Raised Bed Help/What to Plant?(florida)

[Aida]

Hey all, I haven't been on in a while. I left the country for some time, and just now that I've got school and everything settled can I bother to think about gardening again. My last garden was a success, I would say, but this year I'm hoping for even better.

I want to build raised beds, it's so much easier- and our soil is a bit too crappy. I'd like to make the raised beds, fill them with compost/manure/soil, and try growing in them. I've looked at some designs and it seems pretty simple, just to make the outside and fill up with the ingredients. However, I have some questions:
Link: https://www.isavea2z.com/raised-bed-garden-designs-plans/ I'm really interested in the cinder block design on that blog. Would this be better than a wooden one? Should I lay cardboard at the bottom as recommended by the post?
Also, how should I layer the compost, manure, and soil? Is there some special way?
Thank you all in advance. <333

Also, I know it is almost winter, but is there anything that can be planted at this time? I live in central Florida, zone 9, and it is looking like a warm winter so far. I'm interested in lettuce, eggplant, radish(very successful last year!), watermelon, and green onions(scallions). Should I do some of these indoors? Should I purchase some grown already from a nursery?
I know that lettuce likes a cold environment, so should I give that a try? It can get pretty chilly here, but we haven't even had frost around my parts in years.

[rainbowgardener]

You are in Florida, certainly there are things you can be planting now! Here's a planting guide for zone 9, that should help give you some ideas:

https://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules/zones-9-10-planting-schedule

You can be planting most of the cool weather stuff now, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, carrots.

Watermelon is the warmest of warm weather crops and even you can't be planting melons in Nov. And eggplant is about the same. Radish and lettuce should be ok for you now and onions and garlic.

Re the raised beds. If the spot where you want to put them is really grassy or weedy, you can put cardboard down. Helps to wet it down thoroughly before you add soil. What you want is for the cardboard to help suppress the weeds and then break down and get out of the way. Wet cardboard breaks down a lot better than dry. Don't put down weed barrier cloth or rocks or anything permanent. You want the roots of your plants to be able to go down in to the soil, especially since your bed won't be that tall. Helps to poke some holes in the soil before you put down the cardboard with a garden fork and maybe some holes in the cardboard too, to help with drainage.

You can just throw soil, manure, compost and whatever else you have in and mix them together. Mixed is better than layers. Some peat moss or coconut coir would be good and maybe a bit of perlite. Think of it as a large container, so you need to keep your soil mix light and fluffy. No more than 1/3 plain dirt.

[Aida]

Thank you Rainbow-- as always, you are extremely helpful.

I'll check through that link and my plans and let you know what I decide on.

Just two more questions:
What if I already purchase a mostly-grown eggplant? My science teacher recently brought one, and the flowers are juuuuuust turning into fruits.
Should I purchase lettuce seeds, or lettuce starters? Is it hard to grow lettuce from seed?

[rainbowgardener]

Lettuce is easy to grow from seed. Although in my climate, I start most things indoors to give them a head start and transplant in to the garden, I have never bothered starting lettuce seed ahead, just plant the seed in the ground, does fine that way.

[Aida]

Thank you loads.
I plan on working on it this weekend, so I'll keep you all updated.

[Aida]

Woohoo!

Today I went to the store, and got my seeds.

I stuck mostly to the basic varieties:
Bloomsdale, Longstanding Spinach
Sparkler Radish(haven't tried this one yet, looks very cute!)
100% Certified Organic Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
And 100%Certified Organic Sweet Basil.
Also, a already-started sweet mint plant in a pot(or was it spearmint....?)

Also a bunch of soil, compost, and manure.


I planted the basil and transplanted the mint a while ago. The mint is growing shoots and "runners"-- with roots already on them. Can I cut these of and put them into new pots? Or would it be better to "direct" them to a new pot? In that case, when should I cut them off from the mommy plant?

It's still very tangled and crowded, so I definitely need help in that area.