Rainwater Harvesting in Florida: What’s Legal, What Works, and How to Set It Up

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If you live in Florida, you know we are not exactly short on rain. From May through October, afternoon storms roll in like clockwork, dump an inch of water on your yard in twenty minutes, and then disappear before you can even get the kids back inside. And yet somehow, the second you actually need water — for the garden, for the chickens, for anything — the sky turns blue and stays that way for two weeks straight.

That is what pushed me to finally look into rainwater harvesting a couple of years ago. I kept watering our raised beds with treated city water, and it felt like such a waste when we were getting soaked with free water every few days. I’d heard other homesteading families talk about rain barrels, but I had this nagging worry in the back of my mind — is that even legal in Florida? Don’t some states have weird restrictions about that?

Short answer: Florida is actually great for this. Let me tell you what I found out.

Is Rainwater Harvesting Legal in Florida?

Yes — and not just legal, but genuinely encouraged. Florida Statute 570.07 specifically promotes rainwater harvesting as a water conservation practice, and the state has made it clear that homeowners have the right to collect rainwater from their rooftops.

Many Florida counties and water management districts will even give you a rebate or discount on rain barrels through their conservation programs. Our water management district in Northwest Florida has offered them at reduced prices through local hardware stores and utility programs. It’s worth checking with your county before you buy anything at full price.

Some HOAs may have their own rules about aesthetics — barrel placement, color, that kind of thing — so if you’re in an HOA, skim your docs first. But from a state law standpoint, you’re completely in the clear.

One important caveat: Collected rainwater in Florida is considered non-potable, meaning it’s not approved for drinking water. We use ours for the garden and the chickens’ outdoor area, which is exactly what it’s best suited for anyway.

What We Actually Use Ours For

Honestly, once we got our system set up, I wondered why we waited so long. Here’s where our collected rainwater goes:

• The garden beds — especially useful during our dry spells in fall and spring
• The chicken run — we top off the outdoor water dishes from it regularly
• Starting seeds — rainwater is naturally slightly acidic, which seedlings love
• Rinsing off muddy boots and tools at the end of the day

If you’re also raising backyard hens, check out my post on Best Egg Laying Chickens for Florida Heat (What Actually Works in Our Backyard Flock) — keeping birds hydrated in our climate is a real thing, and having a supplemental water source makes it easier.

How to Set Up a Simple Rain Barrel System

You don’t need to be handy to do this. My husband and I set ours up on a Saturday morning while the kids chased the dog around the yard. It’s genuinely simple.

What You’ll Need

• A food-grade barrel (55-gallon is a great starting size — you can often find used food-grade barrels locally for around $20-30)
• A diverter kit or spigot kit (most hardware stores carry these, or find them online)
• Basic tools: drill, hole saw bit, and some screen mesh to keep mosquitoes out — this is critical in Florida
• A downspout to connect to your existing gutters

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Choose your placement. Find a downspout on your house that drains a large section of roof. Gutters near your garden or chicken area are ideal — shorter hose run means less hassle.

2. Elevate the barrel. Setting your barrel on cinder blocks or a simple wooden platform gives you enough gravity pressure to actually get water out of the spigot. Even 12-18 inches of elevation helps a lot.

3. Install your diverter or drill your inlet hole. A first-flush diverter is worth the extra few dollars — it directs the first few gallons of runoff (which carry the most debris and bird droppings from your roof) away from your barrel before it starts filling. You can find these at most garden centers.

4. Screen everything. Drill your overflow hole near the top of the barrel, and cover every opening with fine mesh screen secured tightly. Mosquitoes will absolutely try to breed in standing water if you give them half a chance. This step is non-negotiable in Florida.

5. Add your spigot. Drill a hole near the bottom of the barrel, seal it with a rubber washer, and attach a standard hose bib spigot. This is where you’ll attach a garden hose or fill your watering cans.

6. Connect your overflow hose. When the barrel is full, water needs somewhere to go. Run overflow away from your foundation and ideally toward a garden bed or rain garden area.

Scaling Up

One 55-gallon barrel fills up fast in a Florida storm. We eventually linked two barrels together with a connector hose, which gives us about 110 gallons before overflow kicks in. For a larger setup or if you want to water a bigger garden, look into IBC totes (275-330 gallon food-grade containers) — they’re bulkier but hold a lot more water for the price.

We also grow a good portion of our garden through our dry seasons, and having that reserve makes a huge difference. If you’re working on a homestead garden here in Florida, I talk more about that in How to Start a Homestead Garden in Florida for Beginners (What Actually Works Down Here).

Making It a Learning Moment

This is one of those backyard projects that naturally pulls the kids in. My crew has learned more about the water cycle from watching rain fill that barrel than from any worksheet, and I say that as a Charlotte Mason mama who loves a good nature study.

We’ve talked about where rain comes from, why Florida gets so much of it in summer, and why clean water is something worth conserving. My older two started drawing the water cycle in their nature journals after one of our afternoon storms — completely their idea. That’s the kind of learning I’m here for.

We also keep a small notebook by the barrel to log rainfall — date, estimated inches, how full the barrel got. It’s a simple math and observation exercise that even my youngest can participate in. Pair it with a pocket microscope to look at what’s actually living in collected water (there’s a lot, it turns out), and you’ve got a full nature study afternoon without trying.

