Organic Vegetable Garden in Florida

Hello,

I'm about to move to Central Florida for the summer where I own a house with a nice amount of land around it to start a garden. I have the basics ready (I'll do a couple of separate raised beds around the house) and will grow some beans, corn, eggplant, okra, peas, pepper, and some tomatoes.

I was wondering if I should construct a shade cover for the vegetables because of the Florida sun? I am aware of the temperature charts and such, but I couldn't find any good resource that would address this question.

I know that many of them should get as much direct sunlight as possible, but I'm truly worried about the burning potential of the sun. I'm also probably going to install some sort of rain cover since it rains pretty thickly here.

Also, will it be wise of me to set up a dropler irrigation system, or should I not overcomplicate myself and just water them by hand?

I am not very experienced with vegetable gardening but am extremely experienced with house plants (work as an assistant grower in a greenhouse), so I could truly use a little help.

Would you advice against any of these types of vegetables? Any suggestions for other things I could grow? I only have a 3.5 month period between start and finish, so I cannot grow anything that would take longer than that (such as citrus). I'm a little afraid to grow anything that requires pollination since there doesn't seem to be strong bee activity in my area (whole lot of wasps though). The bees may be there, maybe I'm just not givin them any reason to visit me.

Anyhow, thank you for reading this. I will probably be coming back to this thread and asking more questions as my garden progresses.

 

Ehh... anyone?

It's a simple question, and I'd truly appreciate an answer. Should I shade my garden? How much should I shade it?

 

It's hard, if you decide to shade it, it might be best to do so with a wall of sorts, so that it gets sun during some parts of the day. I would just start it out without the shade and keep a good watering schedule, if you notice a problem then just toss something up for a little shade.

As you said, it's important that the plants get full sun. My garden (up north, but still, the idea is the same) is naturally shaded by trees when the sun is at its highest, however in the early morning and in the evening it gets lots of off angle sun. Which works well to give them good sun, but protect them from the mid day stuff.

It's also important to select plants that are ok with full sun, but I'm sure you know that.

As far as irrigation goes, a drip hose, IMO is the best money you could spend on your garden. It's WAY more efficient than hand watering or watering with a garden hose or sprinkler. It also conerves water, because all of the water gets to the plant instead of being lost through evaporation or run-off. I got 50' of drip hose for $10 the other day, ran it all around the garden with a Y hose spliter. Combined with a good mulch it will ensure your plants stay perfectly moist.

We can talk more about how much water it should get and caculating flow to determine how long you should have the hose on per week if you decide that's something you want to do.

 

Thank you a lot for the reply, I just built the framework for my beds, and found a nice area next to the house which has trees that shade the mid-day sun, but still allow for direct sunlight. I think that I'll try to build a second bed in a completely exposed area and get something to put over it in case of shade.

How much should I worry about rain? It tends to storm pretty strongly over here once in a while. Should I make a rain tarp or something like that to cover it?

The drip hose sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll go to the Home Depot or something and ask around for one today. I might have to get a splitter or two, but that's no biggy.

I also gotta figure out how I want to fill my beds up. Probably do that today too... ain't too much organic waste here, so I might have to improvise something.

 

I wouldn't worry about the rain, but you will want to make sure you get a good soil mix that will resist errosion. I'm still relatively new to all this myself so I'm not sure what to add into the soil to help it stay put. The thing you want to make sure of is that the plants don't get washed out before they get established.

Once they have a good root structure going they should be able to handle whatever nature wants to toss at em'.

If you got a lot of rain it's worth the $ to get a rain gauge. You want to avoid over watering and growing stuff in a muddy mess. If you have a lot of mulch on the soil (HEY! that might help with the errosion) you might now notice just how wet it's getting under there.

 

Grow dill & basil. I'm in Central FL & they are growing like weeds in full sun.
Also, tomatoes are a good plan.

 

I'm in MN, but my garden is in full sun - on a hot deck. I haven't had to shade anything as of yet.

I do grow taller plants near the more sensitive plants like carrots & lettuce - to shade them just a bit, but that's all I've done as far as sun-protection. Veggies like their sun!
love,
mom

 

I'd recommend you pass on the corn. It's a pain in the butt and a heavy feeder. Here in my part of California we have triple digits for four months of the year, the only things I like to plant toward the shadier side of the garden would be the beans.

What about a couple zucchini or crookneck squash? I personally like squash so I also plant butternut and peanut. Not many doesn't take a lot of plants to get enough squash. A couple cucumbers are always nice in your salads as well, but they'll need something to climb on.

And with the beans, either plant bush type or provide something for them to grow up on.

On pollination, there are many other means of pollination than just bees. Other insects, birds even the wind can pollinate. Don't worry too much about it.

Try drip, you will like it. With the use of a timer, it makes life so much easier, and putting a system together it is like playing with pop beads.

I wouldn't worry about the rain unless you get gully washers. If your raised beds are filled with good material, and you have allowed for drainage it shouldn't really be a problem. Your plants may get beat up a little but they will spring back once the sun comes out. And the benefit from the rain will far out weigh whatever damage results.