The Florida Fall Veggie Garden - Let the Planting Begin!

Winterbor Kale and Packman Broccoli 

Saturday in South Florida was overcast and gloomy, loved it! The day was a tad cooler at a mere 88 deg.F and as I wrote this post at 5.00pm it was already down to 75 deg.F.

Lemon Boys, Sweet Pepper, Red Sails Lettuce and Radicchio

I thought it would be a good day to get some transplants in the above-ground-veg boxes so I made a quick trip to Home Depot. I'll explain why I'm mentioning them in a moment.





They have just about everything! Broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, zucchinis, kale, and a plethora (I love that word) of both tomatoes and herbs. Also they have a HUGE selection of seeds available which I don't remember - in previous years - being readily available until late October.

At the moment Home Depot have a sale of a 9 pack of vegs for $2.50 - that's .30 cents a plant!

When I got home with my goodies, a thunderstorm had blown up so any delirious ideas about planting was squished.

Sunday though.....

Packman Broccoli

I planted 9 of the broccoli in the garden and, as a companion plant, also sowed seeds of Nasturtium in between broccoli. 

Other good companion plants for broccoli are: carrots, bush beans, cukes, lettuce, potato, radish, onions and celery. Herbs include: dill, sage, basil, rosemary.

Note: Various sources do not recommend planting onions with bush beans.

Lemon Boy with Red Sails Lettuce and Radish seed

After the disastrous tomatoes-in-the-ground harvest of last season, I'm growing all my tomats in pots this year!

One is sharing a pot with the Red Sails Lettuce and the other is nestled in among the bush beans. I included a few radish seeds with the lettuce.

Other companion plants for tomats include: basil, cabbage, carrots, celery, chives, garlic, onions and peppers.

I buried a ripe banana with its skin on under both the tomats here. In years gone by I have noticed they take off once their roots reach the banana. The brick is to hold the pot down so the raccoons cannot dig banana up.

Flowerlady Lorraine over at Flowerladys Musings asked me how I prevented the raccoons digging my vegetables up, this is one of my techniques. The good old brick trick! And here's my other 'secret' weapon. Our fierce little guard dog Pikachu!

"Did someone mention Raccoon! Let me at 'em!"

Elsewhere in our backyard paradise. I want to show you my rose bush, Chrysler Imperial.

See all that new growth? This has occurred over a four week period.

The rose is blooming it's head off! Julie over at A Succulent Life told me she uses banana peels in her rose garden and has had fabulous success with her roses.

I followed her advice about and agree that Roses go bananas for bananas! Who would have thought! Thanks Julie!

The Florida Fall Veggie Garden - Are You Ready?

It's almost that time of year! 

I start mumbling about maybe extending the above ground 
veggie garden out another 6 x 15 feet and my hubbie has a deer-in-the-headlights look.

No seriously, I look forward to the Florida growing season with the same anticipation that a kid waits for the holidays, and this is why.

Plenty of home grown, delicious produce. The planting season has only just started here in my backyard paradise.

But I've been busy already.

For the third year running I planted Lemon Boy tomato seeds. These are seeds that I harvested from last year's crop. I just can't say enough about the Lemon Boy tomato. Every year I promise myself the Lemon Boy is the only tomato crop I am going to plant, but every year I keep trying with different Heirloom and Hybrid types. Determinate and Indeterminate. That's a gardener for you, we're eternal optimists - if we were not, we'd give up the first year the lubbers wiped out the beans, the cabbage worm the brassicas, and white fly decimated the eggplants.

Three weeks ago, I planted Bush Beans both in the vegetable bed and in a pot and they are doing really well. I bought these from Seeds Of Change. They are 100% certified organic Provider Snap Bush Bean. We loved them last year - crisp, nutty flavor, yum!

You need to plant a lot though, we only harvested maybe 5 or 6 every 2-3 days and frankly I could have eaten them every night. So, this year, I'm staggering the planting of the beans every 3 weeks.

On the covered patio, I'm trying two new varieties of tomatoes this year. This is Phoenix - a hybrid determinate.

Tip: If you have a covered patio to put your tomatoes on until they get a little bigger, bury half a banana in with them and watch them shoot up! If you plant them in the garden with the banana, the raccoons will find it and dig the whole thing up.....been there done that.


The tomato on the right is Rutgers - an heirloom and according my handy-dandy 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables'..."a determinate, New Jersey heirloom....produces large, 8-ounce fruits with good flavor...great for slicing or canning.....60-100 days to harvest."

Now I'm not sure if an heirloom from New Jersey (it's cold up there, isn't it?) is going to make it through a Zone 10 Florida Fall and Winter season, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I prefer to grow Indeterminate tomato varieties usually. Determinate types, fruit all at once and then wither away. Hopefully these two will provide us with some tomats by November, by which time the Lemon Boy will be well on its way to setting fruit....ooh I just can't wait!


I also prepared a vegetable bed that appeared to be infested with nematodes. Black plastic to the rescue. I'll let the soil cook for about 4-6 weeks and then plant onions, cauliflower and cabbages in here.

Last but not least, I got my egg shell water ready to sprinkle over tomato seedlings. The shell water provide calcium.

Tip: use egg shells, crushed a little bit and just soak in water for a week (I refrigerate mine).

There's my update, what's going on in your Florida fall garden?