Gardening Tips & Tricks
Spring is finally here and this beautiful weather has you itching to plant a garden, but where do you start? What is this crazy climate called Florida? Lol! We are here to share our best gardening tips with you to help you get started in your backyard whether its in the ground, containers, or raised beds.
Let’s be real. Florida weather is completely unpredictable and has different growing seasons than anywhere else in the country so what in the world can we grow here?
There are basically three growing seasons in northeast Florida – spring, fall, and winter. Growing in the summer is incredibly difficult due to the heat, tremendous rainfall, and awful pests from insects to diseases so we all just skip that season and get the ground ready for fall.
Currently, in our u-pick field, we have winter crops ready to harvest like broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, rainbow chard, beets, turnips, radishes, kale, lettuce, arugula, and spinach. In our raised beds, we have a wide variety of herbs available.
Our spring goal for the farm is a little bit ahead of home gardeners so in the past couple weeks we have planted or transplanted our spring crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, sweet corn, potatoes, second plantings of spinach, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, kale, and warm weather flowers.
Raised Beds
Our raised beds were a summer camp project several years ago with the intent of seniors being able to participate in u-pick if they couldn’t navigate the fields safely. This year, they are strictly herbs and medicinal flowers and we couldn’t be more excited for this new experiment. We used the Hügelkultur method for the raised beds so after constructing the metal and wood frames, we lined them with cardboard, then layered with tree trucks, sticks, compost, and topsoil. Our beds are 4’x8’x2′ and are the perfect size for the farm or a backyard garden.
We planted some seeds, letting the campers figure out spacing, and transplanted some herbs. By fall, the beds looked great and our farm campers were so proud of their work. As the material in the beds breaks down each year, we continue to add a mixture of compost and topsoil.
Our current favorite mixture is coco coir, sifted compost, greensand, and rock phosphate. We use this for starting seeds, make-and-take gardens with our field trip students, and adding layers to our raised beds.
Once you’ve got your beds ready, plant away using season specific lists for our growing area. Be sure to allow plenty of growing space for oversized veggies like squash or zucchini and build a trellis for cucumbers or indeterminate tomatoes.
Ground Gardening
If you haven’t gotten your tiller out yet to work the ground, now is the time to do so. Measure your area, mark it off, and till ‘er up! We recommend collecting soil samples and sending them off to be tested so you can know exactly what your soil needs to be amended with. Once you’ve received the results and added the suggested recommendations to the soil, it’s plant time!
We typically buy seed in bulk but for smaller quantities, recommend Johnny’s Seeds or Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. Trader Joe’s usually has great priced herbs we love to transplant in the raised beds or ground. If you’re local to us, Maggie’s Herb Farm has a great selection of plants and herbs as well.
Florida soil in our area can range from a clay-like consistency to sandy so the soil testing we recommend is crucial to growing a successful garden so don’t skimp on that tip.
Work Smarter
Since soil is so inconsistent around here, we suggest less amendments and more growing for the area. For instance, if you have a sandy area lacking nutrients, grow something there that thrives in poor soil like gladiolus or cosmos, or plant green beans to improve the soil.
Need shade for some of your plants? Consider fast growing Mexican sunflowers, elderberry, or lemon grass which all provide an adequate amount of shade for raised beds or along the edges of your in-ground garden.
Learning your land can lend to great growing practices but it takes a bit of time and some elbow grease in the research as well as trial and error but we know you are well equipped to grow a great garden! Check out the image below for a March plant schedule:
Follow Us
Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for visuals of plant spacing, videos of planting action, and more!
