Storm clouds, blisteringly hot days, and humid evenings... welcome to May in South Florida. May is a bit of a transitional month here for gardening. Its the last chance to plant some heat tolerant annuals, and also the first chance to go ahead and replant your garden with summer loving longer term perennial food crops. We've noticed over the year that the main reason why people decide to stop gardening altogether for the summer is the big learning curve with getting to know all of the new and unusual varieties that like the summer. So this blog post will focus on our top 10 most beloved summer perennial veggies and herbs. 

May is basically like, the most transitional month between the last of the annual vegetables and the beginning of the perennials & fruit trees, and the below varieties kind of symbolize that hybrid of seasons for us. Some of these are annuals, some are perennials, and all of them are perfect for May. All of these varieties should last through the summer if treated properly and they can be planted in your raised bed or your landscaping depending on how much space you have available. If you've only ever grown in a raised bed consider adding a "food forest guild" to your back or front yard landscaping to provide a permanent home to some perennial food crops. 

Check out this article about food forest guilds & the accompanying diagram which easily helps explain the planting design for a food forest. Basically, gardeners take design inspiration from the way that forests naturally organize themselves so that all of the plants can live harmoniously together in a small space instead of fighting for space in the system. One of our favorite modification to the food forest guild system is to remove the "upper canopy" plant, which is typically a very large fast growing fruit tree that will make lots of shade and requires the most space. Sometimes adding an upper canopy tree to your backyard can be a bit too much, so you can use a mid-level canopy tree like a papaya, mulberry or a banana as the largest specimen in your guild and then surround it with smaller annuals and perennials like the ones in the below list to round out the system. 

Without further ado here comes our top 10 list. All of the plants on the list can be sourced from our nursery in the Redland during our Summer Plant Sale which is happening Friday, Saturday & Sunday May 7,8th and 9th (more info can be found here) but we will also have them available throughout the summer. Happy planting!



OUR 10 FAVORITE MAY FOOD CROPS: 

1. HOT PEPPERS
Hot peppers are a great choice for a May garden because they love a lengthening day, and they love the heat and humidity. In climates like ours without frost peppers are technically perennials and a good healthy nematode free pepper plant can become quite a formidable presence in your garden, turning into a big bush and lasting years before loosing productivity. The hotter the pepper variety the easier is it to grow in the heat. We're not sure why thats the case but a guess is that the amount of capsicum in the whole plant is higher and the bugs don't like the taste! Bugs are going to be the one thing that might negatively effect your pepper plants health as one of the negative features of summer gardening is that the pest pressure increases. Keep an eye on the underside of your leaves where aphids and whitefly like to hide from your inquisitive eyes, and if the growing tips of the plant get krinkly or shriveled up that means you have a two-spotted spider mite issue. 



2. GARLIC CHIVES
Garlic chives are the closest thing we can come to growing garlic, or something that kinda tastes like garlic, here in South Florida. Garlic Chives are literally indestructible and will be the very last plant standing in your garden no matter what challenges are thrown at it. The root system of this plant is incredibly robust which means it can handle dry conditions and low nutrients pretty well. Cut your clump of garlic chives down to the base whenever you need to use it in the kitchen and two weeks later your plant will be fully grown again! Garlic chives make a great ingredient for stir fries, stuffing dumplings & gyoza. 




3 & 4. LONGEVITY & OKINAWA SPINACH
Longevity & Okinawa spinach are plant cousins so we are including them together in our list. Longevity is a lime green leafed plant while Okinawa is a big more showy with dark leaves and bright purple undersides of the leaves. Summer greens are all a bit weird, and they all have funny names with the word spinach in them, even though none of them are related to or very similar to spinach! They are commonly referred to as spinaches to give people an idea of how to cook them, since they are all a little slimy if overcooked (like spinach is) and are basically mildly flavored green leaves. Okinawa & Longevity are perennial greens and they make low lying shrubs that spread and grow in low branches. they make a great ornamental ground cover in your food forest too. 

5. WINGED BEAN
Winged bean is by far our favorite weird warm weather vegetable. This beautiful bean is scalloped ruffled and winged, and when you cut it in pieces they look like little throwing stars. The plant is easy to grow and the entire thing (leaf, flower, bean & roots) is edible. This is a vining plant so you'll need to make sure to give it lots of space and support from a fence or trellis and keep an eye on the young pods to make sure aphids don't attack them when they are small. Include a winged bean in your summer garden and you'll be harvesting the asparagus flavored beans all summer long. 



6. SISSOO SPINACH
Sissoo spinach is like the kale of summer veggies. Its super easy to grow, easy to cook with, tastes pretty good, and lots of people know about it so its popular with our customers. It doesn't have many pest issues (but worms will eat it. they eat everything....) and it thrives in lots of different situations, from partial shade to full sun. Harvest the first few inches of growth for the most tender leaves and eat them lightly cooked. As with the other "spinaches" if you overcook Sisso it will become gooey and unpleasant. 



7. TARO LEAF
Taro is a really cool and beautiful summer veggie that produces two unique yields because its leaf and its root are both edible. As the plant matures you can harvest the outer leaves for use in the kitchen, and after about 8-12 months you can harvest the whole plant and use its tender tuber too. Most people are like... "what the heck is a taro root" and then they realize... taro chips! those white chips with the little red squiggles in them are made from taro root, and you can use it much like you would a potato... mashed, cubed and baked or fried. 



8. LEMONGRASS
Lemongrass barely needs an introduction since its quite a popular herb in lots of different delish cuisines like Indian & Thai, however did you know that it grows super well down here in South Florida? Or that its essential oils help keep mosquitos out of your garden? Indeed! Besides being a prolific and easy to use herb & tea plant, lemongrass can also be used in natural bug repellants and other body products. Lemongrass is luckily also very easy to propagate, just rip a piece out by the roots, cut away the top of it to leave just a few inches of plant and stick it in the ground. So long as it gets consistent watering until its rooted itll happily make a new plant. 

9. THAI BASIL
While we Americans may not consider something like Thai basil a vegetable there are cuisines worldwide that literally treat it like spinach, or kale! Cake Thai, Miamis most authentic Thai restaurant, has a tofu dish thats literally like 50% tofu 50% Thai basil leaves and its soooooo delish... While Genovese basil (aka Italian) loves the heat it absolutely hates the humidity, so luckily for us its relative Thai basil loves it. Use in herbaceous salads, in Thai stir fries or curries, and as a filling for spring rolls. Allow it to flower and the pollinators in your yard will thank you. 



10. CRANBERRY HIBISCUS
Cranberry hibiscus is another super cool leaf that is really unique to summer and adds a welcome splash of color, texture & tart flavor to an herbaceous salad. The hibiscus family is full of fun summer friendly food plants like roselle, okra, and south sea salad tree, but cranberry hibiscus is definitely the prettiest with its dark purple maple shaped leaves and its baby pink hibiscus flowers. Prune your cranberry hibiscus regularly and it'll get nice and bushy and try to get it a spot in your garden in full sun because the more sun it gets the deeper the color in the leaves. 

