Easy South Florida Gardening Hacks (You Really CAN Grow Tons of Food Here!) 

I live in Missouri and my mother-in-law lived in Miami Fl. She grew orchids for extra income and grew some really rare and beautiful ones. She used to come up here and get the wood that was washed up on the lake shore for the orchids because it would not rot. She said everything in Florida rotted extremely quickly and you could not grow the orchids on something that rotted before it could really attach itself. I can remember her flying a extra suitcase full of dead wood from Missouri to Miami Fl

All of Florida was heavily forested and lush with hardwoods. The Romantic History of Florida is a great book that discusses this and a fun read. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Great points about not wasting yard waste and letting it work for you.

I was land surveying a couple weeks ago on the north side of the Caloosahatchee in North Fort Myers and stumbled upon 1 massive Surinam Cherry tree. It had only one cherry hanging off it just for me. I planted the seed and said a prayer. Hoping to add it to my food forest! Speaking of food forest: Ian knocked down some massive trees in my yard. My dad bought us a chipper and now i have about 4-5 inches of mulch throughout my food forest area. It also knocked down some over grown palms that i wanted removed from that area to make room for edible canopy trees. Win Win

Thank you David for all the support you are amazing! These memories are sticking with me forever!🌿😊

I like when you just say "Yankee Hellhole" when you talk about the north 🤣🤣🤣

I like that you didn't turn away that young man's small upstart RU-vid channel. Good work. And thanks for meeting me too back in the day.

This is SO south Florida. Not much out there for us. Such a unique area. Good work dude

I got myself a great machete and i love how it makes light work of heavy stuff.

Thanks DTG. Appreciate all your work. God bless you and yours.

Do what God does and leave it on the ground. Haven't thought of it that way. 😄

The soil don't lie! I can see a definite difference in the soil in the wilder areas of our place as opposed to everywhere else. Me and my husband will be looking at that soil like "That there's some fine dirt" in our finest southern twang.

Just join Emmanuel’s channel Love seeing young generations working the trade

You really are David the Good, not just Good at gardening and teaching, but really by being a great example to all. Thanks for introducing Emmanuel, I noticed his channel made it over the first milestone of 3000 subscribers. Wishing you the best to reach your 1/2 million subscriber mark. Lets DO it in 2023!

😆It's the gigantor iguana's down there, that you have to watch out for. I'm not a transplant...Some of us that were born here, still do exist.. although we are facing extinction..Can you put us on a watch list? 😂😂

Boy Emmanuel is lucky He's getting first-hand information from the best

Florida is a pretty crazy place to adapt to gardening if you came from someone else. I've had to re-learn a lot. I've managed to get tomatoes growing every year now, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, greens, potatoes, even asparagus! You just need to learn how to adapt. The only things I still have issues growing are squash and eggplants still due to nematodes and disease/pest pressure on cucurbits. You can have your squash eaten overnight by moth caterpillars! I haven't given up and wlll find out what will grow. I still need to get a hold of seminole pumpkin seeds to try those. I've found going against common knowledge of not wetting your plants down when watering to not work where I'm at near the coast due to the salty air. Getting that salt off the leaves has helped tremendously! Tomatoes I only grow late fall through early spring and I string them up on a support I built out of 10 foot conduit pipe hammered into the ground with a crossbar I hang string from. Cutting all the lower leaves off and keeping them single or double stem keeps them hardy and much more disease resistant. I don't fool myself into thinking they will last a long time though. I do have tomatoes that thrive in the summer heat that grew from bird droppings I've kept the seed over the years and they produce a ton of tasty grape style tomatoes that even the everglades can't compete with. Asparagus I've managed by waiting for cool weather then putting ice over the spot at night and covering it to keep it cool to simulate winter. I don't get a lot of it like up north but even managing to grow something you are not supposed to here is something. Sweet potatoes, yard long/asian beans especially the red sorts, chayote, okra, and purple and japanese sweet potatoes are my biggest growers by far. Florida broadleaf mustard and lacianto kale last well into summer for greens. Gotta adapt and learn what works and remember most gardening knowledge out there is for places no florida. Don't trust home depot places either for your plants, Bonnie doesn't send plants seasonable for florida and you'll get them the wrong time of the year, and often plagued by viruses and diseases. Local plant stores and even ace hardwares in the state get local plants for the seasons and failing that, start your own. Its taken years to adjust and learn this stuff but its worth it when you can stock your pantry and freezer with stuff for the entire year. I STILL have greens, okra, sweet potatoes, and beans from last year's spring harvest in the freezer/storage!

