I ordered all my seeds within the last couple of days. I plan to start them around mid/late July to be set out sometime in September, depending on the weather. I ordered beans, greens, some tomatoes and peppers, carrots, radishes, squash and cucumbers. I plan to buy starter plants for broccoli, collards, some more tomatoes and peppers. I also ordered seeds for sunflowers, zinnias, nasturiums, marigolds, and cosmos to plant around the vegetable garden. Of course all of the flowers and some of the vegie seeds are direct sow (beans, radishes) and won't be planted until September.

Here's a link to guide you in your veggie planting.
I haven't decided if I'll have tme for veggies this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out!

With the danger of salmonella on our vegetables and the increasing cost of food. I am planing on doing a vegetable
garden this fall. Jenfm's schedule of planting is the way I plan to go. I guess this is the time to prepare the ground.
Some like tomatoes in pots.

Felix

So how do you prepare the ground. Compost+ Peat moss?? or do u get the planting soil available in the stores? I tried planting 2 bush beans but got leaf miners in them.. ! So I think I'll start collecting seeds like you guys say and start by jul end like jenfm says..!

Ditto what Felix said.
Economic and personal factors will see me with an in-ground vegetable garden this fall. That will be a first. Only had tomatoes and peppers in containers so far.

Want to try at least:
Amaranth
various Greens
Beans
Carrots

and I don't know what else.
We'll see :)

msmarion, THANK YOU for that link. Very helpful info.
Time is going so fast. Need to get planning...

I'll be starting my pepper seeds 7/1 and my tomato seeds 7/15, with plans to set both 9/1. Both get potted up at one month with the peppers set at two months and the tomatoes at six weeks. Then, direct sow the pole beans squash and cucumbers 9/1. Bear in mind that 9/1 is not etched in stone...the year we had all the hurricanes/storms come through so early I lost everything due to the torrential rains and wind so the September date is highly variable based on weather...could be 2-3 weeks later.

i might be wrong here, but i think early july is just WAY too early to start seeds. at the earliest (to avoid bugs, the worst of the heat) you'd want to put your solanaceae at the beginning of september... maybe last weeks of august, but you're pushing it. i give my seeds a month from sowing to transplant... so, beginning of august. last year, i started my tomatoes on august 4. they bore pretty heavily, but in the end, i don't think it was worth it. i just couldn't conjure up the appetite for tomatoes and eggplants in december. anyway, i'd rather take advantage of the cool season to grow carrots, greens, peas, lettuces, etc. my two cents.

august tomato seeds:
http://centralfloridagarden.blogspot.com/2007/08/fall-2007-tomatoes.html

i really like this schedule from simon seeds -- the advice on which seeds for each crop is also dead-on.

Here is a link that might be useful: simon seed schedule

I think I'll-mannered is right given the fact that this post is asking the question for 9B. Although I'm just across the bay in St. Pete, also 9B, I'm right off the water and never get frost so I really consider my area 10A (South rather than Central)...funny how areas 30-40 miles south of me get frost and I don't. I try to sow seed and set plants 9/15 but this is really at least two weeks early and probably more like a month early. Guess I'm just too eager to get started so I'll push my start dates by 30 days, and 9B should actually be a little later than that.

I start my tomato seeds mid August, pot them up once about a month later (pot them deep to make more roots), they're ready for their final home by mid to late October. That coincides hopefully with the end of the wet, storm season.
I've tried them earlier, but the heat, rain, hurricanes, etc always messed them up.
That's what I'm sticking to from now on.
I'm in northern Palm Beach county, not far from the ocean.
One of my favorite winter green vegetables is baby bok choy. Direct sow the seeds and a month later they're ready to eat. Plant a small row every 2 weeks from October through February or March.
Lettuces like rich soil and winter. Radishes and daikon do very well if it's cool enough.
Green and snow peas like winter here too.
Southern peas and beans like to be planted in early spring.
Collards and mustard, kale and cabbage get planted in the fall here, late October/November.
Malabar spinach, amaranth and basil get planted in the spring. They like summer growing.
Sweet potatoes go in in April, start by growing slips from sprouting sweet potatoes in February and March.
These dates are all just from my experiences. Your mileage may vary!
Plus every year is different. Sometimes things go right, other times not. It's gardening after all.

Treefrog, that sounds like a really good guide, especially with our experience with late hurricanes the past few years. I think I will set things back a few weeks. I have had poor success with some things in the fall even with a mild winter -- like the southern beans (butter beans are my favorite), corn and especially summer squashes. I've started to think it may have something to do with the days shortening when planted in fall instead of lengthening like vegetables would "expect" when planted traditionally, in the spring. Does that sound crazy?

Is it not worth trying amaranth in the fall? I was going to try some this year for the first time.

If you plant the sweet potatoes in April when can you expect to harvest them?

Thanks!

100 days from planting slips of sweet potatoes. actually, i suspect it's less time than that. i planted sweet potatoes for the first time last year, and harvested them 100 days later. some of them were massive, way too large. some were too small -- i replanted those, and they came back this season to provide me with a fresh crop.

to add to tf's list -- cowpeas can be planted any time of the year when it's hot, in successive crops. in fact, i use the peas from the previous crop to start the new crop. they continue to produce well into october for me. okra's the same way -- it can be sown anytime during the hot months. i'm finding arugula to be far more heat tolerant than i'd thought. (i'm using apollo arugula, which is a NOT a cruciferous like most arugulas but tastes just like all other arugulas.)

and my tromboncino squash is still going gangbusters and producing nice, healthy and huge (three pounds!) squashes.

and don't forget about peanuts, malanga, okinawan spinach and cassava! they love nothing more than heat and humidity and rain.

