Ever since I’ve moved to Florida my outdoor gardens have failed. The squirrels get my tomatoes, the fungus gets my squash and the sandy, saline soil gets everything else. I recently threw in the towel and retreated… indoors.
I had some shallow plastic sweater boxes I filled with soil and I planted in those on our enclosed back porch. At night I have a grow light trained on them so they get plenty of grow time. Our electricity has varying rates so it’s cheapest during the pm hours, perfect for the plants. It’s my most successful garden since I moved to this state.
I have radishes, spinach and lettuce out on the porch. I’m also propagating edible cactus to plant in the flower beds and Monday I’ll be putting in sunchokes. Because sunchokes grow so high, thick and wild I am planting them in he virtually unused side of the house where the sun pours in all summer long and drives up the electricity bill. The sunchokes will shade the windows, and be dinner in the fall.
Out in the yard I have found that used coolers make fantastic planters. More radishes are ready to pull outside the door in one of those long coolers that was tossed for lack of a lid. I’ve got peppermint taking over the radishes so that when they’re gone, the cooler will be refilled with fresh, minty foliage.
I love gardening, when it works.
as I also live in FL, I know of what you speak! I commend you on finding solutions –and workable ones in these humid temps.
Yes, and when we had first moved there I assumed, because it’s the Sunshine State, that I would have great gardens. I think we saw more sunshine in New Mexico than we got in Florida. Now that we’ve moved to Kansas City, I have to find whole new solutions.