There’s a pretty nice article full of photos about us in this recent edition of the Pensacola News Journal.
Remember our upcoming classes start September 10th & 11th. You can read more about them in the article. Please take note that to register you can contact the Vickrey Community Center at 850-912-4056 ext 1.
When we began five years ago we had no idea how many people in the community were interested in growing their own fresh vegetables! With your help we’ve accomplished so much:
Thank you everyone for your wonderful support! We could not have imagined the success that we’ve experienced over the last five years, and we could not have done it without you.
We look forward to what the future holds, and we have some interesting plans ahead, so we invite you to continue to grow with us!
Spring is coming, we promise! Be ready with East Hill Edible Gardening’s class “Spring and Summer Vegetable Gardening”. Our next offering of this class is Wednesday evening, February 27th from 6-8.
In this single 2-hour class we’ll teach you how to grow an abundance of fresh spring and summer vegetables including: peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, summer squash, potatoes, green beans, okra, sweet potatoes, southern peas, lima beans, cucumbers, winter squash, sunflowers, warm weather herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, etc.) and more! We’ll also be talking about a selection of less common vegetables like Malabar spinach, tomatillos, yard long beans, and roselle.
In addition, we’ll show you how to choose the best vegetables to grow and when to grow them so that you can continue to have fresh and healthy vegetables through even the hottest part of the year.
Register through Friday, February 22nd and get this class for only $25 – after that the class is $30. Our classes are very popular (particularly in the spring) so be sure to register early to reserve your spot.
Lessons are taught at the Vickrey Community Center which is behind the Roger Scott Tennis Center and close to Cordova Mall and the airport.
To register contact the Vickrey Center at 850-912-4056 x 1.
This class is intended for gardeners who already know the basics of gardening. If you are just starting, please check out our “Easy Weed-Free No-Till Organic Gardening” class series.
For more information about the class, contact East Hill Edible Gardening. You can reach us at Renee@EastHillEdibleGardening.com, or 292-8155.#
We’re happy to announce that you can now sign up for our classes online! The City of Pensacola, whose facilities we use to teach our classes, has recently added this service to make registering more convenient.
Here are the instructions provided by the City on how to sign up for this class.
WebTrac LogIn Instructions
For Those Who Have Registered with the City Before
For Those Who Have Not Registered with the City Before
We hope this makes it easier to sign up. Please let us know if we can help you.
Hope to see you in class!
Fall and winter are fantastic times to garden in Pensacola! Temperatures are cooler, pests and diseases are at their minimum, and our mild winters allow for a bountiful harvest even during the coldest times of year. With the heat and humidity of summer behind us, it’s also a great time of year to be in the garden!
In our “All About Vegetables: Fall and Winter” class, we’ll explore in detail how and when to grow specific vegetables that thrive in our fall and winter seasons including: lettuce, carrots, onions, chard, cauliflower, dill, broccoli, cabbage, garlic, English peas, endive, radicchio, cilantro, fennel, mustard, turnips, beets, radishes, Asian greens, collards, fava beans, kohlrabi, spinach, Brussels sprouts, parsley, kale, arugula and more.
Choose one of these times:
– Tuesday morning, Sept. 19th – 9:00 – 11:00 am
– Thursday evening, Sept. 21st – 6:00 – 8:00 pm
The cost for this two-hour class is $25 if you register through Friday, Sept. 15th – after that the cost is $30. To reserve your spot, please contact the Vickrey Community Center (where the classes are held) at 850-912-4056 ext 1.
For more information about the class, please comment below or send us a message.
This class is intended for gardeners who already know the basics of gardening. If you are just starting, please check out our “Easy Weed-Free No-Till Organic Gardening” class series.
We’ll see you there!
East Hill Edible Gardening has the largest selection of tomato plants available in the Pensacola area. We are offering 38 varieties of tomatoes this season (see descriptions later in this post)!
Yes, it’s early for tomatoes, but the weather has been much warmer than normal and for most of us there is no threat of freezing in the next 2 weeks. In fact, it looks like great tomato-growing weather ahead which means we have more time to grow some of the bigger tomatoes. If a freeze does come, these plants can be easily covered by a cardboard box for the night. We’ve already planted more than 30 varieties in our own garden, some of which are blooming!
The following varieties are available now. We have more thorough descriptions at our booths. Lots of them are heirlooms, some are newer intriguing varieties bred for taste, most are open-pollinated, and a few are hybrids (because they offer great disease resistance):
– Atkinson – good meaty tomatoes, great for our area
– Aunt Ruby’s German Green (lg. green, spicy & sweet
– Best Boy – flavor plus great disease resistance
– Better Boy – Classic tomato flavor – good disease resistance
– Big Rainbow – beautiful deep yellow with red streaks
– Black Krim – Juicy, dark red-purple fruit, rich sweet flavor
– Brandywine, red – classic heirloom tomato
– Brandywine, yellow – yellow version of above
– Celebrity – Superior all-around w/ fantastic disease resistance
– Chadwick – large cherry tomato
– Cherokee Purple – Cherokee heirloom – superb taste
– Costoluto Genovese – Robust, tangy, “tomatoey” flavor!
– Creole – Juicy with outstanding flavor – great for the South
– Early Girl – early red meaty tomato with lots of flavor & aroma
– Eva Purple Ball – excellent flavor- great for hot, humid areas
– Gardener’s Delight- German heirloom – cherry
– Glacier– performs well in cool weather
– Golden Girl – disease resistance + great flavor
– Homestead – Firm, tasty flesh. Wilt resistant and productive
– Juliet – Crack resistant sweet cherries shaped like romas
– Kellogg’s Breakfast – heirloom orange beefsteak
– Large Barred Boar – 1 of my favorites – intriguing colors
– Matt’s Wild Cherry – small cherry tomatoes, prolific
– Mortgage Lifter – heirloom – use to pay off your mortgage!
– Peron – Solid, meaty mildly acidic interior. Insect resistant
– Pink Bumble Bee – stunning cherry tomato
– Prudens Purple – meaty, pink heirloom, PGS’s favorite
– Riesentraube – Massive yields with rich, full tomato flavor
– Roma – Good, rich tomato flavor – doesn’t need staking
– Rutgers – Heirloom with good yields and flavor
– Speckled Roman – pretty striped roma tomato
– Sub-Arctic Plenty – another that performs well in cool weather
– Taxi – bright yellow and sweet, early too
– Tigerella – Early, flavorful and high yielding
– Yellow Pear – yellow pear-shaped cherry
Plus several more cherrry tomatoes including:
– Black Cherry
– Coyote
– Gold Nugget
A variety of Echinacea, this purple coneflower is both beautiful and attracts beneficial insects to our garden. Here we see a native bee gathering nectar and pollen.
A wonderful backyard harvest from our garden including, yellow squash, zucchini, sage, rosemary, eggplant, Italian tromboncino squash, cucumber, bitter melon, onion, potatoes, green beans, eggs, and honey. Your backyard can produce these great foods for you!
Cool weather makes for some of the easiest gardening in the Pensacola area. Some vegetables plants like this cabbage in our garden can even take a serious freeze without sustaining any damage at all.
In addition to adding beauty to our garden, calendula has a wide variety of uses. The flowers are edible, can be used for dyeing fabric, are medicinal and attract beneficial insects.