Gardening in Miami

Good morning beautiful people,

I moved from Minneapolis to Miami a couple of years ago, and have been trying to grow vegetables for the past six months, with no success. I was about ready to give up, since I grew enormous amounts of beautiful vegetables in Minnesota and I assumed Miami would be easier. Well, I was wrong! Anyways, I have come to a realization that I cannot be expecting to grow the same plants I grew in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, in the oppressive humidity of Miami. I ordered a bunch of heat tolerant seeds from Baker's Creek and am ready to give tropical permaculture a try. 

I have a tiny 4 x 6 raised garden bed and also plan on utilizing a few containers and planting perennial plants in the front yard. 

Do we have any active members in Miami? Or southern Florida area? I could use any advice I can get regarding growing vegetables in USDA zone 10b or 11a (I get different results depending on the source). 

Thank you so much!

Welcome Anna, from Redding, CA. Wanna talk about heat? We got heat! What we don't have is humidity, but we do have experts all over the South, to answer your questions.

Looking forward to sharing your gardening exploits.

Hello Anna - My parents retired in Marathon, Fla Keys and I went to college at FSU.  So I drove thru Miami (actually around Miami) many time coming and going to the Keys.  I never gardened in Florida but I drove thru Homestead many many times.  I believe the growing period for Miami is much different than farther north.  If I remember, the growing season for tomatoes ends pretty soon.  So if you are trying to grow the usual things during the seasons that you did in your former home, that won't work for Miami.

Welcome, Anna!

I was born in Miami, and now live in the Frozen North (Northern NH, zone 3-4), so you and I are on a reverse track, lol!

What kinds of veggies were you trying to grow that failed you? Usually "winter" in S. Fla *is* the growing season, but it's still too hot for the brassicas, I think, thought the nightshades should have grown for you.

Have you tried searching through the older posts? They might be able to help you out with what to grow when.

Again, Welcome!

Thank you for the replies and the welcome! I know that winter is the gardening season in S Fl, and it basically ends this month. I tried growing zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers... All of these should have been very successful. Weirdly, the only plants that have been successful are swiss chard and spinach. ‍�
Since I am incredibly stubborn, I have decided that I will grow vegetables in S Fl summer. I ordered a bunch of weird stuff that I have never heard of, and that's supposed to do ok in this weather: longevity spinach, strawberry spinach, kikos hibiscus, okra, long beans, amaranth (leaf and red), and some other stuff.
I tried looking through older posts, but I wasn't able to find any information about tropical vegetables.
Wish me luck!

Anna, my most successful hot weather crop is Armenian cucumbers. I don't know how they do in humidity, but they laugh at triple-digits.

 Anna!  I can’t help you with your new climate, but tons of folks on here can!  There are Regional threads that are very helpful for those of us that share some of the same issues.  

So glad you are here!

Hi Anna. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Got family in Delray Beach, so I've experienced that heat & humidity.

You're going to be in more of the tropical area. So I would search there in the archives or that thread on the home page....

Hi Anna, Welcome to the Forum from California.

You may be interested in the following sub-forum. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/f11-coastal-tropical-south

Try this guy.  He has been a member of this forum for quite a while and you should be able to find some of his posts.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t22954-what-to-plant-now-for-zone-10#296272