Front yard gardening...

Here's a better picture of my new, front bed. I've already started doing what I swore I wouldn't--tearing out brassicas and salad greens to make room for pepper and tomato seedlings...

From The Late February Central Florida Garden: Permaculture

The whole point of this front bed was to give me room to stage and rotate plants, without resorting to culling plants to make room for new seedlings. But I have a lot of tomato and pepper seedlings, and I really want to get a lot of them in before March 1... So, I yanked half a row of cabbage this morning. and replaced them with some pepper seedlings.

Carrots are getting close to harvest.

I pulled up the last of the radishes. I grew Cherriette this year, a hybrid radish from Parks. I planted them on October 24. I had a handful of huge ones left in the ground and, remarkably, not a single one had split. Some were as large as a racketball. Impressive.

I noticed that my blackberries have started to bloom. And my Southern Highbush blueberries are in full bloom now, constantly surrounded by a handful of wood bees that squirm and wiggle their way inside the narrow flower. Still no sign of persimmons breaking dormancy, but their surely close. Oh, and my citrus has set buds, so they should be blooming in the next week or so.

Good time in the Florida garden.

Permaculture in the Florida Backyard Garden

What isn't in this slideshow? Apples, blueberries, peaches, onions, lettuce, cabbage, collards, chard, broccoli, peas... The slideshow is best viewed full screen...

How quickly the Central Florida garden grows

My new, front bed today. This half of the garden has onions, mache, turnips, carrots, lettuce, and cabbage.

The garden one month ago, after I'd planted the seeds and transferred in a few seedlings.

The garden in late December, as I was digging it out.

beans, tomatoes, blooms...

My pole beans are up, my tomatoes are in the ground, and my peppers are up to bat. Apple, peach, plum and blueberries are all blooming. 

Spring garden...

A couple weeks early, I've planted squash, tomatoes, melons, pole beans, & cucumbers in the garden. I need to get my peppers in the ground, but the ones I started long ago are all still so small... I guess they still have a full week before March 1, my typical spring-garden planting date.

It's warm and sunny out there. A bit dry, but nothing out of the ordinary for our springs. 

A quick note...

A warm week ahead, so, several weeks earlier than in the past, I planted two short rows of pole beans (McCaslan and Fortex). I had to harvest some collards to make room, but I got plenty of greens. Pole beans are up there with sweet potatoes when it comes to ease-to-yield ratio. And they take up very little space.

Tomato seeds that I planted weeks ago, and that I kept on a heating pad in the window for over a week, have finally germinated. They're weeks behind where they should be. After some damping-off and curious squirrels were done with my first batch of tomato seedlings, I think I have maybe five "big" plants left. (And by big I mean six inches tall... so, way too small.) But my decision to sow cucumber and squash a couple of weeks early has paid off--I've already "up-potted" them once, and they're ready to transplant directly into the ground tomorrow, or sometime early next week when I have a spare minute.

Peach, plum and blueberries are in full bloom. Nasturtiums are starting to run all over. Pansies are very happy with the cold nights and warm, sunny days.

Munching on snap peas, turnips, salad greens, carrots, radishes, beets, anything and everything green, broccoli... 

Spring!

beets!

A great beet season.