Overall a massive faulire. Outside of the peppers I bought at costco nearly everything sucked.

I think the soil I used was terrible - miracle grow potting soil.

I probably spent $300 on soil, pots, plants and got $5 worth of produce.

I am setting up for next year buy builds beds now and will order in much better soil.

Mike

Mike:

First of all, I think you can grow almost any warm weather garden vegetables year around in your location. That excludes such cold/cool weather vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, snow peas, probably broccoli, etc.

Second, I really doubt that it was your choice of potting soil. Possibly insects, over watering, etc. I dunno but it is not hard to overdo something in a garden.

Third, buy seeds, and start them in your house or patio then transfer them to garden plot or pots.

If you like tomatoes, for example, you can easily grow then in 5 gallon buckets.

If you're really serious about it, you might consider raised beds.

I could go on and on, so if you want to PM me or discuss it here. Tell me what you want to grow and how much.

Unless you're doing it for a hobby, it is a helluva lot cheaper to buy vegetables, especially at Farmer's Markets where you usually are getting locally grown produce.

When we lived in Destin ( everything in the ground is sand) I mixed clay and potting soil with the natural soil ( again, sand) and had good results. You will still need lots of water and low soluble fertilizer to limit leeching. The best tomatoes and peppers were planted in early fall and they produced until freezing got them.
Clay is what you are missing in your media.

The off season for commercial vegetable production in Florida is July and August. Planting starts back up in September for winter crops. In Orlando area that will typically be 'cool' season crops like lettuce, greens, broccoli, etc.

I assume your soil is pretty sandy. The Florida peninsula is just a giant beach! It doesn't hold water or nutrients very well. You might want to look into some of the home hydroponic gardening systems. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce grow very well in them.

Contact your local IFAS Extension office for local gardening recommendations.

I got my MS from the Vegetable Crops Department at UF back in the late '80's. I spent time on vegetable farms across the state.

Tom

Good tomato production, fair shelling beans and cooking pumpkins, let the old-fashioned corn get too ripe, also let the zucchini turn into massive bazoombas. I should have paid better attention.
On the brighter side, great sunflowers and nasturtiums this year.