new to veggie gardening

[wildmustng87]

Hi everyone,

I'm kinda new to vegetable gardening, I tried one once but it ended in disaster with no edible results, except a small chive plant that I found in the grass a year later that must have survived after I let the garden get overgrown.

Unfortunately there isn't really any place in my yard that gets full sun, our neighbors have tall trees and although I have trimmed some of ours to help, the most I can get in one spot is about 4 hours of sun in the morning and maybe two hours of broken sun (through the trees) in the afternoon.

I bought a bundle of Vidalia onion seedlings at the feed store down the road, I have heard onions are hard to grow but my family uses onions in everything so I thought I would give them a shot. I also bought a set of 9 broccoli plants.

I broke up a square about 6ft by 6ft, incorporated a couple bags of organic garden soil and a bag of cow manure compost into it, and it's sitting until I can get a chance to plant in it.

I guess my main questions are.. Is this enough sun for onions and broccoli? And what other vegetables might I be able to grow here? Its not a large space but I think I could fit a few more plants in after I plant what I have. Any other advice or information on vegetable gardening in general would be much appreciated

I live in central Florida, I believe I am in zone 9 (?)

Thank you

[wildmustng87]

Oh you're right, I didn't really factor in that much room for the broccoli because I hadn't done my research on them yet. Glad to hear that the sun should be ok. Thanks!

[zone9garden.com]

Central Florida is Zone 9.... What part do you live in?

Also, be aware that most of our soil here is pure sand so it does not hold nutrients or moisture very well. The amendments you added will be very helpful, but its a good idea to add even more compost (you do compost don't you?) fairly regularly. That will make sure the nutrients the plants need will be there.

[rainbowgardener]

Other things that should tolerate the limited sun and do well this time of year are all the salad stuff-- lettuce, spinach, swiss, chard, kale.

[wildmustng87]

zone9garden:
I live in Ocala, I believe it is considered "north" central Florida where I am at.
As far as composting... for months I have been piling on the debri from cleaning the yard in the back corner, but with no real goal at making compost. It was just in a huge scattered pile, Elephant ear plants growing out of it. This past weekend I put up some fencing around it, dug the EE plants out and planted them around the border to help support the fence (its 2"x4" wire fencing, I didn't have any other material to use). I piled it up in there best I could and watered it down. I've started adding kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, etc to it after reading in the composting section. To cut it short, since this isnt a composting forum and I don't wanna get in trouble I just put Compost Maker on it to help it get started (per the advice from my local feed store). I know underneath there is some composted stuff thats mostly dirt by now, but I'm worried about putting it in the garden after just recently putting the Compost Maker on it... Anyone know if that would be ok? If not, I can easily go grab a few more bags of the cow manure compost at only $1.40 a bag.

rainbowgardener:
Thanks for the tips, I will have to watch the sun in the morning to see if I have some more space and if so, I'll definately break more ground for some of those greens!

[kitchenwitch1968]

while full sun is great , the length or time of light that is important too 12 hours is great . less time less great . mild changes in temperature are ok but with big changes in temp . the onion thinks it has gone into the second year, ( Biannual )and start to flower (seed) . which is not a problem and you can't stop it once the shoot sprouts . But you will grow smaller onions if that happens But just think you'll have pretty little flowers to boot ..
Good luck ,
Sue

P.s. onions aren't very picky about soil . but you must replace sand with cheep potting soil . and the broccoli needs more nutrients so fertilize