What can we grow in November in Florida

Think Green!

Our fall, winter and early spring months are perfect for growing your greens. Granted, greens is a broad term, but most common vegetables gardeners grow and enjoy in Florida are lettuce, bok choy and radish. Radish, although not commonly thought as "green" does provide it's contribution for a salad in a form of young tender leaves.

I usually grow a lot of Romaine lettuce from October through the end of April, seeding every month:

If you have never grown lettuce in Florida, you owe it to yourself to get a package of Romaine and seed it now. There is absolutely no comparison to the lettuce you can get in a grocery store. Lettuce picked from your own yard straight to the plate is crispy, juicy and tasty. Could you believe it, lettuce actually has taste? Try growing it in your garden to find out, you would be amazed.

I also grow other greens, such as Kale, Mustard greens, bok choy and broccochini (broccoli that does not grow heads). Pictured below is Kale, a green that is extremely high in vitamins and minerals:

You can seed radish every two weeks, just a small patch, to have fresh radishes through the end of April:

And last, but not least, you can start now and grow your favorite herbs, dill and parsley. Here's dill:

And Italian parsley:

You can also seed snap peas now to have a harvest in March and April.

Plant all these vegetables in full sun, this is very important. Florida gardening is "upside down". In the summer we shade tomatoes and peppers, and in the winter we give our greens full sun. If you plant greens in the shade they will grow spindly with very few leaves and radish might not produce the bulbs.

How to grow bok choy in the summer

It is very difficult to grow lettuce or other salad greens in Florida summers. But the salad of only tomatoes and peppers gets boring. I decided to try to grow bok choy for the greens and so far the experiment proved successful. Bok choy is a type of oriental cabbage that has juicy green leaves and stems, and can be eaten raw or cooked. I planted Toy Choy variety that does not grow tall. I planted it in a shady spot completely shaded by tomatoes from all sides, except Northern side. I water it every day and pick the leaves almost every day as a tasty addition to my salads:

Here's a close up of a couple of bok choy plants:

Ten to twenty plants will give you daily pickings for probably a couple of months. Bok choy needs to be watered daily and grown in the shade. It is very high in vitamins A, B, C and K. So, try growing some bok choy in your summer garden and enjoy tasty alphabet nutrition!