Let's see...I think we started in late May. I live in
zone 7, so we really should have started in March or late February. That, of course, for the plants that need a little cooler temps at first. Our latest frost date for our area is around the first or second week of April. (Which reminds me...I need to call Monday and double check that date...) The other problem was that the area we planted in had never been worked for a garden before. AND it was covered in kudzu (the bane of the South!) up until hubby plowed it all under for me to plant. I spent the majority of the rest of the season pulling up kudzu sprouts! He didn't start plowing until I was ready to plant either. We really should have worked the ground the fall before so that it could "rest" a little. We could have put compost and manure in it to help break up the clay as well. So technically, we should have started the process the year before.
The garden is looking much better this time around. I still don't have anything in the ground, but that's only because it's still too wet for hubby to run the disks through. He plowed the last garden under once everything had died off, and when he did, he plowed deeper than he was able to last year. So now it's in very deep furrows that need broken up and leveled out. I need to get my English peas and my carrots in the ground, hopefully before the end of the month. I started tomatoes, bell
peppers, and eggplants in little mini-
green houses this past Monday, and already have a BUNCH of tomatoes sprouting! I'm really excited about them! They will go in the ground after the last frost, as will the
peppers and eggplants. We are planning on corn,
potatoes (regular and sweet), squash, pumpkin, cukes, sunflowers, green beans, and blackeyed peas to go along with the others I've mentioned. We even discussed putting in a berry patch this year with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
A drip system is a watering set-up that waters at the roots. You lay it along the rows when you first plant and it stays there throughout the
growing season. When you need to water, you just turn it on for however long you need to, and then turn it off. It's basically a rubber hose down each row with small holes punched in it every so many inches that is attached to a main line that runs widthwise across the rows at the "top" of the garden. The main line is hooked to your water supply, either by another hose, or by a direct line with it's own shutoff (if you're lucky!). The water runs through the mainline, into the secondary rubber hose, and hence to the roots of the plants. Last year I had a fan-type sprinkler, and it just didn't do the job at all. Especially in the corn! And I had to keep an eye on it and move it, etc. It was a nightmare for us! They are also much more efficient. The plants get more water where they can actually utilize it, rather than all over the foilage, inviting disease and and being lost to evaporation.
BTW...thanks for the "BINGO", Cricket! I was hoping that I wouldn't offend anyone with that! LOL
And as for Cricket's advice, I've already given reasons for the "good soil" part! LOL The timing is another thing entirely! My
seed packets all said that I could plant most of them into June, and while that worked, it didn't work WELL for us. It was too hot to be out in the garden, and we were in the middle of a MAJOR drought. The soil wasn't the best, and so it was like trying to get water through concrete. As for starting small...I think we bit off more than we could chew for our first year, but then again, if we hadn't, we wouldn't have gotten ANYTHING out of it. I think I managed 3 squash out of about 20 plants, no watermellons out of about 15 plants. A handful of blackeyed peas out of 50 plants. 4 cukes out of 30 plants. I think my best yield last year was the 3 bell
peppers I got off of 1 plant and 4 tomatoes off of 2 plants. We also had corn...about 1/4 of an acre, and we barely got enough GOOD ears to eat maybe 4 meals.
Hope some of this helps!
Annette
