We grew one row last summer (which was about 4 - 5 feet I guess.. I never did measure how much I dug out) and they didn’t last long enough to even think about pickling them! Maybe I should make that TWO more rows this summer.. I’m also thinking of trying some goldens as well as some of the regular purple ones we grew last summer.
Some herbs bought as plants can be very inexpensive - thyme and mint will spread like a mofo, so one little container would be plenty (mint can be invasive in many places, so you might want to look at ways to contain it, like not putting it right in the ground). Chives also self-seed, so you can get a lot of bang for your buck with one little pot. Dill grows like a weed - I planted it really late last year, and it still did very well - just stick a few seeds in the ground and watch out.
I’m going to try a funky cylindrical beet this year - Cylindrica formanova. I’ve also got some dark red bean seeds - Royal Burgundy beans. I’m going half food and half ornamental with my garden this year - purple beans should look cool. 
I have a 2 treelings and two rose bushes coming in a week or two.
More specifically:
1 Smoke Tree
1 The Knock-Out Rose
1 Crape Myrtle
1 Rugosa Rose Hedge
Any advice for planting? Do I need to dump several buckets of water in the hole like my dad always did? We’ve had a pretty wet winter/early spring. Should I line the hole with burlap like gramma always said to? (Yeah, I’m probably not, even if you tell me I should. I have no idea where I would get burlap.)
I’m a lazy slug so I bought an auger for my drill that hopefully will make a hole big enough for these plantings. The trees are very small at the time of shipping.
Can I just mention that Crepe Myrtles are BIG in this town where I live. They’re flowering now, but I prefer them bare during the winter months: the naked branches with their contorted forms are just a delight.
Make sure you coppice them early (within two years) so they grow multiple upright branches.
There’s a tree/shrub growth powder that the greenhouse recommended - you put a little scoop in with each shrub, and it’s supposed to really help with rooting and growing. I can’t remember the name of it, but I’m pretty sure your local greenhouse will have something like that. They can also advise you on any other additives - I think roses need bone meal, too, but I’m not sure.
The hole you plant a tree or shrub in needs to be about two times as big as the root ball - I can’t imagine you’ll be able to auger something big enough. Hey, if you don’t like digging, maybe gardening isn’t for you.
How do I know what kind of soil I have?
Last year, that garden grew mostly sparse grass, so I was probably going to dig up the top 1-2 feet, and buy some topsoil from a local gardening place to replace it, so… maybe they’ll tell me?
I ordered roses today, wheeee! Mel’s Heritage, Mme. Alfred Carriere, Autumn sunset, Golden Buddha. They should arrive in a week or so. Can’t wait!
You can get your soil tested by your local county extension office, just google your county name and extension. If you want to amend your soil I recommend not adding straight topsoil, but using an organic compost. My favorite product is Paydirt to help break up my clay soil, but if you go to a local nursery (not Blue or Orange but a real nursery) they’ll be able to suggest what will work best in your area.
Although we’ve had some warm weather we’re expecting snow next week, so no outdoor planting yet. But I have been cleaning up my beds. Today I broke into the older of my two compost heaps and got 4 wheelbarrows of worm poo and other soil goodness. Distributed it between my two early planting beds - both about 18-20 feet long and a foot wide. (The 20x20 bed will get compost in the fall, when the younger heap is ready to "harvest).
Might start seeds indoor tomorrow, we’ll see.
Going to start with chard, lettuce, and radishes in the long beds. I’ll get a couple rows going in the square bed to start some beets and turnips once I get the early “salad” going.
We are in Central Indiana, and my husband just sowed the first of our lettuce seeds and some radishes today! Our flower beds have been cleaned out, and we have some things to add - zinnias, gladiolus, lily of the valley, sunflowers, a clematis (to replace the one my husband killed) and some sweet peas. We have our veggie seeds purchased, and will be getting them in at the appropriate time. We bought dragon tongue beans and blue lake green beans, a kaleidascope carrot mix, and a picklebush cucumber. We have no good place for starting seeds inside, so we buy tomato and pepper plants.
This past Thursday was the first day I was able to get out and get my fingers in the dirt and it felt soooooo good!
Re: Crepe Myrtles
Read up on the proper way to prune them. Do not commit Crepe Murder.
