Setting the Goal High

I found a website/social network today called FreedomGardens.org, a great site if you're serious about creating an urban kitchen garden or interested in homesteading or just vegetable gardening in general. I signed up to become a member so I could look at some of the forums and different email groups (specifically the ones about south Florida gardening), and in a forum titled How Much to Plant [per person] someone in Tampa quoted Tom MacCubbin's book, The Edible Landscape (about Florida urban kitchen gardening), as saying the following:

Asparagus 10-15
Beans, Lima
- Bush 40
- Pole 20
Beans, Snap
- Bush 50
- Pole 20
Beets 20-30
Broccoli 3-5
Brussels Sprouts 2-5
Cabbage 3-4
Cantaloupe 6
Carrots 60-70
Cauliflower 4-6
Celery 8-10
Chinese Cabbage 6-10
Collards 8-10
Corn 15-20
Cucumbers 3-4
Eggplant 2-3
Endive/Escarole 8-10
Kale 10-12
Kohlrabi 10-15
Lettuce 10-12
Mustard Greens 15-20
Okra 8-12
Onions
- For Eating Fresh 15
- For Storing 20
Parsley 2-3
Peanuts 5-10
Peas, English 60-70
Peas, Southern 15-20
Peppers 3-5
Potatoes 20-30
Potatoes, Sweet 5-10
Pumpkin 2-4
Radishes 35-50
Radishes, Winter 15-20
Rhubarb 2-3
Spinach 30-40
Squash, Summer 4-6
Squash, Winter 4-6
Strawberries 20-25
Swiss Chard 6-8
Tomatoes
- For Eating Fresh 3-5
- For Processing 5-10
Turnips 5-10
Watermelon 2-4

I almost fainted ... that is until I realized that we're talking rotating crops, different seasons and the fact that I wouldn't plant everything on that list because we just wouldn't eat it. I've already ordered my heirloom tomatoes for February from Laurel's Heirloom Tomatoes (I'm going to try to keep tomatoes going 9 months out of the year) and on FreedomGardens.org I found a place to buy seeds specifically pointed to the south Florida gardener called Southern Exposure Seed Exchange that looks fabulous.

Now I'm trying to figure out how much my neighbors would be offended if I put a 20 x 3-foot raised bed in the front yard for potatoes. They've done okay with the blueberry bushes I got last week - only a couple sour comments - "Don't you think the neighborhood kids are going to eat them all?" and "Are you going to do something other than cinder blocks?" I used the cinder blocks because the blueberry bushes came in earlier than expected and I wanted to get them planted before the plants were injured - the poor things had just traveled in a box for 2 days. My plan is to replace the cinder blocks with some of those extra pavers on the side of the house.

More about the blueberries later. For now, I think I'll just concentrate on planning next season's beds.