Luck is the intersection of Preparation and Opportunity

Not sure who originated the quote I used in the heading...but it sure applies to vegetable gardening in Florida.

One of the first thing you realize with gardening in Florida is the challenge the weather bring...this is even more intensified for vegetable gardening.

You see...there are really only two (and what some people may call short) seasons for growing vegetables in Orlando.

You have the Fall season (Sept - Dec) and you have the Spring Season (March - May).

You quickly realize that if you miss the beginning of the season by just a few weeks it can mean the difference between having a lot of "luck" and a bumper crop or the proverbial single $100.00 tomato.

So prepare......that is....right now focus on the basics: Light / Water / Soil

1) Pick a good location that is exposed to the Eastern or morning sun....the afternoon sun in Sept (and sometimes even October) is too intense for most tender veggies.  4-6 hours of direct sunlight will be sufficient.  Gardening in containers can make this easy....just move them as needed!

2) Make sure you have a way to water consistently....and I mean consistently....not Saturday morning when you wake and are inspired to grow all of your own food organically and then again Thursday after work when you realize that you have been so busy you forgot the vegetable garden in the back yard.

I can't overemphasis watering consistently is key!  This is where an automatic irrigation systems comes in handy....you know what they say: don't do anything yourself that a computer can do better.....the irrigation system doesn't forget...doesn't only water 1/2  the garden because their arm is tired....it just does its job...quietly and consistently.  So, even here at Apenberry's...where we are here 12 hours a day 6 days a week...we choose to install a drip system to our raised beds (see photo below). 

The beginning stages of our drip irrigation system

3) Soil....it can make all the difference...so invest wisely.  I just read a magazine article on maintaining your soil and they compared it to your gardening "bank account" ....that is...you can't just make withdrawls...you have to deposit something every once in a while.  Now is the time...get the best soil you can afford....and then spend a little more...it will pay dividends.  See what we are trying here

Our Raised Bed Veggie Garden is Off and Running!

We are going full bore this Fall with our display Vegetable Garden at Apenberry's.

Our hope is to experiment a little with different growing techniques (raised bed, container, Earthbox www.earthbox.com , and others).

We are going to try different soil mixes, seeds vs. starter plants, and various fertilizer products.

We filled our raised beds with the Fafard 2P Mix (www.fafard.com). It is a better draining, totally soiless mix than our standard 3B Mix. We added some Mushroom compost for good measure...so we will see how it goes.

We sowed our own seeds. We utilized both the Ferry-Morse Organic Seeds and some our new...super cool Baker Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com)
We want to learn, educate and eat!
Stop in to check out our progress.

One Bites the Dust!

Well our experiment growing vegetable and herbs with different
fertilizers is proving interesting. Pedro's pot with the synthetic
fertilizer and hydrated lime was obviously too much for the young
seedlings. They have burned. We will start over eliminating one of
the variables. My guess is the synthetic fertilizer was too much too
soon....perhaps more reason to stick with slow release or organics.

Coke or Pepsi?

We decided at this mornings' staff meeting to get our hands dirty. We all love to garden but don't often to get do it "on the clock". So in our version of a taste test we decided to plant some vegetables and herbs utilizing different fertilizers and planting techniques.

Felix decided to utilize the Earthbox Planting system with Celebrity Tomatoes and the provided 7-7-7 synthetic fertilizer.

Andrea planted some herbs with the Espoma Plant Tone organic fertilizer.

Jacoba also planted some herbs and utilized the Osmocote 14-14-14 fertilizer.

Pedro planted some peppers and tomatoes with the Sunniland 6-6-6 fertilizer and some hydrated lime.

David planted herbs and followed up with some Miracle Grow liquid fertilizer.

We all used the Fafard Professional Potting Mix.

We will keep you posted with photos of our progress!