Starting A Vegetable Garden
Vegetables can be a fun, rewarding project that can save you money and reduce food waste. Planting a garden also provides fresh produce, exercise, and a sense of accomplishment that can make your yard or patio attractive.
If you would like to learn how to grow nutritious food here in central Florida, the Be Healthy: Grow Your Own Food four-week class series could be for you.
Vegetable gardening season is not far away, and this summer is a great time to learn to grow your own food or improve your techniques. Through the summer, we can continue harvesting tomatoes, eggplant and okra or grow tropical vegetables, but our primary gardening season begins in August and runs through May.
If the basics are followed, delicious home-grown food is the reward.
Vegetables can be grown in the ground, raised beds, containers (including hanging baskets) and hydroponically. Regardless of which of these methods is chosen, ample light and water are needed for good growth and food production.
Take advantage of March’s cooler weather with these gardening chores
More by Sally:Here’s a list of deciduous fruit trees to grow in Brevard County
On June 19, everyone will start with some hands-on learning on how to germinate seeds in paper towels to take them home to grow. This year I will also demonstrate and discuss how to grow your own sprouts and microgreens, and how to create your own D.I.Y. hydroponic four-gallon bucket to grow lettuce.
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VH/VH02100.pdf.
Beginning on page six is a chart that lists each crop and what month(s) they should be planted in north, central and south Florida. Simply look down the middle column, for central Florida, and the month or months that each crop should be planted will be listed. When it comes to fruit crops, there are many to choose from, and they are placed into the following groups: temperate, subtropical, and tropical fruit, with citrus, discussed separately.
The last class, on July 10 will focus on IPM, also known as Integrated Pest Management.
2023BHGYOFamclass.eventbrite.com or 2023BHGYOFpmclass.eventbrite.com or call Adrienne at 633-1702 ext. 52315 for help. If you are not already growing your own food, I hope you will consider taking this class. It is both fun and delicious to harvest your own home-grown food.
Sally Scalera is an urban horticulture agent and master gardener coordinator for the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences. Email her at sasc@ufl.edu.
Source: floridatoday.com
