Believe it or not, there are seasons in Florida. These four different seasons are important to remember if you are interested in growing your food.

• Spring Garden
• Hot Summer Garden
• Fall Garden
• Winter Garden

Spring Garden

March through Mid-June

The Spring Garden in Florida is similar to gardening in cooler states, except everything happens
much earlier in the year. It's the time to plant the quinessential spring plants: tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, melons and most other spring fruits and vegetables you can think of.

Hot Summer Garden

Mid-June through August

We all know the Hot Summer Garden is the blazing hot couple of months in the summer when the weather is unbearable and most outdoor activities are miserable during the heat of the day. These months are the dog days of summer. During this time, you can just let the garden grow and keep it watered and fertilized. Unless you enjoy sweating and the risk of heat stroke, the Hot Summer Garden makes for a great opportunity to spend time indoors appreciating the invention of air conditioning, while you watch your garden through the windows.

Fall Garden

September through November

Low humidity and finally the blast of cooler weather puts everyone in a good mood after the sweltering heat of summer. September is a good time to keep the weeds down and to clear out exhausted plants. October is the time for planting lettuce, onions, carrots, turnips and peas, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and garlic.

Winter Garden

December through February

It goes without saying that winter in Florida is mild. This cold season is a great time to be growing a variety of fruits and vegetables that will tolerate the cooler temps and a few hard freezes. There is not much outdoor planting going on during the winter, except potatoes are best to have in the ground during February. Otherwise, this is the time to maintain your plants and protect sensitive varieties from the cold weather. Most plants will survive during the day, but overnight when the temp dips below 30 degrees, many plants must be covered. Here in Flagler County, the hard freezes during winter will last from December through January. Most of the freezing is over by the end of February, although care must be taken in the beginning of March if temps rise and you think it's safe to plant sensitive spring plants, such as tomatoes. Cover tender seedlings with small, empty pots during the colder nights in March. We try to avoid buying our plants from big box stores, but just because the tomatoes are on sale at Lowe's doesn't mean it's safe to plant them yet. Remember these stores are in the business of
selling plants, the wise gardener knows when and where to plant them. I have found that healthy and heavy producing plants come from local nurseries, which also helps small business and your community.

Monthly Guide to Gardening in Florida

Zone 9, Flagler County

January 1-15

Prepare for your Spring Garden. Start seeds indoors for transplanting in March:
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.

End of January

Start cucumbers, melon and squash seeds indoors.

February

Plant potatoes and cabbage.

March 1 - Spring Garden Begins

Begin transplanting everything you've started indoors. Remember to keep an eye on the weather and cover the seedlings with small, empty pots during the cold nights.

March 15

During the first hot week of March, plant your pole beans, lima beans, cowpeas (blackeyed peas), sweet potatoes
and melons such as watermelon and cantaloupe, swissh chard, collard greens, eggplant, corn and sunflower.

May 1 - Height of Spring Garden

This should be your first harvest of spring plants including tomatoes and squash. The next few weeks will be plentiful and you will be canning and storing the surplus during June and July.

June 15 - Hot Summer Garden Begins

You'll want to have your planting finished When the mercury rises above 90 degrees everyday, so the hot peppers, spinach and okra should all be planted during the first week of June. Any second planting should happen now also, such as swiss chard and collard greens.

Mid-June - August

Let your garden grow wild, remember it needs plenty of water and fertilizer according to the appropriate schedule.

August 15 - Height of Hot Summer Garden

Heat and disease tolerant tomatoes should be started now for the fall garden. Grapes and bananas are ready to harvest. Start lettuces, mustard greens and brassicas indoors for Fall Garden transplant.

Mid-September - October 1

September is garden cleanup month, the first week of October is the time for planting lettuce, onions, carrots, turnips and peas, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and garlic.