David, thanks for introducing us to Emmanuel. What a smart young man. It does my heart good to see younger people like him teaching the younger generation about gardening, this is so needed. I am amazed at his knowledge .

I am not from Florida but I will subcribe and watch his RU-vid videos to support his gardening channel. Emmanuel is almost at 3 thousand subscribers 🙌😀😄👍❤

I live 64° north and can't use most of this Florida specific advice, but you are just so much fun to listen to that I don't care. Other stuff from you I find very usefull, though.

Great video - I just wish I had your climate! Greetings from a UK gardener attempting to grow tropical plants. 🙏🇬🇧🌴

I live in Vero Beach, I'm scabbing yard waste from the side of the road when I see it. I've also planted assorted trees and trying to tun my sand into fertile land.

Thank you for this channel. You are awesome.

Chopping, dropping, digging, Gator fencing, hand surgery... The possibilities are literally limitless!

Most plants; “Well drained soil, please.” Florida; “You got it!”

I have learned so much from your vids, David. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I am a beginner gardener from a sub-tropical region in Australia and want to plant quite a few evergreen fruit trees in my medium-sized backyard. No way I can let them grow to their full height, plus I like the idea of being able to harvest them without a ladder. So I am wondering what the best time/season is to prune evergreens without compromising their fruit production. Thanks again! 🤩

My dear soul, thank you so much for this video. Life has been quite a bit challenging and your video has been a true help to just reconsider what I am doing and where all the doubt is coming from. But watching you, being so passionate and putting your heart into this, is a good reminder of what shall I do. Thank you, and I wish you all the best :}

Hello everyone

Whoa, I have 2 fruitless mulberries so this is perfect timing ..im in Tehachapi 4k elevation

Putting your banana by the ac drain is a great way to keep it happy, bananas are thirsty!

your info Is great. thanks

I just now unpotted my first discorea alata. Google said not to water while dormant and it was in a pot where a bird pooped a papaya seed. I dug it out carefully and it was spongy but I noticed a stem coming from deeper and there it was. A 2 fisted size bulb, ugly as all, but firm and I'm so proud. I'll replant it in a larger pot this spring. 😜

Thank you buddy

When I learned that tree cuttings and leaves and poop and anything that’s organic waste was nutrients for the soil, I just started leaving everything wherever the fruit trees are. My dogs poop just disappear. I found dung beetles rolling the poop into the “soil”. My chickens constantly till and poop in the soil. I’ve seen improvements in the soil in just the year and a half I’ve just let things be.

Subscribe to ULTIMATE GARDENING here: www.youtube.com/@UltimateGardening and check out The South Florida Gardening Survival Guide here: amzn.to/3X08j01

I'm in south east GA n having same problem,,, sandy soil... Just bought very old house. Property,, neighbors laughing at me,,, collecting all their leaves n twigs.....

So glad to see a new video in the field! Great tips and tricks! Did you write all the books you meantioned here?

When I was landscaping in Hawaii we would go to the greenwaste dump and get truckloads of shredded greenwaste for free. I was on Big Island and its all straight rock pretty much everywhere I was working. Makes beautiful soil. Breaks down quick in the heat too. If you put an ad on craigslist you can find landscapping companies willing to dump too. Landscapers tend to use lots of chemicals but after a few years that is all gone. As far as survival crops it always seems to go back to root crops? I've been puzzling over what I can grow in Alaska this year that I can really live off of over the winter and other than roots crops I'm drawing a blank. Potatoes of course. That is the only crop we really export. Jerusalem artichokes, David's favorite root crop and turnips. If you want wood to break down fast in a tropical environment I'd suggest pink oyster mushroom, Pleurotus djamour. Highly aggresive tropical mushroom which is native to Florida. Easy to find spawn online. Once you have a few logs innoculated any logs that touch them will also start to get filled with fungus. That way you can get an additional protein crop as well.

I usually toss all my waste into the woods, that includes the mexican sunflower and dead banana trunks. Ill now just stop trying to make thing pretty and build my soil. Thanks David!

