Planning a Vegetable Garden

Posts Tagged ‘Growing Vegetables at Home’

Planning a vegetable garden for Fall is necessary where I live in South Florida, because in the summertime, it’s just too hot to grow veggies!  When you have days in the mid to upper 90’s and nights around 80 with high humidity…the plants just die off for most mortal gardeners.

However, the nights are back in upper 60’s.  Even though the days are close to 90, the plants can handle it now, because they get a reprieve at night.

So, time to get the garden ready for fall plantings!  It’s the beginning of October, and since we don’t usually get frost until January, we have until then to bring in some garden produce.

Therefore, today’s post is about gardening in South Florida for Fall and Winter.  For the rest of you, I’ll have another post in a few days about making sure your garden is ready for Spring plantings.

South Florida Fall Vegetable Garden

It’s been a brutal summer for us down here; even my hot peppers (which love the heat) didn’t want to thrive, and I lost 4 out of 6 pepper plants totally; the other two are on life support.

The weeds, however, seemed to love it (isn’t that always the case?).  Since this past Saturday was the first day I’ve been able to venture out to work in the garden (too hot or rainy otherwise), it was weed-pulling time!  In fact, to show you what I was up against, here’s a photo of the main garden bed.

I ended up spending around 3 hours pulling weeds from the main bed before I gave out.  I managed to plant 4 plants (1 tomato, 1 pepper, 1 basil and 1 catnip) before the heat got to be too much.  So I still have 4 tomatoes, 1 catnip and around 6 pepper plants that need a home.

So, what other plants might be OK for a fall planting here (from seed)?  A partial list is:

• Lettuce (when it gets a little cooler)
• Radish (ditto)
• Bush beans (early type)
• Spinach

If I had planned better, I’d also have some winter squash on the list — it’s too late to grow them from seed.  Same thing for zucchini and other summer squash; a little late for planting from seeds.

I considered broccoli and cauliflower, but I don’t think they’d be sufficiently ready before a frost hit.

Get ‘Em in the Ground!

So if you’re here in South Florida and you haven’t already grown them from seeds, you need to get out to your local garden center and get some plants.  Reminder — tomatoes need to be early to mid-season in order to ripen before the first really cold snap.  Bell peppers are really iffy — they like warm weather, but banana peppers should do OK.  Jalapenos as well; I’ve successfully grown them in mild winters.

I’ll post a photo of how far I’ve come with clearing out the garden and what I’ve been planting next weekend.

Growing zucchini is not difficult at all. If you provide it with even half-way decent soil and give it 6 or more hours of sun a day, you’ll be rewarded with a bountiful harvest.

You can grow zucchini in containers, in the garden and even vertically!  And of course with their legendary production, you can look forward to snacks, appetizers, side dishes, main meals and desserts, all featuring this versatile veggie.  It’s one that no garden should really be without.

Requirements for Growing Zucchini

Like most other curcubits (which include squash, pumpkins, melons and such), zucchini likes warmth and sun.  Known as a summer squash, it’s closely related to yellow and patty-pan squash.  Keep this in mind if you plan to save seeds from your harvest — all three of these plants can cross-pollinate, so you’ll want to keep them apart.

Zucchini is what’s knows as a heavy feeder.  What this means is that it likes good soil, a balanced fertilizer (preferably organic) and plenty of water.  The vines also have a tendency to sprawl, so keep that in mind when evaluating how much space you have available.

If direct seeding outdoors, plant your seeds about 1 inch deep, 2 feet apart, after the soil has warmed to at least 65 degrees.  Or, you can do as I do — start them inside planted in a jiffy peat disk, then plant them outside, disk and all, about 2 weeks later.  While zucchini will tolerate cooler weather, they really do prefer warmth.

However, I will say that I planted mine outside and then got an unexpected drop into the 30’s for 2 nights.  The zucchini didn’t seem to be bothered by it, but maybe because it warmed up fairly quickly after.  And since the days have climbed into the low 80’s (the past 10 days), they have been growing more vigorously.

Grow Zucchini Vertically

If you don’t have a lot of space, or would just like to get the fruits off the ground, try growing zucchini vertically.  You can do this from the ground up (on a fence or trellis) or upside down (hanging from a grow bag or in a topsy-turvey planter — they aren’t just for tomatoes).

The biggest advantage in growing this way (aside from freeing up space) is that the plant and fruit and leaves mostly stay off the ground.  This means that air circulation increases (helpful for preventing or lessening fungal diseases) and fruit rotting due to being in contact with the soil.

As you can see in the photo, I planted 2 zucchini plants in a grow bag, hanging from a tree.   They seem happy, don’t you think?

(You can click the picture for a larger image.)

Are They Ready Yet?

So, when can you begin picking your zucchini?  Check your seed packet to see if there is a recommended harvesting size, but personally, I like them around 5 or so  inches — young enough to be tender, old enough to have flavor.

Oh, also check your seed packet to verify the color of your fruits!  Yes, this versatile veggie comes in more colors than the standard green you see in the grocery store.  And (surprise!) zucchini also come in more than one shape — some are long and thin (like what you see in the grocery store), some are shorter and rounder.

Finally, harvest your zucchini often.  If you let them get ripe on the vine, the plants will stop producing.  By keeping the plants plucked, you keep your harvest going longer.