Learn to grow your own food during four-week class series | Sally Scalera

If you would like to learn how to grow nutritious food here in central Florida, the Be Healthy: Grow Your Own Food four-week class series could be for you.

Vegetable gardening season is not far away, and this summer is a great time to learn to grow your own food or improve your techniques. Through the summer, we can continue harvesting tomatoes, eggplant and okra or grow tropical vegetables, but our primary gardening season begins in August and runs through May.

If the basics are followed, delicious home-grown food is the reward.

Vegetables can be grown in the ground, raised beds, containers (including hanging baskets) and hydroponically. Regardless of which of these methods is chosen, ample light and water are needed for good growth and food production.

For vegetables that produce fruit, such as tomato, pepper and cucumber, choose a location that receives full sun, which is at least six hours of sunlight per day.

Vegetables that are grown for their foliage, such as spinach, lettuce and kale, can be grown in full sun or partial shade. Once the light conditions are met, ample water will also be needed for optimum plant growth.

Choosing a good location near the house and a water source can increase the chances of a successful harvest. There is a saying: “The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow,” so a location near the house may increase the number of times the vegetable plants are visited.

The next class is scheduled to begin in June, with two classes from which to choose. There is a morning class scheduled from 10 a.m.-noon and another at night from 6-8 p.m., on the four consecutive Mondays, June 19 through July 17.

Learn how to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit crops (both in the ground and containers), sprouts, microgreens and hydroponic lettuce so you can grow your own nutritious food at home, even if you don’t have a yard.

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On June 19, everyone will start with some hands-on learning on how to germinate seeds in paper towels to take them home to grow. This year I will also demonstrate and discuss how to grow your own sprouts and microgreens, and how to create your own D.I.Y. hydroponic four-gallon bucket to grow lettuce.

This method requires no effort after setting up the bucket, hydroponic solution and placing the seedlings in the lid. After that, you just wait and watch until the lettuce is three to six inches tall. You can begin harvesting it after about a month or so, and enjoy fresh salads as often as you would like.

I will also demonstrate how to correctly prune a plant and prepare the cuttings for rooting in both water and potting mix, and I will demonstrate how easy it is to divide plants. After the hands-on learning, there will be a presentation on Plant Necessities’: What They’ve Gotta Have to Grow.

The class on June 26 will begin with a presentation on Our Dirt Needs Life, followed by a discussion on Growing Plants in Containers.

Creating living soil is crucial for success and allows a plant to take charge of its needs, so this will be covered first. We will cover the importance of the soil food web and the symbiotic relationships between the soil microbes and the plant roots that take place in the rhizosphere, the most biologically active portion in the soil.

We will also look at the differences between synthetic and organic fertilizers. Utilizing that information can turn your gardening efforts into fun times and delicious meals.

Understanding the important aspects of growing vegetables in containers will make it possible for everyone, with or without a yard, to grow their own food.  Choosing a good container and potting mix, with a tray underneath to help when watering, will lead to success.  It is also best to allow the potting mix to dry out slightly versus keeping it too wet. If you allow the potting media to dry out some, or possibly too much, the tray will be there to collect the water and allow the potting mix to absorb it.

On July 3 how to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit crops will all be covered.

First, we will cover vegetables, because if you have ever grown a vegetable garden in another state, you will need to forget most of what you did “up north.” Things are different here.

When vegetable gardening in Florida, it is important to plant crops at the correct time of year. This is the main reason that vegetable gardening is so different here versus the other 47 contiguous states.

The good news is that this is the easiest part to get correct, once you obtain a copy of our Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide, one of the many handouts included in the class notebook. It also can be found at edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VH/VH02100.pdf.

Beginning on page six is a chart that lists each crop and what month(s) they should be planted in north, central and south Florida.  Simply look down the middle column, for central Florida, and the month or months that each crop should be planted will be listed. When it comes to fruit crops, there are many to choose from, and they are placed into the following groups: temperate, subtropical, and tropical fruit, with citrus, discussed separately.

The last class, on July 10 will focus on IPM, also known as Integrated Pest Management.

Identification and control of common insect pests and disease diagnosis will also be covered, along with how to attract beneficial insects to your garden for free pest control. The goal of this class is to help you grow healthy plants, so you will not need to be bothered with controlling insect pests or battling diseases.

Cost for the series is $45, which includes copies of the PowerPoint presentations, handouts that provide additional information on related topics, and seeds of some heirloom vegetables, culinary herbs and flowers. Couples, friends and families (parents, bring your kids!) can attend the class together and just pay for one ticket if they want to share the notebook and seeds.

Classes can be attended in person or via Zoom. With two classes available each Monday, you can attend the class that's most convenient for you each Monday. Recordings of the classes will also be available, on a private YouTube channel, for future review. So, one way or another, you can learn how to grow your own nutritious food.

For more information and to register, go to 2023BHGYOFamclass.eventbrite.com or 2023BHGYOFpmclass.eventbrite.com or call Adrienne at 633-1702 ext. 52315 for help. If you are not already growing your own food, I hope you will consider taking this class.  It is both fun and delicious to harvest your own home-grown food.

Sally Scalera is an urban horticulture agent and master gardener coordinator for the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences. Email her at sasc@ufl.edu.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard Extension office offers classes on growing fruits, vegetables