Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening: The Secret to Growing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State

It’s a quick easy read but loaded with great information on gardening in Florida’s unique climate.

Provides good info on FL gardening

I love authors that don’t write in too much unnecessary information since I don’t like to read and this was perfect for me. Short, informative and easy to read and understand.

This was an easy read with witty humor and good information for first time gardeners. Please note the information is primarily geared toward gardening issues of the Southern region.

Don’t let the absurd title or the hippy dippy name fool you. This isn’t some guy talking about crystals and plant chakras with a glazed look on his face. This guys knows his stuff and he’s sharp. This is the best book on Florida gardening I’ve read, period.Do you:- Live in Florida?- Want to try your hand at growing your own food?- Want to beautify your home with indigenous plants that don’t require excessive maintenance?- Wondering why all the other stuff you planted is dead or ruined by pests?- Not a novice but want to really dig deep into your understanding of getting optimal results in this climate?Save yourself a whole lot of headache and a whole lot of money by reading this book before just going ham at Home Depot, sticking it in the ground and praying.By the end you’ll know what to plant, where to plant it and how to keep it alive. You’ll know how to evaluate and improve your soil. You’ll understand how to deal effectively with pests. You’ll get advice based upon what areas of Florida you live in (gulf or Palm cost, northern FL etc.). You’ll get specific recommendations for various use cases (Want a fast growing vine? Looking for shade? Looking to grow enough food to cook with? Want something ornamental and tolerant of the scorching summer sun?)Basically, it’s a one stop shop.Reading this has multiplied my success rate as well as my satisfaction with Florida gardening.If the author is listening: in an updated, perhaps more comprehensive version (in addition to, rather than replacing this) it would be really useful to have a “quick reference” / “at a glance” of color photos based upon your location of the plants you mention, preferably by us and with a key indicating needs for sun, watering, etc.. Even if they were small and in a table, calling out the main features for easy identification instead of showing a full plant. For the unfamiliar novice, it can be daunting to commit all the names to memory, and visualize your descriptions. It would save the aspiring gardener from excessive google-ing alongside reading the book, and provide an excellent reference to bring along to a garden store to help identify the plants you are looking for. It can be a bit involved to crouch and read the labels / names on each pot to find what you are looking for.Personally I was willing to google and I understand the cost considerations in publication, especially when printing in small volume. I didn’t think it enough to bump a star especially considering the wealth of other information inside but I think in future editions people would really welcome that addition.

Reading this book and watching the YouTube videos have been a great help. I've bought most of his books and a few of the ones he recommended.

Anyone familiar with David Goodman's YouTube vids might expect his written works to be humorous, discursive, off-the-cuff communications about the gardening arts. I was quite surprised to discover that his books have only one of those characteristics; they're funny.TCEFG is otherwise a very direct and committed effort to endow the reader with a practical capacity to live off the land down here. It dispenses crucial information about Florida gardening line by line and chapter on chapter, rarely swerving from that goal. Immaculately expressed and edited, its philosophy is relentlessly practical, and now that real food shortages are on the horizon I found myself grateful that he strove to configure a whole body of advice about practical horticulture on that basis. David is humble enough to admit where things have not worked out, and that lends additional credibility to his point of view.This book is an absolute requirement for beginner to intermediate gardeners who aim to move their food supply off-grid. I was very surprised to find myself so impressed, frankly.One last thing; David the Good is a very enlightened soul. That matters to me; his thesis is informed by the same spiritual perspective I hold.Get this and read it!

The book was fine! I am just having a hard time accepting that a lot of the things I like to eat won't grow readily here for the average (well, below average) home gardener. The listed items that do grow well ... aren't really part of our diet. But not the book's fault 😝