(My response a while back to a new person who asked this in a permaculture group. The group is Florida Permaculture Community (on Facebook). I’m no longer a member over there — it and other public groups have become overwhelming — but it is a huge “wisdom database” of publicly accessible posts, including many posts/comments by me.)
- How much? Depends how many people, how much you plan to eat etc. And I’ve always heard plant an extra plant or two for our fellow creatures who share the land.
- What do you plant? Plant things that you love to eat. Also, visit your local farmers market and see if there are any unusual vegetables you’ve never heard of that you might like to try eating, and if you like them, you could add to your planting.
- For companion plantings, you might like to check out a companion planting guide. There are various ones.
- To find out what to plant in each season, you can download each month’s Florida planting guides for each part of the state. You can also visit your local nursery.
- And, also great advice is to check out what your neighbors are growing! Microclimate has a huge influence, as we learned in permaculture design class.
- Oh, and don’t forget to visit the website of your local master gardeners and or County extension; they have a wealth of information relevant to each region.
- Join a local food gardeners group in your area.
- Scroll through the posts in this group; there is more of a wealth of stored wisdom that I can possibly mention. There are a lot of people in here who are very talented/experienced at the food-growing aspect of Permaculture.
- And check out Ginny Stibolt’s book referenced in my post yesterday. [Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida — Second edition; Ginny Stibolt and Melissa Markham]
Good luck and happy eating!
PS. Welcome to the group. Permaculture encompasses the full range of human needs: food, water, shelter, transportation, energy, and community!