Hey, I've been gardening here for years and screw up all the time, it's part of the experience. Sometimes I do nothing to screw it up, but nature or fate does it for me. Just learn by experience and enjoy the journey. I've never heard of that statement about all the soil in Florida being that high PH though.

The soil pH issue is strictly a south FL issue -- particularly Miami-Dade (where I live) because all our ground is on limestone, hence high pH.

I'm in your zone. Thanks for sharing the information- good to know. I'm new to gardening, too. I can tell you, I've screwed up way worse than that!
Justine

The Lee County extension office told me the same thing about no peat and no vermiculite. But then I went to see a neighbor's garden that's been using a peat/vermiculite/compost/native soil mix for 9 years and he's had great success. He has had to add Azomite, greensand and bone meal now and then and has decided after a successful experiment last year that he'll be going without the native soil or any topsoil mixed in. He had success with the soil mixed in, but he's had even better results without it.

I decided to ignore the extension office and followed his mix, since I could see his results with my own eyes and his past results through his blog over the years. So far my various beans and peas, corn, tom thumb lettuce and watermelons are all happy with it. My pepper and tomato seedlings are all very happy in that mix in their transplant containers, soon to be going in the beds. I did block off the native soil, but my neighbor has not. So there's a variation there, but both are working. We live in an area that was created by dredging and filling from the Caloosahatchee, so I think we would have similar PH concerns, but I opted out of a soil test since I blocked off the bottom of the bed, so don't know the specifics. As for depth, I have 10" of soil and my neighbor has some at 12" and some at 18" for root crops. And since we are both getting our first harvests in, I'd say we didn't screw up and there is certainly no disaster. Hope this gives you some positive hope.

: ) Chrissy

Just add lots and lots of organic matter to the soil, and diatomaceous earth and you won't have many problems.

I had my soil tested when I first moved here and it was 8.6, they asked me if anything was growing at all. I use my grass clippings (we mow our own lawn) in my veggie garden as mulch and now the soil is black and full of worms.

Next year I am going to try that -- mixing in the grass clippings. I used to use Weed and Feed a couple of times a year but I've stopped. By next summer it'll be almost two years since I've used any herbicides so I'm going to assume the clippings will be safe. What does everyone think?

Do you mix the clippings into the garden dirt or do you let them lie on top as a mulch? My other concern would be all the weed seeds (I don't have a great lawn!) that might get into the soil.

I use grass clippings as mulch and it takes a long time to break down. I recently covered it with mushroom compost that was still hot. The beds are sinking so I'm sure it's speeding it up. I don't have much problems with weeds because I put it on thick. I have field bahia and who knows what else. In central Fl we have mostly sand, so you can't have too much organic matter. I make my compost with leaves, horse and chicken manure, grass and even weeds from our lake.

I am lazy so I just spread it on top and leave it. When it's thick enough no weeds grow through it. We get a lot of it by the end of summer. By the end of winter it's all rotted down and then maybe some weeds will show up. I usually bury them in the soil and start over. It ends up looking like hay or straw. Don't put too much close to the plants or they cook and die. It can get hot, if it's thick.

Why no peat? I thought it would help lower the ph?

She just said the peat wasn't necessary. The idea of filling 100 cubic feet with sterile potting mix would have been too expensive. The flowers I planted in the boxes over the summer did great so I think it'll be fine. We just planted some things today so we will start to know soon!

Here is a tip:

Last year I filled my beds half with unfinished compost and anything I could lay my hands on (mostly leaves that had fallen of the trees and the whole ficus trunks and branches I had cut). The other half I filled with soil and some moss. This year I have amazing well aerated soil. And I am sure that with all the leaves the ph has dropped dramatically.

I have so many worms in the garden, they are EVERYWHERE. They are out of my beds running around everywhere, climbing on the trees, on my house walls.. It is pretty amazing. I had never seen in my life worms climbing on trees.

I remember last year that anytime I found a worm I would preciously lift it and out it n my compost pile or in my beds, and these worms were few and far in between.

I had read and heard all these people talking about 'feeding the soil' and it felt like a foreign language but now looking at the soil in my beds I can finally understand what they meant. I am now hoping this soil will help turn my brown thumbs into green ones:-)