10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Food Garden in Florida

Drought* 😅

I was born and raised in Florida, and I'm a 6th generation Floridian, and I can agree that gardening is hard in Florida. Every bug in Father's creation shows up here lol! However, I'm in north central Florida now, and we are still gathering a bumper crop of peppers and eggplants and a small amount of Okra too. I can no loner garden in the yard because of disabilities, but I'm a wealth of in formation thanks to books and YT gardeners. I live with my son now, and he's the gardener, but not in love with it like I always was, and we won't do much this winter, but early spring will be a better time for my son. Florida gardening requires much care concerning cleanliness, and staying on top of any new or threatening situations - you can't let anything slide or you will be in trouble. Neem, hydrogen peroxide, organic fertilizers, and yellow sticky traps are your best friends. Good compost is a must! I'm doing blueberry plants and bare-root strawberries in huge pots, and will start a variety of lettuces in a planter pot this weekend on our back deck - I can reach with my walker, so I'm not totally done yet lol!

I live in Cape Town, South Africa. Sandy soil as well, took some large yogurt containers, cut holes in the side, buried it up to the lid in my soil, put in kitchen scraps and the earth worms love it. I soak nettles in water for 3 weeks and use it diluted on the pests, aphids hate it, they die. The weeds I pull go into a plastic coke bottle and put the lid on, anaerobic plant food when it turns into liquid, after sifting and 5ml to 5 l water, plants love it.

I’m in Pensacola in Northwest Florida right between zones 8B and 9A. The freeze last year was pretty bad. It killed my Barbados Cherry and my Key Lime. The rain up in my area of Florida is very difficult to deal with. In the Spring, we often get 20 inches in one week. That washes out all your nutrients. In the Fall, we’ll get a drought that can last for months. We just got out first decent rain after two months of drought. I’ve found that if I put out bird seed for the squirrels and some water they can get to, it helps keep the, off my tomatoes. They decimated my tomatoes last year but not as bad this year. Florida definitely has a set of problems that most don’t understand until they try to grow food here.

I'm further south in Tequesta. I was prepared to fail. Big reply for folks & you. So, I build big "elevated gardens" and added green square hole netting on black plastic hose hoops with pull ties. (which stops the squirrels but allows bees). So, landscapers told me where to get a great truck load of cheap mulch, I didn't think of those guys when I built the boxes, but they know, and it's cheaper than store bought. $10 a load! .... Added manure and bone meal, 2 dozen worms and worm castings (which are full of eggs) Pete moss and some sand. Some plant food. My beds do not touch the ground, so I use copper wire to ground them to earth. Big advantage. So, It was weeks before my first plants were placed in the soil. The mulch was too warm, Broccoli was amazing, freezer full. Jalapeno pepper and green peppers did very well, tomatoes are easier than weeds to grow, but you have to have bone meal, or old milk, egg shells work too. Calcium. Blackberries came on last year, of course water melon, leaf lettuce, peas, green beans, cucumber, cabbage, radishes, greek garlic, strawberries, and tiny carrots. What never produced was My squash, cantaloupe, zucchini, big plants, no fruit. But I'll try again. Cilantro needs some shade in Florida, we have ton, shade cloth works. I have brussels growing, So eventually I made a squirrel trap & transported 14 of them to a nearby wildlife area. If needed I'll post a how to video on rumble. I don't post on y/tube anymore. Loved your video, kids too. Too funny.

Tons of good tips and info in this video! The Herbs and flower list to repel aphids will certainly be a game changer this fall/winter. I was spending way too much time trying to get rid of them instead of just preventing them to begin with. Very nice job with this video, keep them coming please!

I’ve added your channel to my list of gardening and food forest content creators . I am also in north central Florida and looking to purchase a home with a couple acres hopefully by the end of this year or early next year. I’m not a novice gardener but not an expert either, so it’s nice to learn as much as possible from people who know, experience and share their valuable information. I aa a food content creator but I would like to eventually incorporate gardening and healthier eating here and there. Thank you so much! And I look forward to checking out more of your content! I’m so excited to start my food forest journey! 🙂💙

I could have made this vid. You are saying everything I would say. You are 100# spot on. I have gardened for 40 yrs. Been in FL 10 years and there is nothing more challenging. You better like gardening. Because you will be working 2x as hard 🤣

Great information, I have the yellow pear tomato and everglades as well. Hot peppers grow well for me, Mullberries, Passionfruit, Lemons, Limes, Kumquats, and Bananas. I planted a tall merigold I got at a market, and it spread all over, not having a problem with squirrels, because my neighbor feeds them corn! I don't fight mother nature, healthy plants survive! I have some Pigeon peas, oh those yard long beans do well here.

Our Meyer lemon produces approx. 100 lemons per year with the only soil amendment being hardwood mulch.The squirrels don't bother it at all.The tree is around 15 years old at this point. May try leaf tobacco mixed with water in a spray bottle,strained well..This repels deer for awhile from my Mahoe plants,til it rains,lol. Don't know if squirrels will be repelled but I expect it.

Just found your channel! Im in North Central Florida.. so SUBSCRIBED! 👍🏽 Thank you for mentioning squirrels because many other channels dont. Excited to watch more of your videos and learn.💚 I have a pretty good green thumb for indoor house plants so lets see how it translate into outdoor food gardening. 😂

9b Central Florida here, I've definitely learned to MULCH EVERYTHING lol it's very difficult to manage watering schedules during the hot season and in times of drought, currently I've decided to grow a lot of Moringa trees instead of mainly focusing on annuals, the less I need to take care of them the better especially with mulching

Native Floridian here, grow in the Fall/Winter with frost cloths if needed. Spring here is Summer up North, grow all summer crops early. I am starting seeds for spring vegetables now in December. Try growing Florida Finley Onion from Cody Cove Nursery, I love Shallots as well. I put plastic forks with tines pointed upwards to stop the squirrel digging. In the summer I only grow Cow Peas and Okra, both love our hot, humid summers.

To control the tomato horn worms plant basil next to them

Squirrels were so bad. They dug the young plants out of my containers, sometimes they would dig up twenty pots. I bought a small trap from amazon and captured and relocated 34 of them.

The squirrels have a field day with my roselle fruits.... the first year I planted them and had no problem with them.... the second year the squirrels discovered them....

All kinds of benetials out there. Ive found a little encouragement to come around... Dragonflies, butterflies, and lady bugs and so many others. Ive been out of state awhile and im back and see our state with new eyes . Amazing life filled state. The floridian resiliency

Maybe I started my tomatoes early but they are doing great. I hope not to have any problems. I really enjoy tomatoes.

9A. Yup I go by if the bird bath froze or not. I see ice I know it's time for winter clothes. Socks with my flip flops.

So what can grow here does really well. The ones that struggle move back north? Our state is pretty much the only blend of zones . Not a whole lot of sub tropical with our draughty ok weather and of course hurricanes and our no name storms.