Gold Coast Gardener

September 3, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Most of the time and effort spent in maintaining landscapes is on flowering plants or turfgrass areas. Some people though this time of year turn to another way to enjoying their landscape, putting in a vegetable garden. Our county is one of the largest agricultural counties in the nation and has a multi-billion dollar agricultural industry.

If you drive about 10 to 12 miles inland away from the coast, you will start to see large farms and corporate areas that grow many of the vegetables sold throughout the United States. You can grow many of those things yourself either as an outside traditional garden or in a container on your back porch, patio, or screen room.

Gardening is a good way to have some fresh produce at hand to enjoy and it’s very rewarding, too. Most garden centers are good sources of seeds of all types and many of the larger ones also have transplants available which can be planted out in the ground or grown as container plants.

If you’re doing a traditional outside type garden, make sure that you pick the right spot. Most vegetables like plenty of sunshine so choose a site that gets at least half a day of full direct sunlight if possible. Also drainage is critical since garden vegetables will drown or be badly damaged if they’re flooded for more than 36 hours. If you’re not sure about the drainage, plant on raised beds to make sure that they will be better protected.

If you have sandy poor soil you may want to add some organic amendments such as manure, peat moss, or other products and rototill and work these into the upper 3 to 4 inches of soil to give vegetables a better start.

When planting vegetables make sure that you plant them on correct spacing so they’re not overcrowded and too competitive and run the rows north and south rather than east and west to get better use of the fall and winter sun.
Make sure, too, that to slow down weeds the area is mulched with a good mulching material. Mulch depth should be a minimum of two inches and three inches would be even better and this will keep weeds at bay virtually the entire gardening season.

Most people put in their fall gardens in September or October and then stop gardening in April or May when it becomes too hot and uncomfortable to be outside working in the garden. If you do like summer gardening though, there are some vegetables that can take the summer heat and rains, but it will be more of a challenge than at this time of year.

If you want to garden in containers, especially if you’re not looking to have bushels and bushels of produce, select only a few types of your favorites, get 10 to 15 inch diameter containers, some good potting soil and you can set this up anywhere in the landscape where you have good lighting.

Vegetables grown in containers need a little bit extra attention so far as frequent watering and fertilizing. Outside in the ground you can use slow release fertilizers and not have to fertilize quite as often and if you have a sprinkling system that can take care of most of your outside watering for you.

Some pests and diseases may attack your vegetables and it’s wise to inspect your plants at least every other day and look for potential problems. If problems are noticed, treat with appropriate products for vegetables and follow label directions carefully.

If you enjoy herbs, these are well suited for the same culture as vegetables and your favorites types are usually available in the stores this time of year as well. If you live in a condo or apartment and don’t have outside growing areas, container gardening is certainly a method to look at and many herbs and vegetables do well even in hanging baskets so you can make use of vertical space that might be available as well.

The Palm Beach County Extension Service has a number of pamphlets on gardening and herbs which can be obtained free at their office during normal business hours. Specific questions about home gardening can be answered daily over the telephone free. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.