Florida Fall Garden Calendar: What to Start in September and October

Let me tell you the thing that changed my whole gardening life. In Florida, fall is not the end of the season. Fall is the season.

When I first started growing food, I did what the seed packets told me. Plant after the last frost, harvest in summer. And everything cooked in the ground by June. I thought I had a black thumb. Turns out I just had a Florida address and northern instructions.

Here, the calendar flips. September through May is when we shine. While the rest of the country is raking leaves, we are planting tomatoes. So if you have been waiting for your sign to start a garden, this is it. Here is exactly what to do in September and October.

First, Know Your Part of Florida

Florida is a long state, and timing shifts as you go south:

• North Florida (Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville): you get real frosts. Start warm crops early in September so they finish before December cold.
• Central Florida (Orlando, Tampa, where my family and I grow): light frosts maybe once or twice. Warm crops in September, cool crops from October on.
• South Florida (Miami, where I grew up, down to the Keys): almost no frost. You can run warm crops and cool crops side by side most of the winter, like my grandmother did in her Miami yard.

What to Plant in Florida in September

September is transplant month for the warm season heavy hitters. It is still hot, and that is fine. These crops want warm soil to get established before the sweet weather arrives.

Tomatoes

Set out transplants, not seeds, by mid September in Central and South Florida, early September up north. Varieties that earn their keep here: Florida 91, Solar Fire, Heatmaster, and Sweet 100 for cherries. If you started seeds in August like I nag everybody to do, this is their moment.

Peppers

Bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and my nonnegotiable Scotch bonnets. Transplants go out in September and produce until a freeze, which for some of you means they just never stop.

Beans

Bush beans like Contender and Provider go from seed to plate in under 60 days. Pole beans like Rattlesnake give you more food per square foot if you have a trellis. Direct sow, water, done.

Cucumbers and Squash

Second chance season. The bugs that wrecked your spring squash calm down as it cools. Try Straight Eight cucumbers and Early Prolific Straightneck squash. Sow seeds directly in September.

Also in September

Eggplant transplants, sweet corn in bigger gardens, and herbs like basil that will run until the first cold snap.

What to Plant in Florida in October

October is when the cool season crew shows up, and honestly this is my favorite planting month of the whole year. The humidity finally loosens its grip and everything you plant just behaves.

Leafy Greens

Lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, Swiss chard, arugula, mustard greens. All of it. Direct sow lettuce every two weeks from October to February and you will never buy a sad bag of salad again. For kale, Lacinato and Red Russian both love our winters. Collards are practically a Florida heritage crop, plant plenty.

Brassicas

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi go out as transplants in October. Waltham 29 broccoli is dependable here. Watch for cabbage worms and pick them off, the kids in this house get paid a bounty per caterpillar and they take that job seriously.

Root Vegetables

Carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, green onions. Direct sow all of these. Radishes are ready in under a month, which makes them the best crop for impatient children and impatient adults. For carrots in our sandy soil, shorter types like Danvers Half Long do best.

Herbs

October is cilantro season, finally. Also dill, parsley, and more basil down south. Cilantro that bolted on you in April will sit pretty all winter if you plant it now.

Strawberries

Plant strawberry bare roots or plugs in October, especially in Central Florida. Festival and Sweet Charlie are the classic Florida varieties. There is a reason Plant City throws a whole festival about this.

Your Fall Setup Checklist

• Refresh beds with two to three inches of compost before planting.
• Mulch everything. Our sun still means business in October.
• Set up drip or a soaker hose now, because fall is our dry season and the rain that watered your summer garden is about to disappear.
• Write down what you plant and where. Future you will be grateful in spring.

If keeping track of all this feels like a lot, I keep a free Florida plant guide that lays out what grows here, so you are not juggling ten browser tabs at midnight.

The Mistake That Costs People the Whole Season

Waiting. Every year somebody tells me they will start their garden in spring when it warms up. Baby, no. That is northern thinking. By the time a northern spring gardener would be starting, our best window is closing and the bugs are waking up hungry.

Plant in September and October and you will harvest from November clear through May. That is seven months of groceries from the yard. Jermaine and I have picked salads on Christmas morning while the neighbors' gardens up north sat under snow. It never gets old.

And if you want the exact plants I trust with my own family's dinner, every one of them is in The Florida Grow List, my book of 50 plus plants that will not let you down, organized so you always know what to plant next.