A Few Maintenance Notes

• Clean your barrel at least once a year. Scrub it out, check the screen mesh for holes, and make sure your overflow is clear.
• Empty or treat your barrel if you’re leaving for a stretch. Standing water + Florida heat = mosquito nursery if the screens fail.
• Keep diatomaceous earth on hand — we use it in and around the coop and garden area, and it helps manage pests naturally around the barrel setup too.
• Disconnect your diverter before hurricane season storms if you’re expecting heavy, sustained rainfall. You don’t want to overwhelm your system or your foundation drainage.

Speak of which — if you’re prepping your home and property for storm season, I’ve got a whole post on Florida Hurricane Preparedness for Families With Kids: What We Actually Do Before the Storm that covers the full picture.

This Is One of Those Simple Things That Just Makes Sense

Rainwater harvesting isn’t complicated, it isn’t expensive to start, and here in Florida, it genuinely pays off. We’re not off-grid — not even close — but every gallon of rainwater that goes into the garden instead of down the street drain feels like a small win. The kids helped set it up, they check on it after storms, and our garden has been better for it.

If you’ve been on the fence about this, I’d really encourage you to just start with one barrel. Find a used food-grade barrel locally if you can, pick up a basic spigot kit, and give it one growing season. I think you’ll wonder, like I did, why you didn’t do it sooner.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to collect rainwater in Florida?

Yes, rainwater harvesting is completely legal in Florida. Florida Statute 570.07 actually encourages it as a water conservation practice. Many counties and water management districts even offer rebates or discounted rain barrels through conservation programs. Just note that collected rainwater is considered non-potable — it’s approved for garden, landscaping, and similar uses, but not for drinking water.

How much rainwater can I collect in Florida?

Florida doesn’t cap how much rainwater residents can collect — there’s no state limit on quantity for residential use. A standard 55-gallon rain barrel can fill up completely during a single typical Florida afternoon storm. Many families link multiple barrels together or use larger IBC totes (275-330 gallons) for bigger gardens or livestock.

Can I use collected rainwater for my chickens?

Many backyard chicken keepers use rainwater to supplement their flocks’ outdoor water sources, and it works well for that purpose. Because it’s classified as non-potable in Florida, you’ll want to use your judgment — most homesteaders are comfortable using it for outdoor waterers and run cleanup, while keeping a fresh treated water source available inside the coop as well.

How do I keep mosquitoes out of my rain barrel in Florida?

This is the most important maintenance step in Florida’s climate. Cover every opening — your inlet, overflow hole, and any gaps — with fine mesh screen secured tightly to the barrel. A first-flush diverter also helps by directing the first runoff away from your barrel before it starts filling. Check your screens regularly for any holes or gaps, and clean or empty your barrel at least once a year.

What is the best rain barrel setup for a beginner in Florida?

For a beginner, start with a single 55-gallon food-grade barrel elevated on cinder blocks, a basic spigot kit, a first-flush diverter, and fine mesh screen over all openings. Connect it to a downspout near your garden or chicken area. You can often find food-grade barrels locally for $20-30 through Facebook Marketplace or feed stores. Once you see how quickly it fills, you’ll likely want to add a second barrel linked to the first.

Best Cover Crops for Florida Gardens in Summer (What Actually Survives the Heat)

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If you’ve ever stared at your Florida garden in July and thought, “There is absolutely nothing I can do with this scorched earth until October” — I felt that in my soul for a long time. The heat index hits triple digits, the afternoon thunderstorms are violent and fast, and anything delicate just gives up and melts into the mulch.

But here’s what changed things for us: cover crops. Specifically, summer cover crops — the kind that don’t just survive Florida’s brutal growing season but actually work during it. They fix nitrogen, suppress weeds, hold moisture, and feed the soil biology that makes your fall garden explode with life.

And honestly? They’ve become one of our favorite summer homeschool lessons too.

Why Bother With Cover Crops in a Florida Summer?

Most gardening advice you’ll find online is written for temperate climates where summer is prime growing season. Down here in the Panhandle, summer is basically the off-season for food crops. But that doesn’t mean your soil should just sit there baking.

Left bare, Florida soil — especially our sandy Northwest Florida stuff — loses moisture fast, compacts under heavy rain, and invites weeds like it’s hosting a party. Cover crops solve all of that at once.

They:

• Add organic matter when you chop and drop them before fall planting
• Fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes especially) so you’re not buying as much fertilizer
• Keep weed pressure down with a living mulch
• Give beneficial insects somewhere to live
• And if you’re raising backyard chickens like we are, they become a free food source for your flock

That last one alone sold me. If you’re moving a chicken tractor around your property, a section of cowpeas or sunnhemp is basically a salad bar on legs for your girls.

The Best Cover Crops for Florida Gardens in Summer

1. Iron & Clay Cowpeas (Southern Peas)

This is my number one recommendation for Northwest Florida, full stop. Cowpeas are basically made for our climate. They germinate fast in warm soil, handle drought once established, fix nitrogen like crazy, and the chickens lose their minds over the leaves and pods.

Plant them in May or June, let them grow all summer, and then either chop and drop them before fall planting or let the chickens work them over first. We do a little of both.

Bonus: our kids love watching the pods develop — it’s a real natural science lesson that costs almost nothing.

2. Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria juncea)

Sunn hemp is one of those crops that looks almost too good to be true. It grows fast — we’re talking 6 feet tall in a Florida summer — and it fixes a tremendous amount of nitrogen. The University of Florida IFAS actually recommends it specifically for our region.

It’s not edible for chickens in large quantities (it can be mildly toxic in excess), so we keep the hens out of the sunn hemp patch. But it chops down beautifully before fall, and the biomass it adds to the soil is just remarkable. If your soil is really depleted, start here.

3. Buckwheat

Okay, buckwheat isn’t technically a legume — it doesn’t fix nitrogen — but it earns its spot in the summer garden rotation for other reasons. It grows in about 30 days, smothers weeds aggressively, and the flowers attract beneficial insects like nothing else we’ve grown.

In late summer when we’re starting to think about fall transplants, we’ll let a section of buckwheat bloom, then chop it right before planting. It breaks down quickly in our heat and adds a nice flush of organic matter.

The kids also love pressing the little heart-shaped seeds in their nature journals — it’s one of those small things that makes a morning in the garden feel like a real lesson.

4. Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens)

Velvet bean is a powerhouse legume that handles Florida summer heat and humidity like it was born for it — because essentially, it was. It’s a tropical vine that fixes nitrogen aggressively and creates a dense ground cover that’s almost weed-proof once established.

Fair warning: the pods are very itchy if you handle them without gloves (definitely grab some kids’ garden gloves before letting little hands near a mature velvet bean patch). We treat this one as a “look but don’t touch” lesson and it’s been a great conversation about plant defense mechanisms.

5. Hairy Indigo (Indigofera hirsuta)

This one’s a Florida native — or close to it — and it shows. Hairy indigo tolerates our poor sandy soils and summer rains without complaint. It’s a nitrogen-fixer and it’s incredibly low maintenance once established. We’ve let it naturalize in a corner of our property and it just comes back every year.

It also makes beautiful purple flowers that our kids like to sketch with their Faber-Castell watercolors during nature study time. Charlotte Mason would absolutely approve.

How We Teach Cover Crops as a Homeschool Lesson

This is honestly one of my favorite parts. Cover crops are a living, hands-on science lesson that runs all summer long without me having to do much extra planning.

We use them to talk about:

• The nitrogen cycle (even my youngest can explain that cowpeas “feed the dirt”)
• Plant observation — sketching growth stages in nature journals over several weeks
• Soil science — we pull up roots and look at the nodules on cowpea roots with a pocket microscope, which never gets old
• The food web — watching what insects show up on buckwheat flowers and recording them with the Sibley Birds guide nearby (because where there are insects, birds follow)

If you want to dig deeper into the journaling side of things, I wrote a whole post on Charlotte Mason nature journal ideas for kids that pairs perfectly with this kind of summer observation work.

Connecting It to the Chickens

One of the things I love most about our little backyard setup is how everything connects. The cover crops feed the soil, the soil grows the food, the food scraps go to the chickens, and the chickens add to our compost that goes back to the garden.

Cowpeas in particular are like a treat garden for our flock. We’ll let a section go to seed and then turn the hens loose on it — they scratch it up, eat the seeds and bugs, and leave behind their own nitrogen deposit. It’s the most satisfying closed-loop thing we do around here.

If you’re newer to keeping chickens and want to know more about the management side, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens has a great section on pasture and forage crops that I’ve referred back to more than once.

A Few Practical Tips Before You Plant

• Inoculate your legume seeds before planting. A legume inoculant (you can find it at most farm supply stores or online) contains the rhizobium bacteria that actually does the nitrogen-fixing work. Skip this and you’re leaving a lot of benefit on the table.
• Plant after a rain or water in well. Florida summer soil can get a surface crust that makes germination spotty.
• Don’t till them in too close to planting day. Give chopped-down cover crops at least 2-3 weeks to start breaking down before you transplant fall seedlings.
• Let the kids be involved from the beginning. Sowing seeds by hand, marking rows with sticks, checking for germination — this is exactly the kind of slow, real-world work that we’re trying to give our kids more of. No screens required.

If you’re also starting to think about what to actually grow come fall, our post on how to start a homestead garden in Florida for beginners lays out the whole seasonal rhythm really well.

You’ve Got This, Mama

I know summer gardening in Florida can feel discouraging. Everything bolts or wilts or just disappears, and it’s hard not to feel like you failed somehow. But planting cover crops reframes the whole thing. You’re not not gardening — you’re investing in the garden that’s coming. You’re building something underground that will pay off in October when your beds are overflowing.

And in the meantime, you’ve got a living classroom growing in your backyard, kids who know what a nitrogen nodule looks like, and chickens who are absolutely thrilled about the cowpeas. That’s a pretty good summer if you ask me.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What cover crops grow best in Florida summer heat?

The best cover crops for Florida summers are heat-tolerant and humidity-resistant varieties like iron and clay cowpeas, sunn hemp, buckwheat, velvet bean, and hairy indigo. Cowpeas and sunn hemp are especially popular in Northwest Florida because they fix nitrogen aggressively and handle our sandy soil and intense summer rain without skipping a beat.

When should I plant summer cover crops in Florida?

