Living Root Garden School • Water & Weather • Name: ______________________
🔍 The Case
The case of the backwards seasons — your cousins up north plant tomatoes in spring, but in Florida the tomatoes go in when everyone else's garden is winding down for fall. Backwards, or Florida-smart?
Know Florida's two seasons: the wet season, roughly May to October, brings afternoon thunderstorms — big, loud, daily clouds that build in the heat and burst — and everything grows fast. The dry season, roughly November to April, brings dry, sunny, cooler days, and the best gardening weather of the year.
Watch what the heat does: tomatoes love warm weather, but they give up in Florida's deep summer heat — they drop their flowers and stop making fruit. Too hot even for tomatoes. That is why Florida plants tomatoes in fall and early spring instead.
Remember the flip: in most of America, you plant in spring because winter is too cold. In Florida, you plant in fall because summer is too hot. Same logic, flipped seasons. Greens in winter, heat-lovers like okra and sweet potatoes in summer.
Rule out the lookalikes: summer and fall also bring hurricane season, June through November — but storms are weather, not adventures. Grown-ups handle hurricane prep, and the kid job is knowing the plan and never going outside during a storm. And if you hear thunder, go inside and stay inside until thirty minutes after the last thunder — Florida is the lightning capital of the country.
Ask: This season in Florida — what will be growing in the yard, and what will be struggling? Write your guess before you start your journal.
Try: Keep a season journal for a few days: each day, write down the weather, what is growing in the yard, and one thing that surprised you. Watch for the Florida flip — what is thriving now that would be struggling somewhere else?
Stretch (Teens & Growers ready for more): Start a twelve-month weather and planting chart — one row per month — and keep it going. Each month, log the weather and what you planted, so by next year you can see Florida's two seasons flip for yourself.
Tell: Fill in the log below — the weather, what was growing, what surprised you — then finish this sentence in words or a labeled drawing: “This season is ___ because ___.”
Date
What I saw
What surprised me
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
🛠️ Build It
Draw one day from your season journal — the weather, what was growing, and the surprise.
🗣️ Be the Teacher
Tell someone why Florida plants tomatoes in fall instead of spring — in your own words, no reading off the packet.
🏅 I can…
☐ I can tell Florida's two seasons apart.
Portfolio check
☐ Guide read
☐ Case solved
☐ Ask, Try, Tell done
☐ Build It filed: Season journal week
☐ Taught someone
☐ Badge earned: I can tell Florida's two seasons apart.
Living Root Garden School • livingrootgarden.com/homeschool/ • Free — print as many copies as you like. File this sheet with your portfolio log. Sprouts do the Read, the Case, and Build It; Growers try the Ask, Try, Tell stretch when ready; Teens do the whole packet — including teaching it back.