In our latest video, we expand on a blog post from last week and cover why growing food in North Florida often foils vegetable gardeners:
It’s not impossible. And don’t give in to the idea that you need to grow in containers.
This is a regular suggestion we receive, and it just isn’t necessary. There are plants that will thrive and produce tons of food in North Florida without you relying on horse troughs full of purchased dirt, or worse, some sort of weird aquaponics system.
We once grew cassava and yams in pure construction sand that we mounded over some cow manure we knew was free of long-term herbicides. They did great! It’s not the sand. It’s how you approach it, and what you try to grow.
You can succeed in Florida sand, despite 100 degree temps in summer and hard freezes in winter.
It just takes the right knowledge.
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7 comments
Looks like you used the old USDA map. The new one (released very recently) is at:
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
and many parts of the state have moved up in zone. Brevard County (Space Coast) was zones 9A, 9B and now much of it is zone 10A.
I do not believe the new map.
It’s going to lead to lots of dead tropical plants.
I don’t believe the new zoning map either. In the past 6 years here in the panhandle I’ve experienced mid teen nights a handful of times. Seems to be more common than locals have said it happened in the past. If anything it shouldn’t have moved up a zone but down a zone colder. Pick hardier plants than you think are necessary.
Lifelong Panhandle resident here, and I don’t believe the new map, either. Not one bit.
In my childhood and teen years we had a lot of hard freezes. It’s true that during the last couple of decades we have had a lot of mild winters with only a couple of very light frosts per year. But even during those decades we *also* had several years with freezes in the teens. I know for sure we had teens here in 2010, 2014, and last Christmas. I am sure there were more but I can’t remember the exact years. 2014 I remember in particular, because it killed my beautiful mature Satsuma tree that used to give me huge harvests of delicious oranges. :-(
I have learned the hard way to buy plants rated for zone 9 or higher for heat *and* zone 8 or lower for cold. But I make exceptions sometimes for cheap subtropical plants that I am okay with losing to a freeze – I think of them as annuals that might give me a few bonus years if we have mild winters.
The people in charge of the new USDA maps are obviously not growing any plants.
They are inaccurate here in North Texas as well, off by about a zone and a half! (I assume they are inaccurate across the whole country.) The maps from 90’s are still very accurate, if you can find them I suggest you save them.
Yes. I stick to the old 90s map.