Start Your Garden!

Gardening 101 is my call to everyone who has ever wanted to start and garden but didn’t know where to begin. I’m here to help you. Not only will I share my foolproof vegetable gardening tips with you, I’m going to share some really fabulous information from others. The goal is to get gardening 101 on to gardening 201 and beyond! In Central Florida, my fall season begins now. In preparation, I’ve harvested my summer peanuts and tilled the soil to make way for my fall planting. Yes, my sweet boy Cody was a BIG help. Not!

A tractor IS a big help and luckily my husband was able to handle the tilling in less than ten minutes. Now come the fun part. Planting!

Don’t know what to plant?

Try this cool app that tells you what’s in season in your area. It will steer you in the right direction for both planting and eating fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s the Seasonal Food Guide and allows you to select your state, month and type of fruit or vegetable you’re interested in. I checked Florida for what’s in season and guess what? My peanuts showed up on the list! So did all of the other warm season plants, like chili peppers, okra, black-eye peas, mangoes, avocadoes, berries and herbs. Gardening 101. It’s not rocket science. It’s just plain good sense.

Looking ahead toward late October will give me a good idea of what I should be planting now. Corn, pumpkins, scallions, shell beans, and tomatoes pop up on the list. Perfect. I’m getting ready to sow my seeds for tomatoes this very week! Pumpkins on the list are a bit deceiving, because they can take up to a 120 days to mature and will freeze before they’re ready for harvest. For best results, I plant my pumpkins in June/July.

Most growing times are closer to 60-70 days, with the exceptions of garlic and sweet onions. Both go into the ground in the fall, but are not harvested until the following May. If you’re interested, check my Garden Guide complete how-to grow instructions.