In most of Florida, you can plant summer cover crops from late April through July. The soil is warm enough for fast germination, and most heat-tolerant varieties will have plenty of time to establish before you need to chop them down ahead of fall planting in September or October.

Can my backyard chickens eat cover crops?

Yes — many cover crops are excellent forage for chickens! Cowpeas (southern peas) are a favorite, and chickens will happily eat the leaves, vines, and seeds. Buckwheat is also safe and they enjoy the seeds. Sunn hemp should be kept away from chickens in large quantities, as it can be mildly toxic when consumed excessively. Always research any specific variety before turning your flock loose on a new crop.

Do I need to till in cover crops before planting vegetables?

Not necessarily — you can chop and drop cover crops and let them decompose as a mulch layer on top of the soil. If you do incorporate them, give it at least 2-3 weeks before transplanting seedlings so the decomposition process doesn’t interfere with your plants. In Florida’s heat, organic matter breaks down quickly, so you don’t have to wait long.

Are cover crops a good homeschool activity for kids?

Absolutely! Cover crops make a wonderful hands-on science lesson that stretches over an entire season. Kids can observe germination, sketch plant growth stages in nature journals, examine root nodules under a microscope, and track which insects visit the flowers. It naturally covers soil science, plant biology, and ecology — all without a textbook in sight.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in Your Florida Backyard (Even If You’re a Total Beginner)

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you’ve ever walked out into a Florida summer garden and felt like everything was either fried, flooded, or eaten by something — you are my people. Tomatoes bolt, lettuce gives up before June, and squash becomes a full-time bug-monitoring job. But sweet potatoes? Y’all. Sweet potatoes don’t care. They actually love it here. The heat, the humidity, the sandy Northwest Florida soil that drains like crazy — sweet potatoes are practically made for this climate.

We started growing them a couple of years ago almost by accident. One of my kids left a sweet potato on the counter too long and it started sprouting. We stuck it in a jar of water on a whim, and four weeks later we had slips ready to plant. Now it’s one of our favorite parts of the backyard garden, and honestly one of the best nature study + real-life math + hands-in-the-dirt experiences we’ve found for our elementary-age crew.

Let me walk you through exactly how we do it.

Why Sweet Potatoes Are Perfect for Florida Backyards

Florida’s long, hot growing season is basically a sweet potato’s dream. They need 90–120 days of warm soil, and in Pensacola and the rest of Northwest Florida, we’ve got that from roughly April through October. They’re drought-tolerant once established, they handle our sandy soil beautifully, and the vines act as a living ground cover that chokes out weeds.

Bonus: they’re genuinely nutritious, the kids will actually eat them, and the leftover greens are edible too — we’ve tossed the young leaves into stir-fries and the chickens go absolutely wild for any scraps.

If you’re just getting started with gardening down here, I also really recommend checking out our How to Start a Homestead Garden in Florida for Beginners (What Actually Works Down Here) — it gives you the full big-picture breakdown of Florida-specific gardening seasons.

When to Plant Sweet Potatoes in Florida

The sweet spot (pun intended) for planting sweet potato slips in North Florida is late March through May. You want soil temps consistently above 65°F — which honestly happens fast around here. Planting too early risks rot in cooler, wetter soil. Planting in summer is fine too as long as you’re watering consistently through the heat.

In Central and South Florida, you have an even longer window — some folks plant fall crops down there too.

How to Grow Your Own Sweet Potato Slips

This is the part my kids get the most excited about, and it’s the perfect slow-observation science project for a Charlotte Mason nature study.

What You’ll Need

• 1–2 organic sweet potatoes (grocery store ones sometimes have a growth inhibitor sprayed on them — organic is safer)
• A jar of water
• Toothpicks (optional, to suspend the potato half-submerged)
• A sunny windowsill
• Patience — usually 3–6 weeks

How to Do It

1. Cut your sweet potato in half or use it whole.
2. Suspend it in a jar with the bottom third submerged in water.
3. Set it in a warm, sunny spot.
4. Change the water every few days.
5. Slips (little sprouts with leaves) will start growing from the eyes. Once they’re 4–6 inches long, you can twist them off gently.
6. Place slips in a separate jar of water until they develop roots — about a week.
7. Plant them outside once roots are established.

We track growth in our nature journals — my kids draw the slips at different stages and note how many new leaves appeared each week. Simple, beautiful, and genuinely educational without feeling like school.

Planting Your Slips in the Ground

Preparing Your Bed

Sweet potatoes love loose, well-draining soil — which means Florida’s sandy soil is actually an asset here, not a liability. If your soil is very compacted, loosen it about 12 inches deep and add some compost to improve nutrients. (We keep a kitchen compost bin going year-round, and that finished compost is gold for the garden. Check out our Composting at Home with Kids post if you’re not already doing this.)

Avoid heavy clay amendments — sweet potatoes need room to expand underground and clay will misshape or crack them.

How to Plant

• Space slips 12–18 inches apart in rows about 3 feet apart (the vines spread a LOT)
• Plant deep enough that at least 2–3 nodes are buried
• Water well right after planting
• Mulch around the base to retain moisture and keep soil temps even

Give the kids their own garden gloves and let them do the planting. There is nothing like the look on a six-year-old’s face when they dig up a sweet potato four months later and realize they grew that.

