I find it strange that so many people are trying to grow northern vegetables following a northern calendar in FL. No wonder you're having so much trouble! I'm in central FL 9B and I grow stuff all year round - but what I grow changes with the temperatures. For example, this past year in the cooler months (late fall/winter) I grew lots of leafy greens like lettuce, chard, cilantro, garden and red sorrel, bok choy, radishes, carrots, and peas. I've got a few pigeon pea "trees" (they live for ~5 years and produce pigeon peas year round. They are drought tolerant and infertile sand tolerant). I've got straight Myakka sand and I haven't been amending. To my surprise, quite a few plants were very happy in my infertile sand. The only thing I do is occasionally add some coffee grounds once in a while or some diluted urine. I'm now in the process of making and charging biochar to long term improve the fertility of my sand since any compost I added in the past disappeared almost immediately (to be honest, it disappears in my compost bin before I even really get a chance to use it). In October I started tomato plants from seeds - now that it's March they are flowering and fruiting. Everglades tomato is a FL native tomato that can perform even during our crazy hot and humid summers. There's also Floradade tomato, which was developed in south FL specifically to cope with the brutal summers and can handle up to 100F. I've got those sprouting now (mid March) so we'll see how they do. There are at least 10 other tomatoes I know of that purportedly thrive even in FL summers but they will not be the tomatoes everyone knows in the north. If you want to grow northern tomatoes, just do it in the spring; most tomatoes will drop flowers by June due to the heat. If you can keep the plant alive through the summer (usually by shading it from afternoon sun) they will start producing again in the fall when temps cool down. I've also got sweet and hot peppers, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, eggplant, callaloo (amaranth), garlic chives, lagos spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ethiopian Kale, Malabar spinach, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, and Moringa for the summer. Rule of thumb for FL gardening: Southeast Asian + Caribbean veggies do particularly well in FL summers and "northern" veggies grow well here in the winter. As for fruit trees... stop trying to grow what does well in the north and grow what does well here. I've got a monster guava that I never fertilize or water and can deal with the occasional cold snap. Mulberries also do particularly well - they are basically zero maintenance (no extra watering, fertilizer, thrive on neglect). They fruit multiple times a year (mine are flowering now). There are plenty of other options if you look.

Thank you NC, I am happy to be back gardening and talking to the garden friends again.:) Thank you Anna for the warm welcome, it does make a big difference to be able to garden in our own backyards, it is very sad to eat only imported and expensive food like what I saw on vacation. The natives said that they actually come and buy things here that are affordable including food. The downtown area had shops like Gucci and others high end. I am glad that you are getting some sungolds they are usually the first to ripen for me. And was I surprised to see the dwarf container tomatoes when I came back, this tomatoes are the same in the green container, this is how they look now. The morning glories that are supposed to be black are a shade of purple And I got some corn for my african grey parrot Silvia

Yowsah! My seeds arrived yesterday! Man-O-man, what a tremendously generous amount, and such an impressive variety! I mean "Elbonian Mud Ball"? "Zogola"? "Shadow Boxing"? "Black Pineapple"? "Casino Chips"? "Seattle Wooly Blue Mammoth"? "Kosovo"? "Stump of the World"? Wow! - Thanks so much everyone, and especially to you, Gary, for hosting this! Totally awsome!! :)

Glad to hear that everyone is happy with what they received back! I am down to the LAST THREE ENVELOPES!!! I have 10 ready to mail this morning: Rollinrockell Foodeefish Elvimiller Thismembername Moonfire Nak10 MissyGA64 Trickfox Plus the last couple packages from THP folks. It is such a relief to be winding down the swap. I love being able to fulfill wishes! Makes me feel a bit like Santa Claus, LOL, but I am ready to focus on getting the garden ready for planting. Well, as soon as it warms up a bit. Right now, it's 16 degrees outside. It's supposed to reach 50 by the weekend though. Come on spring!!! Thank you, EVERYONE, for participating in the Pick-A-Peck of Peppers swap! Your hostess, Bonnie