Hello Greenie,
Welcome to The Garden Helpers Forum!!!
I have been meaning to stop by and welcome you and post a bunch of times, but I wanted to make sure I gave you a long post and things have been a bit hectic here the last couple of days.......
Others I saw were giving you some sound advice along the way as well!!!!
Carol (and Catlover) had given advice about walking through the neighborhood and take a peak at what's
growing around you....That is the best test of what grows in your area.
As far as your soil and working it and compost and what you'd like for your garden,
This is what I would do when I go to start a bed for
flowers. (I am a reasonable patient gardener and very limited funds, and no muscle to do my work)
If I want to garden in a spot in the next season or add to an existing bed... I take card board from almost anywhere's I can get it, but you might want to go to an appliance store, get the refrig and/or washer/dryer boxes, good sizes, all in one piece, if you use the small pieces like I do, you spend alot of time covering all the holes....
figure out where you want to put it, lay the stuff down on the ground and water the heck out of it, that weights it down and keeps it moist and then in the fall time I take all the shredded leaves I can get my hands on and dump the pile there on top of the card board. *If it's dry, water in-between loads. Grass clippings in the leaves is a bonus!! Speeds up the decomposing process. This will bring worms to the underside of your cardboard. And adventually they'll do alot of your work for you...This kills most of the
weeds, (
weeds will go away!!) But it gets 97% of them. (rots the green leaves, and doesn't allow light in to feed their roots) When your worms come, they eat up that decaying green leaves, dying roots, decomposing cardboard and the leaves in time. (that's where patients comes in) and make sure it's flat, not a huge pile in the middle, so it decomposed evenly)
So, I would do that for your winter months, and in the mean time do something's like Jiffy said. She's right on the money with the mailbox idea, very cute. I do that for LARGE pots too and wishing wells, etc. Anything too big that would take too much dirt to fill up and it helps with drainage and keeps the $price$ down.
And containers like jiffy said. And I even fill shoes or boots....Njoynit has a bubblegum machine which I'm swiping the idea for next year.
But you get some pots of all sizes from your local cemeteries sometimes if your funds are low and you'd like pots, sometimes there's bins that the caretakers throw into (or visitors) all of the
plants/pots that have died....Believe it or not, we've found a TON of live geraniums in there, that do require a bit of nursing but can be brought back happily to life with a good hair cut and repotting and some water, and fertilizer!!!
(But watch for bees nesting in them!!) Grab the pots there or put a sign up in your local grocery stores of such that would have a high volume of ladies that might garden, and put a sign up, that's what I do, I give alot of babies away and I need pots. So, I post a sign, Got extra pots, want to throw them away? Throw them my way, will give them a good home... I know alot of neighbors and they walk them over to me or send their neighbors. (they look at it as not to have to put them in their $$$ garbage...Bonus for me!!)
And just pot your way in the summer,
if you say your dirt is hard to work,
and tiresome, this is a good route to go,
you get something the first yr. that is alot
of fun to do, with annuals and such in the pots, and the following year, you've got an area that's free of debris, and then workable for planting. Just food for thought, when you do work it up in the next coming yr. remember tilling up the soil does then awaken new
weeds and
weed seeds. I would personally get my little rototiller out, till it up and (***check first to see what your cardboard looks like, it may be mostly gone or some still there, depends on your amount of worms and how long you leave it there and what item and weight of item you put on top of the pile as you are letting it sit, the place where a pot or something sat on top will have decomposed faster than the spot with nothing on it. Don't rototill "Large" pieces of cardboard in as it tends to get stuck into the tiller....***)
I'd also put compost on top, the first year go buy a couple bags at the end of the season, when they reduce the price to get it out the door after season ends, Place the compost on top, spread evenly, I suppose you could even put some mulch on top, that'll make it look more even and then, And in time that decomposes too.
Put all your pots and planters on top and you've got a nice area. Then in the coming years, keep adding the compost and your dirt will attract so many worms, they'll have worked you soil for you.
To keep it in a contained area, if you have some landscape timbers, usually $3 and/or cement brick's, (You can
plant in the holes) cut up branches, cut in 8" or so increments, that's very reasonable if funds are low and looks cute.
Well, I've probably gone on looooooooooong enough!
I have more to write on composting, but that's a whole 'nother book!!!
I have posted some things on composting before,
if you have time to read,
And if you do a GARDEN SEARCH you'll find
alot of what Bill has on his site here.
If you do a FORUM SEARCH you'll find alot
of my and others questions and comments on it.
That'll keep you reading for a bit, and I'll be back to give you some composting ideas..........
Can you compost where you are, is there a spot, or are you into it/????? It's as much work as you want to put into it, I'm patient and have the are to have 7 of them, so, it's up to you............
Let me know your thoughts on it, and I'll get back to you!!!
Hope this helps!
Happy Gardening!!!
Weezie
(Hey Bill we need to get a snoring graemlin for my looooooong winded books!! LOL
:p <img border="0" alt="[tongue]" title="" src="graemlins/tongue.gif" />
Welcome Greenie to the Garden Helper. 
Catlover