Caring for Sweet Potatoes Through a Florida Summer

Once they’re established — usually within two to three weeks — sweet potatoes are genuinely low-maintenance. Here’s what we pay attention to:

Watering: Deep water once or twice a week. They’re fairly drought-tolerant but consistent moisture during vine development gives you better yields.

Fertilizing: Go easy on nitrogen or you’ll get beautiful vines and tiny potatoes. We side-dress once with a balanced organic fertilizer about 4 weeks after planting and leave it at that.

Pests: In North Florida, sweet potato weevils can be an issue. Rotating your planting location each year helps a lot. We also use Wondercide around the garden perimeter — it’s safe for kids, pets, and our chickens who free-range nearby.

Vines: Don’t trim the vines obsessively. Let them sprawl. They’re doing their job. You can pin down wandering vines and they’ll root, which is kind of fun for the kids to observe.

How to Know When Sweet Potatoes Are Ready to Harvest

Harvest time is the big payoff — and possibly the most exciting digging activity outside of an actual treasure hunt. Plan on 90–120 days from planting. Some signs it’s time:

• Vines start to yellow and die back
• The skin on any peeking-through potatoes looks firm and set
• You’ve hit the 100-day mark and it’s still warm

How to harvest: Use a garden fork or your hands to gently loosen the soil around the plants, then dig carefully. Sweet potatoes bruise easily, so slow and gentle wins here. Expect to find them 6–12 inches down and spreading outward from the original plant.

We lay them out on a table and count, weigh, and measure them — easy real-life math that fits right into our homeschool day.

Curing Sweet Potatoes After Harvest

Here’s the step most beginners skip and then wonder why their sweet potatoes taste starchy: curing. You need to cure freshly harvested sweet potatoes before eating them.

Place them somewhere warm (80–85°F) with good airflow for 7–10 days. This converts the starches to sugars and heals any small nicks or cuts in the skin. After curing, store them somewhere cool and dark — not the fridge.

Florida porches in late spring are naturally perfect for this.

Tying It Into Your Homeschool

Beyond the obvious science of plant life cycles, growing sweet potatoes touches on so many subjects naturally:

• Math: measuring vine growth, counting yield, weighing the harvest
• Nature journaling: sketching slips, leaves, and root development with Faber-Castell watercolors
• Life skills: planting, tending, harvesting, cooking
• History/geography: sweet potatoes are native to the Americas — great rabbit trail into indigenous food traditions

For more ideas on weaving the garden into your nature study year, our Homeschool Spring Florida Nature Study Ideas Your Kids Will Actually Want to Do post has a ton of practical starting points.

A Few Extra Tips for Florida Specifically

• Raised beds work great if you have particularly poor or compacted soil, but in-ground works fine in most of Northwest Florida
• Container growing is possible — use at least a 15-gallon container with drainage
• If you have backyard chickens, keep them out of the sweet potato bed until after harvest — they will absolutely eat those vines down to nothing and scratch up your crop. We use a simple chicken tractor to rotate the girls through after harvest for cleanup duty — they do a fantastic job
• You can also try a seed starting kit to start your slips indoors earlier in the season if you want a head start before the last cool nights pass

If you’re new to the backyard garden and feeling like it’s too much to figure out, I just want to say: start with sweet potatoes. Seriously. They are forgiving, productive, and they turn even kids who claim to hate vegetables into proud little farmers the moment they pull one out of the ground. There’s something about growing your own food — especially something this easy and this good — that just quietly changes how your family relates to the land, to their food, and to each other. That’s the whole point for us. Fewer screens, more dirt, and a sweet potato harvest that makes everybody proud.

Happy growing, friend. 🌿

📖 You Might Also Like:

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Frequently Asked Questions

When should I plant sweet potatoes in Florida?

In North Florida (including Pensacola), the best time to plant sweet potato slips is late March through May, once soil temperatures are consistently above 65°F. Central and South Florida gardeners have an even longer window and can sometimes plant a fall crop as well.

Can I grow sweet potatoes in containers in Florida?

Yes! Sweet potatoes can grow in containers in Florida as long as the pot is large enough — aim for at least a 15-gallon container with good drainage holes. Use a loose, well-draining potting mix and water consistently since containers dry out faster in the Florida heat.

How do I make sweet potato slips at home?

Place an organic sweet potato in a jar with the bottom third submerged in water and set it in a warm, sunny window. In 3–6 weeks, slips (sprouts) will appear. Once they’re 4–6 inches long, twist them off and root them in a separate jar of water for about a week before planting outside.

Do sweet potatoes grow well in Florida’s sandy soil?

Actually, yes — Florida’s sandy, well-draining soil is one reason sweet potatoes do so well here. They need loose soil to expand underground, so heavy clay is the real enemy. Amending with compost helps add nutrients without reducing drainage.

How long does it take to harvest sweet potatoes in Florida?

Sweet potatoes are typically ready to harvest 90–120 days after planting slips. Watch for the vines to start yellowing and dying back as a sign they’re ready. After harvest, cure them at 80–85°F for 7–10 days before eating to develop their full sweetness.

Composting at Home with Kids: A Real Beginner’s Guide That Actually Gets Done

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I’m going to be honest with you — the first time I tried composting, I did it completely wrong. I threw a bunch of watermelon rinds in a pile in the back corner of our yard, forgot about it for three weeks, and came back to something that smelled like a Florida swamp in August. Not exactly what the Pinterest boards had promised me.

