i use a variety of methods in my rather small space--mostly just a slightly raised (no frame) garden built up from hundreds of bags of leaves, household compost, hay and mushroom compost. (i subscribe to ECHO's mulch gardening ethos... plus, it's cheap!) for cukes, peppers and tomatoes, i use pots, buried pots, pots-in-pots or dale's posthole method. everywhere i can, i make extensive use of vertical space--lots of 10 foot long trellises with wire and twine. i've discovered that beans, tomatoes, cukes, peas and squash will climb as high as your trellis will let them, and produce much better if allowed to grow freely upwards.

anyway, everyone will tell you the same thing for a reason--start small. grow from seeds. make sure you leave enough room to navigate. listen to what others say about when and what to plant. all gardening is local gardening.

I was going to give you vegetable gardening advise...that's a laugh! I just want to direct you to the thread April Garden and keep in mind that summer is on it's way.

Yeah I don't plan on starting the garden soon, just the planning part. I'm hoping to maybe have it ready in time for the fall planting season.

I'm still considering hydroponics but there were several problems for me: 1. cost I figured about $800 for the initial 4 towers. 2. setting up the electrical system and water lines (including my water barrel) 3. curiosity about its viability through our rainy season. I may still do one tower and try watering it myself, but I may just stick with container gardening. Most of what I want will do fine this way and you can control growth. I still have memories of baseball bat zucchini lurking under vines.

Here is a link that might be useful: hydroponic system

I also use a variety of styles: lasagna bed for nematode-proof veggies and sunken pots for tomatoes in the ground so that the once-a-week irrigation can water them when I'm out of town.

I lined the bottom of the "pot hole" with newspaper so those dastardly nematodes can't work their way into my pots from the drainage hole. You can also do this system without pots if you line the holes with something stronger and then fill with potting mix.
But I've got a lot of pots including some begged from Burger King (pickle buckets).

My latest soil amendment is....seaweed. Didn't catch any fish on a boat trip but used the fish net to haul in seaweed to add to the veggie beds.

I also have a composter and alternate kitchen scraps with shredded paper from junk mail and office stuff. Both could be trench composted directly into the garden, which I did in the past.

You can start composting in your future garden now to get it ready for fall.

Denise

I'm glad you're not starting now; this is a horrible time for a newbie's introduction to veggie gardening in most of Florida except for the panhandle. It's good your starting out with only 200 SF but be aware of the limitations that will put on how much you can grow...a common newbie's mistake is to start with too much stuff for the area you've dedicated to a veggie garden. We could probably help you more if we knew what veggies you like.

Tom

For raised bed construction, I've been using stacked sand bags for a couple of years now. I stumbled on them by accident because I could get most of them free from work (a soil/concrete testing lab), and because I just don't know how to build a bed out of wood. Now I actually prefer them to wood, because the thick bed wall they make seems to insulate the soil and hold moisture better. And the bed is self-leveling and absolutely childproof to stack up - a big plus when you're as skill-challenged as I am! :)

I have to use white poly-mesh bags because that's what I can get here, and I confess they CAN look a little cheap. I plant lots of marigolds around the border to dress them up. I've seen beds made with brown canvas sandbags, and THAT actually looks very classy. Kind of a stone effect, if you squint a little!
I can't recommend mushroom compost highly enough - so far I haven't met a veggie plant that doesn't love it!

While you're waiting out the hot weather to plant your fall crop, it would be terrific to fill the area you're going to build the beds on with French dwarf marigolds. They're pretty all summer, and they'll drive your native population of nematodes out of the area. Then you just have to use cardboard or newspaper or submerged wood panels to slow down their return.

PS: Summer gives you limited planting choices, but melons, okra, eggplant and about half a dozen other things will tolerate the heat.

raised beds and containers even though I have plenty of space. Vermiculture and composting are musts.I think hydroponics would be great for people and wouldnt mind it myself,right now Im just trying to take care of what I have.
I am trying the poatatoes in the bushel basket trick this spring.
tanya

karen, i'd love to see photos of your garden. of all the many ideas that i've had for creating raised beds, sandbags have, for whatever reason, escaped me.

Tanya--Will you expand on your vermiculture experiences? The commercial set up with the red worms is outrageously expensive. I need some advice on how to get started.

I use many methods.

Most of our dirt gardens start as the cardboard on the ground to smother the grass like stuff and then we do a sort of lasagna garden thing on top with lots of compost, wood chips, mushroom compost, other people's bagged leaves and grass clippings etc. This works will in conjunction with drip irrigation on a timer for growing many things. The squash and cucumbers seem to love it as did all the winter veggies.

For higher tech gardening we do Aquaponics. Kinda like hydroponics but growing fish to provide the nutrients for the plants so for about the same cost as a similar hydroponic garden we not only get to eat veggies but fish as well plus we are not dumping old hydroponic nutrient to waste that can pollute the water supplies. It takes a little longer for an Aquaponic system to mature and produce as well as hydroponics but once it reaches that stage, it generally surpasses hydroponics in it's production. It is a balancing act though and not meant for people who won't study up on it a bit before jumping in. It not only requires taking care of plants and plumbing but also taking care of fish and the bio-filter. I built my first barrel ponics system for under $300 (probably far less since those figures were estimating the cost of all the parts brand new and the cost of full 10' sticks of pvc when only a couple feet are actually needed) as my initial learning system. I'm sure a creative person can build a far cheaper small AP system for very little money.

I still often start plants in containers and occasionally continue growing them in containers but container plants rarely do as well as the in ground counterparts so one must have strong reasons for container growing if they have any dirt space available.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aquaponics

I have a small backyard with poor drainage. I plant directly in the ground. I rake the soil up into raised beds for planting in the rainy season to improve drainage. I don't form raised beds during the dry season to cut down on watering. Also, fortunately I do not have a nematode problem, I think because my soil has some clay and a ton of mushroom compost.