How to grow fruits and vegetables in Florida - ECHO advice

How to grow fruits and vegetables in Florida? Here is some advice from the ECHO organization in Fort Myers, Florida:

- Propagating fruit trees - from cuttings, seeds, etc.
- Landscaping with edible plants - "foodscaping" this really works. I use it all the time.
- Fertilizer selection, calculation and application
- Bamboo
- Permaculture in the suburbs - it can be done
- Multi-purpose ground covers for tough places in the landscape - sweet potatoes are great for this.
- Perennials and other vegetables for summer gardening in Southwest Florida
- Composting

This is just a basic outline. You can expand on that by reading about each topic or watching YouTube videos on the topic.

References:

http://echonet.org/the-echo-update-blog/food-and-farm-fest-workshops-announced

Rooftop Gardening - Tim Motis videos at ECHO farm

Dr. Tim Motis is Agricultural Tech and Research Director at ECHO farm. Tim grew up in Liberia and worked in Ethiopia for two years before earning his PhD in horticulture at the University of Florida. He then spent three years working as the Director of ECHO's Small Farm Resource Development Project in Haiti. From 2006 to 2008, he served as ECHO's Seed Bank Director. In August of 2008, he succeeded Dr. Martin Price as Director of the Agricultural Resources Department and as ECHO grew he took over leadership of the Agricultural Technical and Research Department (http://echonet.org/echo-staff).

Perennial Vegetables in the Tropics - Larry Yarger videos at ECHO farm

As of 2011, Larry Yarger is an Ag Consultant & Trainer for Key Concepts International, Surabaya Area, East Java, Indonesia (https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=170516781). He can be contacted by email (lpyarger@gmail.com).

His latest project is called FAITH (Food Always In The Home) Gardening, an intensified organic backyard gardening system designed to empower a family of four to six persons to produce, on a 150 square meter lot, 50-80% of their daily nutritional needs the whole year round. The surplus can be sold as an added income for the family.

At least 24 kinds of vegetables, small fruit trees, fish, poultry, eggs and medicinal herbs can all be grown and varied for the entire year in this small space. It requires just an hour of maintenance work in the morning and another in the afternoon (http://www.tno-asia.org/fg-natural.html).