My apologies for making a post that will only be relevant to the tiny subset of humans who live in one particular state of the United States and who want to grow food in their yards. But I get a lot of questions about this and I wanted to provide people with a static url. So, here is what I just posted on a friend’s page in response to her frustration with trying to grow things in Florida. By the way, if you are an aspiring residential gardener living in Florida, you don’t have to think about a greenhouse, because we are pretty much living in a greenhouse ha ha.
1) Organic methods for vegetable gardening in Florida, second edition; book by Ginny Stibolt and Melissa Markham. https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813068763 I give a particular way to Ginny’s advice because she is also among Florida’s leading experts on native plants and climate-wise gardening.
2) Totally crazy easy Florida gardening: The secret to growing piles of food in the sunshine state; book by David the Good. https://www.echobooks.net/totally-crazy-easy-florida-gard.html
3) Facebook group: Florida Food Forest
4) Facebook content creator and business: Transforming Florida Yards. She’s in south Florida but a lot of her information is good here in central Florida as well.
5) Also, make sure you are buying seeds that are best able to grow in Florida. Here is one seller who is widely regarded. Seed the Stars / Ryan Diggle on Facebook (and he sells via his Etsy account Seed the Stars).
6) For calorie crops in Florida, follow Josh Jamison on Facebook — He provides a wealth of information and sells some starts as well. He is supposedly working on a book but I’m not sure when it’s supposed to come out.
7) Also, resist the temptation to think you have to move out of your house and go buy a bunch of land. That’s a good way to wear yourself out and waste a lot of resources. You will be surprised at how much food you can grow on a fraction of an acre. Google terms: urban homestead; container gardening; food forest garden in pots.
8) Not everything needs sun. You can start seeds in a garage or other dark area before they need light. Also in your garage or other dark area, you can be cultivating mushrooms, starting micro greens, growing sprouts, incubating kefir, and more.
9) all of the above not withstanding, I have generally gotten away from growing cultivars. If you don’t have a green thumb it can be a lot of work to do it alone. If there were neighbors wanting to garden together, I would prefer to do that rather than try to grow my own. In the meantime, I have gotten very into foraging for nutritious food that grows for free. Many people call them “weeds,” but in fact they are food and medicine.
10) Growing trees and native plants in one’s yard helps create the “infrastructure” that will in turn make it easier for people in a neighborhood to grow fruits and vegetables in their yards. Trees and native flowers and other native plants provide habitat for beneficial insects, spiders, frogs, and other fellow creatures who can be a great help in a garden.
11) As weather extremes continue to get more extreme, temperature mitigation and shade via trees and vines will become an increasingly essential feature of a garden. Plus, it just makes it prettier and more fun to hang out in the yard. And the more you hang out in your yard, the better you’ll get to know the plants and animals who live there, and be able to hang out with them and work with them.