North Florida generally has two main gardening seasons—a shorter spring/summer season for warm-weather crops and a longer, more productive fall/winter season for cool-weather vegetables, while the intense heat and humidity of mid-summer is only suitable for a few varieties.
Timing is crucial for a successful vegetable garden due to the distinct warm and cool growing seasons, as well as the risk of late frosts and prolonged summer heat. Planting at the right time ensures your seeds and seedlings thrive in optimal conditions, maximizing yield and minimizing plant disease, stunting, or death.
Different vegetables are adapted to different temperature ranges.Warm-season crops are sensitive to cold and will not grow—or will be severely stunted—if planted when soil temperatures are too cool. This includes tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Conversely, when temperatures get too warm, the same plants will stop blooming and setting fruit. They must be grown within a distinct range of average temperatures.
Cool-season crops prefer different conditions. They may "bolt" (prematurely produce flowers and seeds) if they mature in excessive heat, which can cause the leaves to become bitter. This applies to leafy greens like lettuce and spinach as well as hardier greens like kale, collards, and mustard. Proper timing aligns your plants with the natural cycles of nature and provides ideal moisture and light conditions, allowing for strong root development and healthy growth.
It’s always a good idea to plant earlier in the suggested range. Early planting in spring will allow crops to mature for harvest before the crush of bugs and diseases. Early planting in fall will allow seeds to germinate and crops to get started before cool weather slows them down. Some crops may need protection when planted early. In the fall, depending on the heat level, earlier plantings may need to be protected with shade cloth from over-exposure to sun and heat and to discourage late summer bugs. In spring, tender seedlings may need to be protected with frost cloth from late freezes.
Practice succession planting. Plant small batches of the same crop every few weeks throughout the planting window. This will ensure a steady supply of vegetables and improve your chances of hitting the environmental sweet spot for temperature, light, etc. Every year is different.
Choose the right varieties: Select vegetable varieties that are recommended for the north Florida climate. Local nurseries are a good source for varieties appropriate for our area.
This probably sounds somewhat confusing. It is difficult to keep up with, particularly if you’ve recently moved from another part of the country and are accustomed to a totally different planting schedule. The Red Hills Small Farm Alliance has developed a planting calendar particularly appropriate for our unique area. It can be relied upon to keep you on track with the correct dates for starting seeds, planting seedlings and direct sowing. The planting calendar and monthly gardening advice from Gardener Ed are available in the left sidebar to let you know what you can plant each month.
Or follow our links to two different versions of the planting calendar. One can be printed or saved, the other will import a Google calendar with the same information, which you can turn on and off in your calendar app to keep you up-to-date each month on what should be planted then. We find that both calendars are useful. The printed one is good for planning your garden, determining what seeds to buy and when, deciding when in a planting window is best to plant, and getting a sense of gardening seasons. The calendar app is great for deciding what seedlings to buy and what to plant on any particular day that you have time to spend in the garden.
Red Hills planting calendar: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jo5XJaj5AYBNKsBtXtgle8Dp4SGRqIhh /view?usp=drivesdk
Same information as printed calendar for import to a Google calendar: Link to calendar. Or use the QR Code below. When you access the link or the code, an option should pop up to download the planting calendar. If you have trouble accessing it on your phone or iPad, try a laptop or desktop computer. Once you have it downloaded, it will appear as an optional calendar on any of your devices. You can turn it off or on by selecting the planting calendar in the menu of your calendar app. 
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