Florida Gardening: What To Plant, When To Plant It!

Seasons in north and central Florida: Spring, First Dry Summer, Wet Summer, Second Dry Summer. "Soil": consists of 99% fine white beach sand, 1% root knot nematodes.

I really enjoyed your video! I'm 73, been gardening outside Gainesville for about 40 years, and before that in the heavy red clay near Athens Georgia, so I know a bit about extremes. Up there I was able to grow Brussels sprouts right through hard freezes, but had a horrible time with anything that wanted lime or excellent drainage. I have turned clay you probably could have used for pottery into rich friable soil by basically bombing it with the grass clippings from my parents' (unsprayed) lawn in 3 months. Down here I had instant culture shock. Organic matter be damned; I watched 1" and bigger chunks of oak wood disappear from a raised bed in a single growing season, oxidized into dust. Many years later, I'm still learning. I notice there were a few vegetables you didn't mention that I've had great luck with here. First is the so-called "yard-long-bean", a relative of our popular Southern pea. They are trained on trellises and take up relatively little ground for the amount of food produced. Most if not all of the many varieties originate from southern China and Southeast Asia, so they are no strangers to humidity or insect pressure, and they will produce right through the heat of summer, when other green vegetables really suffer. Another is Allium fistulosum, called "Welsh onion" for some unknown reason (since they do not come from Wales or even Europe). Where the common bulb-forming onions of the deep south are winter crops here and usually don't keep well long after harvest, some varieties of A. fistulosun are true perennials in our climate and can be harvested all year at any time of year for flavoring soups, salads and stir-fries. Most varieties are typical of grocery store green onions, but there are varieties that stay much thinner and one (Shimonita negi) that grows to almost leek-size. Two of my favorites, Nebuka and Heshiko, can be used to form more-or-less permanent beds. Both will spread slowly by sending up new shoots from the bases of the old, and can be harvested any time they're not flowering or making seed. I've had a patch in a "self-watering" planter that has been left on a concrete pad in the sun for going on 10 years, that I only occasionally care for by replacing broken-down organic media and adding a little fertilizer containing nitrogen. I harvest using a sharp blade to cut between the bases of the stalks, always leaving the remaining ones as undisturbed as I can, and the gaps are quickly filled in. I have to add, I purchase both yard-long-bean and bunching onion seeds from Kitazawa. They are a Japanese company and they are very knowledgeable about vegetables originating from East and southeast Asia, which shares a LOT of climate similarities to our own East Coast, from frigid north to subtropical south. Their web page is worth the time to browse just for the information they offer. I'm just a customer, not paid by them, but I enjoy sharing things that have brought me success.

I’ve been gardening in Florida’s Great Northwest, aka The Panhandle, for 50 years. The best growing season for me is fall, winter and very early spring. In terms of direct seeding or starts, I write off summer, from June to August. While there are things that will germinate and grow, the heat, humidity and pests, cause disease and fruit does not set. This is my time to renourish my beds and work on my compost. I start my tomatoes and peppers in January and try to have them in the ground by February. There is a chance of frost until about March but generally that doesn’t happen. By mid-June, I’ve gotten all the tomatoes I’m going to get, and the tomato plants are succumbing to disease. The peppers quit setting fruit until the weather cools, but then will have a nice second harvest. Toward the end of August, I start my winter vegetables — brassicas, lettuce, peas, etc. Our first freeze usually isn’t until December and by then, I’m harvesting my fall crops. Most of my brassicas will go right through a freeze with no problem. In December after the first freeze, I plant garlic bulbs. Putting them in the ground before that just doesn’t work. Up until December, we have days in 60s and occasionally 70s, which is too warm for garlic, but everything else loves it.

This exact video was the catalyst for me to actually understand the true gardening seasons here in Florida. I was still thinking "midwest" type gardening techniques before seeing this. It finally makes sense! Thank you for featuring Josh and his revelational info!

I'm in west Pasco about a mile from the Gulf and this winter I kept my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants growing only wrapping them during two really cold nights. Suffered some leaf loss on the peppers but they have come back nicely.

Great info. I'm a first time gardener and newer to Central Florida. I'm not allowed to plant in ground around my home so I am using 5 gallon buckets. I look forward to more videos.

I have been here in central Florida all my life 5th generation native been growing things since I was 11 years old 70years now we have not had a real rainy season for a while now it's more like growing in a desert. Hoping to get some rain next week it's a pain to keep up with watering but I am glad I have been using earth boxs but I'm getting ready to put some stuff in the ground and praying for rain

Dude! This video is super helpful! Man I wish I would’ve found this earlier but I guess I had to learn some lessons along the way. I live in Pensacola and my garden is full sun all day so I’ve had to come up with creative ways to have some shade during the summer. So I plant okra in the summer and underneath them have other type of crops which could use the shade. I don’t believe in ever having bare soil but it’s really a challenge to do that here in Florida and I’m so glad I found your video and your channel! Subscribed and following!

You did a great job with giving us a lot of information very clearly. Thanks so much! I really enjoyed your teaching.

Wow . Thank you for sharing your ideas and concept about gardening it helps me a lot❣️

Such a wonderful resource, thanks!

I live in homestead Fla, way south. I have cucumber,tomato, Potato, bell peppers, cucumber, squash green/yellow garlic, onion and I started in March!

Thank you for all the useful info.

I use to live in FL when I had my garden, was right next to an air strip. I know that sound of the prop plain so well.

Excellent. Well thought out.

Thank you Josh. I have my farm in Frostproof and this information is very useful.

Thank you for your informative video! I appreciate the knowledge!

It’s So cool - I’m in Central Florida. I just so happened to type in Florida Gardner‘s, and I’m glad I did 👏🏼👏🏼 #new #subscriber #here !!! I look forward to learning new things / better ways of gardenI

Yes!!! This is exactlyyyyy what I’ve been looking for! It’s so crazy how Florida is so big and the climate changes soo much from the north to the south. Living in zone 9b, central florida, is a sweet spot where you can plant a little bit of both things that grow north and south. But it’s a double edged sword cause sometimes they don’t do as well as they would in the other zones. Either way, this video was super comprehensive and i’ll definitely be adding some of the things you mentioned to my garden this season! Keep up the great work!

Great stuff!