But here’s the thing: I didn’t give up on it, I just got smarter about it. And now? Composting is one of those quiet, steady rhythms in our home that the kids actually look forward to. My seven-year-old calls herself the “compost manager.” My youngest drags the kitchen bin out to the pile like it’s his most important job of the day. And honestly, it kind of is.

If you’ve been wanting to start composting at home but feel like it’s one more complicated thing to figure out, this post is for you. We’re going to keep it simple, real, and totally doable — even in the middle of a full homeschool day.

Why Composting Is Such a Good Fit for Homeschool Families

Composting is basically a living science experiment sitting in your backyard. For those of us using a Charlotte Mason or nature-based approach, it checks so many boxes — biology, earth science, stewardship, real-world math (yes, really), and observation skills.

We talk about decomposers, the food chain, nutrient cycles. My kids have watched a banana peel disappear completely over the course of a few weeks and thought it was genuinely magical. That kind of hands-on learning sticks in a way that no worksheet ever will.

If you’re building out a nature study practice with your kids, composting pairs beautifully with a nature journal — they can sketch what they see, track changes over time, and record which scraps break down fastest. We have a whole post on Charlotte Mason Nature Journal Ideas for Kids (That Actually Get Used) if you want ideas for how to make that work.

What You Actually Need to Get Started

Good news: you don’t need much.

The Kitchen Bin

First, you need a way to collect scraps inside before you haul them out. We keep a small kitchen compost bin on our counter. It has a charcoal filter in the lid so it doesn’t smell, and the kids know exactly what goes in it — fruit scraps, veggie peels, eggshells (yes, especially eggshells since we have chickens), coffee grounds, tea bags, and torn-up cardboard.

Having a designated spot makes it a habit. Without it, we were constantly debating whether something went in the trash or the compost, and that’s when things fall apart.

The Outdoor Pile or Bin

For your actual compost pile, you’ve got a couple of options. A simple open pile in a corner of your yard works fine — that’s what we started with. You can also use a dedicated bin, which tends to be tidier and keeps critters out (important here in Florida where we have armadillos and raccoons who have absolutely no shame).

Either way, the location matters more than the container. You want somewhere with partial shade — full sun in a Pensacola summer will dry out your pile too fast and slow decomposition way down.

The Browns and Greens Rule

This is the one thing you actually need to understand. Composting is all about balance:

• Greens = nitrogen-rich stuff: fruit scraps, veggie peels, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, chicken manure
• Browns = carbon-rich stuff: dry leaves, cardboard, paper bags, straw, wood chips

You want roughly a 3:1 ratio of browns to greens. Too many greens and your pile gets slimy and smelly. Too many browns and it just… sits there. In Florida, we tend to have more greens than we think because of how fast everything grows, so keep extra leaves or cardboard nearby to balance it out.

How We Actually Do It With Kids

Here’s our real-life routine, because theory is nice but you need something practical.

Morning chores include emptying the kitchen compost bin when it’s full — usually every two to three days. One of the kids carries it out, and the other uses a stick to stir the pile a little. We call this “waking up the pile” and I’m not even sure where that phrase came from but they love it.

After chicken chores, any leftover feed, used bedding straw, and yes — chicken manure — goes into the pile. Chicken manure is high-nitrogen gold for compost. If you’re new to backyard chickens and wondering what to do with the coop cleanout, this is the answer. (And if you want our full coop cleaning routine, check out Natural Chicken Coop Deodorizer and Cleaning Routine That Actually Works.)

Once a week or so, someone gives the pile a real turn with a pitchfork or shovel. This introduces oxygen and speeds everything up. My older kids can do this themselves now. My youngest mostly just pokes it enthusiastically, which honestly still counts.

What NOT to Compost (Especially With Kids)

Keep this list somewhere the kids can see it:

• Meat, fish, or bones
• Dairy products
• Oils or greasy food
• Dog or cat waste (chicken waste is fine, but not carnivore pet waste)
• Diseased plants
• Anything treated with pesticides

We keep a simple handwritten list on the inside of our cabinet door. Very 1990s of us, but it works.

Connecting It to Your Garden

Once your compost is dark, crumbly, and smells like earth — usually 2-4 months in Florida’s heat — it’s ready to use. We mix it into our garden beds and containers. If you’re growing food with your kids, finished compost is genuinely exciting because they can see the full circle: scraps become soil, soil grows food, food scraps go back in.

We also sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the base of the pile occasionally to manage pests without chemicals — same stuff we use in the chicken coop.

If you’re just getting your garden started, I’d love for you to read How to Start a Homestead Garden in Florida for Beginners (What Actually Works Down Here) — composting and gardening really do go hand in hand.

Making It a Nature Study Moment

One of my favorite things is pulling back the corner of the pile with the kids and looking at what’s living in there. Pill bugs, red wigglers, fungal threads — it’s a whole ecosystem. A pocket microscope makes this even more fun. We’ve spent entire afternoons just watching the decomposers do their thing.

For the older kids, we use the compost pile as a jumping-off point for talking about nutrient cycles, soil health, and why healthy soil matters for the whole food system. It’s one of those things that sounds dry on paper but comes alive when they’re literally watching it happen in the backyard.

