South Florida Herb Gardens

Want to be different? Plant Herbs in your Florida Garden… and enjoy the fresh flavors in your cooking. ¹

Herbs are woody herbaceous ornamental plants and not vegetables. They are grown for their scent, ornamentation and flavor and used in cooking and homeopathic treatments. Think how nice it would be to walk out into your garden and clip your own herbs to add to that special dish you are preparing or to add as a garnish to your favorite meal to dress it up. It’s really quite simple to start and maintain your herb garden…

We are lucky here in South Florida and can grow many of the common herbs year round. Our moderate weather is ideal for growing edibles in south Florida; the garden size that you allocate can be small even using containers in an ornamental fashion is fun and simple to do. We like to plant edibles right in the landscape and blend in the plants into the landscape. But many like to actually set aside a nice sunny well drained area for their edible garden. Some herbs actually keep pest out of your garden and off your other plants due to their pungent aroma, which some insects dislike.

Picking the right place to plant your garden...

Space and time… Space can be as simple as a sunny out of the way area, a prominent spot to show off your garden, finding spots in your existing landscape to place a few important herbs or the right containers to make colorful plantings. Time is a consideration. The larger the garden the more time you will need to maintain it. The good news is that herbs by their very nature grow as easily as weeds…     Most herbs will grow easily and can take different conditions of sunlight and soil, and with similar needs as vegetables. Plants can be started from seed or purchased as small “baby” plants and transplanted in the garden.  

Impatiens Downy Mildew Report:

Over the past several weeks a disease known as Downy Mildew (Plasmopara obducens) that affects Impatiens (walleriana species -seed types primarily) has become widespread throughout the South Florida Landscape environment. Prior to this outbreak this disease has rarely been found in Florida, or elsewhere in the US, though it has been seen widespread in Europe for years resulting in devastation of Impatiens plantings.


Once the plants are infected there is no known cure, though plants have been able to to be protected prior to infection, by following a stringent fungicide protocol. Proper identification of the disease symptoms is  critical for diagnosis, Ppease see link below to identify Downy Mildew. If you suspect that you have Downy Mildew in your landscape, it is probably too late to save them. They will need to be removed  as soon as possible following strict disposal methods to prevent further spread  of the disease in your landscape.

If you have a symptom free  crop in your landscape you must be willing to follow the instructions to maintain a fungus free environment. This is also a time consuming and expensive task. Your professional landscape maintenance personnel should be trained in this application and can be relied upon for combating this aggressive fungus.

The good news is that our crops are fungus free and no Downy Mildew has been identified in our nurseries because of our strict fungus preventative treatments. Further is appears that the the Downy Mildew does not affect any other soft or woody ornamental plants.  Also on a good note, it appears that New Guinea impatiens have been spared as the these hardy hybrids seem to be very resistant to the disease, New Guinea impatiens have become the favorite of Landscapers and Gardeners alike.

We will keep you posted as to any developments in the ongoing efforts being made by the Florida Department of Agriculture in combating this fungus. 


check out the link below for preventative treatments:
http://palmbeachcountyextension.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/downy-mildew-on-impatiens/