Get ready now for fall vegetable gardening. Here's how.

In Florida, we are fortunate to have two growing seasons for growing vegetables. In the spring (actually late winter), we can plant warm-season crops like beans, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and cucumber. If you had a spring garden that has succumbed to the heat and humidity, take heart, all is not over. In the fall, as the days get shorter and the temperatures start cooling down, we are able to plant vegetables that do well in our cooler months. Cool season vegetables include greens such as collards, kale, swiss chard and mustards. In addition to greens, we can also think about planting other vegetables that include cabbage, carrots, broccoli, and lettuce. Before we start spreading seeds, or transplants there are a few things to do ahead of time.

The Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide is a very useful tool in helping to plan out your garden. The guide, compiled by the University of Florida, is full of important information such as location planning, pest management, and fertilization. However, one of the most useful tools the Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide has is the recommended planting dates for each crop. It can be found at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VH/VH02100.pdf .

Your garden should be located in a well-drained site with access to water, and in a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sun. Since the sun is lower in the horizon during the winter months, your fall garden may need to be in a different location than your spring garden. Morning sun that can help to dry out wet foliage is preferable to afternoon sun.

Get your soil tested for pH. This is the most important soil test and is often overlooked. The pH of your soil determines how readily available the nutrients you apply are to the vegetables you want to grow. If the pH is too high or too low you may have nutrient deficiency symptoms even though you are supplying plenty of nutrients. They are just not in a form that the plant can absorb. You can have your soil pH tested for free at the Duval County Extension Office, or you can send it off the University of Florida Soil Testing lab. You can find instructions for getting your soil tested at: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/duval/lawns-gardens-and-trees/agriculture-diagnostics-and-testing/ .

The soil pH test results will provide instructions for adjusting soil pH as needed. Sometimes we run into gardeners that automatically add lime without a soil test because they thought that was the right thing to do. This is a common mistake and can ruin a growing season if it was not needed. It is not advisable to add lime unless a soil test recommends it.

If you had a lot of pest, weed, or disease problems in your spring garden, you may want to take the time to solarize your garden. Solarization uses the sun to heat up your soil to temperatures that hopefully will kill weeds, nematodes, and diseases. To solarize your garden, place a sheet of thick clear plastic over moist weeded soil that is mounded in the middle. Tilling the upper six inches is helpful but not necessary. If you are adding organic matter such as compost, raked leaves, or commercial mixes, incorporate it before solarization. After the plastic is stretched over your garden, seal the edges by tucking it under a berm of soil. The solarization procedure takes at least six weeks of hot sunny days. If you develop any holes in the plastic, a small piece of duct tape can be used to seal the area. For more information on solarization go to: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in856 .

While you are waiting for the solarization to work, make your list of supplies and consider what vegetables you want to plant. Are there vegetables you have not tried but perhaps you would if you grew them yourself? Think about how much time you are willing to spend maintaining the garden. If this is your first garden, consider starting out small. As you become a more experienced gardener you can expand as you see fit.

Sometimes our ideas are bigger than our space. Laying out your garden, perhaps drawing it out on paper, would be helpful so that you can allocate the necessary space needed for what you want to grow. One important thing that often gets overlooked is crop rotation. Don’t plant the same families of vegetables in the same place year after year. This can lead up to a buildup of pests and diseases such as fusarium that can build up populations in the soil.

After you have chosen what vegetables you want to plant, you will then need to figure out what varieties you want to plant. There are new varieties available every year. Sometimes the newest is not the best. The Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide has a list of tried and true varieties for Florida. There is nothing wrong with trying out the latest varieties, just dedicate a small portion of your garden to test them.

One of the tough choices for vegetable gardeners when getting ready is whether to sow seeds directly or use transplants. Some plants like peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers are easy to transplant, while some such as carrots, corn, and radishes do not transplant very well. There are two advantages from starting with seeds. The first is the variety of choices. Seed catalogs, garden centers and feed stores have a vast selection of seeds to choose from, while the selection of transplants may be limited. The second reason is that it is usually much cheaper to buy seeds than it is to purchase transplants. If you are purchasing your seed, get them from a reliable source.

By planning ahead and starting to get your fall vegetables ready to plant now, you will be ready to plant your fall garden at the recommended planting dates and avoid the problems of trying to grow your vegetables when the weather conditions are not in your favor. For more information on the topic of vegetable gardening in Florida go to: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/ .

Larry Figart is an urban forestry extension agent with the University of Florida/IFAS.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Get ready now for fall vegetable gardening. Here's how.