Pair it with some watercolor paints and nature journal time and you’ve got a full morning of real learning — no curriculum required.

You Don’t Have to Be Perfect at This

Our pile has gotten too dry. It’s gotten too wet. I’ve thrown in something I shouldn’t have and had to fish it back out. None of that derailed us. That’s kind of the whole point — composting is forgiving, and so is learning alongside your kids.

The goal isn’t a perfect pile. It’s building a habit of stewardship, teaching our kids that nothing is really waste, and connecting them to the slow, beautiful rhythms of the natural world. That’s worth a little trial and error.

If you’re looking for a non-toxic cleaning routine to pair with this kind of intentional home shift, we love Grove Collaborative for our household products — and How to Detox Your Home from Toxins Room by Room (A Real Family’s Guide) is a great place to start if you haven’t gone through your home yet.

Start small. Get a counter bin. Pick a spot outside. Let your kids carry the scraps out. That’s it. Everything else figures itself out from there.

📖 You Might Also Like:

• Homeschool Spring Florida Nature Study Ideas Your Kids Will Actually Want to Do
• Morning Basket Ideas for Charlotte Mason Homeschool (What Ours Actually Looks Like)
• How to Teach Reading Naturally Without a Formal Curriculum (What Actually Works)

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start composting at home for beginners?

Start with two things: a small counter bin for collecting kitchen scraps inside, and a designated spot outside for your pile or bin. Learn the basics of balancing browns (dry leaves, cardboard) and greens (food scraps, grass clippings), and just begin. You don’t need special equipment to get started — a pile in a corner of your yard works fine.

What can kids put in the compost bin?

Kids can add fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags, torn cardboard, dry leaves, and plain paper. Keep a simple visual list on the inside of a cabinet door so they can check before adding anything. Avoid meat, dairy, oily foods, and pet waste from cats or dogs.

How long does composting take in Florida?

Florida’s heat actually speeds up decomposition significantly. A well-balanced, regularly turned pile can produce finished compost in as little as 6 to 8 weeks in summer. Cooler winter months will slow things down a bit, but you’re still looking at faster results than most of the country gets.

Does composting smell bad?

A healthy compost pile should smell earthy, not rotten. Bad smells usually mean too many greens (nitrogen-rich scraps) and not enough browns (carbon-rich material like leaves or cardboard). Add more dry browns, give it a stir to introduce oxygen, and the smell should correct itself within a day or two.

Can I compost chicken manure?

Yes — chicken manure is actually one of the best things you can add to a compost pile. It’s high in nitrogen and speeds up decomposition. Just make sure it gets mixed in well and balanced with plenty of carbon-rich browns. Fresh chicken manure is too strong to apply directly to plants but composted manure is excellent for garden beds.

Raising Kids Without Screens: What We Actually Do Every Day

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Somebody asked me recently — kind of sideways, the way people do when they’re not sure if they’ll offend you — “So what do your kids actually do all day if they’re not watching TV?”

And I laughed, because I get it. We are living in a world where screens are the default answer to everything. Bored? Here’s a tablet. Long car ride? Here’s a show. Rainy afternoon? Here’s YouTube. I’m not judging — I’ve handed over a phone in a pinch too. But the way we live on purpose most days? It looks a lot more like 1990s childhood than anything you’d find on an app store, and honestly? My kids are thriving in the most grounded, creative, connected way.

So let me actually answer that question. Here’s what we do.

Why We Made the Choice to Limit Screens (And Didn’t Look Back)

This wasn’t some overnight decision or a dramatic purge. It started slowly — noticing how my kids acted after screen time versus after a morning outside. The difference was stark. After screens: cranky, disconnected, asking for more screens. After time outside or doing something with their hands: calm, creative, actually talking to each other.

We’re a Charlotte Mason homeschool family here in the Florida Panhandle, and the whole philosophy is built around living ideas, real experiences, and the natural world. Screens don’t fit that vision very well. So we just… started filling our days differently. And the kids stopped asking as much, because they had better things to do.

What a Low-Screen Day Actually Looks Like for Us

Morning Chores — Starting the Day With Purpose

Every single morning, my kids go out and tend to our backyard chickens before anything else. They refill the nipple waterer, check for eggs, scatter some scratch. It sounds small but it’s huge — they wake up with responsibility. Something is counting on them. That feeling of being needed by a living creature? No screen can replicate it.

If you’re thinking about adding chickens to your family, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens is the one I always recommend for adults, and the Kid’s Guide to Backyard Chickens has been such a hit with my elementary-age crew — they genuinely read it on their own.

Morning Basket and Read-Alouds

After chores and breakfast, we gather for our morning basket. This is one of my favorite parts of our day — picture books, poetry, a chapter of whatever we’re reading together, maybe some picture study. If you want to peek inside what ours actually looks like, I wrote all about it here: Morning Basket Ideas for Charlotte Mason Homeschool (What Ours Actually Looks Like).

No screens needed. Just books, voices, and a cup of coffee I may or may not have to reheat three times.

Nature Study — The Heart of Our Homeschool

This is where the magic lives. We go outside — even in the brutal Florida summer heat (hello, 7am nature walks before it hits 90°) — and we pay attention. We look at bugs, we sketch birds, we notice what’s blooming.

