Uf/ifas Gardening Solutions

Garden Resources

FREE Fleet Farming Gardening Guide

Check out our Fleet Farming Gardening Guide! This is a FREE 19 page PDF packed with information from our team of garden experts on how to grow a productive, edible garden.

Topics provided include:

Gardening Tools
Planting Seeds
Transplanting
Plant Propagation
Watering
Drip Irrigation
Harvesting
Maintenance
Natural Pest Management
Soil pH
Composting
Planting Schedule
Companion Planting
Square Foot Gardening
& Resources!

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How to Amend Sandy Soil

How to Harvest Salad Greens

How Drip Irrigation Works

Composting 101

Heat Loving Crops to Grow

How to Prune Tomatoes

Seasonal Planting

Florida is one of the best places in the United States to grow food! You can grow all year long if you plant the right plant varieties. In Florida, we have basically 2 seasons- the infamous hot Summer and the cooler Fall / Spring.

IFAS has resources online like this seasonal planting guide to help you plan your gardening each month.

Our favorite book for growing in Central Florida is Florida Fruit and Vegetable Gardening by Leu Garden's Robert Bowden.

Companion Planting

As plants use nutrients from the soil to grow, it is important to rotate your crops and to plant companion plants to increase your soil fertility. Check out this companion planting guide.

Some quick companions:

Lettuce is best planted with carrots and onions
Corn, beans, and squash are a great combo called the Three Sisters as planted by Native Americans
Tomatoes love to be planted with basil, oregano, and parsley
Carrots Love Tomatoes is a helpful book to take in the garden for companion planting.

Natural Pest Management

To encourage pollinators like bees, butterflies, and other friendly insects to your garden, it is important to only spray your crops with natural pest management sprays like neem oil. Just add a small amount to a spray bottle of water and you are ready to go!

Lady bugs and parasitic wasps act as predatory insects to keep the ecosystem of your garden balanced so be careful to keep harsh chemicals like Round Up away from your garden beds.

Add a solitary bee hive near your garden to encourage pollination for your fruits and vegetables.

Garden Maintenance

To maintain productive plant growth, it is important to cut back overgrown plants as needed and remove dying leaves. If the plant has grown to be too dense, air cannot flow properly throughout the foliage of the plant which will attract pest, fungus and other diseases. Remove unwanted pioneer plants from the garden. Make sure to remove not only the plant but also their roots.

Sheet Mulching: If you would like to create paths in your garden, keep grass at bay, or beautify your yard, you should consider sheet mulching. Sheet mulching is the technique in which earth is covered by a biodegradable weed barrier—usually cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper—and is then covered by mulch.