Here we are already in April, where did the season go!? We consider April one of the last opportunities to plant and harvest annuals before the summer comes and wipes them all out with its intense heat and rainfall. April is a great month to also plant transitional perennial crops that will survive into or through the summer if you have some space opening up in your garden. If you planted things like kale & tomatoes in the fall those plants might be nearing the end of their life cycle by now. Many home gardeners get a bit attached to their plants because they've cared for them for so long, so they don't want to pull them out (aka kill them), but annuals are meant to grow, produce flowers, fruit & seed, and then die (or be pulled out). We sometimes get comments from people like "my beans were doing so well, producing so much food for me, but then they just stopped and now they're just sitting in my garden for months not doing anything...whats wrong with them?" to which we respond: "theres nothing wrong with them, they're just done making you food! pull them out already!". So, pull it out already is definitely a theme of April gardening. It's not too late to remove a spent crop and plant something new, especially something quick growing, like asian greens. 

"Asian greens" is a whole category of delicious and super easy to grow heat tolerant crops in the brassica family (the family that includes radishes, kale & broccoli) that we love planting this time of year. Many of these varieties are incredibly popular staple crops in other parts of the world but are relatively uncommon here in America. But remember, our unique climate is much like that found in Thailand and parts of India & Asia, so it makes sense that we would take inspiration from these areas when looking for cool heat tolerant crops.

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From left to right in the above photos we have asian greens Tokyo Bekana (also known as Pei Tsai), a mix of mustard greens (including mizuna, mz america, southern giant and Japanese red), and purple stemmed Hon Tsai Tai. Tokyo Bekana is a loose headed Chinese cabbage that has lime green soft ruffled leaves and a very crunchy watery main stalk, making it very similar in texture, flavor & use to romaine lettuce. Mustard is a whole class of greens including the most famous one, arugula, but there are tons of other delicious, colorful and ornamental mustards that gardeners can grow for baby salad leaves or large leaves for cooking. Hon Tsai Tai is closely related to broccoli and its stalks are crunchy and sweet like broccoli. 

  

This first photo is of Komatsuna which is a very mild and modest shaped asian green that people often harvest young and compare to spinach. Come to think of it, the second green, Tat Soi, is also often compared to spinach. Traditional spinach hates miami, and these two equivalents love it, so why not embrace them and grow them instead... Tat soi makes a beautiful savoyed cabbage head if you let it mature, and the leaves are treated like bok choi at that point, because they have nice thick interior stalks. 

Seed Saving: 

 Another fun garden activity that is unique to spring is the harvesting and saving of seeds from your plants. Many plants that you might not think make seeds will definitely do so if you leave them in your garden long enough, or if you treat them just a little bit differently. Lets take the medicinal flower calendula as an example.... If you're growing calendula in your garden you are likely harvesting all of the blooms and saving them for medicinal use. Well, if you leave a few flowers on the plant then they will get pollinated, die and turn into seeds! Let the seeds dry on the plant (that means they have fully matured and will be the right age for germination when you are ready to plant them) and then store them in a jar in the dark until next season. Saving your own seeds is an important part of becoming a self sufficient and resilient gardener. While we specialize in selling people plants and seeds we are always thrilled to see people move away from relying on us for materials and into relying on nature and their own garden to generate what they need. And then when they generate abundance, especially in the form of saved seeds, sharing it with their community. Miami Seed Share is a local non profit project that collects and gives away saved seed (through seed libraries and different spots throughout the city), check them out on instagram if you have seed you'd like to donate. 

   

If left on the plant many flowers & fruits will make mature seeds, all it takes is some patience. The calendula left will produce way more seed than you'll ever need for next season! The seeds in the palm right are heirloom Datil pepper seeds, which can be harvested from a pepper fruit so long as it matures into a color (sometimes orange, sometimes yellow, sometimes red). Each plant family will make useable seeds in a different way, so the best way to figure out how to save lots of different seeds is to get a guide book, like "Seed to Seed", which is a bit of a seed saving bible. You can also use seeds in a culinary way! The herb cilantro has so many useable parts including its fresh and dried seeds, which are referred to as "coriander" but are just cilantro seeds! Dill seed, arugula seed (which is called mustard seeds, like what you make mustard out of!), and nasturtium seeds are all edible and useful in the kitchen, so you can also stock your pantry during spring before composting your spent plants. 

Composting: 

Spring is a good time to start a compost pile if you don't already have one for two reasons. No, three reasons! Reason one is that many of our local tree species (like oaks and black olives) are losing their leaves now, and leaf litter is a super valuable (but free and abundant) ingredient in compost. Leaf litter breaks down faster than woody mulch, is full of minerals that the tree removed from the soil, and they are a great environment for microbial & fungal life forms to thrive in. Reason two is that as you empty your garden out of spent crops you'll get to make use of them if you add them to a compost pile. Plants added to a compost pile fresh are referred to as "greens" and they contain lots of nitrogen, a key ingredient for plant growth. Layering greens and browns (dried stuff like mulch, hay, cardboard and our friend leaf litter) is how you make a healthy and balanced compost pile, so spring has lots of greens and browns for you to divert from the waste stream and turn into future plant food. The third reason is that summer is the best season for composting because the microbial, fungal & bug life that makes composting happen (basically life forms eating detritus and pooping it out) is at its peak during the hot and sunny months of summer. If you start a compost pile now it'll be eaten and pooped out a hundred times through the summer leaving you with a much smaller but very precious pile of "compost" that will be ready in time for fall planting. See how that all works?! Its the cycle of life in your home veggie garden! 

So get out there and enjoy the new and exciting crops (asian greens!) and yields (saved seed, future compost) that the spring garden has to offer. 

March is my personal favorite month in South Florida, but it does come with the bittersweet fact that it's the last call for planting some of our beloved winter veggies like kale and tomatoes. We can still grow quick crops like lettuce, arugula, radishes and even cucumbers through May, but since tomatoes and kale take about two months to mature planting them in your garden much later than March is kind of a lost cause. 

Our nursery stocked the last batch of assorted tomato varieties during the Spring Plant Sale at the end of February and we'll be selling them while supplies last, but moving forward the only tomato variety you'll find on our web store is Everglades Cherry Tomato. This little guy is worth talking about for a bit because we're big fans of this pretty unique tomato variety! Everglades cherry tomatoes are a cult favorite down here in South Florida, and for good reason. Legend has it that these were found "growing wild" throughout the everglades, and after their discovery the seeds were saved and distributed by local gardeners who were looking for a tomato that could stand the extreme heat and humidity of a South Florida summer. Nowadays they're a staple in summer and winter gardens throughout the area. Their tiny size makes them adorable for use in salads, as garnish, and as snacks, and their sweet taste make them irresistible. These wild cherry tomatoes make large highly branched plants that are best grown in a wild and non-trellised fashion. If allowed to grow like a groundcover, left to sprawl and crawl along the ground they can make enormous plants with hundreds of fruit clusters on one plant! 

Allow a few clusters of Everglades cherry tomatoes to stay on the plant and they will happily reseed themselves year after year. If you'd like to save the seeds instead just choose a few very ripe fruits, squeeze the insides out into a jar with water, allow it to ferment for a few days (this simulates the digestive system of an animal and will break down the mucilaginous coating around the seed) and then dry on a towel. 

