July has been such a blessing to me this year. Like I mentioned last month, I have always hated Florida summers. I moved here in the 9th grade from Springfield, VA (lived in Alaska before that) and the heat and humidity have always had me longing to move away. I have house-hunted, sighed over plants that I could never grow here, looked for jobs, and schools and lived in the maybes of my future.
We’re coming up on almost 10 living in this house. My “only for a few years” house… and it occurred to me that I have spent all this time focusing on what I dislike and that I can’t plant perennials because “I’m not going to live here that long”, that I didn’t realize that I there were ways for me actually to enjoy the summer. Looking back, I should have just planted the plants when I wanted to because not only would I be basking in almost a decade of growth. I didn’t realize that the very thing that I was putting off was the thing that would allow me to love the things that I hated.
Even though my soil was shit, I have still managed a harvest and had personal gardening accomplishments. I harvested 2 Noir des Carmes melons. The first was watery in the not-juicy but got-to-much-rain kind of way but was still good. The second melon was smaller but stronger cantaloupe melon flavor. I saved a shit ton of seeds because I managed not one but 3 successful plants. All of which produced fruit even though the bugs got to the others before I did.
My volunteer Wild Boar Farms Blue Berry Tomato (seeds purchased from Baker Creek) has been a powerhouse and my okra plants are starting to thrive to where I can eat off of those. We’re not getting much okra yet- just enough for a snack here and there (I make an awesome roasted okra on toast).
But the best blessing of all? The flowers. I had TONS of volunteer plants that are producing just the most beautiful flowers and the Floret Flower seeds that I purchased are just so pretty and help the more vibrant varieties stand out.
Not only that, the variety of pollinators that the flowers draw in is unreal. One of the most magical garden moments for me is when I walk outside in the morning to drink coffee or smoke a bowl, and the sun is coming up, the flowers are vibrant, and the multitudes of butterflies fly around me as I check on my plants. I have seen approximately 5 species of butterflies and 1 month varieties (the moths are more difficult for me to find & identify). Honey and bumble bees too. I love seeing the wildlife that comes through and seeing this little micro-ecosystem grow and thrive. I want to attract all the butterflies and now am really looking into specific plants to draw certain ones in.
