June Garden Guide

June is the official start of summer. May marks a shift from traditional gardening to what I like to call "jungle gardening". Summer is intensely hot and rainy depending on where you're located. Tropical crops easily survive and produce. I look to other sub tropical countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean as inspiration for the types of crops that will grow best during the upcoming months. 

Get a printable checklist PDF version of this guide to keep you on track, via email HERE.

Check out the video version of this guide on my YouTube channel

Squash/Pumpkin - Direct sow seeds now. If you want to grow squash or pumpkins during the summer, pick cultivars in the Cucurbita Moschata or Cucurbita Argyrosperma groups. This group boasts thicker and harder stems that make it more difficult for pests such as squash bugs and vine borers to get into. Examples include Seminole pumpkin, calabaza, Lunga di Napoli, Mayan calabacita squash, Musquee de Provence pumpkin, Tahitian squash, Waltham butternut squash, and tromboncino rampicante. I'm not saying you wont get pests. It is just that these cultivars can handle a lot of pest damage before ultimately dying so it increases your chances of harvesting something. I use spinosad or BT sprays to control worms and other chewing insects. 

• Find the spinosad and BT from Amazon HERE.
• Check out my How to Grow Squash and Zucchini From Seed YouTube video tutorial HERE.

Cucumbers - Direct sow seeds. Don't grow the traditional market or slicer types of cucumbers because they struggle in high heat, disease, and pest situations. Instead choose hybrids that have a good disease resistance package or heirloom Asian cucumbers. Examples include Sooyow Nishiki, China Jade, and Japanese Long. These varieties will grow much better in the heat of summer, and increase your chances of harvesting something. Cucamelons are another great option to grow during the summer. They look like miniature watermelons and grow very well in high heat conditions, and although they are not in the same family as cucumbers, you can pickle them to get something very similar to pickles. Another idea is Indian Snake cucumbers. This is a very long light green colored melon that can be used like cucumbers. It has a very mild flavor, it does not taste like a melon. This is from India and tolerates a decent amount of heat. Seeds are hard to find, I will put some on my website as I harvest, process, and dry the seeds.  Spray with 1 cup hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water to treat any leaf disease.

• Check out my How to Grow Cucumbers from seed to harvest YouTube video HERE.

Melons & Watermelons - Direct sow seeds. Choose early maturing personal size varieties. You want to grow them quickly and harvest them out as soon as possible. Choose things like Kajari melons from India, or personal sized watermelons like Sugar Baby, or early maturing varieties like Moon & Stars. 

Bean Crops: Yard long beans, cow peas, southern peas, winged beans, long beans, beans grown to shell and dry like black beans and pigeon peas -  Direct sow seeds. Traditional bush and pole beans do not grow well in summer heat. The most similar option to a green bean in my opinion is yard long beans and the Thai Soldier long bean. They take the heat and rain like a champ. Not to mention, they are extremely productive. Pigeon peas take over 6 months to start producing from seed so only grow this if you have a very long growing season and barely any frost during the winter. They actually bloom and produce the most during the cool season. 

• Check out my how to grow yard long beans from seed to harvest YouTube video HERE.

Luffa aka Loofah - Soak seeds overnight before direct sowing. If you're not interested in growing luffa for the sponges, grow it to help the butterflies and bees. Luffa is actually a gourd, and when harvested young (no more than 7 inches) can be eaten just like zucchini. A lot of people say it tastes better than zucchini.

• Check out my How to Germinate Luffa Seeds tutorial on YouTube  HERE.

• Check out my How to Germinate Moringa Seeds tutorial on YouTube HERE.

Okra - Direct sow seeds or transplant. Okra produces a lot of food per plant without issue even if its extremely hot. I recommend spineless varieties so you don't scratch yourself up at harvest time. Also, give each plant plenty of space, there are some dwarf cultivars that get around 3 to 4 feet tall, but the standard okra can get 6 to 8 feet tall.

Flowers - Transplant or direct sow seeds. These are my recommendations on flowers that handle the heat, pests, and diseases pretty well during the summer. Amaranth, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, moonflowers, celosia, blanket flower, lantana, salvia, and marigolds. 

Check out my how to grow sunflowers tutorial HERE.

Herbs - Transplant or sow seeds. Say goodbye to traditional herbs LOL. Mine literally evaporate overnight. Focus on tropical heat loving herbs like Ginger, Shampoo Ginger (Awapuhi), Turmeric, Galangal, Thai basil, Mint, Agastache (Korean Mint), Green Onions, Bay Leaf, Cuban Oregano, Thai Double Blue Butterfly Pea, Roselle, Lemongrass, Papalo, Tulsi or Holy basil, Garlic Chives. 

• Check out my how to grow Papalo (heat tolerant cilantro substitute without the soapy flavor), from seed to harvest HERE.
• Watch my how to grow shampoo ginger YouTube video HERE.

Heat tolerant greens - Transplant or sow seeds. I like to sprinkle seeds in the bare spots of my garden. Choose a spot that gets lots of morning sun with some afternoon shade. Mix in some blood meal (high in nitrogen for lush leafy growth) into the soil before you direct sow the seeds to give them a boost. You can experiment with some indoor grow setups to continue growing lettuce. Otherwise plant these heat tolerant greens: Longevity Spinach, Okinawan Spinach, Katuk, Malabar Spinach, Yerba Mate, Chaya, Sissoo Spinach, Molokhia, Surinam spinach, sweet potato leaves, New Zealand Spinach & South Sea Salad Tree.  

