Growing Leafy Vegetables and Fruiting Plants in the Northeast Florida Garden
A friend once complained about the price of her gym membership while I was on the phone with her and out in the garden crawling around on my knees like the nut that I am. I happened to be prepping the vegetable bed for some fall planting that I was getting ready to do and was still dripping sweat from using my little garden tiller. My response?… “Well if you need to exercise, you can come over and use my exercise tiller for free anytime!”
Some of us find our center of gravity in a yoga class, or walking on a beach, running on a sidewalk, playing video games, and even lifting a stack of weights over and over until they just can’t do it anymore.
I find my sanity in the dirt. It is my “me time”. My personal, “epic battle” with the earth about what is going to grow there. My “gardening therapy” for the control freak that I am. Where I get to be in control of the outcome, or at least think that I am! It’s the land where every problem has a clear solution, a clean cut plan of action that can be executed to obtain the desired result. A complete stress free haven, right there in my own backyard.
(I did mention that I was a nut, right? Don’t judge, there’s a strong probability you are a plant nut too, or you wouldn’t be reading this page! Am I right?)
There’s something therapeutic about gardening in general, vegetable gardening, now that just keeps on giving it’s rewards. For every hour you put into it, there’s another basket of fresh whatever you plant, perfect homegrown nutritious food just around the corner for you.
And if you, like me, decided to plant one of each and every basil, tomato, zuchinni etc. variety you came across in a seed book during December when theres nothing else to do but sit around wishing you were in the garden… there’s not just fresh food you, but also for your family, and your friends, and your neighbors, and your coworker`s neighbors…(and the coworker’s neighbor`s dog…-H)
Vegetable gardening In northeast Florida gives you, mental therapy, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and saves you a trip to the grocery store! Who wouldn’t love it!
Check out this UFIFAS publication on
Growing Vegetables in Northeast Florida Gardens
When to Plant What Vegetable… in Northeast Florida,
Jacksonville and St. Augustine Area Vegetable Gardens
One of the greatest things about living in Northeast Florida, to me, is that there is always something to do in the garden. No sitting around for months sipping tea and flipping through seed magazines wishing for spring as you stare out the window at a blanket of snow!
As great as that year round gardening calendar is, it can cause a bit of confusion as to what we plant at what time of year here in our subtropical paradise!
Knowing when to plant is an essential part of growing your own successful vegetable garden here in Northeast Florida. Planted at the wrong time your vegetables can have sluggish growth, fail to produce, shrivel up and die, suffer frost damage … you get the picture.
Timing isn’t everything, but it sure does help get your vegetable plants off to the best start possible, and avoid alto of frustrating problems and setbacks that you may not have had to deal with at all if you had just known what to vegetable to plant this month for your garden.
So whether it is January or June, check the chart, there is sure to be something to do in the vegetable garden!
When to plant vegetables in Northeast Florida is based on our a last frost date, the monthly local rainfall levels, and the monthly temperature fluctuations during the year.