Hi - that's a pretty long list w/ not a lot of details, so here's my basic advice:

There are many elements involved in successful growing & soil is 1 the chief factors. There is a Soil forum here on Gardenweb, as well as Vegetable Gardening & Organic Gardening forums. All have FAQs with good basic info.

There are also some great sites about growing FL friendly plants. The University of FL has loads of helpful info, and I love Floridata.com, where you can look up plants by name to see growing advice specifically for our state. If they don't list it, it might not be viable here.

Also, a motto to live by for successful gardening is; right plant, right place. Learning as much as possible about growing requirements for individual plants is really important.

Another very helpful element when seeking gardening advice is to show your locale & zone in your name.

HTH

Don't give up! Oftentimes the problem here in Florida is how to get plants to stop growing!

Yes, it would be helpful to know which area of Florida you live in. Big difference between the northern and southern areas.

When I first started reading your post - I thought - well, it's summer. South Florida growing seasons are opposite of the northern planting times. So, I'm not surprised the herbs have checked out. Also, many more bugs in the summertime too.

There are great sites that will give you much information -namely the ones carolb mentioned. Also good - search "Florida native plants". Start with just a few - I've found that plants can be quite individual - some will surprise you by growing against all advice and others that you would expect to do well, won't.

I also agree with carolb that soil is key. This year I switched to a bagged soil sold at select nurseries (not the big box stores) and the results have been unbelievable - especially in the vegetable/herb /fruit garden. But adding homemade compost and leaf litter will help a lot to the soil you have in the yard.

Secondly, I've found that planting a variety of native plants will encourage lizards, birds and "beneficial" insects to settle in and help out.

Good luck!

I grow some of my herbs in water bogs and they survive hot summer and winter freezes that way. Stuff like mints do well that way. Rosemary, sage etc. does not.

Some no fail plants for me are plumbago, night blooming jasmine, ixoria, porterweed, pentas, and cuban oregano.

i throw oak leaves in the bottom of all my pots and mix in with the store bought potting soil.

I was feeling that way about some grassy areas. I have failed to grow grass there every time I have tried. I noticed today that the area is just covered in plants, not grass, but something else and they may be a bunch of trees even, so this time I am going to watch closely for a while and see if I can learn the lesson being offered.

Good advice above and I'll add some things on edibles. Herbs are about done in north FL (where are you?) until fall. My basil and thyme are dead. Mints, parsley and oregano hanging in but look sick. I put them in a spot that only gets morning sun until September when they go back to full sun and they will thrive again.

In north FL our veggie season starts in Febr/March ends in Late June and starts back up in Sept till the first cold snap. I just picked the last of my tomatoes yesterday.

I plant pole beans the first of March, get a good crop and then pull them out. I usually plant again in mid August but this year I planted the seeds a week ago. Woll see what happens. And I grow my beans in self waterers because they hate even a day without water.

Which reminds me. All vegetables require A LOT of water to thrive. For example a tomato plant needs at least a gallon of water per day! So if it doesnt rain I water every day.

The only veggie plants that do well through the whole summer for me are my cubanelle peppers and my eggplants - not the small, striped eggplants which die about now but the big fat ones.

except for the eggplants which I grow in a bed that I enrich with compost every year all my veggies grow in 25 gallon pots of native soil/compost/potting soil.

i gave up growing corn, beets and lettuce.

Ditto my eggplants and peppers. I have peppers almost as tall as me this year. 90 plus temps are a killer.

I figure Florida summers are like northern winters, not the time to really plant/grow much of anything... everything is burning, sweltering and infested, but unlike up north the weeds are still growing strong... stronger than ever! Summer time to me is the time to just to try and keep the weeds from taking over while awaiting fall.

I do have pumpkin seeds to try and start, they say plant pumpkins in July, but I am sure it will be infected just as it started to get going!!! (plus the seeds are last years!)

Actually, some good active compost going out now tamps the infections and cools roots.

Thank you everyone. I do feel more encouraged now. FWIW we are in Central Florida.

I used to feel the same way. If something died, I just pulled it out and started over. I think the biggest thing that I have learned is learning where to plant. If the plant is in a location that it likes, i.e. sun, shade, water, etc.. it will thrive. Don't give up, just start small.. Things that do well for me are thryallis, plumbago, porterweed, pentas, basil (in pots only and in semi-shade), firebush. I'm sure there are more, but can't think right now. I'm in SE florida, Delray Beach. Good luck.. :)

Well, don't feel pregnant!

I've had really good years since I've been back in FL and I've had really bad years!

I was using Jungle Mix and they shut down. I went back to Miracle Gro potting mix and I got bugs...bunches of bugs and it killed my plants.

Stink bugs were the worst, then someone released the cudzu bugs (they weren't supposed to, but they did). It ate every legume in sight, the stink bugs suddenly disappeared, most of my insect problems went away temporarily.

I live surrounded by forest in a low lying area that occasionally floods. So, bugs are a given. I started sitting out containers for the frogs to grow in and they go to town on those bugs!

I learned that most of my gardening has to be where it's shaded from the afternoon sun or they cook in the summer.

During the winter, it doesn't matter where they are.

I also learned that I absolutely have to have mulch covering.

And "Back To Eden" on youtube is a good place to find out about that. But be aware that if you use mulch you have to increase nitrogen because as the mulch breaks down, it uses a lot of nitrogen.

It will decrease your watering immensely! And if you have water like mine, that's a good thing!

Another thing, find out what kind of water you have. I just got back my results on a water test.

Calcium/Ca 20.70 ppm

Magnesium/Mg 7.07 ppm

Hardness mg/L 80.73

Iron/Fe 2.70

Manganese/Mn 0.00

Sodium/Na 533.94

Chloride/Cl 929.42

Suspended Solids 4.00

PH 4.10

EC 2.85

Total Carbonates 0.00

I believe the Sodium came from weed killer my ex-neighbor used to use on the fence line. I'm not sure. But I know our irrigation water got worse gradually. That's why I had it tested.

I have to call my Extension Agent tomorrow and see what he suggests I do. Because of the high Sodium, seed starting is going to be a bear!

This is a very old post, but for anyone reading this in the future, i would like to follow up and say that I found out my water softener was draining discharge into the garden. Was killing everything. Also, I was hand watering things (such as the basil on the porch) with tap water which had the softener in it.

Re-routed the discharge hose, started watering only from the outdoor hose connection not hooked up to the water softener, and voila! Things grow.