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A Ne ws le tter of the Ok al oos a C ounty M aster G ar d ene rs Asso ci a ti on –– January 2010
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Planting a Winter Garden
It’s that time of year, when the world falls in love Every thing you hear seems to say… Plant a garden; let your veggie dreams come true…
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ell, ideally you should have had the veggie dream a few weeks ago but there is still time to make a garden before the pests show up again to soak up the heat and the sunshine and devour our summer gardens. The Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021 breaks the crops down into North, Central and South Florida and indicates which months we can expect the crop to do well (all other things being equal). Here in the North part of Florida you can plant beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, collards, eggplant, endive & escarole, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, (take a deep breath before continuing…) mustard (I always like it in those little jars!!! ;>); green onions, peas of the English variety (known as sweet peas) potatoes, radishes, strawberries and turnips. All that fills every bit of available space I have for a garden and none of that is really available space. Something else is occupying the ground. Surely I can find something to plant to make winter meals more interesting. Yes, I know we can buy any food product year round, but that’s no attitude for a gardener. I’m making an effort to reduce our carbon
! Okaloosa County Master Gardeners
Lynn Fabian
footprint where food is concerned. I will admit to falling under the spell of cherries last week and then discovering they were from Chile. I’ll try to keep my eyes closed next time I pass that bin at the grocery. But back to the winter garden… I have some large pots that can hold some onions, lettuce and maybe a ring of snow peas. Winter gardening is hard for me because there is so little available sun that reaches the ground in our tree filled yard. Growing plants up should help that; now where did I put that tomato ring? Starting from seeds will push your potential harvest some weeks out so look for sets of the vegetables you want to grow. There should still be some available. Your success will depend on how fresh those little starter plants are. The basics apply here: locate your garden near the house, on a well-drained site, close to a water source and in a spot that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. OOPS! That may be a killer requirement for me. Sunshine is at a premium in our yard. Improved soil with lots of organic matter is one of the most important components of a successful garden–– that and sunshine. Plan on fertilizing your winter plants. They will need it to grow successfully. Check the soil pH (5.8 to 6.3 is optimal for our sandy soils). Remember you can get a soil pH test run at either of the Okaloosa County Extension offices.
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