Despite its tolerance of the tropical heat Everglades cherry tomatoes can be grown anywhere where all other tomato varieties are. A tip for harvesting the tiny sweet fruits: instead of picking fruit by fruit, cut the entire cluster off the vine when all the fruit is most of the way ripe. Alternatively, break the fruit off of the vine one by one with their little green hat on (the technical term is "peduncle") since the fruits skin tends to rip when its removed hastily.

Ok, so what crops besides Everglades Wild Cherry tomatoes should we be focusing on in our March gardens? We have 2-3 months of cool weather left which actually lets us plant a pretty very wide range of veggies and herbs at this point. I like to look at categories of plants one by one to keep my list organized. Let's start with greens because this category has the most potential for late season production. Greens, especially cut-and-come-again greens produce the most food in the shortest amount of time in the smallest amount of space! Lettuces are an obvious choice, not only because most of our palettes are happily adjusted to lettuce so we should take advantage of growing it for as long as we can in the home garden, but also because they are highly productive and the benefits of home grown lettuce are huge. The benefits I'm referring to are freshness, quality and variety. Tender leafy greens are extremely perishable and when you buy them at the store they are typically already days, sometimes weeks old, which means you not only have just a few days to consume them, but their quality is already diminished. When you have lettuce growing in a home garden you can literally harvest on demand for each meal and you'll notice the difference in texture (crispy!) and flavor (bright green flavor). At this point in the season you can still start lettuces from seed or plant starter plants for a little head start. Not at all lettuce varieties respond well to our unique climate so we recommend either buying the lettuce varieties we have at our nursery, or you can use our list as a guide for what to look for elsewhere. We've spent many years of trial and error to select the varieties we currently grow and if you take a look, it's a seriously fun assortment of colors and textures! 

Other worthwhile greens to include in a March planting include dandelion greens, French sorrel, arugula, bok choi and collards greens. Arugula, mustard greens and baby bok choi are crazy fast growing so you'll have an opportunity to plant them 2-3 more times before the end of May when the growing season makes a drastic shift to tropical crops. Collard greens, French sorrel and dandelion greens are all more long term crops that you may even keep in the garden further into the summer months. They are somewhat heat tolerant and have a naturally bitter or sour flavor profile so they hold up better when the weather in South Florida starts to get hot. Planting any of these greens in a March garden will yield good results and make yummy food for your family. 

Another major category of plants to be focusing on right now is culinary herbs. Most herbs can make it through the summer, or at least make it deep into the summer months. The prerequisite is that they are well established by the time the weather gets extremely humid. For example, the hardy Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano and sage will actually thrive and get huge over the summer if the plants are well established early on. March is our last change to get these kinds of plants into the garden safely. That also applies to Thai basil, dill, parsley, scallions, mint and lemon balm. Some of the herbs that definitely won't make it through the summer, but are good to plant right now because they are quick growing and will be harvested before May include Italian basil, cilantro, thyme and cutting celery. Another group of herbs to start taking seriously this time of year are the more tropical herbs like lemon grass, garlic chives, Jamaican oregano, Costa Rican mint and culantro. In a nutshell, March is a great time to plant the widest variety of herbs imaginable! 

Moving on to a more colorful group of plants, hot peppers and eggplants! Did you know that these also grow and produce year round in our sub tropical climate? Certain varieties, especially Asian eggplants and most of the hot peppers, actually thrive stronger during our long hot summer days. They like heavy rains, increased sunlight and they aren't heavy feeders (summer soils usually hold less fertility because the heavy rains was away fertilizers and organic matter at a faster rate). That said, I like to warn people of the pros and cons of growing these crops in raised beds during the summer months. Both of these crops are in the same family as tomatoes and ALL of these crops are nematode magnets :(  Nematodes are the scourge of South Florida gardening. They are present in all types of soil, and thrive here because they like sandy low-organic matter soil. They are an invisible ringworm that feeds on the roots of plants causing a general weakening of the plant and sometimes death, depending on the density of nematode population. Its hard to tell if you have nematodes or not until you pull the plant out of the ground and inspect roots; nematode affected roots are dark or muddy looking, brittle and thick, covered with many small nodules and bumps (compared to healthy roots which are usually white or light colored and fine like hair). Since nematodes are usually present in most gardens it is super important to manage them. There isn’t an easy solution for nematodes which is one reason why they are such a problem. If you know you have nematodes, the last thing you want to do is plant crops that attract nematodes during the "off-season". If you aren't sure if you have a nematode problem, but you know you really want to plant tomatoes in the Fall, avoid these crops during the "off-season" because you'll most likely develop a problem by the Fall. Another pest problem to look out for with this family of plants is white fly. If your garden is prone to white fly outbreaks it might be a good idea to avoid these crops during the hottest months of the year, although white fly is much more manageable than nematodes ;)   

Ushering in February with amazing and consistent weather this year. We've noticed that most gardens are bursting with lush, quick growth. Now is the time to focus on managing your plants by harvesting often, pruning, trellising and keeping up with continued fertility and succession planting.

Most people in South Florida plant tomatoes in the Fall, right around October or November as soon as the humidity drops a little bit. By February those tomato plants should be like, huge. Tomatoes are probably one of the hardest crops to manage because they are so "weedy". They grow fast and get very bushy when they have adequate sun exposure and other needs like regular watering and fertile soil. In our gardening workshops we always make sure to go in depth about tomato pruning because once they get out of control it can be very intimidating to make sense of the jungly mess they tend to create. Tomatoes make new branches at every node, which means they exponentially get more and more dense if they aren't pruned.

Trellising is important for keeping your plants happy and disease free, and for making harvesting easier. The tomato cages you can buy at home improvement stores are the WORST option for trellising your indeterminate heirloom variety. They are designed for keeping determinate tomatoes upright and organized; determinate tomatoes are bushes rather than vines. Heirloom tomatoes and many other popular varieties are indeterminate, which refers to the vining type. 

The most common way we see tomatoes trellised at other farms isn’t entirely useful for home gardening or at our farm because they involve hanging strings from the rafters of a greenhouse. Most tomatoes are grown in greenhouses in the north because they need the extra warmth, but it's still an interesting technique to know about; its principles can be useful. The string is cut to a length longer than the floor to ceiling height, the extra is coiled at the top. The tomato is tied to the string and vigorously pruned to become either one or two leader growing tips, which are either pinned, tied or wound around the string. Pruning is key for this technique, and for all trellising. NO farms just let their tomatoes run wild! The rule of thumb is that all greenery below the first flowers are pruned off, to prevent soil born diseases, and all new suckers are clipped so that the plant can focus its energy on the leaders you have allowed to grow. Professional greenhouse growers like this technique because it allows your tomatoes to grow UP very high, making the most use of valuable space in a greenhouse. 

The “FLORIDA WEAVE” is a very popular method for small farms and giant farms alike. Home gardeners can use it too since it doesn’t involve any complicated construction. Materials are simply a spool of thick twine (we prefer sisal twine because it's biodegradable and can go into the compost along with your plants at the end of the season), and posts called “T-posts” that can be bought at a hardware store. T-posts are manufactured for temporary fencing and can be driven easily into the ground with a “post driver” (a tool made specifically for driving these posts into the ground). These posts are made of steel so once the initial investment is made each year they can be removed and reused. As the tomatoes grow, lengths of twine are woven around them, in a simple 8 pattern, being secured by the posts, which are driven into the ground every 3 plants (see image below). Aggressive pruning is still recommended to avoid plants becoming monsters. The more bushy your tomato forest is, the easier it will be for bugs and diseases to flourish.