December

Protect plants from the hard freeze, temps below 30 degrees. Young citrus trees and tropical fruit such as pineappele must be fully protected from the cold weather with Christmas lights or blankets, sheets and plastic. Please use common sense and don't start a fire by using the Christmas lights in combination with blankets, sheets or plastic. Harvest citrus fruit through the end of January.

Cold Hardy Lessons

This winter has been much more tolerable than last year, we have only lost a few plants and most of them were ornamental. Anything that dies this year, I am taking a mental inventory and never planting the same species again. Cold hardy and drought tolerant is the only way to go in Florida. I learned a few hard lessons this year, I should have moved my plumeria inside or harvested it earlier. I tried to salvage the trunks of each plant but they aren't looking good. We'll see if it sprouts again this spring. I also lost my flapjack which was a gift from my mother-in-law. See, you thought I had a green thumb? Nope, should have brought those plants inside. I was about a week too late for each. My hibiscus is hibernating and the milkweed must have migrated south for the winter. Both are almost completely gone, beyond wilted and dying. Most of my other plants are doing great, especially the red spider lily and azaleas. I'm sticking with the shrubs for now on, azaleas will replace everything that didn't make it this year.

Surviving The Winter

My handy and ingenious husband built a PVC frame over each of our raised beds and we were able to cover them with heavy plastic overnight during a hard freeze. The mobile greenhouse effect saved our gardens and we were able to grow food throughout winter. A few casualties did happen though, our fruit trees took a major hit. Our young tangerine tree will most likely survive, it is the most encouraging of all the trees in the backyard. Still has a few green leaves and all it's branches are bright green. The young navel orange is another story, it is looking pathetic. No leaves, hardly any green branches. I will be surprised if it springs back to life in a few months. The dwarf cavendish banana is a goner too, it wilted away despite our efforts to protect it from the cold with blankets and plastic. Our young mango tree was starting to flower just before the first frost in December, now it's brown and wilted. The first frost was devastating, I was so excited about eating some fresh mango right off our tree and according to sources I read online, there was only a month between those flowers and fresh fruit in my hand. I really don't know what to expect with that mango tree, no leaves have fallen off but it looks terrible. Everything else is looking great, we harvested a basket of brussel sprouts tonight and I steamed them up for dinner. Delicious! I wanted to try them plain, with no spices or seasoning ... they were amazing and just needed a little bit of salt. We've also been eating plenty of mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower and chives.

Planting In February

Today we planted potatoes. A fellow gardener gave us four different types of seed potatoes: yukon gold, la clipper white, red and russet chef. I cut them in half and let them cure for three days, according to advice. The la clippers had the best looking eyes, we expect them to sprout in a few days. The other varieties did not have the distinct eyes but they were planted anyway. We'll see what grows and what doesn't. I saved back quite a few of the la clippers, so we'll hold off and see if we need to replace any of the others.

This weekend we planted georgia collard greens, 45-day quick cabbage (we'll see!), sweet onions, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and romaine lettuce. I also planted a blueberry bush in one of my huge pots, it already has blooms. I am SO excited about blueberries. After all that work on Sunday, we had a hard freeze on Monday night. We were both worried that nothing survived, but luckily I covered the tomatoes and everything else is looking great. It's mid-February now and the cold weather is starting to warm up. I don't expect many more freezes now through March.

What's Growing

We'll have at least a few more basket loads of brussel sprouts and about a ton and a half more mustard greens. The strawberries were transplanted from their watering can containers from last year into the ground in our "berry patch" and both plants have blooms already. I am very encouraged and can't wait for fruit. Last week, I started seeds that I harvested from our green bell peppers last year, no sprouts yet. I also started carrots, we'll see if they come up. This year we plan to have a wide variety of tried and tested vegetables and I'm looking forward to trying some new ones like corn, carrots, swiss chard and peas.

