I am just starting to prepare a survival garden in central FL Orlando area. Where do you get seeds to start growing the various plants. Thank you for all the great info!

@Walter…. in orlando – central florida, crispy farms in apopka sells locally harvested seeds. Check out her website crispyfarms.com

Hoover’s market in Apopka sometimes carries her seeds and you can also find them in Longwood at “Wild Hare Kitchen”.

Wild Hare also has seeds from another local farm located in east seminole county ( I forget the name).

Hope this helps,
Will

Hi,

I have a few names that you can say yes/no to… (also because I need to know if they can grow in food forests in South Florida)
1. Persimmons
2. Taro
3. Sea Oats
4. Arrowroots
5. Guava
6. Sapodilla
7. Jackfruit
8. Jerusalem Artichoke
9. Cucamelon
10.Strangler Fig
11. Sunflower

I saw this site as a reference for determining what gingers are edible but can’t find anything on this list concerning gingers. I was told they all are edible but some taste bad is all. I LOVE ginger and have tried growing some from grocery store hands. So far I have several growing up but they don’t seem to be happy. I have them in an earth bag so I can move them if needed. I do have tons of a ginger that I can’t kill. It has a beautiful red bloom that we can squeeze and my Mom used to claim it was like hand creme. I don’t know enough but want to learn more. Can you refer some information sources for growing and preserving ginger?

Hi,
I just moved to my first 5 acres in OH, primarily so we can house our horses on our own property. The horses won’t be here till Feb, but I do have 6 chickens for the first time, and am learning how to care for them.

But I really want to try gardening too. And the more I read, the more I am trying to understand how to do as much of the complete food-animal-poop-food cycle as I can figure out how to manage. I came across and read your “Compost Everything” book and loved it, and am in my second time through, trying to actually DO what you suggest. But I get lost in the details and stall.

Since we moved so recently, I have been able to save a huge pile of cardboard to try the lasagna composting you mention, but am not sure I have good stuff to layer it with.

There is an old garden (2000 sq ft!!!) thick with weeds 5+ feet tall that my husband cut down. Some were burned. Some are still piled out there. I know the roots will die if I use them to make compost tea, but what do I do to eliminate the seeds?

There are 2 large manure piles from previous owners, one cow and one horse, and a 3rd super-sized cow manure pile. I’d love to use it but remember the chapter where the whole garden died because of Graz-on.

The fences were 30 years old and grown through with honeysuckle, which I have read is allelopathic. We replaced the fence and now have mounds of honeysuckle ash and and approx 2000 square feet of ground/shredded honeysuckle lying along the new fence line.

Along with planting the garden, I would like to plant more appropriate trees and shrubs to replace some of the honeysuckle that was taken out. But I am afraid of the honeysuckle “allelopathy” in the soil. Can that be overcome by composting? And what if one of the compost ingredients is honeysuckle? (Thought I would try tea, since it’s such a large area, maybe 5000 sq ft total, which I would try to work on in small chunks.)

All of this seems like a composter’s paradise (sort of). But I can’t bring it all together in my head and figure out a plan, or figure out if the plan would be safe (what with allelopathy, weed seeds, and possible herbicide contamination).

I am hoping you really answer questions and have some ideas, because I really need them!!!

Thanks for listening!

You should add beets, easy to grow and super good for you

Wow, that is fantastic that you are making a list! Being from the midwest, I think our list looks more like potatoes, green beans, tomatoes and corn. The two things that grow the best for me are kale and chinese noodle beans. I dont even have to try at those things. But I havent gotten kale to go to seed yet so as far as survival gardening I dont know if kale qualifies as a survival food since I dont know how to get it to go to seed. I did keep a kale plant alive for two years by covering it up with a clear rubbermaid tote with a brick on top- like its own personal mini greenhouse. Then early this past November I came down with the C-sickness and didnt get it covered up so it died. Im experimenting with growing things like longevity spinach in a greenstalk on wheels that I can roll into the house when it gets cold this fall. Hopefully I wont be rolling bugs and rodents into the house along with the veggies… Also I am working on planting perinneal plants like rhubarb and asparagus that hopefully will just keep coming back year after year. It would be so great if someone came up with a survival garden list of plants for Missouri already! We have such extreme unpredictable weather and the seasons are short. Gardening in Missouri is like Forest Gump and a box of Chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.

I skimmed your messages but didn’t see anything about everglades tomatoes. I’ve grown them from seeds and passed seeds around to friends, They are fine, prolific growers. The fruit is tiny, smaller than typical patio tomatoes. But the taste is seriously tomato-y. They are indeterminate so they can get tall while they keep on producing. When I looked them up, the report is that they are a different species than typical garden tomatoes. They seem to be pretty tough and may come back after some cold. No guarantees about that. I’m in central Florida north of Orlando.