When it comes to edible flowers and cut flowers, winter is the best season for annual varieties like pansies, dianthus, marigolds and calendula in South Florida. The blooms are healthiest and most productive during the cooler months of the year. We typically begin selling flower starter plants and planting them for clients in late November and usually finish their season by March or April. Their window of opportunity is short, but oh so sweet. 

Edible flowers can and should be easily incorporated into a veggie garden for many reasons. Technically speaking they add bio diversity, they attract beneficial insects and sometimes repel pest insects. Although they can serve a purpose in the garden, their range of shapes, textures and bright colors along with the many ways we can incorporate them into our lives is probably the most attractive reason to get into flower gardening. Most of the varieties we like to grow for decorating food are pretty small plants that can be tucked into your herb patch, into the corners of your raised beds and they are more suitable for container gardening than most veggies. 

We love edible flowers so much that we've created workshops to show people the many ways to use them. We not only grow a wide selection of starter plants at our nursery, but we also grow them in our demonstration garden to harvest flowers for projects, personal use and to sell at the Legion Park Farmers Market. They are very special during the holiday season and birthdays for decorating charcuterie boards and cakes, for dying foods and for making flower crowns. This year we were particularly inspired by Loria Stern who is the queen of decorating cookies with edible flowers. You must look at her website and instagram! We also love the work of Miami local Valentina Cordero, founder of The House of V, a vegan and gluten free cake and cupcake caterer who does absolutely tasteful work.

Tiffany made a batch of these adorable sugar cookies a la Loria Stern for the holidays.

Muriel has decorated her daughters birthday cakes with berries and flowers inspired by Valentina's work for many years.

Flower crowns are a super special way to connect with nature and flowers. They can be made at the park or on a hike using foraged plants or at birthday parties or any type of special gathering using home grown flowers, foliage and herbs.

Decorating a charcuterie board with flowers always takes it to the next level!

Flowers, petals and seed pods make great arts and craft materials for kids too. Gardens with herbs and flowers are a great way to get kids to spend time outdoors using their hands, their senses and getting creative.

We wanted to share a few technical tips about growing flowers successfully.  They are pretty easy for the most part, comparable to kitchen herbs, but requiring a bit of special care in order to get the most blooms. First of all, full sun is key.  Planting flowering plants in part shade isn't the worst idea, but you'll notice that your plants aren't branching very much and they may have just a few flowers here and there. Most of the flowering plants we grow are meant for full sun production and will get completely covered in colorful blooms when planted in the right location.

We generally promote balanced organic fertilizers for all of your garden plants, but when it comes to flowering plants there is a little extra boost you can give them. Fertilizing with a high phosphorus product such a Dr. Earth's Bud and Bloom Booster when plants begin setting flowers can lead to more blooms. This recommendation also goes for all plants in your garden that bloom in order to produce a fruit, such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. The more flowers on your tomato and cucumber plants, the more fruit you'll get!

Deadheading is a technique that makes a really big difference when it comes to flower production. You should not deadhead the flowers of veggie plants because you'll be cutting away the potential fruit, but for edible and cut flowers it is a must. Basically, when a plant makes flowers the next biological step is a developed fruit and eventually seed production. Once an annual plant makes a certain amount of seeds it is triggered to stop growing and die to make way for the next generation. In perennial plants deadheading encourages continual new blooms. The process is extremely simple and involves cutting away all "spent" or flowers that are past their prime. You will notice that by reducing the amount of "spent" flowers on your plants they will usually send out new shoots and new blooms within days!

Here's a list of some of our favorite varieties to grow in a South Florida winter garden and why we love them! 

We love marigolds of all shapes and sizes because they make the perfect companion plant in the home garden. Not only are they easy to grow and prolific with beautiful blossoms, but they are also completely edible, with petals that can be used as confetti or sprinkles in a salad or on cakes, and very pungent leaves that can be eaten raw in herbaceous salads or used to flavor sauces. Strawberry Blonde and Citrus Gem are beautiful varieties.

Pansies & violas can have a mild, fresh flavor or a more prominent wintergreen taste, depending on the variety and on how much of the flower you eat (a whole flower tastes stronger then the petals alone). Even though you can sometimes find pansy plants at Home Depot we suggest you eat only pansies that are grown organically, without chemical pesticides. Use the pansies to garnish cocktails, soups, and desserts. One reason why we love pansies in the garden so much is because there are so many colorful varieties to choose from. Johnny Jump Up makes dozens of sweet little blooms, Bambini makes rich burgundy velvet blooms and you can only imagine what Frizzle Sizzle Raspberry looks like!

Nasturtium is a super popular kitchen garden plant for good reasons. First off, the whole plant is edible; the leaves can be used fresh in salads, the flowers are edible, beautiful and spicy, and the fresh green seeds can be eaten fresh or pickled like capers. On top of that, the whole plant is beautiful and highly ornamental in the garden. The large lily pad shaped leaves stick straight up making a mounding type growth pattern, and if allowed to trail it’ll hang out of baskets or off of the side of your raised bed. Jewel Mix is a mixed gene pool variety where you never know what color flowers you’ll end up with, although most of them are an orangey-red/ coral thats so brilliant its almost hard to look at. This is the most vigorous variety we grow, but check our inventory for other more unique (and picky) showy blossoms.

Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species that includes the super popular “carnation” and sweet williams. All varieties of this genus are edible and some varieties have a distinct clove flavor. We have grown traditional larger carnations before but they don’t do nearly as well as the small flowers that grow in clusters known commonly as “dianthus”. These grow on super vigorous plants that are almost fake looking they’re so robust, green and shiny, and they make 2-3 foot tall strong stems with multiple flower clusters at the top. This makes them really robust cut flower types, but the petite flowers are also a beautiful edible flower option. In order to use the flowers as an edible garnish remove them from the bitter green “calyx” that the petals come out of and sprinkle the petals in drinks, on confections, or in salads.

Geraniums are super common household plants used for for decoration in pots and in summer landscaping, however the flowers are also edible! Geraniums love the heat, which we have plenty of, but they also like to be kept on the dry side. Treat them as you would your lavender or your sage & thyme plants, by watering just a few times per week and keeping well drained soil dry. 

The borage plant is easily recognized by its white prickly hairs and its bright blue & lavender star-shaped flowers. It grows to about 1-2’ high, with many hollow, almost succulent branching stems. The deep green leaves have sinuous, wavy margins. The inch-wide bright blue star-shaped flowers have prominent black anthers forming a cone in the center. if your plant starts making flowers before it has a nice flush of mature foot long leaves (similar in growth pattern to comfrey) simply prune them off to encourage your plant to make more leaves and roots before it flowers. Once it gets going it'll really pop and you’ll have hundreds of flowers every day. If you just want to enjoy the flowers ands share them with the pollinators then just watch the flowers go! if you're trying to produce edible flowers harvest them every morning before it gets too hot for maximum production. If you buy these beauties from a farm you’ll be paying more than 25 cents per flower! so growing your own is totally worth it…

We grow white flowering sweet alyssum not just because its cute but also because the flowers are edible and smell and taste super sweet and fragrant like honeysuckle. You can plant this sprawling constantly flowering plant in your flower garden, along borders and edges, or in your edible plant raised bed. Sweet Alyssum loves full sun, but it does not like prolonged dry periods so make sure to water it regularly. Deadheading will keep the plants flowering but we’ve tried to do that before and it takes a lot of work because there are so many flower clusters on each plant. If you have a large drift of plants, shearing them by 1/3 would be an easier option than deadheading. They will set new buds quickly. Your in ground Sweet Alyssum plants should not need any fertilizer, unless your soil is poor. Container alyssum plants will need more frequent water and monthly feedings with a water soluble fertilizer.

