Your Free Southern Planting Calendar
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Download Your CalendarThree Files To Start With
Grab all three. The calendar tells you what to plant and when. The quick-start guide walks you through your first beds, step by step. The pest control cheat sheet helps you beat the bugs without harsh chemicals.
Southern Planting Calendar
What to plant each month, sorted by zone, for the whole South.
Download CalendarQuick-Start Companion
Your first steps in the garden, made simple. Plant your first beds with confidence.
Download Bonus GuideNatural Pest Control Cheat Sheet
Beat the bugs without harsh chemicals, the natural fixes that work in our heat.
Download Cheat SheetThis Is Your Garden To Grow
You already know you want to grow your own food. You've tried before, or you've been meaning to start, and something keeps getting in the way. Plants that thrive up north melt in our heat. Advice written for other places leaves you guessing. You plant, you wait, and half of it never makes it. That's not your fault. Nobody handed you a plan built for the South.
Here's the truth. You deserve to feed your family well and feel good doing it. A garden that actually produces. Real food on the table. Less running to the store. A body that feels stronger because of what you eat and how you move.
I'm Jermaine. I spent 12 years as a personal trainer, and now I grow food on a quarter acre in West Central Florida and feed my family of six all year. I've made every mistake so you don't have to. The calendar in your inbox is your first step. Plant the right thing, at the right time, for our climate. That's how this turns around.
Three Steps, Starting Now
You have the calendar. Now put it to work.
Open the calendar and find this month.
See what grows well in your zone right now. Pick two or three crops you actually like to eat.
Clear one small spot.
A bed, a raised box, even a few large pots on the patio. You don't need a big yard to start. You need one good spot.
Get seeds or starts in the ground this weekend.
Match them to what the calendar says for your zone. Small start, real start. That's the whole game.
Do those three things and you'll be further along than most folks get all season.
Why Homegrown Helps You Feel Better
There is something different about food you grew yourself. You pick it ripe, so it lands on your plate fresh and full of flavor. Store produce often gets picked early and rides a truck for days before you ever see it. The stuff from your own yard skips all that.
When you grow it, you decide what goes on it. You choose what you spray, what you feed the soil, and how you wash it. That kind of control is hard to find at the store.
Homegrown food also pulls you back into your own kitchen. Cooking at home lets you keep an eye on the salt, the oil, and the portions. You know exactly what is in the pot. And growing it keeps you moving. Digging, watering, and picking all add up to real activity. Fresh vegetables are a normal part of a healthy way of eating, and a garden makes them easy to reach.
Three Simple Harvest Recipes
Built from crops most of us grow down here. No fancy ingredients. Just real food from the yard.
Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
A simple side that turns one sweet potato into a plate everybody fights over.
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- A pinch of paprika (optional)
Steps
- Heat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Cut the sweet potatoes into wedges, skin on.
- Toss the wedges in the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Spread them on a baking sheet in a single layer.
- Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, flipping once halfway through.
- Pull them when the edges are golden and the centers are soft.
Quick Skillet Collards
Fast, tender greens with a little kick. Works the same with kale if that is what came in.
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch collards or kale, washed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 small pepper, chopped (sweet or hot, your call)
- Splash of water
- Salt to taste
Steps
- Strip the leaves off the tough stems, then chop the leaves.
- Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and pepper, and cook about one minute until you can smell them.
- Add the chopped greens and a splash of water.
- Stir and cook 5 to 8 minutes until the greens go soft.
- Salt to taste and serve hot.
Okra and Tomato Skillet
An old Southern pairing that comes together in one pan.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh okra, sliced into rounds
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Steps
- Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook until it softens, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in the okra and cook another 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, and pepper.
- Lower the heat and let it simmer 10 minutes until the okra is tender.
- Stir now and then so nothing sticks, then serve.
Movement in the Garden
I spent 12 years as a certified personal trainer before I ever called myself a grower. Here is what I learned. The best workout is the one you actually do. A garden gives you that without a gym membership.
Squatting down to pull weeds works your legs. Hauling a watering can or a bag of soil works your arms and back. Reaching up to pick beans stretches you out. None of it feels like exercise, but your body counts it all the same.
You do not have to go hard. Pull a few weeds while your coffee cools. Water the beds before the heat sets in. Pick what is ripe in the evening. Twenty steady minutes beats an hour you keep putting off. Start where you are. Your body and your garden both grow over time.
A Quick, Honest Disclaimer
Hey, let's keep this straight. Everything on this page is general educational information from one grower to another. It is not medical advice, not nutritional advice, and not fitness advice.
