Central Florida Gardening

Yep, it’s here… Summer.

Summer is the down time for Zone 9 gardeners, as far as planting is concerned.  It’s too hot and humid to play in your garden comfortably, too many bugs out there, wet gardens from rain making it easier to transfer diseases from plant to plant, the temps and humidity affect flowering and pollination…

There is still plenty of garden maintenance to do though: watering, feeding, weeding, keeping bugs and disease under control, harvesting.

It’s also a good time for doing some work on your tools — after you find them.  Mine get scattered all over the garden and yard, hidden, forgotten.  Painting part of the handles a bright color that I can easily see in the dirt or mulch or weeds or overgrowth is #1 on my list.  When you misplace important tools you have to get another, and I really don’t need 5 rounded blade shovels… really, I don’t.

And another thing about June, it’s the beginning of hurricane season.  If/when things get active out in the Atlantic, I’ll post some info about hurricanes and your garden.

This months plantings:

Cool Weather Plants

• Absolutely NONE

Warm Weather Plants

• Okra
• Southern peas – black-eyed, crowder, purple hulled, yardlong (also called asparagus bean)
• Sweet potatoes
• Malabar and New Zealand spinach – which aren’t spinaches but are good substitutes in hot weather
• Other miscellaneous TROPICAL fruits and vegetables that you may come across

It’s here, the summer slump… technically it’s here anyway.  This weather has been weird enough this year that you could probably extend April’s plantings a little into May… I am.

Other things are happening in the garden(s) too.  Lots of harvesting going on, egg laying by garden friendly creatures: lizards, birds, toads – usually the toads start singing after the first rain in May… this year they started singing with the last rain in April and this morning I have mating toads in my goldfish ponds and strings of little black toad pearls (eggs)… very exciting.

The heat and humidity starting in May is going to put a real damper on the garden.  It will be interfering with pollen viability which will lower production, and it creates an environment that bugs and disease totally love.  It is best if you do not work in your garden when it is wet because the chances of spreading disease goes waaaaaay up.

Here’s the skimpy planting prospects for May (and June and July!)

Cool Weather Plants

NONE

Warm Weather Plants

• Okra
• Southern peas (includes black-eyed, yard long, crowder…)
• Sweet potatoes
• Malabar spinach (not really spinach but a good substitute)

Some advice:

• Don’t work in the heat of the day
• If parts of your garden are in shade part of the day, work in the shaded areas and then move with the shade (for example, my whole garden is in shade in the early morning.  Sun first appears at the west side then moves across the garden to the east side.  So, I start my gardening on the west side and then as the sun creeps in, I follow and stay in the shade as it moves over to the east side.
• Stay hydrated
• Wear a hat (some sun is very very good – vitamin D3 production – but too much should be avoided)
• Use some bug repellant (something natural like citronella – get a little bottle of citronella essential oil from a health food store, put a couple of drops on the palm of your hand, rub your hands together, then rub it your hands all over the exposed parts of your body – ankles, arms, neck, face, hair… works for me)
• Take breaks

Things are still weird out there, and weird in the garden too… confusing to the plants.

Though we didn’t have much in the way of winter this year, temperatures were still cooler longer than usual.  Because of that, I think you could probably pull from the “March In The Vegetable Garden” list a little bit into April.  April’s list is stingy

Cool Weather Plants

• NONE

Warm Weather Plants

• Beans – bush, pole, lima
• Cantaloupes
• Okra
• Southern peas – crowder, black-eyed, yard long…
• Sweet potatoes

WOW! No winter at all this year, for the most of us…

plants are aaaaall confused.

March plantings are not much different from February’s, but the important thing is this:

March is the last big planting month for the spring season.

With April’s warmth, the number of things you can plant drops drastically and then in May, June, and July there are really very few things you can plant at all… you need to have the plants growing already.  Heat and humidity will affect plant growth and productivity – and so will the bugs and diseases!!

So here’s the list for March

Cool Weather Plants

• Beets
• Carrots
• Collards
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce
• Mustard
• Onion – multiplier, bunching
• Peas
• Radish
• Turnip

Warm Weather Plants

• Beans – bush, pole, lima
• Cantaloups
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Okra
• Southern peas
• Peppers
• Sweet Potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Summer Squash
• Winter Squash
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

Remember though, this is just a generic list.  At your house in your gardening, things aren’t going to be generic.  Yours may be warmer, cooler, sunnier, shadier, dryer, moister, more fertile, different pH, more organic matter, yadda yadda yadda… than the average generic garden.

Look around your garden world.  Observe what and where things are growing, sprouting, the color, the health, moisture, disease… and use this information combined with a little common sense to guide your garden planting decisions.

WOW!  Looks like we might have another winterless year… 2 in a row.

That’s good, but it’s bad.

Good because we get extra growth, don’t have cold damage dieback, soil flora and fauna grow faster building that good rich soil, planting season is extended, more time to enjoy the outdoors in our garden paradises…

Bad because no freeze means no killing off some of the bugs or at least slowing them down, and bad because it gives us a false sense of “Spring is here” so we plant and then get a frost or freeze that destroys our seedlings and transplants.  The fruit trees and bushes get confused and bloom when they shouldn’t, and there won’t be enough ‘chill hours’ that some fruits and berries need to produce or ripen fruit.  The greens don’t get that touch of frost/cold to make them sweet…

Regardless of whether we have any winter weather or not, there is a lot of planting to be done ind February.

This list is not carved in stone.  It is only the recommended list of the FL Extension Service — which means it’s general.  Your yard is not identical to their test plots.  Yours may be cooler, warmer, wetter, dryer, higher, lower, more sun, less sun, protected, exposed… and then there are the micro-climates all over the place. 

Experiment.  Chinese cabbage and spinach are not on the list for February, but I want to plant them.  So, I’ll find a spot in my yard that’s a little bit cooler and has a little less sun than the rest and plant some Chinese cabbage and spinach there.  If it works, GREAT!  If it doesn’t, nothing lost.  It’s worth the chance.

Warm Weather Plants

• Beans – bush, pole, lima
• Cantaloupes
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Peppers
• Sweet potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Summer Squash
• Winter Squash
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

Cool Weather Plants

• Beets
• Carrots
• Celery
• Collards
• Endive/Escrole
• Kohlrabi
• Leek
• Lettuce
• Mustard
• Onion – multiplier, bunching
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Radish
• Turnip

New year, new things, new plans… Soooooo excited!  I can feel down in my gardener’s bones that it’s going to be a good one.

This month we can get a few warm weather things into the garden – BUT BE PREPARED TO PROTECT THEM!  We’re far from being out of the woods for some plant killing weather – frost or even a freeze.

Warm Weather Plants (shoot for the end of the month rather than the beginning)

• Eggplants
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Watermelons

Cool Weather Plants

• Beets
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chinese Cabbage
• Collards
• Endive/Escrole
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leek
• Lettuce
• Mustard
• Onion – multiplier and bunching, but not bulb
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Radish
• Turnips
• Garlic
• Spinach isn’t on the “official” list but you could try it anyway

Next month the planting really breaks loose!

One of the blessings of living in Central Florida is that we can garden all year round.

One of the curses of living in Central Florida is that we can garden all year round.

December is no different… almost identical to November plantings so lets get to it:

Warm Weather Plants

• NONE (but next month there will be)

Cool Weather Plants

• Beets
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chinese Cabbage
• Collards
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leek
• Lettuce
• Mustard
• Onion – bulb, multiplier, bunching
• Peas
• Radish