Pentas is a very Florida friendly perennial flowering shrub that you may already be very familiar with . Pentas develop sparkling star- shaped flowers all summer and winter long in bold hues of red, white, lavender, purple, or pink. Pentas is a sun lover that grows 18 to 36 inches tall and when you harvest the flower clusters often it will flower prolifically. In most parts of the country, pentas is considered an annual, but in very warm regions like ours, pentas is perennial . We first started to see this flower referred too as “edible” by the most famous garnish and specialty crop farm in North America called “Chefs Garden”, in Ohio. They call it “Egyptian star flower” maybe to fancy it up before selling it to the fanciest chefs in America.... and we were excited to learn that our plain old beautiful common pentas flower were technically edible. Besides being edible this plant is also very pollinator friendly and a great companion plant for the garden.

In September and October when we try to kick start our growing season in South Florida the weather is crazy and not hospitable to most of the veggie varieties that are accustomed to more moderate climates. We all work hard to get them to grow and we don't even realize how much the heat and humidity affects them until we get our first cool front in late November. Then we all have an "aha!" moment when it seems to become effortless and everything gets bright green and full of flowers and gardening finally gives you that magical feeling. That aha moment is right now! And it feels so damn good... And we hope a lot of you have been gardening this year and are feeling the magic.  

Now we can finally grow some of our favorite foods like spinach, lettuces of all shapes and sizes, kale and broccoli as well as less heat tolerant edible flowers like violas, pansies & dianthus. It's no coincidence that our Winter Plant Sale scheduled for December 11th-13th is focused on more lettuce varieties than any other time of year! If you bought lettuce seeds online at your favorite seed company make sure they are "bolt tolerant" varieties, because even though its cooler now its still pretty darn hot for cool weather crops like lettuce and many of the fancier heirloom types that draw the eye in a seed catalog will bolt here in South Florida. Bolting is the technical term for when a plant makes flowers & seeds too early. Different plants will do it when they encounter different stressors, so things like not enough light or not enough nutrients will also cause a plant to bolt, but heat is a big factor in the bolting of things like lettuce. If your lettuce is making a stalk and getting tall (and when you break a leaf off there is sap and it tastes very bitter), your plant has bolted. We grow a super selective variety of lettuces that are tried and true for South Florida growing, so if you want to try your own plants from seed use our website as a variety resource and buy yourself the seeds we use from somewhere trusted like Johnny Select Seeds. 

For those of you who have been gardening since the "beginning" of the growing season, now is the time to go big on salad greens and flowers. They will finally grow as quickly, densely and vibrantly as they are meant to. It's like, they get to be their best selves during our peak cool months of December, January and February (and sometimes March). Happy veggie plants grow fast so if you are doing everything right (full sun, fertile soil, regular watering, etc) then you should be harvesting from your garden weekly this time of year. You should give your leafy greens a trim at least once every two weeks in order to take full advantage of your crop. We also recommend quick succession plantings of leafy greens for a continuous supply of productive tender plants. It's very normal to plant a new lettuce patch about once per month and harvest each patch about 2-3 times before pulling it out to make room for the next succession. Same goes for arugula, mustard greens and bok choi. We specifically sell those types of plants in six packs rather than 4" pots. For $6 you get 6 plants which are younger and smaller, but rightly so because they grow so freaking fast you'll be harvesting in a matter of 2-3 weeks! The term for harvesting mature leaves selectively off of your greens plants is "cut and come again" and if you do it right and take just the mature outer leaves without compromising the growing tip (at the center of the plant, where the small new leaves emerge) then it'll make your plants last quite a while. Heres a fun video of someone harvesting this way and explaining it for you. 

You may also be encountering some challenges with pruning and trellising your indeterminate tomato plants if you planted them a few months ago. Tomatoes are very fast growers so they should be really big and happy and full of flowers by now, maybe to the point where you've lost some control. The most popular way to trellis tomatoes in a home garden is the "Florida Weave" and trying to explain it in words would be super silly but there are tons of videos and diagrams online to help you, and its a super simple setup. Heres one good video we like, and a diagram to help out too. 

 If you have something super tall to tie off to (for example Farmers Tiff and Chris put an eyelet screw in the eave of their roof and use that to trellis tomatoes 20 feet into the air) you can try to use a "lower and lean" trellis system and prune your plants to a single leader. This is a bit more advanced seeming because many farms do this in professional greenhouses, but its definitely not hard to do. Check out this helpful video of a home gardener setting up a lower and lean system for his tomatoes and cucumbers. 

If you don't already have a garden, think about starting one. It's one of the best excuses to spend time outside this time of year. Gardening with kids and showing them the process of growing leaves for a salad or herbs for roasted potatoes or tomatoes and cucumbers for snacks is such a beautiful way to spend quality time with family. A garden can be a classroom, a playground and an extension of meal time or snack time. When you have a garden in the backyard and you take family or friends or kids out there to pick a few things for dinner you create casual opportunities for bonding, not just between the humans, but between humans and plants and our inherent and vital (yet sometimes overlooked) relationship with them. 

November is the first time we see a significant change in the weather in South Florida. This wonderful month usually brings in the very first cold front and consistently lower night time temperatures. Even though the changes in degrees are slight, they can make a world of difference in a garden. Just 5 degrees cooler throughout the night can help to slow down pest life cycles enough to take some of the pressure off of the gardener to keep a vigilant eye on pest issues.

That said, pest issues are always going to be a problem, whether your garden is organic or not. People often ask us what they could do to prevent pests. If only it was simple enough to be able to answer that question. The truth is that pest management is a science and way more complicated than anyone ever wants to believe. There is no one ticket to success, in fact the professional term used in organic gardening and farming for pest management is IPM, integrated pest management. IPM is about the idea that when battling a pest issue one should think of the big picture and look at all of the natural factors at play creating that pest issue, integrating multiple actions to remedy the issue. For example, instead of shopping for a quick fix spray to kill off a bug, think things through, observe and take multiple actions to try to balance the natural relationships occurring in your garden.

Start by zooming way out and considering the most basic needs of your plants. Sun, oxygen, water, nutrients and whether or not a particular plant variety is in season or not. When a plant is experiencing stress from lack of a basic need it becomes exponentially more susceptible to pests. Do you need to consider moving your garden to a sunnier location? Or can you prune a large tree on your property to allow more winter sunlight through? Do you need to re-pot your plants in better draining soil so that the plant roots are getting enough oxygen? Did you know that plants need oxygen just as much as they need water? The microbial life in your soil also needs a  balance between oxygen and water. The way to achieve that is by using a soil mix that absorbs water like a sponge, but also drains excess water quickly where air pockets can form around plant roots. Soil is all about texture! If you are a beginner you may need to be patient and keep experimenting until you get a feel for the right texture. The soil mix we use for plants at our nursery is different than the soil we use for garden installations, but they both have a lot of peat for that sponge water holding quality and they have different particles for creating drainage. Healthy roots should look really white and thin. Yellow roots are a sign that your soil may not be draining well and your plant roots could be rotting. 