Beautiful work. Bury some garbage and just say GROW

Hello David, glad to finally catch up with you..

On no I'd never throw out any cuttings. After the storms then the freeze most trees down n 25yr old plants turned to mush. I have to clean up a yard area for my dogs but that became piles in old gardens..n it's breaking down just fine 😄 I use the long straight limbs for trellis then discard into the bottoms of raised beds the next year I watch everything you do here!!

Thanks!!

Chop and drop will actually look aesthetic and attractive if you chop things up really small. I have done that under rhododendrons when I was removing a lot of deadwood in a fine gardening(residential), gardening setup. It looks good if you break things into 2-3 inch pieces.

I've bought several of your books. I just wanted to know though if the Florida Food Forest book is relevant to someone in zone 9b. I'm in Kyushu Japan . We have super hot and humid summers. But we also have a winter season - though we don't get much snow. it's kind of semi-tropical. A lot of citrus stuff is grown here as well as persimmons, pears, grapes and peaches. All the best.

Next video idea growing food in the arctic. Other video idea growing food inside the Dead Sea.

Surinam cherries are the bomb. Also try Barbados cherries. They are not as tasty (imo) but have massive amounts of vitamin C, grow easily, and make lots of fruit.

My mulberry sucks too. Port Saint Lucie here

Has a native Floridian I totally agree with you too much is put on pretty pretty grass and put the put the yard and it’s killing waterways it’s killing our dolphin. Our totals are fish. They need to make a comprehensive study Governor DeSantis about fertilizers in our water shed system, I do vote have a lovely day.

Thankyou! From volusia county.

Poke em in the eye! 😀🌱🐢

If you can afford to be fancy-schmancy, buy a wood chipper and just chop up all that slash into chips. Then just layer that on the ground around the plants you want to keep. Tidy.

​@David The Good 2 questions: do you have an active link for Emmanuel's channel? Also, true yams - - wherrrre can i get some slips? I've been looking everywhere (stores, online). Central FL and i need some of these in my yard!

What kind of nice big ferns are those? Thanks

Can you make a video on sharpening a machete? I love your videos! I just can’t seem to get my machete sharp! ❤️🤍💙

Hello I am curious if you would do this “chop and drop” method if you have invasive plants. I have a ton of Brazilian pepper trees surround my property that is constantly intruding. I am nervous to spread seed or possibly harm the fruit trees with cuttings from any invasive plants.

I have a lot of millipedes in my soil. What are their benefits?

can you please do a video about north florida please.

You’re the first one to admit that here in Florida it wants to be a forest…. i am a natural native to Florida….

Do you have a calabash fruit ?

Hi David, I’m also in SFL :) How do I deter iguanas from eating all of my flowers?

Add pick up leaves here in to Tavares Florida I waste nothing…. We’re amending your soil right off the top neighbors have cows out here I have chickens geese unlimited amounts of manure so I’m gonna start doing more of that getting Bens set up for that..

Forest grow over dead forest.

Hi! We recently moved to Space Coast Florida. We live on an acre. I bought your books in preparation of moving here and you have been my guide as to how to proceed on our land. I was wondering your thoughts on the kudzu vine? A big portion of our land was covered in it. I have tried to approach it with a 'David the good' mindset. I chopped it all to the roots. Covered the areas that are really dense in cardboard and covered that with mulch. Then I let it tire itself out and trim the peak a boo shoots. I read it was a good nitrogen fixer so I am trying to get it to work for me. Thoughts? Also I absolutely love your books/mindset!

how do I get yams for miami

your link to Emmanuel: doesnt work

Where are you located?

How can I contact you to buy 2 calabash fruit sir?

Compost your enemies

Not related to this video. But, have you heard anything from IceAge Farmer? It has been almost a year since he posted a video, and that was your interview. A lot of people have been worried about this brave young man.

🎉

Do not go barefoot swinging that machete around! Bad example to your children, endangering your ability to care for them if you whack your foot off!

Now that there have been big corrections in the crypto market, NFT has been growing in all aspects, I strongly believe that the digital crypto asset NFTs will take over the market in no time

Hey guy's,keep on growing, Am going to visit and subscribe to his channel to.

Audio in this vid needed some work