Gardening Talk (Zone 9A)

I have a bit of a black thumb, but I'm hoping to change that now that I've moved to several acres more than my last place. I'd also really like to grow things that could be fed to my rabbits, ducks, chickens, geese. Etc. Just growing times on seed packets are way off for Zone 9A, I'm not sure about Zone 9B though. I'd just like to be able to get started, really. Even if only with one or two things. I do have flowering bulbs going, but I had those at the last place, so it's just something I'm familiar with and not edible/usable beyond being pretty for a week or two. :/

EDIT: Scroll down to Michaels4Gardens (post #3 - post324391.html#p324391) for some great tips if you're limited to Zone 9A, perhaps even 9B too. I'm going to try them out as soon as I get my soil properly prepped.

I remember seeing posts here on RT about gardening in FL a year or so ago. I think Michaels4gardens (from whom I've learned a lot) lived and gardened there at some point. And there was discussion about what could be grown there for rabbits. I tried the permies forum back when we were thinking about getting rabbits and also changing how we raised other animals but didn't find it very helpful. In some areas the cooperative extension is really helpful, some places not so much.
Hope someone else is able to be more helpful--and good luck developing your green thumb.

If any one else is in N central Florida- I will past some "stuff" i wrote about gardening there -on this thread so we can have some discussion -if needed..

We grew dinosaur kale, new kuroda carrot, elephant garlic, yams [dioscores sp. ] sweet potatoes, butter crunch , and winter density, red Cherokee, lettuce, Taro, xanthosoma brasilense, xanthosoma violaceum, several kinds of bananas [some years they froze] sugarsnap peas, and mammoth snow peas, onions, turmeric [both yellow and white] sweet corn, and dent corn, black summer was the best producing pac choi

we trellised our tomatoes to keep them off the ground, and planted corn on the sunny side for shade in mid summer-- same with peppers- sometimes we planted tomatoes between corn rows-- and as you know-- the bugs are terrible.....we had to spray [soap] almost every week- or after a big rain on some things-- Seminole pumpkin ,was our favorite "winter keeper" squash-- once it gets going it is invasive-- but the squash will keep almost a year at room temperatures... has a taste and texture like butternut- but a less favorable seed to fruit ratio - This tropical squash survives by out running the bugs, it roots every place the vine touches the ground- The squash borers kill it,- but by then it has grown another 50 feet and set more fruit... the last few years we just grew that instead of any summer squash, we harvested the green fruit to use as summer squash-- it was wonderful...

-the picture that shows with my ID here is Seminole pumpkin ..

Rabbits like sweet potato especially the foliage, Kale , Seminole Pumpkin [fruit] and they recycle the corn stalks. They readily eat yam [dioscorea sp.] foliage -and some varieties of Yam root, [dioscorea oppositifolia] the Chinese yam.[rabbits don't eat dioscorea bulbifera root, -AKA air potato the very unpopular banned invasive variety..- it is just too toxic, but- they do love the vines and leaves] and of course any part of the carrot . I also grew Jerusalem artichoke for rabbits- they love both tops [a good source of long stem fiber] and the root [about the same calories as Irish potato without the need for cooking]
and use raised beds for drainage . If you have sugar-sand soil- you need lots of organic material and bunny poo

I think I'm going to mildly edit this thread as I have gotten really useful information already and hope for other Zone 9A-ers (Zone 9 in general, possibly?) to see it as well. Definitely enough to avoid needing other resources. @Michaels, you are a great fount of knowledge and are always helping me out. Wish I'd known sooner that you were from my area so lived a lot of what I struggle with already. My current place does have a lot of the sugar sand going for it, but part of that is due to the lime road running alongside my property. The property drains really well, even when it floods it's bone dry within an hour after the rain stops. Great for livestock, but absolutely needs some love to grow plants. It was also heavily wooded and I have had to slowly clear some of it out for more sunshine for growing things. Mushrooms love it, but I don't, nor do I like mushrooms. Do love sweet potato though, and kale (my chickens and ducks all love it and will legit grab it and run around with it like most people would expect them to do for a nice juicy bug). I love garlic in everything and seminole pumpkin sounds to die for. Does Seminole carry the seeds? Sounds like they should if they don't, lol.