Corn - Direct sow seeds. You can grow sweet corn but just know, the plants don't grow all the way to their normal mature size due to high heat (heat units). Stalk will be shorter which means cobbs will be smaller. You might want to consider growing dent, flint, popcorn, or maize instead which handles the heat better. I also recommend sweet corn varieties bred by the University of Hawaii as they grow much better in the heat (Google them). Be prepared for the corn earworm. The worms that attack corn are a little bit tougher than the regular worms that attack the rest of my crops. I highly recommend the use of spinosad which also kills worms on contact. Spray at the first signs of worm damage on the leaves to prevent the worms from making their way into the ear of corn. If they get into the ear of corn, they are protected and spraying will no longer work. They will eat the ear of corn from the inside out.

• Find the spinosad and BT from Amazon HERE. 
• I have a corn growing guide on my YouTube channel HERE.

Peppers - Transplant only. Try growing tropical types of sweet peppers that handle the heat better like aji cachucha also called aji dulce, and a Florida native pepper called Datil, and there are two varieties of Datil pepper, one is hot and one is sweet. Hot peppers seem to thrive during the summer so it is ok to transplant any variety.

• Watch my how to transplant peppers guide HERE.

Eggplant - Transplant only. Experiment with eggplant varieties that grow in tropical climates like the Thai Lavender Frog or Thai Pea eggplant. They produce straight through the summer unlike traditional eggplants. 

• Watch my how to grow eggplants from seed to harvest tutorial HERE.

Tomatoes - If your last spring frost date was in April or May, then you can transplant tomatoes now in June. They are a summer crop for you. However, if you're a hot climate gardener, tomatoes do not grow well during the summer. Once temperatures get above 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit, they stop growing and flowering which means you won't get any production. It is for this reason that I grow my tomatoes in fall, winter, and spring. Right now in June, all of my tomato plants are done. I'm going to start pulling them out and I'll probably put a cover crop in their place. I will start sowing tomato seeds indoors in July to plant in September, so soon enough I will be growing tomatoes again. You might get away with some extra tough hybrid cherry tomatoes that have a robust disease package, or try growing the Everglades tomato.

• Check out my YouTube video tomato playlist for tons of info about growing tomatoes HERE. 

Tropical root crops - Cassava (yucca), malanga, taro, boniato, yacon (earth apple), eddo, yautia, jicama, and sweet potatoes. Transplant into the garden. The options most similar to a fluffy texture like potatoes after being cooked is edible taro, malanga, coco yam, boniato, and true yams. Please see the list below of how long it takes to harvest after planting. These crops do take a long time but each plant produces way more pounds of food per plant than potatoes do. If you plant now, you're not going to be harvesting until the end of fall or even next year, which means these plants will go through your winter season. These are great options for those of you with mild winters, no snow. Otherwise, the plants will die during your winter and you won't harvest anything next year.

Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) 3-6 months
Boniato/batatas (Ipomoea batatas) 4-6 months
Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus) 5-9 months
Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) 6-7 months
True yams/Name (Dioscorea family) 6-11 months
Eddo (Colocasia Antiquorum) 7 months
Taro (Colocasia Esculenta) 7-12 months
Yuca/Cassava (Manihot esculenta) 9-12 months
Malanga/yautia (Xanthosoma Sagittifolium and Xanthosoma atrovirens) 10-12 months

Sweet Potatoes - The fastest growing root crop option are sweet potatoes so I recommend this for those of you with shorter warm growing seasons. They can be ready for harvest in as little as 3 months - if growing in ideal conditions (full sun, lots of water, rich soil, and fertilizer). Personally I like to harvest sweet potatoes when they are 5 to 6 months old to ensure they are big tubers. Also the leaves are edible so you can add sweet potatoes to the list of heat tolerant leafy greens too. 

Rice - Direct sow seeds. Rice thrives in high heat and lots of rain, which is perfect for rainy Florida summers. It is a great crop to plant in areas that flood where you otherwise wouldn't be able to grow anything edible. 

Fruit Crops -  These can be planted outdoors from crowns/transplants. Just keep them watered until they are established. In Florida, June can be a dry month at the beginning, so pay extra attention to young fruit trees until the rainy season starts. 

I divided this list into Cold Climate Fruits and Hot Climate Fruits - if you're a cold climate gardener, meaning it snows during your winter, plant the cold fruits. If you have mild winters like me, no snow, plant the hot fruits. 

• Cold Climate Fruits: Stone Fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums), Pears, Grapes/Muscadine Grapes, Mulberries, Apples, North American Cherry, Pawpaw, Kiwi, Fig, Blackberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Persimmons, Pomegranate, Currants, Cranberry
• Hot Climate Fruits: Stone Fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums), Grapes/Muscadine Grapes, Avocados, Pineapples, Mulberries, Bananas, Plantains, Barbados Cherry, Mangoes, Grumichama, Soursop, Lychee, Citrus, Jaboticaba, Sugar Cane, Loquat, Jujube, Persimmons, Passion Fruit, Dragon Fruit, Fig, Blackberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Papaya, Guava, Vietnamese Pomegranate, Longan, Star Fruit, Sapodilla, Mamey Sapote, Cherry of the Rio Grande, Quenepa/Mamoncillo, Ice Cream Bean, Surinam Cherry, Atemoya, Jackfruit, Pitangatuba.
• Check out my how to grow barbados cherry guide HERE.
• Check out my how to grow muscadine grapes tutorial HERE.