While those up north are blanketed with the white stuff, here in Cape Coral, we plant our vegetable gardens! With plenty of sunshine and fresh air, we can get our exercise, save money and eat the freshest produce. If you have never grown vegetables, it might seem too complicated. Yet taking it one step at a time, it is quite easy.

Location – Decide on a place for your garden that receives at least 6 hours of sun. Pick a spot that drains easily. Do not plant the same type of plant in the same place as last year.

You can plant in an empty piece of ground, between other landscape plants, in a raised bed or in a container. Lettuce, kale and herbs fit in unnoticed between my front bushes. One tomato or sweet pepper plant grows nicely in an old 5 gallon paint bucket, with a hole punched in the bottom for drainage.

Now is the best time for cool loving plants such as lettuce, kale, spinach, cilantro and herbs. In warm spring weather, they will have a harder time not going to seed right away. Now is also a great time for veggies that take months to produce such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, which produce into the warm months. Beans and broccoli are also easy to grow.

Although many native plants will grow well in our sandy, low nutrient soil, food crops will not. Top your garden soil with four or more inches of compost and/or aged animal manure, such as black cow. Compost from your own compost pile or bags from a local mulch source are best. Garden soil mix is another good addition. These amendments add valuable nutrients and water holding ability to the soil. Turn the soil over to a depth of 6 inches, mixing it with your original soil. Smooth it. Top with 3 inches of either Florimulch or pine straw. Let it sit for two to four weeks, if possible. For a 5 gallon bucket, simply fill with potting soil.

Water often but lightly for seedlings; less often but deeply for mature plants. Water runs quickly through sandy soil. This is the reason for adding so much organic matter to the soil with a thick mulch top. Watering 1 inch twice a week generally works. Make a slight well around each plant to hold water.

By adding lots of organic matter, you have already stacked the deck on fertilizing. Lettuce gets harvested after about a month. Well, actually I take a few leaves off each plant each day or two for a salad until it begins to “bolt.” The leaves get shorter while the plant gets pointed in the center as it gets ready to go to seed. Either cut and eat the whole plant or let it flower and save the seed for next time. Plant lettuce every two weeks to always have some ready to pick.

As for other fruiting vegetables, it is time to add fertilizer after about a month or when the plants have begun to flower. Organic gardeners add a couple of handfuls of compost on each plant under the mulch. Compost has the advantage of including many of the minor as well as major nutrients in easy to absorb form. Many find store bought synthetic fertilizer works well, especially formulas tailored for vegetables or tomatoes. Use them as directed. Add more mulch and fertilizer each month.

For much more information, see the Florida Gardening Guide.

I hope you enjoy your fresh, homegrown produce this spring!

Sherie Bleiler volunteers at the Cape Coral Library Butterfly Garden and is a member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral. Visit gardenclubofcapecoral.com. Like us on our Facebook page.