After 5 decades I've gotten back to my roots some, and realizing if you are a farmer, or try to be self-sufficient, you have to simultaneously live in today and plan for 6 months ahead. I didn't realize it as I was a kid living it, but it was good training for being in business. I think I was a better businessman because I was comfortable living with one foot in the present and one in the future.
Yes, thinking about winter is a bummer, but it's going to be here in a few months whether we are ready for it or not. May as well be ready.

What is this winter of which you speak? I think that's the nice time of the year when I can wear short sleeves and blue jeans comfortably and have the top down on the Boxster and the windows open in the house, right?

In this day and age you might not NEED to grow you own, but damn does the fresh stuff taste better. I love getting fresh fruits and veggies from my in-laws' garden.

With all of the questionable growth hormones, GMOs, and pesticides/insecticides being used on commercially grown produce, having a garden is much healthier for you in several respects. It gets you out of the house, and working in the garden, which is good for your heart, not to mention that everything tastes much better when completely fresh. It is much cheaper than buying organically grown produce at the grocery/farm market, it also gives you a sense of satisfaction like no other, and does prepare you for the future (you never know when the power will go out, and stores will be closed).

Not trying to bring more people here, but all your neighbors have found SWFL. The reason is winter.

Are deer a problem? Here, you would need an 8 ft fence to keep them away from the buffet...

Oh yes! Deer, rabbits, voles, raccoons, 'possums, and assorted birds are all problems. It's a constant battle, but I like a challenge.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1502809072.jpg

These cages are on the strawberries 365 days a year. Strawberries are like candy to deer. They dig through the snow to get to them in the winter. The upside down flower pot was a cover over a vole run access hole. I put rat poison next to the hole, put the flower pot over it, and weight it down so nothing can get to it from the top. Strawberry roots are apparently very tasty to voles.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1502809072.jpg

When the apples are coming ripe I put bird net around the trees. Birds are a small problem, but deer will strip all the apples off a tree this size overnight.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1502809072.jpg

This is the second planting of cucumbers. The dust is rabbit repellent. It may work on deer too, or maybe they just don't like cucumbers.