Florida Gardening 101: How to Grow Food Year-Round in Zone 9 and 10

Most people think gardening stops when winter hits. Not in Florida. If you live in Zone 9 or Zone 10, you have one of the rarest opportunities in the country: the ability to grow food all year long. The trick is learning how to work with Florida’s sandy soil, brutal summers, and unpredictable storms. Once you understand the rhythm of the seasons here, your backyard can turn into a year-round food forest.

Florida is split into two major gardening zones, 9 and 10. Zone 9 covers much of Central Florida, where winters can dip into the 20s. That means you may deal with the occasional frost, but nothing like what northern gardeners fight. Zone 10, mostly South Florida, rarely sees frost at all, making it perfect for tropical crops like mangoes, bananas, and papayas. Knowing which zone you’re in is the first step because it determines what will thrive in your soil and when to plant it.

Let’s be real Florida soil is mostly sand. It drains fast, dries out even faster, and doesn’t hold much nutrition. That’s why the number one rule of Florida gardening is to feed your soil. Compost, mulch, and organic matter are your best friends. A thick layer of mulch keeps roots cool in the summer, warmer in the winter, and protects against weeds. In Florida, mulching isn’t optional it’s survival.

Here’s where Florida flips the script. Instead of one short growing season, you have two main ones and a handful of plants that thrive year-round. Cool season runs from October through March. This is your chance to grow broccoli, kale, carrots, onions, and lettuce. Warm season runs from April through September. This is when you plant heat-lovers like okra, peppers, Seminole pumpkin, and sweet potatoes. Then there are the year-round survivors: bananas, moringa, cassava, pigeon peas, and papayas will carry you through no matter the month. The key is timing. Don’t fight the climate work with it. Plant lettuce in December, not July, and your harvests will reward you.

Florida’s heat will punish careless gardeners. Overhead watering at noon? That’s just asking for pests and fungus. The smartest move is drip irrigation or soaker hoses, paired with early-morning watering. And since rain can be feast or famine, set up a rain barrel. Collecting water not only saves money but keeps your plants happy when the dry weeks roll in.

Instead of planting in rows like a traditional garden, think layers. A mango tree at the top, bananas and pigeon peas in the middle, sweet potatoes covering the ground, herbs like lemongrass around the edges. This mimics nature and turns your yard into a low-maintenance food-producing machine. Once established, a food forest feeds you with less work because everything supports each other.

If you want to garden year-round in Florida, start with these ten staples. Moringa, the “miracle tree” that grows like a weed here. Bananas and plantains for endless fruit. Mulberry trees for fast, sweet harvests. Sweet potatoes as both food and groundcover. Pigeon peas for protein and nitrogen-fixing power. Seminole pumpkin, a true Florida survival crop. Papayas, fast-growing and productive. Passion fruit to climb fences and give tropical flavor. Cassava, a root crop that laughs at drought. Lemongrass for tea, pest control, and resilience. These aren’t just plants they’re the backbone of a Florida food system that works with your climate, not against it.

Every beginner stumbles, but you can skip some pain by avoiding the usual traps. Planting the wrong crops in the wrong season. Overwatering sandy soil until nutrients wash away. Ignoring mulch and watching your garden dry out. Forcing crops that don’t belong. Spoiler: lettuce in July is doomed.

Gardening in Florida isn’t just about saving money on groceries it’s about resilience. It’s about knowing your family has food security no matter what happens at the store. It’s about eating healthier, fresher, and feeling connected to the land right outside your back door. With the right strategy, you can harvest food every single month in Zones 9 and 10. The soil, the heat, and the storms may feel like obstacles, but in reality, they’re opportunities—because once you master Florida gardening, you can grow food anywhere.

If you’re ready to start your Florida food forest, you don’t have to do it alone. Subscribe to my GrowFitFL YouTube channel for weekly videos, and check out my book Grow Food Not Lawns for a step-by-step plan to transform your backyard.