The tangy flavor and color are wonderful to add to salads. My 4-H youth LOVE to eat this plant. To keep this from getting leggy, prune often, then take the prunings and shove them in the ground to make new plants. The soil you shove them into needs to be moist so select an appropriate location or wait until summer to do this. NOTE: this plant is considered invasive in SWFL.
Above four images are a lemon guava. Mine blooms whenever it feels like it. Matures with small lemon-looking guavas. This plant is near the entrance to my house so we just pick and eat as we see them turn yellow. So far this has been a low-care plant. My only objection is that sometimes the fruit never mature. They stay green and hard. It has been suggested that they need a chill for better fruiting. They have had two chills so far this year so we are hoping that all the fruit matures.
I promise to show you the ugly too. Here is my Okinawa Spinach. About this time of the year it always looks like this then turns black. Thankfully other plants are happy to fill in around it. Giving it a severe haircut is my solution and it has worked well for me most years. My plan B is to start new plants from cuttings.
The orange flowered plant is nasturtium and it loves this time of the year. The seeds are scattered at the start of fall and we just wait until it decides to grow because it has a mind of its own. Leaves, flowers, and seeds are edible. Leaves have a peppery flavor and best added to salads. This is NOT a summer plant here in SWFL.
These pots show how I grow mint for tea. This "plot" was recently harvested so it shows how we grow it in pots. This area gets quite a bit of shade and the pots are wrapped around a sprinkler head that pops up in the air to reach the tops of the plants. Lazy harvest includes waiting until there is a good rain (so I don't have to wash), trimming mint to about 3 inches of the soil, removing only the dead, brown leaves, then allowing the vines to dry inside in a well ventilated area. After the mint is dry, use scissors to cut the vines into lengths you can manage and store. When making tea, use the stems and all. Mints will grow year-round in SWFL and can take over your yard if you don't grow in pots.
Garlic chives are in my landscaping. They survive our summers and look like a clumping grass until you look close up. Easy care. The only thing we do is snap the occasional flower heads off so that it does not self sow all over the yard and divide occasionally.
