Over the past couple weeks, Florida has fully entered its āwalk outside and instantly meltā phase. One day it still felt like springā¦then suddenly the temperatures shot up into the 90s with enough humidity to make the air feel drinkable.
The backyard has been changing quickly because of it too. Some plants are struggling, summer growers are starting to take off, and even the birds seem to behave a little differently once the heat settles in for good.
This time of year always reminds me how fast nature changes here.
A proud plant mama in the garden with one of her GreenStalksā¦in less humid times š¦
šæNature Right Now
Iāve been trying to squeeze the last little bit of harvest out of my Red Russian kale before officially giving up on it for the season. The heat and humidity finally caught up with it though...and so did the mealybugs. š¢
Most of my kale has been growing in one of my GreenStalk planters up to this point. Iām still growing greens indoors hydroponically too, but outside Iām starting to shift toward plants that handle Florida summers a little better.
A few things Iām swapping in for the hotter months:
Sweet potato vines for the leaves (we grow others in the ground for potatoes)
More sissoo spinach cuttings rooted from my existing plants
Amaranth as a fun and pretty experiment
A few varieties of Swiss chard to see how they handle the heat
Gardening here gets much less frustrating when I stop trying to force cool-season plants through summer-like temperatures and start working with Florida's weather instead.
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Hereās the planter I use for a lot of my outdoor growing if you want to check it out: GreenStalk Vertical Planterā
āØReflections of Wonder
Whatās funny is that none of this originally started with gardening for me.
It started with birds.
Backyard birdwatching slowly pulled me into everything else around it. First it was feeders and bird behavior. Then squirrels. Then butterflies. Then flowers and plants that attract pollinators. Then seasonal changes, weather patterns, migration timing, garden pests, and all the little backyard rhythms I barely noticed before.
Somewhere along the way, nature stopped feeling like separate categories and started feeling connected. One of my favorite things about spending time outside consistently is how one small interest can quietly lead you into so many others.
Even now, some of my favorite moments are still the simplest onesā¦watching birds move through the yard early in the morning, seeing butterflies return to certain flowers, or noticing how quickly the garden changes once the heat turns up here in Florida.
If youāre newer to birdwatching and want a simple way to get started, my Backyard Birdwatching Starter Guide is linked below. š«¶š¾
šBehind the Binoculars
One thing that has made me laugh lately is how different my life looks now compared to a few years ago. At any given moment, I might be:
checking leaves for bugs
watching a squirrel carry nesting material across the fence
smiling at birds splashing in the birdbath
looking for butterflies in the garden
or standing outside in the heat trying to figure out why one random plant suddenly decided to become dramatic overnight. š
A lot of this started with simply having a bird feeder in the backyard. I never expected it to slowly turn into such a deep appreciation for everyday nature in general.
The backyard has been changing quickly, and somehow there always seems to be something new to enjoy or learn from out there. Hope youāre finding a little bit of joy in your own yard too.
April 2026 šFrom My Nest to Yours Hello Reader, Lately Iāve been thinking about how easy it is to overlook the birds we see all the time. Itās not that they arenāt interesting. Itās that theyāre familiar. And sometimes, all it takes is one small change to make you see them in a completely different way. The other day I caught myself stopping to admire something I normally would have walked right past. Not because it was rare or unexpected, but because something about it felt just different...
March 2026 šFrom My Nest to Yours Hello Reader, After the freezing temperatures we had here in February, the backyard looked a little rough for a while. But over the past couple of weeks, Iāve started to see signs that everything is coming back to life again. Up until this year, I thought I really enjoyed cold weather. Those freezing nights changed my mind pretty quickly. Iām realizing I may actually be a warm weather girl at heart, and I am very happy to see the temperatures climbing again....
February 2026 šFrom My Nest to Yours Hello Reader, February has felt a little surprising this year. Florida, like much of the country, has been hit with freezing temperatures that asked a lot from everything living outdoors, even as so much of it quietly adapted. Not the kind of cold we usually joke about down here, but several days of true winter that required some real-time adjustingāfrom all of us. šæNature Right Now After multiple nights below freezing, much of my garden took a hit. A lot...