I've been gardening since I was a kid. My Dad always had a garden and I followed in his footsteps. There were very few years that I didn't grow something. Even all those years (11-21) when it wasn't cool to be a guy growing mustard greens in his parents backyard. But the same social pressures that convinced me to relax my curly hair didn't stop me from gardening. I just have to be in communion with the Earth. It's my church what can I say?!!?

Which would make South Florida gardening like paying penance... sometimes. You have to start with the foundation. The soil here is a mix of sand and nematodes with a little coral rock thrown in for good measure. If you are going to plant veggies you have to change that. A big brick of peat, a lot of compost (homemade hopefully) and a good blanket of mulch to top it off. Lately I've also been experimenting with bio-char, more on that later.

Get that stuff goin'! Entice the worms in with the compost. They'll love it and reward you by aerating and fertilizing your garden. Let them do the work of tilling. In fact, I say don't till. Most people do more harm to the soil structure by tilling than is worth any benefit. If you have sod lay down a thick layer of wet newspapers and make a raised bed on top of this. The newspapers will kill the grass and eventually decompose themselves ( I wouldn't use color and/or glossy print though, just b&w ink). SAVE YOUR BACK!! You'll need it later.