Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay 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 ..read more

Image by AliasLibrarian from Pixabay If you didn’t get finished with your October planting, you get a reprieve this month.  What you can plant is exactly the same as last month. Other planting things are going on this month too.  It’s a good time for planting trees – they grow their root systems over the winter and are ready to leaf out come spring. Many herbs like the cooler weather and are good to plant now. Some of those include: Cilantro Dill Parsley Fennel Garlic Oregano Rosemary Sage Thyme Lots of harvesting is going on this month.  There are obvious things like your war ..read more

Barely seems like it’s autumn out there in your garden yet, but it is.  A little crisper, a little dryer (except for all the rain we’re having right now… if it wasn’t raining, there would be a little less humidity), and a few degrees cooler. We can’t tell a lot of difference but the plants can.  They notice the days are shorter and that the temperatures are moving smidgeon by smidgeon toward the cooler side of the mercury and it gets all kinds of little plant hormones flowing in preparation for ‘winter’ What does that mean for you?  Too late to plant any of those warmth loving ..read more

Image by Bernd Niebuhr from Pixabay Can you feel a difference in the weather yet… you know, that autumn’s coming thing.  Lots of work to do in the September… in addition to major planting.  All the heat and rain and humidity has made it unpleasant to work outside.  The consequences are weeds and disease and bugs and soil in dire need of amendment, maybe even some waterlogged areas.  All things that have to be dealt with before you can get those September seeds and plants in the ground. And then there’s hurricanes. Please CLICK HERE or on “Hurricanes” in the menu bar up ther ..read more

The Busy Busy Starts This Month. Need to get finished preparing your planting beds, containers, seeds planted in flats or pots for transplanting FAST! It’s still waaaay hot out there for your cool weather loving plants, but it is time to start getting your heat loving fall garden vegetables plants in the ground this month.  Some will be transplants and some will be seeds. Next month you will plant the last of your warm weather plants (there still are a bunch of them that can go in the garden in September) and a LOT more of the cool weather plants. So be sure to have your v ..read more

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay Chances are your garden is looking pretty pitiful about now.  The lovely rain, heat, humidity combined with the slower pace has made everything grow… plants as well as bugs and disease organisms. Rain has been a bit spotty this year so your garden may get a good watering then get a bit droughty and need watering, then rain, drought, water… Puts a lot of stress on your plants. This isn’t a bad thing though.  It’s the end of our season and the timing is perfect.  It’s a signal that it’s time to start preparing for your fall and winter garden ..read more

Summer ‘officially’ starts this month and so does the Hurricane Season… June is a month of waiting… waiting for it to reeeallly get hot, waiting to see if we’ll have any hurricanes, waiting for those afternoon thunderstorms and hoping they’re not too violent, waiting to harvest, waiting for your soil solarization to work, waiting for the right time to start seedlings for the fall garden (our second spring), waiting waiting waiting… There isn’t much to plant this month so your time will be best spent doing maintenance and preparatory things like tool repair/sharpening, soil solarization, compo ..read more

It’s here, the summer slump… technically it’s here anyway.  There may be a slump in what you can plant for the next few months, but there is absolutely no slump in what needs to be done in the garden. Lots of 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 mid April. The heat and humidity starting in May is going to put a real damper on the garden.  It will be interfering with pollen viability ..read more

Another near winterless year for most of us.  Plants are loving it… so are the bugs and diseases.  With no cold weather kill-off, seems like they are getting a major head start.  Spider mites, thrips, aphids, powdery mildew, early blight – just to mention a few – have made themselves at home for many weeks already. We will be running a series on controlling pests and diseases in the newsletter this month… something you will definitely want so if you’ve not signed up for it yet, do so now! Put your name and e-mail in the form at the top of the right sidebar! Though we didn’t hav ..read more

WOW! NO WINTER AT ALL THIS YEAR, FOR THE MOST OF US… 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 Lettuc ..read more