Now lets remember that IPM (integrated pest management) looks at several factors that are causing a problem and you should be ready to take multiple actions. Sometimes a good way to get more light and air flow in and around your plants is to prune away some foliage. This might kill two birds with one stone. Pruning away infested leaves is actually the first line of defense against most pest issues, especially insect infestations such as aphids, white fly, mealy bugs and spider mites. All of these insects fall under the "piercing and sucking" category and they tend to cling to the leaves of plants, particularly on tender growing tips as well as undersides of largest oldest leaves. Check those areas first and prune away any plant parts that are visibly covered in bugs. By doing this you've already reduced the pest population by a huge percentage. 

One of the most important exceptions to this rule is when you have a plant infected with a virus! Viral infections are typically not curable and plants showing signs of a virus should be entirely removed from your garden and thrown away. Clean your hands and tools with a disinfectant soap before working on healthy plants to prevent the spread of the virus. Leaving a virus infected plant in your garden causes other plants to become infected through your touch or by insects that visit an infected plants and then visit a healthy plant. 

Even in IPM there is room for spraying. We spray with organic products when it makes sense to do so. The key is to use these products wisely and in combination with other actions to remediate the problem in a wholistic way. What happens when someone simply sprays for a pest issue is that the pest problem inevitably comes back again and again, if it is ever solved at all. 

Here's our guide to common garden pests and how to treat them:

In the spirit of writing a monthly gardening blog post I usually start a new one by re-reading the previous months post. I recommend you do the same as a reader to get a full picture of what is going on. In September we did a lot of planning and preparing soil beds, we bought seeds and started them. This month we will get into a planting rhythm. 

I like to reiterate that fact that vegetable gardens are not projects we put together and call done, a garden is never really "done, especially a vegetable garden. They are a pretty huge commitment, almost like a pet. You have to give them food and water regularly, check for health issues and prune routinely and of course enjoy them, spend time with them. There are two main gardening tasks I would like to describe to help you get the most out of your garden this season.

First lets talk about succession planting and annual plants. It helps to think about the fact that the far majority of plants we eat today are annuals. Our ancestors who hunted and foraged ate mostly perennials, which are plants that grow year after year, producing edible shoots, tubers or fruits on a continuous cycle. Those types of plants can be revisited for many years and harvested for edible parts. On the other hand annuals are plants that are biologically designed to have a short life span and produce one main harvest. As humans evolved we decided that we preferred annuals. Probably not for their practically, but because we could manipulate and control them. The very first annuls to be domesticated were grasses like wheat, barley and chick peas in the Fertile Crescent region of southwest Asia while in other parts of the world early humans began domesticating root vegetables, beans and corn. You all know the rest from there! Today our agriculture system is based almost entirely on a diverse range of annual vegetables that are replanted from seed regularly for a continuous supply of food. In fact, the majority of the annual vegetable varieties our agricultural system is based on are varieties we engineered. They are distant relatives of the wild plants humans found on earth hundreds of years ago. They are plants we have bread and genetically manipulated to perform within our stringent and fast passed agricultural system. The tomatoes, lettuces, carrots and corn of today probably wouldn't survive in the wild on their own, much like the breeds of pets we've also domesticated.

The trade off for creating a food production system that relies so heavily on human labor is increased yield and tastier plants. If managed properly domesticated annual plants are sweeter, more tender hence easier to chew and can yield a big harvest in a small space year after year. So lets looks at the home vegetable garden of today. In order to reap the benefits of your garden you gotta do a good job at managing your crops, otherwise you might as well plant wild perennial plants like they do in permaculture systems. Succession planting and regular harvesting are the keys to success in an annual garden. Many of the crops people enjoy growing at home are relatively short lived and produce food within 30 to 90 days! Think about how fast one month goes by and then think about how often you should be harvesting and replanting your garden. That's were an edible plant nursery like us comes in. Starting plants from seed is a challenging process and even professional farms struggle with it and usually dedicate a specialized person to that task. Buying starter plants makes a lot of sense especially when you are working with a small garden of 2 to 3 raised beds. The infrastructure, attention to detail and time needed to start certain crops from seed is usually not worth the investment for a small garden. Don't let that stop you from replanting your garden a few times. Some crops you will probably want to start from seed, but there is no shame in buying starter plants to keep the rotation in your garden fresh throughout the season. 

Now lets talk about harvesting! This subject tends to be a double edged sword for beginner gardeners because on the one hand it is the whole point of gardening to begin with, but on the other hand it can be the hardest step for newbies. One of the questions we hear most often is "how do you know when it's ready?". This is a tough one because the answer is literally different for every single variety so we've come up with an answer that empowers people to learn on their own. We encourage you to use google and use it wisely. There are instructional youtube videos for harvesting just about anything you can imagine. When we say wisely we mean use a good set of key words to get relevant results. Use the specific variety name when possible and include where you live, for example, "how to harvest peppermint chard in South Florida".

There is plenty of time to go into detail about harvesting and getting the most use of your garden through the season, but for the month of October lets focus on the quickest crops which tend to be ready within the first month of planting. They are salad greens like arugula, baby lettuce and mustard greens, radishes, baby bok choi and salad turnips. Most of these can be planted from seed and harvested within one month. If you are planting in the beginning of October, by the middle of November you'll have room in your garden for a few new crops. One tip we like to recommend is to mark the plants in your garden with a variety name and a target harvest date. All annuals veggies have a "date to maturity" which is usually listed on the seed packet or can be easily found online; we actually list dates to maturity for all of the plants we sell on our website! When you plant your seeds or baby starter plants mark the harvest date on a tag right by the plants in your garden. When the day comes you should feel more confident to get in there with a knife and bring your harvest in for lunch. On the other hand, the date marking technique also serves to point out when something has gone wrong with the crop. If it isn't even close to ready on the harvest date it's a sign that there is an issue. Waiting longer will not yield you a harvest. Waiting longer will just waste time. Don't give up or get discouraged, on the contrary, act quick and start over, remember that you are learning and learning is a process. Do some investigating about what could have gone wrong, make a couple of changes and try again. 

Fruiting plants, including long term crops like tomatoes and quick crops like cucumbers, zucchini and bush beans needs to be harvested on a regular basis for a good yield. When I say regularly I mean every two to three days! All annuals are biologically designed to make seeds within a short period of time and then die after dropping their seeds for the next generation. Fruits are vessels for seeds so crops like cucumbers, zucchini and beans are basically seed pods that we eat! Once a plant puts on fruit it is triggered to stop making new flowers and new fruit. In order to get a bigger and longer lasting yield we harvest their fruit regularly to encourage new blooms and new fruit. Keep in mind that we eat the majority of these fruits when they are very young because that is when they are edible. A cucumber or bean that has been sitting on the plant for even a few days too many becomes so tough and fibrous that it is no longer edible. Typically they are ready to harvest just a few days after forming on the plant. Also keep in mind that quick fruiting plants like cucumbers, zucchini and bush beans not only mature quickly and produce their harvest quickly, they also die early! It's normal for these plants to produce fruit for about 2 weeks and then sort of crap out. In order to make the most use of your garden it is up to you to remove these "spent" plants and add them to the compost. Doing that promptly makes room for a new batch of crops and also helps to prevent disease from spreading which often builds up on older plants. 

