Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide - Best Plants & Tips for Home Gardens | Grow Fresh Veggies Year-Round in Sunshine State

It has become my go-to bookAll goodBeing new to gardening it has been a chore finding books I can understand about gardening. Many make promises but don't deliver information in a senible manner and I end up more frustrated than satisfied. This one delivers. The thing I love about this book is its simple easily understandable format. The book is loaded with color photographs that help me distinguish the different kinds of problems plants suffer from, making it a simple process in learning how to care for my plants and exactly what may be the problem.I like the way he layed out the charts in the back of the book. One section for cold crops and one section for winter crops. He even has a section for herbs! It takes the work out of thumbing through page after page, book after book, of when, what and where I can grow things. Thanks, Mr. Stephens, for taking the mystery out of vegetable gardening and making my life a little easier and a lot simplier.Last year I purchased a winter home in Florida I am excited at the idea of growing fresh vegatables in January. However, the soil surrounding my new home seems to be 90% sand. As a midwesterner I am used to rich loamy dirt so I know I have a lot to learn about gardening in Florida. VEGATABLE GARDENING IN FLORIDA has information about composting, rain barrels, container gardening and much more that will be helpful to me. It contains lists of plants that will do well in my area and gives the approximate planting dates as well as yeild. I am looking forward to planting tomatoes, onions and lettuce in January.Dr Stephens has been teaching us about growing vegetables in Florida throughout his career at Univ of FL. This book is a wonderful compilation of his expert horticultural knowledge with understandable descriptions of vital, specific techniques to help novices. A lot of articles in popular magazines have pretty pictures, but leave out much of the specific information you need, especially for gardeners in the southern US. This book will truly guide you to produce a successful and beautiful vegetable garden.This book was vey informative and really helped me to see why my vegetable gardens have thus far failed. I have lived in central Florida for four years and have been very frustrated with trying to grow vegetables here. The growing seasons, climate and soil are so different from what I was accustomed to in north Georgia. I am looking forward to achieving success with my gardening this year using the information in this book regarding proper fertilization and planting times for different types of plants.We plant our garden in raised beds. This book is one of several gardening books that we refer to, and it has been such a help when we choose what and when to plant in the spring and fall .We have planted something "new" for us from the lists of plants recommended in this book for each season. Last year, my husband LIKED eating collard greens for the first time in his life! He grew them, ate them fresh, and put a lot of them in the freezer. He's planted them again, this fall.'Good book!I bought this book in 2002 and look at it all the time. By 2009 I was ready to grow my garden. It was a fabulous success producing hundreds of pounds of vegetables. Love the pictures in this book. Also, helpful books are "Florida Vegetables" by Lewis S. Maxwell and "Growing Food in South Florida" by Felice Dickson. These were published in 1974 and 1975 respectively but if you can find them, get yourself a copy. Of course, outdated with respect to chemicals no longer available but most is relevant. I used these when I had great gardens in the '70s and they are still helpful. Happy Gardening!!