In the spirit of writing a monthly gardening blog post we 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 is finally time to start planting your garden. September is a pretty rainy and hot month here in South Florida even though the rest of the country is starting to decorate with fall gourds and sip pumpkin spice lattes. October is when the heat finally "breaks" and things start to cool down a bit, especially at night, and the humidity starts to chill out too, making it overall a more hospitable environment for both plants and the people taking care of them. 

September is a big month for our team, we do a lot of "behind the scenes" prepping for the upcoming fall planting season. Since we have a nursery one of our biggest tasks in September is making plants in the greenhouse which is covered and protects baby seedlings from the strong rain storms that are common this time of year. From our experience it is still too early to plant crops out in the field or in raised beds because the weather is still too hot and storms are unpredictable. Starting vegetable plants from seed is pretty tricky, but it's definitely something every gardener should at least try.

One thing we've noticed about gardening in August is that people either think they're too early to start gardening or too late to be planting things. Neither of those statements are true because gardens are cyclical, just like so many other things in nature.

Every year in late May/early June the weather in South Florida officially shifts into what we call "the monsoon season". Regular afternoon rain storms, often accompanied by a generous amount of thunder and lightning as well as consistently high temperatures during the day and night define this growing season as the season for only the most hardy, heat loving tropical crops.

June is the true start of the rainy, humid & extra hot summer here in South Florida. It rains an average of 6” during the month of June, with average temperature highs of 88 and solid 100% humidity day and night. This is an incredibly challenging environment for plants that aren’t used to it and aren’t meant to grow in humid and wet climates.

May is your last chance to plant some heat tolerant annuals (like asian greens & everglades cherry tomatoes), and also the first chance to go ahead and replant your garden with summer loving longer term perennial food crops.

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.

Growing food has been romanticized to the point of no return. We tend to lean towards the practical side of this increasingly popular hobby, but the truth is that all of the us are completely in love with plants. Building gardens is indeed a romantic endeavor for us and we strive to share that magic with as many people as possible.

Growing food has been romanticized to the point of no return. We tend to lean towards the practical side of this increasingly popular hobby, but the truth is that all of the us are completely in love with plants. Building gardens is indeed a romantic endeavor for us and we strive to share that magic with as many people as possible.

The only thing we at Little River Cooperative love more than growing vegetables is growing flowers! We've always incorporated flowers into our gardens and as most of you probably know our nursery stocks a healthy selection of edible and cut flower starter plants. Over the years we've also had the opportunity to plant purely flower gardens!