Vegetable Gardening in Florida

With full-color photographs and detailed expert advice, this affordable paperback describes how to grow abundant vegetables and edible herbs in gardens anywhere in Florida.

Whether you're planting spring peas and sweet corn or crisp cucumbers and the dill you need to can them, Jim Stephens offers clear explanations of useful gardening terms and practices and joins popular growing concepts with the expertise of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Combining his personal background with decades of experience as Florida Cooperative Extension Service vegetable specialist, Stephens explains

• types of gardens (including hydroponic and organic),
• site selection,
• vegetable variety selection,
• garden establishment and care,
• soil fertilization and management,
• climatic implications,
• cultivation practices, and
• harvesting and storing.

He also addresses the challenge of pests and diseases and includes a detailed and illustrated description of all the major and minor crops usually grown in Florida.

And he doesn't overlook the basic, practical advice: thin the turnips, Stephens says; keep your tools sharp and clean; don't use lawn fertilizer on those vegetables. His guide will be indispensable to county agents, school teachers, garden writers, and anyone who enjoys a juicy, homegrown tomato.