The Fall Garden Plan

Gardening in Florida is both frustrating and beautiful.

On the one hand, battling the heat (and drought) of the Florida summer in the garden was just such an emotional roller coaster.

Some of those battles resulted in wins. I discovered Everglades tomatoes, eggplant, banana peppers, and black-eyed peas really loved my garden. Watching my boys water and harvest, and spending that time together was just so sweet. And the magical view looking out my kitchen window made every struggle worth it.

But I had just as many, if not more, failures in the garden. Well, not failures, but learning experiences.

I watched my Seminole pumpkin completely take over half of my garden. And then only put out two pumpkins for all that effort. My corn never did mature fully. Or maybe it did and I just didn’t pick it soon enough. My cabbage refused to do its cabbage thing and create a head. I could grow sugar baby watermelons, but I sure couldn’t figure out when to cut into them.

Admittedly, toward the end of the spring growing season, I was having a hard time even enjoying being outside to work in the garden. The heat was just so unbelievably oppressive. And I had such a hard time figuring out the watering thing.

But fall is one of the best growing seasons in Florida. And admittedly, most of the vegetables I’ve been excited to try are cold-weather veggies.

Some plants I’m going to leave planted because they’re still producing: my seminole pumpkins made a miraculous comeback (and had quite a few flowers on it just this week). My banana pepper plants are also still giving off lots of peppers. I’ll add a fresh layer of compost to these beds as well as the empty beds so that the harvest continues.

My Everglades tomato plants are still huge but haven’t given a crop in about a month. My plan is to give these a really hard trim back and see if I can’t stimulate more growth. If left to their own devices, they can be perennials; I’d love to see if they can give me tons of fall tomatoes.

In the beds that I’ve cleaned out, I’m going to try to plant carrots, broccoli, garlic, onions, spinach, potatoes, and cauliflower. We also love green beans and are going to try to get a few more of those back into the ground in a new spot.

And I’m not ready to give up on cucumbers quite yet. Of the various seeds I planted in the spring, only one plant took off. Though I didn’t get much from it, I’m convinced I can make a better go of it this time. I’ve located a different spot for them this time around to try to rotate things.

I’m also really looking forward to getting more herbs into the ground this time around. I think