North Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide
Vegetable gardening in North Florida can be a year-round adventure with its joys and challenges! As you grow in Leon County, you may face problems from pests, disease, and the relentless summer heat. You may also find yourself overloaded with abundant harvests and getting to know your neighbors in your own garden or in a local community garden. We have compiled these resources for beginner and advanced gardeners alike so you can learn more about practices that can grant you better yields and ease the workload of vegetable gardening in a sustainable way.
We have a very different planting and harvesting calendar than the rest of the country and even the rest of Florida. This means that we can have a harvest at any time of year, but it also comes with challenges of heat and pest pressure. Use the calendars in this guide to help you plan for the best harvest.
We are located in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8b, which means our winter temperatures can reach as low as 15 to 20°F. Our average first frost is November 15th and the average last frost is March 15th. Our growing seasons follow the typical Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter seasons. We have two tomato seasons a year (Spring and Fall) and a season for greens (Winter). We have a long enough warm season to grow lengthy crops like sweet potatoes which take four frost-free months from planting to harvest.
There are many gardening terms, from tools to techniques, that can be confusing when you first encounter them. Check out the back of this guide for a glossary of terms.
About Us
UF/IFAS Leon County Extension serves the citizens of Leon County, Florida. Every county in Florida has an Extension Office full of professionals to help answer your questions and provide many programs focusing on gardening, agriculture, 4-H, family and consumer sciences, natural resources, and more. We are here to serve you.
If you have questions while reading this guide, please reach out to us by phone or email, or visit the office and gardens in person.
UF/IFAS Leon County Extension is located at 615 Paul Russell Road, Tallahassee, FL 32301.
Phone: (850) 606-5200
Email: askamastergardener@ifas.ufl.edu or leonmg@ufl.edu
Our seven Demonstration Gardens, Orchard, and Vegetable Garden follow the University of Florida’s Florida-Friendly™ Landscaping principles, a science-based program for sustainable landscapes. They are maintained by Leon County Master Gardener Volunteers (MGVs) and Horticulture staff. In addition, Extension has a wildlife pond, rain garden, chicken coop, and an adjacent Longleaf Pine Pocket Preserve. The Demonstration Gardens are open daylight hours 365 days a year for visitors.
Our extensive vegetable gardens, created and tended weekly by a dedicated group of MGV’s known as VegHeadz, contain many different types of experimental beds, from keyhole to aluminum corrugated knee-high, a food forest, hugelkultur, and more. The 4-H Horticulture Club garden beds are also located within this area and are maintained by Extension staff, MGV’s, and our enthusiastic 4-H club members.
This North Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide is a compilation of many resources from UF/IFAS, MGVs, and our local partner organizations. We hope that it will help beginning and advanced vegetable gardeners alike.