I would think that any climbing floribunda would be fine.
A couple of weeks ago, hubby brought home a medium sized box filled with past date seeds, flowers and veggies. We planted a bunch of the flower seeds today in the front garden so it will be interesting to see if any germinate. There were also seeds for “cat grass” whatever that is, and coleus, which I will start indoors. I love to garden and have been very frustrated by the wet winter we’ve been having!
I’m thinking that it’s aaaallllmooooost time to get my clover seeds down - the ground is starting to thaw, and I’m learning that clover doesn’t need super warm weather to grow - it doesn’t mind a cool germination. I’m hoping I don’t have to take up all my turf to turn it into clover - I’m planning to overseed with dirt and seed, and see how that goes. If it doesn’t work, I can always go to ripping out turf and starting over next year. I think the white clover will do fine, though - there are a couple of patches of clover already, and they’re doing just fine.
Probably something containing mycorrhizae. I used to work for an organic fertilizer company and we dealt with this guy:
I took some of the mycorrhizae that we blended into the fertilizer home and put it in my raised beds. The weeds that I pulled out that usually have a thin tap root looked like the image in the logo at the top of the page. They had a root ball like a golf ball.
Neat stuff.
As it was raining today I decided to start a couple flats of seeds indoors. I only have two trays, even though I have room for more, but whatever - money is tight, I’m just glad I got seeds this year.
Anyhoo - 10 lettuce pots, 20 radish (the husband likes them - half the time they don’t make it to the salad, sometimes I’m surprised I get 'em washed before he pops them in his mouth), 10 chard, 10 pea, 6 kale, 10 spinach, 6 parsley, 4 lavender, 6 basil. That’ll do for a start. I’m not starting anything inside unless I have bed-space cleared for it. Other things, like the beets, turnips, carrots, corn, and beans I’ll probably start outside when it’s warmer.
Next nice outdoors day it will be trimming the rose bushes and weeding the daffodil beds. Maybe more yard clean up, too.
Yesterday was Seedy Saturday here. I had a couple packets of lettuce that I was able to trade for some marigolds in yellow, orange and rust (I have more packets of lettuce at home still… Mom got them when she found a thing in the paper and wrote away to gt some!). My son snagged a packet of spaghetti squash seeds off another free table and at various places we picked up some different varieties of beans, peas, golden and bulls blood beet, carrots, spinach, cherry tomatoes, peaches and cream corn and sunflowers… and I can’t think what else. It was a HUGE turnout, really busy and we got there just in time to get a parking spot right by the community centre!
I have plans to get a few more things. Mostly flowers are left so I can pretty up the front and that’s about it.
Of course it snowed last night to put a damper on it… but oh well. Spring is sprung!
Got a few veggies and herbs: little pots of peppers, okra, some chives, parsley, thyme. Really looking forward to the okra - it did great last year even with no soil amendment, and the blooms are beautiful.
Need to get going on putting out seeds, though, to supplement what’s already out there. C’mon, alyssum: sprout already!
Okay, here are the seedlings now. (With jacked-up color saturation for yer amusement.) They are all remarkably straight and tall. I hope this is a sign they’re going to be healthy. The peppers and eggplants have finally started to sprout (they take longer to germinate than tomatos.) I also started about 7 cherry tomato plants; they have started to sprout after only a week or so, which surprised me. I credit this to the fluorescent bulb I set up to shine on the plants.
Yesterday I planted a load of shrubs in the front, and some lupins in the back, and my wife and I sowed a ton of veggie seeds (including a second attempt at sowing the radish seeds as next door’s cat had thoroughly excavated the veg patch 
). We’re going to plant some of them in a ladder allotment which my sister got us for Christmas, and which I assembled yesterday.
I also planted a magnolia tree in our front lawn.
And, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the chilli seeds I planted two weeks ago and had put in the airing cupboard have almost all sprouted, already - last year they took 4-5 weeks! It’s lucky I checked them, as some were almost 2 inches tall and were looking rather yellow. A bit of sunshine has perked them up though. 
Colophon, which magnolia did you plant?
Looking good! I usually get them this far, then they just fail to thrive. I hope yours do better with the extra lights (and you should be able to put them out soon).