On that note, good luck getting your garden started and we hope to see you at our plant sales!

September in South Florida is equivalent to April in most of the United States.  Think of September as our version of "Spring".  Imagine that you see thawing snow and budding blooms on bare trees outside your window.  Instead of sweltering heat when you open your front door imagine you sense a slightly less frigid chill in the air.  Imagine that nature is giving you signs that the ground is "warming up" and that you'd better get ready to grow some food.  

Now think about how different our reality in South Florida actually is!  No wonder so many people have a difficult time wrapping their minds around the rhythm of the growing seasons here.  In September nature isn't giving us any clues that we should be preparing for the growing season, which is right around the corner.  Ideally by the beginning of October we should have our first crops in the ground to take full advantage of our 8 month growing season.  There is certainly wiggle room in those calculations and planting your garden in November works perfectly fine too.  In fact, waiting until November is advisable for newbies because things get a whole lot easier when the weather is consistent.  Believe it or not during the month of October we still experience some pretty wild heat waves in South Florida.  

So, what does preparing for the growing season entail?  It's all about planning ahead when it comes to growing a productive and successful vegetable garden. 

Preparing your soil and planting area ahead of time is a great idea.  It helps to alleviate some of work later and it gives you a clear idea of how much planting space you have to work with.  If you already have a garden set up that has been over-summered with covers crops you'll want to take care of cutting down those cover crops now, if you haven't already.   People who covered their garden beds with straw or other types of mulch (for example cardboard or plastic tarps) wont have too much to do to prepare their soil.  It's a good idea to move the mulch to the side and double dig your soil to make sure it isn't compacted or taken over by neighboring tree roots (this is a very common issue in urban gardens where hedges and large trees are never too far away from your rich garden soil).  If you are starting from scratch, now is the time to get some raised beds made!  It's important to get this done now because you'll need to know how much planting space you actually have to work with in order to plan your crops.   

A crop plan is basically a list of plants you want to grow, but it's a well thought out plan with succession planting and harvesting goals.  In our Introduction to Vegetable Gardening Workshop we like to tell people that first step in making a crop plan is to make a wish list of your dream crops.  Then do some smart research to narrow down that list into something realistic!  We highly recommend that newbies stick to easy crops the first year or two because failures in the garden can be very discouraging.  What do we mean by easy?  Stick to crops that are well suited for our climate.  Sure we can grow lavender, heirloom tomatoes, striped zucchini varieties and chamomile, but.... there is a bunch of detailed information you need to understand before you can be successful with things like that.  They require deeply rooted knowledge based on experience and observation that can only come with time.  In the beginning it's a good idea to start with crops that are most likely to produce yummy food no matter what you do!

So you've got your wish list made out.  Now you'll need to figure out which of those crops are easy and which are either not a good idea or too complicated for now.  The USDA plant hardiness zone map is your ticket to success in this process.  The entire county (actually the entire world) is divided into climate zones which are classified not just by temperature, but also rainfall, humidity, elevation and other geographical characteristics.  The climate zone in South Florida is 10b.  This zone is extremely rare within the continental United States.  You'll find that we share a climate zone with many other places around the world located near the tropic belt, for example Hawaii, Puerto Rico, parts of southern India and Africa.  Since our climate is so unique compared to the rest of our country most of the information on the internet isn't geared towards our unique growing conditions.  You may look up "growing carrots" and get results that recommend planting your carrot seeds in May after the last frost.  That is literally useless information for us and can leave people feeling like they have to just make wild guesses about when and what to do.  Instead, try searching for "growing carrots in zone 10b".  Bingo, you'll get advice that actually works for you, for example this search result which recommends planting carrots between October and February. 

Use this search tip to look up all of the plants on your wish list and determine which ones don't make sense because of the climate.  For example, if garlic or artichokes were on your list you should come to the conclusion that they don't belong on your list :)  Oh and here's a shortcut if you don't have the time to invest in a good old fashioned research session; check out the plant list on the nursery page of our website, we update it with everything that is in season in South Florida regularly.  If it's not on our list, it probably doesn't grow here.  

The next step is to figure out what you can realistically grow within the amount of planting space you have to work with.  For this we highly recommend using square foot gardening charts which are littered all over the internet.  Square foot gardening is sort of a patented gardening method that started with a book and is now a foundation, but unfortunately most of the techniques and planting dates aren't suited for our unique growing conditions.  However, a lot of people have used the many square foot gardening plant spacing charts found on the internet; they are a really simple way for newbies to get acquainted with proper plant spacing.  Do a quick google search and find one you like to use for reference.  You don't actually have to divide your garden into square feet, although it is a fun activity for kids and makes planting with them super easy.  As long as you have the dimensions of your garden (for example, a standard 4x8 garden beds has 32 square feet of planting space) you can use that measurement to make a realistic list of what will fit into your garden.

If you do want to try marking off the square feet in your garden you can try the technique we use.  We staple a piece of sisal twine every 1 foot along one short edge of the garden bed and one long edge.  Then we pull the pieces across to the opposite side and staple the other end of the twine every 1 foot.  The clearly marked squares in your garden bed are super easy to use and make the process of planting a no brainer.  Sisal twine is compostable so at the end of the growing season you can toss what is left of your grid into the compost along with plant scraps.

The last, but equally important element of planing a vegetable garden is taking succession planting into consideration.  One thing we tell people all of the time is, a garden is never done.  Annual plants, which encompass the far majority of common western vegetables, are quick growing and fast to mature.  That's not by accident.  For a long time humans have selected food plants that produce food as fast as possible, especially in the more recent past with the industrialization of farming.  The faster a seed grows into an edible and sellable product the more production every square foot of farm land can produce.  The same principal should apply to your garden if your goal is to grow food for yourself and your family.  If you think about the fact that the average vegetable takes about 3 months to mature and our growing season is 8 months long, you can see how every square foot of your garden has the potential to produce 2-3 crops.  Now the 32 square feet of planting space in your 4'x8' garden is actually 64 or 96 square feet of planting space!  Succession planting is tricky though.  It's even challenging for very experienced gardeners and farmers like ourselves and Chris of French Farms.  It requires careful planning and continuous seed starting throughout the season.

Seed starting presents it's own set of advanced gardening skills.  In fact, we see so many people struggle with starting seeds that we made a video tutorial specifically about our seed starting tips and tricks.  Take a look at our seed starting video here!  We would like to encourage people to give seed starting a try, but we also want to comfort those of you who have had a really hard time with this process by reassuring you that we are doing the hard work of starting seeds for you!  That's what our nursery is ALL about.  Our greenhouse is painstakingly designed and our team is trained and equipped with carefully chosen tools for success with starting seeds.  If you plan to buy starter plants from our nursery you can consider yourself ahead of the game.  We've already started "working on your garden" because our nursery has been filling up with baby plants for the past two weeks.  The beauty of buying seedlings for your garden is that by the time we sell you plants in October they will be perfectly healthy 6-8 week old plants, which means you saved yourself 6-8 weeks of caring for baby plants when they were at their most fragile stage.  That's our job, like literally.  