Every child has their own nature journal and we use Faber-Castell watercolors for their nature sketches — quality tools matter, even for little kids. My oldest has gotten so good at identifying local birds that she’ll just casually announce “that’s a red-bellied woodpecker, Mom” like it’s nothing. We use the Sibley Birds guide and a pocket microscope for closer looks at things they find.

For more ideas on keeping nature journals alive and actually used, pop over to Charlotte Mason Nature Journal Ideas for Kids (That Actually Get Used).

Free Play — The Underrated Secret Weapon

After our structured morning, I basically kick them outside. This is the part people look at me funny about. I don’t schedule their play. I don’t facilitate it. I give them walkie talkies and a bug catcher kit and let them figure it out.

Some days they build elaborate forts. Some days they dig up earthworms and experiment with which ones move fastest. Some days they fight and work it out and learn something about conflict resolution I could never have taught in a lesson. This is 1990s childhood on purpose, and I will defend it forever.

Boredom is the doorway to creativity. I know that sounds like a bumper sticker, but I’ve watched it happen too many times to doubt it.

Hands-On Learning Instead of Screen Time

Our academic time is largely hands-on too. We use Math-U-See with its physical blocks — no app, no video game. My younger ones work through All About Reading with actual tiles and books. We cook together. We garden. We do experiments.

If you’re new to the Charlotte Mason / nature-based approach and wondering how reading fits in, I wrote about that here: How to Teach Reading Naturally Without a Formal Curriculum (What Actually Works).

What About Rainy Days? Or Really Bored Kids?

Oh, we have those. Florida gets real rain — like, the sky-opening-up-sideways kind. On those days we:

• Pull out board games and card games (still going strong in this house)
• Do watercolor painting — I keep watercolor paints stocked at all times
• Bake something (sourdough is our current obsession — see How to Make Homemade Sourdough Bread From Scratch)
• Read. A lot.
• Build things — LEGOs, cardboard, whatever’s around

And honestly? Sometimes I let them be bored for a while. I sit nearby and do my own thing. They grumble, they wander, and then about 15 minutes later I hear giggling from the other room and they’ve invented something.

Do We Ever Use Screens?

Yes. I want to be real with you here — we do sometimes watch a nature documentary together, or use a specific educational video for a topic we’re studying. My kids know screen time exists. We’re not trying to raise them in a bubble.

But screens are a planned, occasional thing in our house, not the background hum of every day. And the difference in my kids’ attention spans, their creativity, their ability to entertain themselves and each other — it’s not subtle. It’s significant.

The Thing Nobody Tells You About Low-Screen Life

It’s harder on you at first. When your kids can’t default to a show, they default to you. That’s an adjustment. But it gets easier — really fast — once they build the muscle for independent play and self-directed learning. Within a few weeks of pulling back on screens, my kids started playing longer, fighting less, and coming to me with genuinely curious questions instead of just wanting entertainment.

That’s the childhood I wanted to give them. Messy, curious, a little dirty, deeply alive.

I won’t tell you it’s perfect or that I have it all figured out. Some days everybody is grumpy and nothing flows and I question every choice I’ve ever made. But then my daughter runs in from outside with a luna moth cupped in her bug catcher and her eyes are absolutely wild with wonder, and I think — yeah. This is it. This is exactly what I was trying to build.

If you’re just starting to pull back on screens, be gentle with yourself and your kids. It’s a process. But you’ll be amazed how quickly they find their footing — and how much color comes back into their days.

📖 You Might Also Like:

• Morning Basket Ideas for Charlotte Mason Homeschool (What Ours Actually Looks Like)
• Charlotte Mason Nature Journal Ideas for Kids (That Actually Get Used)
• Homeschool Spring Florida Nature Study Ideas Your Kids Will Actually Want to Do

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my kids to stop asking for screens all the time?

The key is filling the gap *before* they ask. When kids have meaningful things to do — chores that matter, outdoor time, hands-on projects — they naturally ask for screens less. It takes a few weeks of staying consistent, but most families find kids stop asking as much once they rebuild the habit of self-directed play.

Is it realistic to raise kids with almost no screen time in today’s world?

Absolutely — but it requires being intentional about what you fill their days with instead. Families who do it successfully tend to prioritize outdoor time, hands-on learning, real books, and free play. You don’t have to be screen-free forever; just purposeful about when and how screens are used.

What do kids do without screens when they’re bored?

At first, they complain! But boredom is actually productive — it’s the doorway to creativity. Kids who are given space to be bored typically start inventing games, building things, exploring outside, or diving into books within a short window. Keep materials accessible: art supplies, building toys, outdoor gear, and books.

How do Charlotte Mason homeschoolers limit screen time?

Charlotte Mason homeschooling is naturally low-screen because it prioritizes living books, nature study, real-world experiences, and hands-on learning. Most Charlotte Mason families fill their days with nature journals, read-alouds, narration, outdoor time, and handicrafts — leaving little room or desire for screens.

What are good screen-free activities for elementary-age kids?

Some of our favorites: nature journaling and watercolor sketching, backyard chicken keeping, bug collecting, board games, baking, free outdoor play, building forts, reading physical books, gardening, and hands-on math and reading curricula. The best activities are ones that give kids agency and let them get a little messy.