If you don't want to amend the soil, grow plants that are native to your area, not what you grew in NJ. There are some native plant nurseries that may be able to help you, what part of the state are you in?

Hi, Choksaw! Welcome to the Florida Forum. There are so many friendly and helpful folks here, I'm sure you will get lots of good information, and probably make a few new gardening friends along the way.

It IS great to grow native plants, but if you are more into vegetables, that's a whole 'nuther story. I don't grow many veggies, but many here do and can give you some good pointers, I'm sure.

All I know is that tomatoes get nematodes if you don't do certain things, so I only grow a few patio tomatoes in containers, myself. I have a very small potager garden started now in a washtub with a tomato, lots of green onions (planted from the tips of the ones I bought in Publix), and some herbs.

Just keep asking questions, and folks will pop in with answers.

You will find gardening in Florida to be a constant learning experience, lots of trial and error. We have so many zones in the state that what works in one may not do well in another. But most of us enjoy the process, and the warm winters allow us to garden most of the year.

Speaking of which, many veggies are winter crops in Florida. You'll have to pick the brains of our experts here on what you can grow easily this time of year, as a lot of things are winding down for the summer.

Good luck with your new gardens!

Marcia

Hi
For me one of the hardest things to learn was that there are definite seasons. Not snow and ice but differences in water heat and humidity. Think April as the beginning of non gardening "winter" Sept. as 'spring "
Reverse of temperate climes. Almost everything except tropicals does far better during the calandar "winter." Unless of course ther is a heavy frost or freeze lol
Another is that there is no rest from "weeds" mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges.. I can remember when a heavy frost every year wiped out not only my garden but also the weed ,lawn mowing trimming for MONTHS on end . lol
gary

Ok...I'll put my stupidity out there....my mother could grow anything, but I am the only person I know that can actually kill an artificial plant.

What do I have to do to amend soil? I'm in Tampa, and I have just plain old dirt. I grew up here and I don't know any other kind of dirt. I am trying to learn as much as I can now, before I plant, as all my friends tell me I can't stick the beautiful veggies from the pots in the ground.

choksaw,

Since you're new to the state, and we are entering a tough time for growing veggies, you might think about putting in foundation plants or trees now. It's much easier to get big stuff started during the rainy season. Won't have instant impact on your grocery bill, but a fruit tree will reward you down the line.

I'm pretty far south of you (I'm south of almost everyone here in Miami) so others in your area will have better ideas. My summer gardening consists mainly of lying on my back in the pool and weeding/trimming/weeding some more.

Thanx for the welcome all im combing the web and reading up on alot of things for growing here in florida our gardening area is about 1800 sq ft we have already put about 25 bags of topsoil down and worked it into the native soil luckily we have a horse farm near by that will provide me with all the manure i want free of charge as long as i haul it away lol. Ive lived in the state for about 12 years here in the new port richey area mainly but this is my first attempt at growing a garden. Primarily we are growing from seeds so that i can teach the kids about gardening and how to do the diffrent things for the diffrent plants alot is going to be trial and error so we all will be learning along the way

choksaw, may I suggest you subscribe to FLORIDA GARDENING. www.floridagardening.com
It's a bi-monthly for Florida gardeners and 'required reading' for those who've moved from northern climes. And I'm so glad you're going to get the kids involved in gardening. Growing potatoes is better than being a couch potatoe any day! cora

Welcome to the forum!

I like your idea of using the garden as a teaching tool. For best success though you may want to hold off most of your seed plantings until fall - Florida summers are just too brutal for tender seedlings.

Kate