"BrittonV" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all.

This may be a stupid question, but when it comes to gardening, I am
stupid!!
there are no stupid questions. Stupid answers sometimes, and you are NOT
stupid. You are not learned yet. You are a newbie, a new gardener as you
aptly put into your header. Let's try this now (and you'll get many great
suggestions from residents in Florida, whereas I am up in Eastern Tennessee
and am a master gardener, obcessed gardener and fairly but not totally
knowledgable in horticulture. And I'm still learning and still ask
questions.


I live in South Florida and want to grow some produce in my garden
(when I make a garden).
your veggie garden should be dug and planted where it can get the most
sunlight of the day. Things like lettice you can build a simple shade
protection using a piece of lattice laid on top of bricko blocks (cinder
blocks) which will give them just the right height to allow air circulation,
room to grow, and provide shade for the more delicate lettices and such.
Tomato's, squash and other veggies need at least 8 hours of sunlight.

I have a couple of questions, concerns.

My sprinkler system feeds of the 'pond' behind my house. Is it safe to
water 'food' with water from this pond. Since all the pond is, is an
water retention pond that is refreshed with road run off from rain.
well until you said it was a water retention pond that is refreshed from
road run off, I would have said fine. But roads have tars, petroleum
residue's, gasoline residue's, etc. To use that runoff water would put you
at risk watering your edibles with it. Trace metals and chemicals. Better
that you put a plastic barrel or rain catcher under your downspouts to
capture rain water in it's semi pure form and use that to water your food.

This would be the same concern if you wanted to use treated landscape
timbers or fresh railroad ties to raise up the beds. You don't want to use
these to do that. Untreated, or something different would be much safer and
better in the long run. The benefits of raised beds is quite wonderful. **

Being as the 'soil' here is primarily sand what should I do to get it
ready? I intend to start composting and what not, but I am sure I need
to do more to start.
** and since it is mostly sand, I'd raise the beds up with bricko blocks,
which would provide you a place to sit on the edge to pull weeds and thin
plants.

Start watching for bags of grass clippings, leaves (I'm sure leaves fall in
Florida, but there are more experts here in the newsgroup that can help you
more on that subject). Purchase broken bags at Lowes of manures, top soil,
peat moss, etc. ANY of those bags of soils and such can easily be
incorporated into your sandy soils. I'd stear clear of the soils with
moisture granuals. The leaves and grass clippings will break down over
time, and add bulk to your garden beds.

Your compost pile should be placed in a convenient spot, where you can
"harvest" the finished compost. No meat, no bones,no dairy, but everything
else layered like a lasagna. Grass clippings, dry leaves, kitchen waste
like peelings, coffee grounds (with the filters), tea bags, egg shells,
smashed up sea food shells, fish heads buried deeply enough to deter
scavengers. A walk on the beach if you're close would provide you with
seaweed you can add to the compost pile. No carnivore poop. Herbivore poop.
If there is a local zoo or a circus in town, see if you can snag some
elephant poop, or other critter's they have in the show. (no meat eaters, of
course). Stables with horses would be another source for great manure, but
horse manure doesn't heat up like cow. Chicken is quite hot, but layered
right would be fine. Cleaned out water from a friend's aquarium would be
wonderful stuff to water the plants with.

Ordering some red worms from Gardens Alive!@ would be great to throw into
the compost pile so they could do a lot of the work for you.


Thanks for the guidance, I am sure that I will have more questions but
those are my major concerns.

if you do decide to make raised beds, it's easy. Double dig. dig one trench
putting the soil on the left side, working your way towards the right. The
next row would fill the first, and so on until you reach the width you want.
The last trench would be filled with the first pile of stuff. Then you
incorporate the extras.

No bed should be wider than four feet because of the reaching abilities of
your body. They can be as long as you want, just not wider than four foot.
If you didn't raise the beds, you could sit or stand and comfortably work
from front side of back without painful aches from reaching too far.

I hope this helps without sounding too complicated. And since you're in
South Florida, your growing season is already upon you. I'd suggest you
get into the government pages and call your local Extension agent and get
them to give you answers, send brochures and such. And visit local
nurseries and ask questions. Go to little produce places that are
obviously locally grown and ask questions. Start noticing if any of your
neighbors have gardens, introduce yourself and ask questions.

the extension agents are there for not only farmers but home owners and
gardeners. It's their job and what they get paid for. And they will even
come out to your house if you ask and set up a time to give you a hands on
solutions.

good luck and keep us informed as to how it goes!
madgardener gardening up on the ridge (where I have RED CLAY SOIL filled
with glacial rocks of all sizes) back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain (which sits on the north side of the Smokies) in Eastern Tennessee
zone 7, Sunset zone 36