anthonyescobar
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Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:53 am
Location: florida

brand spanking new to gardening...a few questions

first off, thank you for reading and I am very happily awaiting to hear from all of you.

I always wanted to have my own garden and basically be self-sufficient but I'm taking very meager, baby-baby steps to getting there. I have just bought some little plants for a few dollars at home depot here in New Smyrna Beach, Florida (great weather - 50's and 60's all week here) and they are the following:cayenne peppers, iceberg lettuce, some unique hybrid cabbage, and some broccoli are the vegetables. Also, I put some pots of rosemary's and lemon balm outside (no sun-spots in the house adequately lit for them).

I kinda just took them from the plastic, widdled the roots out so they would catch the dirt from alongside and underneath... and just planted them in dirt to their neck. I planted them about 6 inches apart and realize that I will have to set them farther apart later on.

So, I have questions in terms of bugs (what to expect and to prevent/do-- protocols and whatnot), watering (when is it too much/not enough-- once every other day? I got a relatively cool place by a tree I planted them all at that has like 6-8 hours only of direct sunlight.....and whatever else a rookie should know. I don'th ave fertilizer and don't know if there is a certain soil enhancer or soemhting I should get?

thank you all for reading

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

The lettuce, cabbage, broccoli are great things to be planting now. The cayenne pepper likes warm weather and lots of sun. Even though you are in Florida (if I planted it now, it would just get killed in a couple weeks when we get frost), it may not do very well. The lemon balm will be great. If you are going to have temps down in the 40's you should bring the rosemary indoors.


Water when the top couple inches or so of soil dry out.

Start a compost pile for the best soil amendment you can get! (Check out our Compost Forum if you aren't familiar with composting.)

Best wishes !

gumbo2176
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:01 am
Location: New Orleans

Welcome to the forum. I noticed you said you purchased a few plants, put them in the ground about 6 inches apart and plan to move them later on. Personally, I would not do that down the road. I'd do it now to give them proper spacing. If you wait a few weeks, the plants will take root and you will put them in shock by moving them again, prolonging their ability to produce.

Plants like leaf lettuce, spinach, swiss chard etc. can be planted 4-6 inches apart and you harvest individual leaves off the plants to prolong production. Plants like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etc. need a lot more space---18-24 inches between each.

I live in New Orleans and I find there are far fewer bugs to deal with when cool weather arrives. You may get things eating on the cabbage family of plants and they will likely be seen at night on the underside of the leaves eating away. Many of us just take a flashlight, find them, kill them, and rid the plants of them that way. You will also not have as many plant diseases in the fall as opposed to summer gardening. This is a good time to start and get you gardening feet wet. Summer is a bit more of a challenge with heat, humidity, plant diseases and bugs.

RBG, gives good advice and starting a compost pile is some of the best.

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Avonnow
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Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:01 pm
Location: Merritt Island, Florida

I too started this year gardening and you will love this forum. Has helped me alot. I started in March and had so so luck. Next year I plan to start alittle earlier. When the heat of the summer gets here, it is to hot for anything to thrive. I got beans, okra and eggplant and cucumbers this past summer, I also got BUGS. :shock: Everything else I tried just didn't make it with the bugs or heat. When I started the garden, I never remember seeing that many bugs in my yard, but once things got bloomin I saw bugs I never saw before, Everyday it was something new, that is why the forum helped so much. You may fair betterstarting now, because I have seen a tremendous improvement in my garden in the last few weeks since the humidity dropped and it got cooler, tomatoes, peppers, butternut squash, beans, and still okra and eggplant. I hope to do better now and when next summer comes - I will take a vacation. Good luck to you and go the library as well there area alot of great books on Florida Gardening. One I ended up getting is from a guy in Orlando - Guide to Florida Fruit and Vegetable gardening, ROBERT BOWDEN pretty simple book but he gives specific plants to grow in Florida in the various regions, I took some of his advice and the seeds/plants he suggested seem to fair better then just picking randomly. :) Best of luck to you. :wink:

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farmerlon
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Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:42 am
Location: middle Tennessee

Congrats on starting a garden! :)

Your idea about taking "baby steps" is right on; it's good to pace yourself to keep from getting overwhelmed.
You can learn a lot from reading this forum; so spend as much time here as you like.

To help you get off to a good start, I would also recommend getting a good "general reference" gardening book. I read just about every gardening book that I can get my hands on.
To cover all the basics, this book is one of the best that I have seen ... Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically .

Happy gardening !

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Avonnow wrote:I too started this year gardening and you will love this forum. Has helped me alot. I started in March and had so so luck. Next year I plan to start alittle earlier..... I hope to do better now and when next summer comes - I will take a vacation. Good luck to you and go the library as well there area alot of great books on Florida Gardening. One I ended up getting is from a guy in Orlando - Guide to Florida Fruit and Vegetable gardening, ROBERT BOWDEN pretty simple book but he gives specific plants to grow in Florida in the various regions, I took some of his advice and the seeds/plants he suggested seem to fair better then just picking randomly. :) Best of luck to you. :wink:
Yes... people in Florida, especially South Florida, Southern Calif and maybe a few other spots in the country, have to learn not to pay attention to what the rest of us are saying. Your seasons are essentially reversed. My main growing season is summer; yours is every other time but summer. There's a website https://www.floridata.com/ that is good on what plants work well in Florida climate, including plants for shade, for wet or dry conditions, etc. Even there, it doesn't seem to say anything about timing, when to be planting things. But I think you are right to take a vacation in the summer, especially for veggies.

The Helpful Gardener
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
Location: Colchester, CT

RBG hits the salient point in gardening; all gardening is local. What works for me in Connecticut may hold some values for you (compost, frinstance, is ALWAYS a good idea, no matter where you are), but it may not. Some of the things I do (letting my roots stretch out by holding back some water as it heats up) might be deadly for your Florida garden (for my soil is not pure sand nor do my temps usually get to plant frying heights).

So you are still bound to find particulars for your gardens that may not even hold with what the guy on the other side of the fence is doing, let alone the other side of the country. He's using Miracle grow? That has salmost no bearing on how your organic garden will grow, or the bugs that will be attracted, or the diseases you both may face. All we can do as fellow gardeners is offer the benefits of our experiences, but the true wealth will come from the benefit of YOUR experiences as to what works for you. Such is the nature of gardening.

But we'll help wherever we can...

HG



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