Funny you ask. I'm sitting here with catalogs for Burpee, Richters, and Stokes. You're not the only one behind :) Hope these help. Jen

I have Burpee, just ordered Richters, but Stokes won't send me a catalog until 2010! Guess I'll have to shop online once I figure out what varieties to order.

check out this earlier post. i get almost all my seeds from southern exposure, which has great varieties for this area.

maybe if you asked nice-like, and gave us some specific requests, we could scrounge around in our seed boxes for you... what are you looking for?

(it's probably NOT too too late to get tomatoes and peppers in for your area...)

Here is a link that might be useful: seeds for this area...

Hey Lisa,

You're definitely NOT behind for veggies for our micro-climate, still too hot and humid here, the bugs and PM/DW would have done you in if you'd started earlier.... If you want to start some tomatoes go to a nursery located at 4401 49th St. N...they sell 4 packs and 6 packs of sets for less than $1.50, MUCH better price than the big-box and if they don't have much it means it's still too early, they're not like the big-box and won't sell you stuff year round that you can't possibly be successful with ;-)

I recommend Beefmaster and Big Beef to improve your chances of success, and you can't go wrong following TABLE 3 of this planting guide for the SOUTH planting dates.

Tom

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html

All the seeds I have ordered from them were in excellent condition. Never had problems.

I stayed up too late last night trying to figure out if we were more "central" or more "south"...and which varieties of what plants to try to grow this year. (please note that I did say, "try".) I got permission to use a nice sunny area in the backyard, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I'd like to try "square foot gardening" which I now see is pretty close to the raised beds recommended in the MacCubbin books. So I'll also gladly accept any recommendations for local sources of bulk course vermiculite, peat and compost. I suspect vermiculite will be the expensive one because I think I've only seen it in 4-qt bags and I need more like 4-cuft bags. (Will be searching GW for Tom's posting with directions and pictures of his anti-nematode tomato set-up, which I thought I clipped but now I can't seem to find...)

Tom,
PM/DW?
I'll head up to that nursery today...also have to stop by Jene's to get a mango tree, but that's another thread!

Here are the veggies that I'm going to be looking for, using the UF IFAS Extension circular varieties, or those listed on the linked thread above:
-cantalope
-eggplant
-okra (love those bright colored ones in Tom's pic)
-peppers (bell, sweet, almost any except jalapeno, habanero, etc, banana & anaheim okay, if they grow here, that is)
-spinach (malabar or okinawa?)
-tomatoes (of course)
-fava beans (DH request, haven't even started figuring this out, have never grown beans or peas before because the whole trellis scenario intimidates me)
-basil (I know it's not the right season, but I made a fabulous caponata the other night and had to use dried basil, bummer)

You guys are all so great, thanks for the help! I feel better already and I haven't even started shopping yet!
R/
Lisa

Lisa,

PM/DM is Powdery mildew, Downey mildew

Sounds like your going to do this in the ground, that's different from me, I'm all containers...others will have to help you with soil amendment.

I can give you cantaloupe, eggplant, okra and pepper seeds, pretty well tapped out on tomato seeds now and it is too late to start them anyway, that's why I suggested buying sets to plant. I would also bite the bullet and buy a four pack of California Wonder pepper sets for $1.19 if you are going to go to that nursery for tomato sets.

Tom

its too late, i think, for okra and eggplant; but you all are in a different zone than i am, so perhaps not. it's just that both of them take SO LONG to start producing well, and both rely on HOT weather and lots of rain to do best. so, they'll come to maturity in november, and will have neither... moreover, there are so many fall/winter crops to choose from, why take up all the space?

tom, what do you think?

Tom,
No, I'm not going in the ground. SqFt gardening is a method of raised-bed boxes filled with a specific mix (although now that I've done a little more GW reviewing, I'll take a look at Al's mix)
I found your double-potting thread and I'll probably incorporate that by setting the pots into the assigned "square", although that means I'll be building some pretty tall boxes. I'm totally starting from scratch so I expect many, many trips to the hardware store this week.

I'll buy whatever sets I need because I realize that I'm behind and it'll cost me to catch up. My justification was that the guide says to "start seeds in August" but waiting until Aug 31st is probably not what they meant. LOL

Please email me at "GW handle-at-hotmail.com" and I'll send you my new cell number to arrange seed pick-up this week! With school starting I've got meetings galore in the afternoons/evenings but if you can leave them at the front door I can just swing by some morning, maybe even tomorrow? (I don't remember your address and only vaguely remember the neighborhood other than it's beautiful with all the trees and the lake.)

Thanks!
Lisa

P.S. One of my plumeria is lush and gorgeous, but no flowers, so I don't know which one it was. The other one never sprouted any leaves but it kept looking like it was going to. I'll have to dig it up soon and figure out what happened. But my pineapples are doing great in the plumeria mix!

bump

Hey Lisa,

Raised beds are still in-ground gardening and don't call for a container mix unless you're doing pot-in-pot. Be careful not to spend a bunch of money you don't need to...raised beds still wick to the soil below so they are nothing like container gardening mixes...okay, now that I've been redundant once you settle on how your going to do this you don't need to come over here, I'll mail you the seeds, it'll only cost me $1.21 and you have plenty of time because I don't advocate starting until 9/15, still too hot and humid here and not safe to plant until then to see if we have one of those bad years with storms coming one right after the other off the African coast, nothing worse than watching everything either drown or get blown away.... Buy your tomato and pepper sets now and pot them up so they'll be at least 8-12" by mid-September, then if we're having a fairly quite storm season set your plants and sow your other seeds, otherwise wait until the beginning of October because even though that's rather late and things don't grow as quickly you won't get wiped out and lose the whole season secondary to storms.

Drop me a line here with you info.

Tom

Thanks, Tom! You're so generous!

The more I read about nematodes and other Florida problems, the more they scare me, and the more likely I am to pot this year's garden. My first year of gardening in Maryland, I did pots on my patio and they worked out great, so I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

I'll stick with your timing advice...I'd just be bummed to see everything flattened after a 15-minute t-storm.

Lisa

I'll stick with your timing advice...I'd just be bummed to see everything flattened after a 15-minute t-storm.

Then you'd really be dummed when we get 24 hours of rain and blow from a hurricane...usually there is nothing recognizable left of the veggie garden....