Permaculture gardening in north central Florida

So I’ve only had a garden once in my life, about 12 years ago. I did a fair amount of research on permaculture methods specific to the desert when I was living in New Mexico, but I’ve just moved to Gainesville, Florida and I’m feeling pretty clueless. The soil is so sandy here, swales don’t seem like a good option, and I’m not even sure that they’re necessary. My main concern right now is water, but considering the ridiculous amount of rain here, maybe that doesn’t even make sense to focus on? Would mulched raises beds be a good option? Is mulch even necessary? Should I focus on what the water does in my yard? Some advice would be really appreciated, I’m feeling kind of lost. Thanks!

This thread might be of some help as she says her soil is silty sand and rocks:   https://permies.com/t/106070/permaculture-projects/garden

Mulch is more than for water conservation, it also adds fertility to the soil. Mulch is always necessary for a good sustainable garden.

A sandy soil is going to suffer from fertility being washed away by frequent rain.

Though he now lives in Costa Rica, David the Good gardened for years in Florida and even wrote a book about it:

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/davidthegood

(sorry I'm always spamming David around, but I think he has very useful information which I want others to see)

Welcome to Florida,


I am just South of you in Summerfield,

I suggest you visit this blog as David lived in a home not far from where you did and has tons of tips that can be helpful to you.

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com

I moved here from Indiana, the biggest thing to learn about is:

1)  Root nematodes,    

2)  Our hot summers,  many plants will thrive in the heat but there are months that are better to grow, learning this can help you alot.



Cheers.

Welcome to North Central Florida, Josh! I'm just northwest of you, outside of High Springs. We've been here for almost 2 years...gardening here definitely has challenges, even though we can grow year-round. I spent the entire first year working on building the garden and growing soil - it's going to be an ongoing project, since anything you add magically disappears within a month or 2. I can say that I'm finally getting a little bit of harvest, but mostly I've focused on trees and perennials, so it'll be another year or so before I really see the effort start to pay off. (We also have Florida Cracker cows and sheep, along with pigs and poultry-we've been renovating pastures for the last year as well)
Some really good resources:
Mary's Heirloom Seeds has an awesome planting guide specific to our area.
There's a facebook group called Grow Gainesville that focuses on edibles - they have offshoot groups for different aspects of gardening and/or food production, there's a monthly meeting with workshops, various activities such as sweat equity work parties and garden tours...unfortunately, most of those things happen while I'm working! There are also a few permaculture groups on there.
Edit to add...yes, mulch. It doesn't matter how much rain we get, the soil/sand drains so fast that all the nutrients wash away if you don't have something to hold them in place. I did in-ground raised beds, using logs from property cleanup, and used trench composting to get the fertility jump-started. Be extremely careful if you use hay or straw to mulch, the farmers use persistent herbicides. I had a run-in with that last year...now I grow my own wheat to use as mulch. Also be careful of local compost and/or manure - the herbicides pass through the animals.

How has it gone so far?  I'm just west of Gainesville.  Hugelbeds and mulch have saved me from daily watering. Sheet mulching has also been doing good things for me.