teribeth ([info]teribeth) wrote in [info]gardening,

Hurry up and wait

I'm in north Florida. I've been stuck in the house all weekend because it's COLD outside! Yeah yeah I know you northerners don't want to hear it, but seriously it's not supposed to get this cold - which means most Floridians simply aren't equipped with the right cold weather gear. I spent today in bed (by the only south-facing window in the house) surrounded by gardening books (hooray!) and I managed to get my garden late spring/summer planned out.

Since this is my first year with a real yard I'm not sure if this will be too much. There are already beds set up (and neglected) in a large L in my back yard along the fence. It's actually more like a corner desk because there was a pentagonal bed in the corner and two rectangular beds on either side. I'm going to do two tomato plants (one larger variety and one small variety like romas) and probably three bell pepper plants and one hot pepper among the rectangular beds, with herbs all around them (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary). In the pentagon I am going to try squashes, southern peas, maybe watermelon for fun, and in the far back corner where I can't reach I'm going to put snapdragons and black eyed susans to replace the (invasive) elephant ears.

Right now I have oregano in a container in the semi-shelter of my porch, some peas (if they've survived the cold - they were alive yesterday), and some dead half-grown bean bushes that didn't like the cold weather at all, and some small rosemary plants. The problem with having my garden planned out is that now there isn't much to do till I start some seeds which probably won't be for a couple weeks yet. I was going to post pictures of what I had to give some of you a "greenery fix" but now most of my yard is very very sad looking (and it was sad looking last fall from a year of neglect so that's saying something). So now instead you get a mopey picture-less post. ;-)

Oh, for posterity the books I'm reading are:
The Informed Gardener
Gardening in Florida Month by Month (I will probably purchase this one - these are all from the library)
Sustainable Gardening for Florida
Vegetable Gardening in Florida

How are the rest of you doing? Are you planning? Are you just going to wing it? A little of both?
Tags: books, garden planning, vegetable: pea, vegetable: pepper, vegetable: squash, vegetable: tomato, zone: usda 8

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  • 7 comments

[info]bailey36

January 11 2010, 01:46:33 UTC 2 years ago

your peas and oregano are safe. My friends in Texas have frozen and burst pipes! It's a cold winter

[info]nutmegdealer

January 11 2010, 01:47:14 UTC 2 years ago

i'm in n. florida too and it's been freezing every night! i forgot to cover my tiny garden so it killed everything.
i generally don't start planning until march, so i just have vague ideas of what i want.

[info]sirtobybelch

January 11 2010, 02:07:06 UTC 2 years ago

I'm in Michigan and am just planing out what I want to grow this season and planing to buy some greenhouse plastic so that I can make so high tunnels and get an early start on growing. I just wish it was closer to March.

[info]rainien

January 11 2010, 02:52:16 UTC 2 years ago

It never fails. I'll spend the better part of January and February making all these plans. Then when March comes along and it comes to implementing the plans, I usually change at least half of it because it never looks the same in reality as it did in my mind.

[info]cous_cous

January 11 2010, 03:13:31 UTC 2 years ago

I'm in Central Florida and we're taking a beating here as well.

If you're interested in growing edibles, Florida's Best Fruiting Plants is a pretty good read too.

[info]jahzcat

January 11 2010, 03:44:34 UTC 2 years ago

As a long term northerner, I lived in Orlando for 10 months while my boyfriend finished school. I was never so amused as when the temp went below 20 and all thee locals started panicing, talking about how they were expecting snow, and they were wearing every stitch of clothing they owned. Meanwhile, I'm wearing an extra flannel shirt and a medium weight jacket... "What? This is normal for me. You only get this cold for a week out of the entire year, This is November through march for me!!"
My garden doesn't thaw properly until april or so.

[info]chat_fou

January 11 2010, 20:08:06 UTC 2 years ago

This has been exceptionally cold weather. It's not often the temp goes below 20.. or 30... or even 40. Keep in mind that our houses aren't meant to stay warm- they're meant to be cool and drafty. Nor do most of us even own a "flannel shirt and medium weight jacket." I know I sure don't. We're not equipped to handle this. If I wanted this kind of weather- I would move up north!
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