Florida Fall Colors

Florida is different. It is the end of January, and we are having a typical "up-north" September weather here in Central Florida. It is rainy, gloomy, and quite cold, by the Florida standards, even during the day. But look, we have fall colors. I enjoy a variety of trees in Central Florida, and some of them even change colors. This is a rare, short-lived sight. Soon the trees will shoot new leaves, overnight, and Spring is just around the corner.

If it were "up-north", we would be eating the last of our canned tomatoes and other vegetables, and keeping fallen leaves in the piles to compost under the blanket of snow. In Florida we are starting tomatoes and pepper seeds on the top of the fridge. We just recently had our first and possibly last frost night. Some tender tropicals were damaged.

I took care of covering my coffee trees and remaining tomato plants. Papayas had some damaged leaves, but the fruit did not suffer. Hopefully, this was the last frost. It is quite a chore to cover up tall trees.

Soon box stores will start selling seeds again. Funny, management thinks in "up north" terms too. They only know of spring planting season, even in Florida, where we garden mostly in winter.

This year I will not start seedlings inside. In about a month I will plant the seeds - meaning tomatoes and peppers - right in the soil, under inverted jars. This way I will skip transplanting and will let the plants establish themselves where they may. I also will be experimenting planting tomatoes under papaya trees for natural support, as well as under pigeon peas that I planted in the garden as a manner of nitrogen-fixing plant as well as natural stakes for tomatoes.

Garden Calendar: USDA Zones

As I am starting to update my garden calendar, it is noteworthy that even in one state there are different hardiness zones. These zones are an important piece of information because they provide different seeding, planting and harvest times. In Florida we have three major zones, 8,9 and 10, as well as subzones:



My calendar is based on zone 9a. It is however not difficult to adjust my calendar to your garden timing. The rule of thumb is, in winter Zone 10 will do everything two weeks earlier than I do, and Zone 8 will do the activities two weeks later. In the summer everything is the opposite: Zone 10 will be two weeks behind me, and Zone 8 will be two weeks ahead.

For example, If I seed peppers for the fall season first week of June, then Zone 10 will be two weeks behind (last week of June), and Zone 8 will be two weeks ahead (mid-May). In the winter, if I seed tomatoes first week of January, Zone 10 will do that earlier, mid-December, and zone 8 will do that two weeks later, last week of January. Pretty simple.