The idea of using your Gainesville landscape to grow edibles is always tempting. Photos of edible gardens promise you lush landscapes filled with a tantalizing mix of vegetables, herbs and flowers that will make all passersby stop and stare. Getting started with an edible garden can seem daunting, though, especially if you’re new to gardening. Fortunately, most edibles are fairly tough and don’t take hours of effort daily to grow them.
So the main question is simply, what do you grow when you’re starting out? The following 10 edibles are great choices for your first try at tasting your Gainesville landscaping.
1. Radishes. Radishes may be one of the easiest edibles to grow. With some popular varieties, you can start eating the tops (as you thin out your plantings) within two weeks and start harvesting in three weeks. You can plant successively from September through March, then start planting again come fall.
2. Carrots. Long and orange may be the familiar look, but today’s carrots come in a range of colors, from white to purple, and a range of shapes, from long and narrow to short and plump. Like radishes, they give you almost instant gratification when it comes to harvesting, as you generally can start pulling them to eat in a month or so. More than most other edibles, they do require loose, clod- and stone-free soil to maintain their shape. Raised gardens are best for most edibles, but especially carrots as the need the loose and rich soil to grow large in.
3. Salad greens. Growing your own salad greens is remarkably easy, and these are among the few edibles that do best in the shady area of your Gainesville lawn. Lettuce especially can get bitter in hot weather, even if you grow the newer varieties that have been bred to resist bolting. Start with some of the loose-leafed varieties of lettuce and mix in other greens, such as arugula, chicory, chervil and spinach, for a home-grown salad mix.
4. Herbs. Most of our favorite herbs are also the easiest edibles to grow. Some, like mint, are almost impossible not to grow — plant some in the ground and you’ll be pulling up mint all over your garden. Most herbs do best with full sun and little to regular water, and many, such as thyme, do double duty as ground covers. Plant them in a formal herb garden, mix with other edibles or grow in any type of planter or box. It may be best to grow mint inside of a pot or small planter by itself to keep it from taking over your landscape beds.
5. Strawberries. The taste of freshly picked strawberries is reason enough to grow them. Add to that their versatility in terms of varieties for almost all climates and their adaptability to any number of containers, including hanging ones, and you have a plant that can work for almost any Gainesville lawn. Most gardeners treat them as short-lived perennials, meaning you’ll still have lush foliage after the fruiting season is over. While the list of possible problems might seem daunting, most gardeners find that strawberries are reliable and fairly trouble free (except for keeping birds out).
However, the timing of strawberries isn’t the best to plant right now unless you don’t mind having a few fruit and then waiting for about 10 months for them to become ripe again. Their season is coming to an end for our zone and they are recommended to be planted in October and Novemeber to reap the best reward.
6. Beans. Beans are an edible-garden staple, and snap beans are the most popular type of bean to grow. Choose from bush beans, which produce an earlier crop while staying lower to the ground, or vining beans, the familiar climbing varieties that will climb up almost anything they can wrap their tendrils around. Once you’ve mastered these, you can branch out to dry beans, lima beans, scarlet runner beans, fava beans and even soybeans.
7. Tomatoes. For many gardeners it’s really not an edible garden without a tomato or two; or ten. Though you may hear all sorts of stories about possible problems, from whiteflies to scary-sounding diseases, the fact that tomatoes are probably the most popular edible to grow should encourage you. The key is to find the right variety for you. Do you like cherry tomatoes for salads? Romas for cooking? Or the larger ones for sandwiches? The good news is that there are so many varieties now readily available, from heirlooms to disease-resistant hybrids, so you can easily find one or two that fit your Gainesville landscape and taste perfectly.
8. Chard. “Easy to grow” defines Swiss chard. It grows well from seed, prefers cooler weather (but can handle a fair amount of summer heat) and can be harvested approximately 60 days after the first seeds were planted while still continuing to produce, even through winter in our Gainesville, FL “frosts”. Grow it separately or mix it with other edibles and even ornamentals, especially if you’re growing one of the colorful Bright Lights chards.
9. Peppers. Peppers of all types need a long, warm to hot growing season, but they’re worth the wait. Plant sweet peppers for milder flavor and a range of colors from yellow and red to green and purple, and sizes from tiny to large enough to stuff and bake. If your taste buds are more adventurous, give hot peppers a try. You’ll find everything from mildly spicy to so hot, you’ll need to taste with caution.
10. Zucchini. If you plant zucchinis, be prepared to start eating them a couple of months later and to continue consuming them throughout the summer.
The zucchini is legendary for how easy it is to grow and how much it produces, but the same can be said of almost any of the squashes, including pumpkins. They’re notorious for springing up where seeds have overwintered, including compost piles, and the resulting amount of fruit can be overwhelming. The space requirements can also be a little daunting, as most require a fair amount of room for sprawling. But if you have the space (or find a compact variety), zucchinis and other squashes are easy edibles to grow and fill the kitchen with for tasty dinners.
Crops and Planting Dates for North Florida
When should you plant veggies in your landscape for optimum growth and ripe edibles? Here's a chart to help provided by the IFAS Extension Office for North Florida.
Plant winter greens, like kohlrabi and collards, from September to March!
Crop Planting Dates Beans, bush & pole Mar – Apr and Aug – Sep Beans, lima Mar – Aug Beets Sep – Mar Broccoli Aug – Feb Cabbage Sep – Feb Cantaloupe Mar – Apr Carrots Sep – Mar Cauliflower Jan – Feb and Aug – Oct Celery Jan – Mar Chinese Cabbage Oct – Feb Collards Feb –Apr and Aug – Nov Corn, sweet Mar – Apr and Aug Cucumbers Feb – Apr and Aug – Sep Eggplant Feb – July Endive/Escarole Feb – Mar and Sep Kale Sep – Feb Kohlrabi Sep – Mar Lettuces Feb – Mar and Sep – Oct Mustard Sep – May Okra Mar – July Onions, bulbing Sep – Dec Onions, bunching Aug – Mar Onions, shallots Aug – Mar Peas, English Jan – Mar Peas, Southern Mar – Aug Peppers Feb – Apr and July – Aug Potatoes Jan – Mar Potatoes, sweet Mar – June Pumpkin Mar – Apr and Aug Radish Sep – Mar Spinach Oct – Nov Squash, summer Mar – Apr and Aug – Sep Squash, winter March and August Strawberry Oct – Nov Tomatoes Feb – Apr and August Turnips Jan – Apr and Aug – Oct Watermelon Mar – Apr and July – Aug