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged. It's embarrassing now that I've had moment to look and the last post is from July! It's six months, so here's an update. Our first full season of gardening was excellent. Our most productive plants were cucumbers, squash, okra and mustard greens. We literally harvested bushels of each. Our cherry tomatoes were doing great until the first frost and we learned the hard way that plastic sheeting is not enough to save many of our plants. Other varieties have survived the harsh Florida winter, which include broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and mustard greens.

This month we will be planting potatoes. We've been collecting and saving up used tires to make potato stacks. I plan to write a detailed description of our potato adventure, so if successful, you can try for yourself. I've already started carrot seeds and plan to start bell peppers very soon for the spring garden.

Garden Goals for 2011:

• Blog, blog and more blogging needs to happen.
• Start more plants from hertiage seeds.
• Keep a detailed calendar with planting and harvest dates.

Planting in 2011:

• Asparagus
• Potatoes
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Corn
• Perennial Edibles

It's July 1, 2010 and here's what we have growing. The asterisk indicates that we have just planted them recently, within the past few weeks.

Fruit Trees

Mango*
Dwarf Cavendish Banana*
Tangerine
Navel Orange*
Loquat

Soft Fruit and Melons

Strawberries
Natchez Blackberries (thornless)*
Raspberries*
Blueberries*
Dewberries (growing wild in the adjacent lots)
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Pineapple

Vegetables

Cucumber
Eggplant
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Zucchini Squash
Green Bell Pepper
Cherry Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Potatoes
Onions*
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans*
Okra*
Okinawa Spinach*

Herbs

Italian Parsley
Rosemary
Thyme
Greek Oregano
Sweet Basil
Lemongrass*
Mint
Stevia
Dill
Cilantro
Lemon Balm*
Chamomile*
Tarragon*
Echinacea*
Lavender*

Other Edible and/or Medicinal Plants

Day Lily (yellow ones are the tastiest)*
Moringa Trees
Aloe*
Milkweed*

Count them up, there are 44 useful plants on our little speck of property. Imagine what you could do in your own front, side or backyard!

Here's the harvest I picked tonight: 7 cucumbers, 2 squash and our first zucchini. It's amazing how big zucchini gets in no time at all. I've had my eye on this one all week and I knew it'd be ready today after I watered the garden last night. We really need a good rain, this garden requires a lot of water! May is a dry month in Florida, beautiful weather though so I shouldn't complain. As soon as we have our rain barrel irrigation system, it won't be a problem.

I can't describe how rewarding it is to find my produce is ready to pick as I'm walking around the garden. We have been so blessed to have literally NO bugs and NO wildlife attack any of our plants. The only issue so far has been the powdery mildew on our yellow squash, which has affected it's production. I've tried Volck Oil spray, yet the leaves are still have white spots. The spots get bigger, the leaf starts to yellow and curls up on the edges, then turns brown and looks awful. I've been cutting the diseased leaves off all of my plants, it just looks awful. I've read not to put anything with disease, fungus or chemicals (herbicides, pesticides) into the compost pile, so these leaves go directly into our burn pit. The plants have produced only those two yellow squash so far, the rest grow to about 3 inches long and fall off the plant. That's what we get for buying the squash plant at Wal-Mart, against our better judgment. Yes, I know... it was a terrible idea. If I get another squash between the two of those plants it'll be a miracle. Meanwhile, I'm watering, fertilizing, spraying, trimming and hoping for the best.

I want to start plants from heirloom seed next year, we just didn't have time between moving in this house and starting a garden all at once. There are a lot of things I want to do next season... I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to space the monstrous zucchini plants out a bit further, with something that grows tall, like pole beans or sweet corn running up in between. I didn't realize how much planning it takes to master the art of garden design. Truly, it's an art. I expected the learning curve to be steep and for our first season, I think everything is coming along very well. It helps to read, read and read more gardening books and magazines - that's how we got things going. I also need make time to visit other gardeners and LISTEN to their advice. I've found that people who like plants want to tell you about them. I find myself doing this all the time. Well, watch out Ziptie Ranch, we're coming soon! Have a warm cup of lemongrass tea and a comfy chair ready :)

