You have picked a fairly high priced real estate area to look at. There are LOTS of several-hundred thousand dollar McMansions in that area. If you're serious about SW FL I suggest Hendry or Desoto counties- the sand has black muck in a lot of places, making vegies fairly grow inches overnight. That is, IF they can get the water.
Traditional vegetables are raised in the winter. You've read my posts about needing to do more with tropical vegetables and I'm NE of that area. Ditto about the diseases, insect pests, and controls on watering even with your own pumps. And we do get frosts every 2-4 years. The big companies hire copters to hover over their fields and keep air moving at night- after flooding the fields. Easier for a huge company like Duda to get permission from Water Management to pump enough to flood fields than a homeowner- and then when the aquifer gets lowered you start getting sinkholes.
Highlands County rezoned most of their agricultural land to multi family residential and/or industrial back in 2005 before the 2008 real estate crash. Still groves on lots of it, but owners are just waiting for huge developers to offer them $$$ - I have already seen (and could barely believe it!) gated subdivisions in a few areas.
I HAVE to raise most of my vegies in containers- but nematodes somehow got into a few of them- the knots on the roots are hard to miss.
If you really are interested in gardening in SW FL, (or even S FL) I strongly recommend a visit to the ECHO Demonstration Farm in N Ft Myers, FL. They have 5 tropical climates and appropriate edible landscaping, but again, it's tropical. No Kentucky Wonder beans or Waltham Broccolli. ECHOs website is
www.echonet.org
Most of the people I worked with, who were interested in feeding themselves from gardens always planned on moving to NW FL /Panhandle area,
A/C here is not a luxury, it's a necessity and you can die without it. This year I didn't turn it off till New years. 30 years ago I turned it on Memorial Day and off on Labor Day, but it's gotten hotter since then, and no longer cools down at night, the city on the EastCoast where I live half the time usually has 5-8 degree difference day and night in the summer .It used to be a 20-25 degree difference. You should be aware the locals call FL Power and Light - FL Plunder and Loot.(as far as utility costs)
Last summer almost killed me with the heat- it triggers my asthma- and I told GFB I would no longer stay in FL thru the heat of the summer. Still researching where else to go but I am looking for a top temp of 83 F. I know in 2 weeks without me the tropical weeds may overtake my eatin' garden, but, que sera...
Edited add - that area is zone 11.
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