Jenfm,
I've always thought about the dwindling daylight hours effects on our fall/winter vegetable gardens. Not just fewer hours, but less intensity as the plants grow. Then there's the seasonal lag through January before things really start the upturn toward spring.
It's no wonder the largest pumpkins and squash grow in Alaska and Siberia. Unlimited sunlight on those large leaves! Along with the soil sterilizing deep freeze every winter.

I've never had luck with summer squash here. They come up and flower fine, but immediately after flowering the small fruits rot or vine borers get into the stems. I'm going to order some of those Tromboncino squash seeds very soon. Ill, did you say you planted that in the fall?
Cucumbers do only slightly better. I don't think they handle humidity well at all (mildew) and get the same bugs as the squash. I'm planning to start some cukes in late Dec to take advantage of the dry season and lengthening days. In a large pot with a trellis.

I think you can sow amaranth anytime of year. Once it's established and you let one go to seed it pops up everywhere. I really see the best growth in the spring. It goes to seed more quickly later summer and fall. I've found the red one does better for me. The green one must be very tasty though. It's always eaten up in the garden, by little caterpillars.

I love nasturtiums among the veggies too. They pop up every fall like magic.

my tromboncinos were sown sometime this spring, in march i think. mine took until last week to really start producing, but castorp had his in the ground much earlier and was picking them all of may and june. his single plant produced armloads of the stuff. best squash i've ever had, but bill's less enthused by it. i like it raw, and i HATE raw squash. but it also cooks up nice -- had a delicious squash frittata last night.

anyway, it sneers at the pickleworm. there are egg sacks all over the fruit, but the damn things, for whatever reason, can't penetrate the squash. and for that, i love it.

Okay, that does it. I've got to try the trombocinos...and probably some baby bok choy too. I had much better success this year getting the cukes up off the ground where I could easily spray both sides of the leaf with BT, I also started hitting the summer squash every three days with BT and had no trouble with worms.

{{gwi:13250}}

I haven't seen anybody mention corn. Some of those veggies sound great but I'd really have to do a sales job with my family and I don't think they'd eat them. I'm going to start my tomato seeds at the end of August and I bought some lettuce seeds. A couple of my tomato plants are left over from this season I think I'll take them out of the pots and plant them somewhere in the garden to see what happens.

Have you checked your county extension office? Here's what mine says to plant in August:

WHAT TO PLANT IN AUGUST

FLOWERS: Annuals: Coleus, Impatiens, Kalanchoe, Periwinkle/Vinca

VEGETABLES: Beans (Pole), Broccoli, Celery, Collards, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Onions (Green), Pepper, Pumpkin, Southern Peas, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Turnips, Watermelon

HERBS and SPICES: (From plants, not seeds) Basil, Bay Laurel, Ginger, Horehound, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Mexican Tarragon Mint, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme

BULBS: African Lily, amaryllis, Aztec Lily, Blackberry Lily, Canna, Crinum, Crocosmia, Elephant Ears, Gingers, Gladiolus, Kaffir Lily, Louisiana Iris, Moraea, Rain Lilies, Gladiolus, Iris, Moraea, Society Garlic, Spider Lily, Walking Iris

Plant vegetable seeds directly in the garden or seed bed. Sow watermelon seeds by the 10th, but delay planting others until mid-month (See above list). Sow seed no deeper than twice its diameter.

Just google extension office for your county - they should have a nice little list for you. :)

This is a great site too: UF Veggie Growing Guide. They have two great tables - one for spacing info and months to plant and another for more info on the veggie and how many days to harvest.

Thats a nice list crystabel but the stores dont carry seeds now. Walmart, HD, Lowes and nurseries too dont carry seeds at this time. So do u buy online or buy it well planned before a couple of months when the stores carry them? When asked they dont sell seeds in summer because the seeds don't germinate?

This question comes up every summer when people get antsy about starting fall veggies. I love it. Each year someone else has a better theory and sometimes they work, which is so exciting and encouraging. Tom your cukes make me MAD!! I have a horrible time with cukes, zukes,gourds, squash...everything gets buggy or rots no matter what time of year.

I will start my tomato seeds end of Aug and keep on my patio till they are ready to plant out-and God willing I am able to move about by then enough to plant anything after my 2nd hip installation.

My question for all of you now is. What do I do with the planters my tomatoes were in this past winter/spring. The soils will all get ammended and replenished and refurbished. But just leaving the containers empty seems a sin. Is there something to make them look nice over the summer that will need no care as I go thru some surgery and recovery? I hate to have my neighbors looking at my empty buckets!

Here's the areas of my tomato planters. (this is before planting tomatoes in them last year)
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cindee,
red amaranth (or lagos), cowpeas, and okra. lovely, tasty. can be planted anytime.

Cindeea,
Basil, Malabar Spinach. Both beautiful this time of year.
or just stick some coleus cuttings in them. Keeps everything looking lush for a while.
How are you doing now?
I'm still praying you and Dennis are back in the swing.
Luv ya!

Cindee - I didn't mean to imply the cukes are growing now. That picture was just to show the trellis. Cathy and I went to Eleuthera for a couple of weeks in May and when we got back the Powdery Mildew was too much to overcome.

Ill & Tree - I have the same problem Cindee does, all the empty pots are an eyesore...think I'll try your suggestions to spruce things up in the back. I know there is Okra with different colored flowers, any recommendations?