Gardening Season Has Begun!

Living in Florida, we have an unusual growing season.  In order to avoid trying to grow anything in our blistering hot, humid summers, we start in the Fall and grow crops all the way through Spring.  The long season has its challenges but also benefits.  It’s challenging to stay ahead of the pests, but the benefits are multiple plantings of crops.  For example, we plant tomatoes in early Fall for an early winter crop (before it freezes) and then another planting in the Spring, for a harvest before the heat of Summer arrives.

So here is how the garden looks at the start of the season:

First Plantings, Fall 2010

The only crops showing here are the basil and sunflowers in the first bed.  but salad greens, turnips, beets, peppers, green beans, eggplant, tomatoes, scallions, mustard greens, swiss chard, zucchini and yellow squash, carrots, radishes and sugar snap peas will be coming up soon.  And we have other plants in seed trays ready to transplant in a few weeks:  broccoli, onions, cabbage, lettuce and herbs including cilantro, thyme, fennel and parsley.

I’m really looking forward to the first fresh salad of the season!!

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