I'm a former personal trainer and a guy who grows food for his family. I am not your doctor, your dietitian, or your physical therapist. Nothing here is meant to prevent, treat, or cure any health condition.
Before you change how you eat or how you move, please talk with a qualified professional who knows your situation. That goes double if you have a health condition, take medication, or are pregnant. Your doctor or a registered dietitian can give you guidance built for you.
Grow food, cook at home, get outside, and move a little every day. Then check with the pros before you make any big changes.
Keep Reading, On The House
Ten of our most useful posts for Southern growers. No cost, no catch.
See It Done, Step By Step
We post free how-to videos for Southern growers every week. Real beds, real harvests, real mistakes and fixes. Watch over my shoulder and grow right along with us.
Join The Conversation
We share wins, answer questions, and post what is working in the garden right now. Come grow with us.
A Review Means The World
If anything Toni and I have made has helped you, a review on our Facebook page means the world. Every review helps us reach more people and give more away. We read every one, and we are so thankful for each one.
Read One Of The Books? Leave An Honest Word.
We're a family that publishes our own books. Honest reviews help other growers find them. If you've read one, share what you really think. Good or bad, we just want the truth.
Grow Food NOT Lawns
Write An Honest ReviewThe Florida Perennial Garden
Write An Honest ReviewDiscipline: What Nobody Wants To Hear
Write An Honest ReviewYou can grow real food in the South. Even here.
If you have tried to grow food down here and watched it wilt, rot, or blow over, it is not your fault. The South fights back. Sugar sand instead of soil. Brutal heat and humidity. A surprise frost some winters, hard drought in summer, wind that can shred a banana plant in ten minutes, and hurricane season on top of it. Most folks end up with a backyard of empty space and good intentions.
We know that feeling, because our neighbors lived it for years. When Toni and I moved in and started taking family walks, almost everyone told us the same thing. You cannot grow much here. We set out to prove there was a better way.
We leaned on what our families taught us. Toni's family is from Haiti, and from her side we learned herbs, timing, moon cycles, companion planting, and natural pest control. My family in the Midwest grows food too, and from them we learned how to grow enough to feed a household, plan so nothing goes to waste, turn plain dirt into real soil, and prune for more variety. We added years of trial and error. We failed plenty, then we got it right. On less than a quarter acre, we grew a food forest that feeds our family and saves us real money.
Then we shared it. We walked neighbors through the backyard and they were blown away. Same dirt, same climate, sometimes a few feet away. The only difference was a method that actually worked. Once we could repeat it for anyone, we started right in our own neighborhood. Within a year and a half, people were growing more food and more herbs than they had in twenty years.
A garden still slips without guidance at each change of season, and our older neighbors needed the movement a garden gives. So we built the Southern Grower's Hub. A year to plan, another year to build and test, with our neighbors using it every day. It tells you what to do each week for your zone, helps you move and stay healthy, and keeps you going with daily reminders and a real plan. We use it ourselves every single day, and our neighbors now say it is the one app they do not want to live without.
You do not have to guess your way through another wasted season. You can grow food you trust, feel better doing it, and finally see your backyard do what you hoped. That is exactly what we built the Hub to do.
The One Tool That Keeps You Going
The calendar gets you started. The Southern Grower's Hub keeps you going.
It's the all-in-one tool Toni and I built and use every single day. Planning, planting, tracking, learning, all in one place, built for Southern growers in zones 7b through 11. No more guessing. No more advice meant for somebody else's climate.
Start the free course. No card required, and you can explore the whole Hub from the inside.
The Reason Why is a free five-lesson course, so you can see exactly how the Hub works before you decide anything.
When you're ready to go all in, the annual plan at $499 a year includes everything:
The annual plan is backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the whole Hub risk free.
- The full Food Forest Masterclass
- The GFC-1 certification exam
- Priority Concierge access to me directly
- Three of my books, shipped to your door
- Founding Class badge for the first 50 members, with your rate locked for life
Think about what that sits next to. A year of real food coming out of your own yard. Less spent at the store. A stronger, healthier body. More confidence every time you step outside. These are tools you cannot find pieced together anywhere else, built to help you live and keep a healthy life. That's what the Hub is really for.
The calendar tells you when. The Hub shows you how.
Your Southern Planting Calendar is headed to your inbox. When you are ready for the whole system, the Hub holds the masterclass, a year one plan for your exact zone, and plant help when something looks wrong. Try it free for 7 days. $0 today, and Module 1 of the masterclass is included.
Start My 7-Day Free TrialCancel anytime before day 7 and pay nothing. The 2026 Founding Class is capped at 50 members.