Because Pickles Are Tasty

I love pickles!!! Cucumbers are good but pickles are good x 100. I expanded upon the basic recipe from my previous post, "Refrigerator Dill Pickles" and they turned out looking delicious. I haven't tasted one yet because it takes a little while for the flavors to soak in, about 24 hours according to the recipe... While I'm waiting, I figured I'd update the blog here with some of the latest info. We are swimming in cucumbers. Two of our plants are producing at once, which leaves me busy making pickles and another delicious summer treat, cucumbers and onions. See pics for full-color, mouthwatering illustrations. Who knew mouthwatering was one word?

For those who are curious, here's how I made the pickles. This is a variation of the recipe I had, which left out some essential info (trial and error, anyone?) so I'll explain this in detail.

Here's what you'll need...

• 3 sterile quart jars with lids (not necessarily lids for sealing, this is the non-canning recipe)
• 5-6 fully ripened, normal-sized cucumbers. We do not have a "pickling" cucumber plant, these are just regular, plain-ol' cukes
• 1 red or yellow onion, your choice
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 6 sprigs of fresh dill
• 1 cup of canning salt
• 1 quart of water
• 1 quart of distilled white vinegar

Here's how...

1. Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise and then into quarters, they should look like spears and fit into the jars nicely.
2. While you're in the slicing mood, go ahead and chop that onion. I don't think size matters, I left mine kind of chunky because Bryon loves onions and they'll be easier for me to stay away from.
3. Slice the garlic cloves into halves or quarters.
4. Now that everything is sliced and diced, you can get the water, vinegar and salt boiling on the stove. I made the mistake of starting the heat before I started chopping and it was ready to go before I was finished. I used a 3 quart saucepan and it worked really well.
5. While the water/vinegar/salt mixture is heating up, start building the jars. I found it's much easier to lay the jars on their side and pile the cuke spears in there. Otherwise they're leaning over on the sides and it's hard to get them all in the jar. 1-2 cukes should fit in a quart jar. Once your jar is filled with cukes, add the onion, garlic and a couple sprigs of dill right on top.
6. Is it boiling yet? Once you have a rolling boil, use a 2 cup measuring cup (with a HANDLE!!!) to scoop out some liquid and pour it in the jar. Scooping hot water is not the easiest thing to do, watch out for drips, spills and splashes on your hands. I made a huge mess on the stove, thankfully it's a glass-top and easy to clean. You want to leave a bit of breathing room, don't fill it all the way. Leave about an inch to half inch at the top. Fill all of the jars and there may be a little bit of liquid left over, that's OK. I had a spear left over too, so I threw it in there and let it soak for a couple minutes to taste it. YUMMY!!!!!! Oh was it ever delicious.
7. Screw on the caps and let cool. One of my jars made a seal, the other two didn't. I don't think it matters. The original recipe says to wait 24 hours before you eat them and they'll store up to 3 months. I wouldn't test that 3 months business, just eat the pickles!!! If it didn't seal, it's probably not safe to store them more than 2 weeks.

Re-Using Trash to Grow Plants

This isn't a new idea to me, we use anything we can find for container gardening. Trashed nursery pots, old patio chairs, metal antique watering cans, broken rubbermaid tubs, finder's keeper's and now a plant is growing in there. With just a little bit of love and some spray paint, you can find all kinds of creative containers using things you would have thrown out in the garbage. I just got my latest Better Homes & Gardens e-newsletter with an inspiring slideshow of ideas. I hadn't thought of a wire wastebasket or old paint cans, not yet! We actually have an old lampshade laying around and now I can't wait to make a planter. Check out the BHG slideshow for yourself, it's short and sweet so you don't need a lot of time. In fact, since you're still reading I am sure you have plenty of time to look.