HEADS UP FARMING ENTHUSIASTS!

We just found out that the Planning Zoning and Appeals Board have listed as a discussion topic for their Wednesday August 5th meeting (6:30PM) (thats tomorrow!) the following: “Discussion - Agriculture Legislative Framework” (link to the agenda is here: http://miamifl.iqm2.com/Citizens/Board/1037-Planning-Zoning-and-Appeals-Board)

The rest of the page is blank and we are hoping the public will show up to help out with this discussion! While community members have brought the topic of Zoning for Urban Farming up at meetings before this is the Zoning & Appeals Board specifically opening up the conversation about the topic, and now its up to us to contribute and show them how important this topic is to us as a city! You may not know this yet but Miami has NO language in its Zoning that pertains to Urban Farming specifically, and we think thats a huge issue! The use of a vacant lot for anything commercial is pretty much prohibited, and many cities have encouraged the use of vacant lots for agricultural projects because they see the value in having food production in the city for their citizens. What does it take to change this for our city? it takes us showing up when we can to let the people in charge know how important we think issues like this are. This Wednesday is a BIG opportunity for us to contribute to the conversation in a constructive way. This is the very first time that this has been an official discussion topic so were not going to get finished zoning out of this meeting its just the beginning, but we want them to know that this is important to the community and deserves attention, time and effort from the city.

If you would like to have your voice heard on this matter these are the best ways to contribute:

Submit a prerecorded video message thats 2 minutes or less BEFORE 4PM TODAY

Sign up BEFORE 4PM TODAY to get a call back during the meeting and get to speak live.

2 minute maximum per person. Everyone who signs up will be allowed to speak.

Use the public comment form to send an email/text piece, but make sure you include “please read this aloud to the board during the meeting” if you’d like it to be included in the actual meeting. (our least favorite option, would be great if you would make a video or speak live instead!)

The link to all of the above participation options is below:

https://www.miamigov.com/Government/Public-Comment-Instructions-for-Virtual-Board-and-Committee-Meetings/Virtual-Meeting-PZAB-August-5-2020

Here are some talking points and suggestions for your contribution. We think its great when people craft their own message but just incase you’d like some help and some resources we’ve added some info below. This was made quite urgently so apologies for typos and oversights.

-we recommend you not approach this meeting as a “fighting” moment, but rather an opportunity to show the positive impact that you think Urban Farming will have on your community. our goal here is to get the PZAB excited about urban farming, and to show them that their city cares and is encouraging of this movement.

-the time is now! many other large cities have had urban ag language in their zoning for more than 10 years! As a city on the forefront of climate change, focused on the resiliency of its citizens, Miami has waited long enough to embrace urban agriculture. while we are excited to see this finally make an appearance as an actual agenda item we want the discussion to continue in earnest and not get bogged down in bureaucracy for another 10 years…

-What do we want to see made permissible through this zoning initiative? We want Urban farms to be able to operate legally within the city on vacant lots (residential ones, industrial ones, commercial ones, etc.). this is different than community gardens. we want small businesses that do agriculture to be able to legally operate within the city and to create new jobs and new economic marketplaces by being allowed to operate (currently its against zoning for any business to operate or produce anything on a vacant lot)

-while community gardens are important too (they are allowed in Miami while urban farms are not) we think its important to expand on the presence of food production in the city by allowing people to operate small businesses to farm too. Farming must also include making compost & growing plants.

-when the city specifically takes the time to draft & finalize zoning rules for urban ag they are telling community members that they care about this topic! They are making their city a better more forward thinking, resilient & sustainability minded place to be. they are setting an example for other cities throughout the Nation by putting in the work to make this legal framework for Urban ag. By comparison the current attitude towards it is: spend a lot of money trying to figure out a way to make your project seem like its something else that we already have rules for so you can stay in business. thats not enough!

-Miami has a historical relationship with farming that it should be uplifting and encouraging, not legislating its way out of. Homestead & the Redlands, the only large areas left where agriculture is permitted, are being developed at a rapid pace and soon there will be nothing left if its not allowed to flourish in smaller unused pockets of land throughout the city. Think of all the fenced in vacant lots you pass by on your commute every day, and now imagine them with thriving green spaces and small businesses operating responsibly on them instead!

Some notes on the importance of local food (compiled by Chris Bouza/ Finca Morada):

-Now in the face of a global pandemic, local food is more important than ever.  Locally grown food, right here in the urban core strengthens our resilience in many ways. 

-People who eat locally grown food are statistically healthier. Healthy individuals decrease pressure on our health care system and make an overall healthier Miami. 

-People who eat local food & plant medicine have a deeper connection to nature and their immediate environment. People connected to nature are motivated to protect and care for their environment, produce less waste, and practice sustainability. 

-Local food is our healthiest and safest option possible, especially now, in the face of a global pandemic. 

-Locally grown food fulfills a severe need for access to fresh healthy food in low income communities, who experience what Karen Washington calls “Food Aparteid”  also known as food deserts. Imagine if families could walk down their street to their local farm stand to purchase their fresh produce, instead of McDonalds or a gas station.  

-I believe that we have to work together to bring equity and equality to our community. To first acknowledge the injustices in the food system and the presence of food deserts, then to start acting on solutions. Opening up the pathway for urban farming is definitively one solution. 

-Locally grown food significantly decreases our city's carbon foot print. Its time for Miami to lead the way in sustainability and climate resilience. 

-Cities across the country who have prioritized and supported urban farming, have greener, more beautiful cities, with decreased carbon emissions. 

-The urban farmers we know offer workshops and opportunities to learn about sustainability and connect to nature. These types of events at urban farms, are incredibly beneficial for our youth, for bringing community together, and for sharing important lessons that positively impact our city like composting. 

-In these uncertain times of struggle, pandemic, financial insecurity, growing our own food as a city, builds individual and community resilience and sovereignty. Sovereignty in other words, means self-sufficiency, independence or the ability of a person or community to grow their own food & medicine, to educate, support, & care for each other without having to rely on outside sources. Miami has the ability to grow it's own food, to feed it's community.  Its time we put environmental and racial justice into healthy action.

-If you’d like to contribute some resources, facts, figures or positive examples for the board to know about (we encourage you to do so) or want to just read more about Urban Farming, check out some of the links below for studies, examples and articles you can pull from:

https://changelabsolutions.org/sites/default/files/Urban_Ag_SeedingTheCity_FINAL_%28CLS_20120530%29_20111021_0.pdf

https://www.planning.org/knowledgebase/urbanagriculture/

https://www.nlc.org/resource/promoting-urban-agriculture-through-zoning

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1327

http://growingfoodconnections.org/tools-resources/policy-database/general-search-policy-database/

https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1683&context=ndlr

Detroits urban farming zoning text:

https://detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/docs/cpc/pdf/Urban%20Ag%20Ordinance%20Abridged_Apr2013.pdf?ver=2013-04-19-164058-087

San Franciscos urban farming zoning text:

https://ucanr.edu/sites/UrbanAg/files/196871.pdf

Atlantas urban farming zoning text:

http://growingfoodconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/1970/01/19-AtlantaGA-UrbanAgZoningOrdinance-2014.pdf