 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
Time is running out for many
warm season vegetables Last call for most warm season vegetables! Here in North Florida, the right timing is essential to gardening success. To successfully grow most vegetables, we must take advantage of short windows of opportunity that allow us to avoid the heat and humidity in the summer, and the frosts and freezes in the winter. A great many warm season vegetables can be planted during the month of April. Far fewer can be planted in May. If you want to have a kitchen garden, better get to it! Popular vegetables that can be planted this month in North Florida include beans (bush, pole and lima), cantaloupe, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peppers, pumpkin, southern peas, summer squash, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and watermelon. As we enter the month of May, our choices for success are pretty much limited to lima beans, southern peas, sweet potatoes, okra and eggplant. My Vegetable Gardening Guide (upper right on this page) has correct planting dates, varieties, spacing, etc. I encourage you to refer to it before you plant.
As April draws to a close, the last of the cool weather crops in my front-yard garden are maturing. This weekend I harvested 5 pounds of carrots, and for about the last week, we have been picking 2-3 pounds of strawberries daily (yum-yum!). The cabbage remaining in the garden is getting large and firm, and the onions and garlic are growing plump bulbs.
We’re still harvesting Valencia oranges (though they are not nearly as juicy as they were when they first ripened more than two months ago!). My tangerine, lemon and orange trees have already bloomed and set new fruit, which we’ll enjoy beginning around Thanksgiving. The persimmons, apples and blueberries have set fruit, too. The strawberry guava, pomegranate and fig trees will soon follow. Other veggies in my garden include tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers and sweet corn. I will also be growing eggplant, okra and sweet potatoes as the garden space becomes available over the next month or so. Now is the perfect time to join me and the many others who grow what they eat. This weekend, get growing! |
||||||||||||||
