Hey David,

I had left you a comment a couple weeks ago stating that I was going to build our own grocery row gardens in Space Coast FL. 4 rows each 28 feet long. Well 28 yards of wood chip mulch and 10 yards of compost later and mission accomplished. I understand your disdain for woodchip mulch now baha. 28 yards *27 cubic ft/yd = 756 cu.ft. of mulch / 8 cu.ft. in a wheel barrow = 94.5 wheel barrow loads over the last 2 weeks. The mulch was piled high on my suburban driveway all the way to the road! Praise the Lord, last load of mulch was placed today. Oorah! I was able to pretty much eliminate all traces of grass in my yard now, so i parked my push lawn mower by the road and its gone now!

Tree wise so far I have planted: 1 avacado, 1 “christmas” loquat, 1 moringa, 1 dwarf nam wa banana, 1 unknown dwarf banana bull head with pup, 3 grafted peach varieties in 1 hole, 1 red hybrid jaboticaba, 2 olive trees planted in 1 hole, 1 valencia pride mango, 1 afganski pomegranite, 1 nam doc mai mango, and 1 lsu purple fig. Oh and I am espaliering a variegated grafted lemon and a Cogshall mango on the southside of my house next to the grocery row gardens. Berry bushes are on the way to fill in the gaps between fruit trees: 2 dwarf fig trees, 2 mysore raspberries, 5 southern high bush blueberries, and 2 black berries.

I’ve already planted like 15 varieties of cowpeas and 10 types of okra, 2 kinds of pigeon peas, cassava, and will be filling in the gaps with sweet potato vines slips I have growing elsewhere.

So I’m writing to update that I’m loving this method. The OCD straight lines mixed with the freedom and chaos of the method make both halves of my brain quite happy.

My one question is: Since its soooo scorching hot right now in my part of Florida and the rainy season hasn’t quite started yet, should I hold off on pruning until the end of summer? I’m worried that if I cut these trees back to the 18 inch mark right now, that they will shrivel up. Should I let them go until they go dormant and just hack em back in winter to proper form? I’m planning on wire/fan training several of them, and vase shapes for others.

Thanks again for your work.

P.S. My 5-year old is a plant geek just like his father, and he continually asks me to read your Grocery Row Garden booklet to him and explain what it all means. We finished intro together and are knee deep in chapter 1.