Garden Tour: Seasons in Florida, What to Grow When

Winter is a very special time here in the garden. Though not so bright and abundant as far as tropicals go, it’s a very important time for the circle of plant life. Some plants are getting dormant, and some are gaining energy and starting to bloom.

People who visit Florida from out of state are used to a picture-perfect, never-changing palm-filled landscape. It’s not so peachy in reality of food forests and organic growing systems. Summer thrivers yellow up, some trees completely defoliate, and some look brown and beat. Every plant here in the garden has its own requirements and its own timing, so we don’t expect them to be perfect 24/7 – 365. It’s exciting to see how each plant goes through seasons.

During this garden tour you will see how winter is treating trees, veggies and ground covers; how ultra tropicals have to be protected, and how northern veggies thrive in cool weather. We’ll explain the importance of raised beds and the ways to keep them going, show plants producing food year round (perennial vegetables) without extra care, as well as annual winter edibles (with care:), our favorite fruit trees, ground covers and some of our favorite garden friends living in a vermicompost bin. We will explain how you can save water and $ and grow food without irrigation or synthetic fertilization, even during the dry months.

You will have a chance to purchase some organically grown perennial edibles and specially selected varieties of baby fruit trees from our garden stock.

Price: these tours are donation based. Your donations help us keep the garden beautiful. Paypal address for donations is oshomiami@gmail.com (all donations are tax deductible).

Please do not show up without registration and an email confirmation. DO NOT LOOK UP THE GARDEN ADDRESS ON GOOGLE MAPS, IT WON’T TAKE YOU TO THE RIGHT PLACE. The address on google maps is an approximate address for technical reasons; you will get the exact venue address upon registration. Copy that address into your google maps for directions. Please don’t suggest changes to google maps.

The garden has no public bathroom.

We have a zero tolerance policy to drugs and alcohol. If you are found intoxicated you will be asked to leave and banned from future events.

Photo courtesy of our garden friend and donor Victor Lazzari, a landscape designer & architect. www.junglegymfl.com Follow him on instagram @junglegymvictor