Beat the Heat, Prep for Fall: How I Amend My Florida Garden Bed in August

August in Florida is too hot to plant much, but it’s the perfect time to get a bed ready for fall. Here’s how I amend my soil, and how I saved my heat-stressed basil along the way. 🌿

Why I do this in August

When I gardened in Michigan, August was harvest time. In Florida, it’s the dead of summer, and a lot of plants are just trying to survive the heat. That makes it a great time to work on the soil instead of planting in it. By the time fall rolls around, the bed is ready and waiting.

This particular bed is in-ground, and I’ve been building it up for the last two years. Florida soil tends to be sandy and doesn’t hold onto much, so I keep adding to it each season.

Saving the basil

The bed still had basil in it, and by mid-August the heat had it looking rough. Instead of pulling it and tossing it, I gave it a second chance:

1. Cut the basil down to clear the bed for amending.
2. Stuck the stalks in buckets of water and set them aside.
3. Waited for roots. Basil roots easily in water. I parked the buckets right in front of one of my rain barrels, which made the one daily chore easy: changing the water. Fresh water keeps the stems from rotting, and in Florida it also keeps the buckets from turning into a mosquito nursery.
4. Replanted in September. At the beginning of the month I put some of the rooted cuttings back into the freshly amended bed.

Free plants, and nothing went to waste.

Amending the soil

With the bed cleared, I got to work on the soil. Here’s my process:

1. Added Black Cow and garden soil. These are the two things I’ve used to build up this bed over the last two years.
2. Tilled it in about 4 to 5 inches deep so it’s mixed into the existing soil, not just sitting on top.
3. Added a layer of mulch on top and raked it in.
4. Let it rest. Then I just leave the bed alone and wait for fall to plant.

The timeline

Here’s how this bed went from heat-stressed to ready for fall tomatoes:

• Mid-August: Cut down the basil, rooted the stalks in water, and amended the soil.
• Early September: Replanted some of the rooted basil and started my tomato seedlings.
• Mid-October: Planted the tomato seedlings and added more mulch.

Next week I’ll share that last step: planting San Marzano tomatoes in this bed and turning an old hose into a drip line. Sign up below so you don’t miss it.

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