Yep. We had two last year and they produced enormous amounts of fruit. Right now, we only have one seedling (I did mail order on the heirlooms) but it’s a 100. We can’t decide if getting another would be insane, since we have 12 seedlings coming. It probably would be. We’ll probably do it anyway. We embrace our insanity!
I live in the Memphis area. Unless something very bizarre happens, we are past the danger of frost. I’ll be surprised if we see anything below 50 degrees until next winter.
So are you saying that lettuce is usually started later in the season? Can I expect to see starters for sale at Home Depot when the time is right?
laina_f, my seasonal expertise is really geared toward the coastal Texas area as well as the mountains of Colorado. How we deal with lettuce down here is going to be different from what would work for you.
I did a bit of research and found an excellent resource for you. The UT extension office has a great deal of information on line pertaining to the planting of vegetables as well as a whole host of other info. Navigate to The University of Tennessee Extension web site and scroll down to the vegetables section. The very first link (Growing Vegetables in Home Gardens) has a detailed chart on planting times, etc.
I hope this helps and happy growing! 
Oh, another thing I’ve had good luck with, is cocoa husk mulch. I buy it at the local gardening supply store for about $6 a bag, and 2 bags covers my whole front garden. It looks great, keeps out weeds, stores heat and moisture in the ground. For about $12 I save myself a crapload of weeding every year. All my neighbors are now asking me what I put on my garden, where do I buy it, etc.
Stephi, I would add a caveat to your suggestion of cocoa husk mulch. Dog owners should avoid using such materials in their yard.
Here’s an easy one for folks who don’t want to bother with digging up a garden plot. Buy a bag of potting soil. Poke 4 drain holes in one side, and lay the bag on that side on the ground. On the top, right in the middle, cut a 4 inch X. Use your fingers to make a hole in the dirt, just big enough for your tomato plant. Keep it watered through the season, and after the season, either spread the soil over your lawn or throw it away. Next year, start with a new bag.
It’s all you guys’ fault - last night I went and bought some pots and herbs just because of this thread. Now my black thumb will kill them and I blame you.
Good lord, the plants cost about the same as those little plastic things at the grocery store where half the basil is rotten already! They didn’t have any good dill at Lowe’s, though. So I got basil and rosemary and lavender and spearmint and flat-leaf parsley. I figured I could get the mint because it alone will probably live. Also rosemary grows into trees around here, so that’s probably safe too, but I use more basil than anything and I bet I’ll kill it.
We started some seeds a few weeks ago. We’ve now got baby plants… Anyone want to tell me the best time to stick them in the ground? We live in MA … We’ve got some misc flowers, tomato seedlings, sunflower seedlings.
Oh and I got a lilac bush… any advice on sticking that in the ground?
Here is info on last frost dates. (Scroll down for a link to zone maps, if you don’t know your climate zone.) Serious gardeners will know that these aren’t hard and fast – I’m zone 6, but because I live in the city, and have a small yard between two brick houses with a flagstone walkway, I’ve got a zone 7 microclimate going. Beginners should just go by the map.
So – tanookie – check out some of their links. I’m not sure I completely buy their dates – they’re saying March 30th for Philly, which just ain’t right – but it will give you an idea.
For the lilac – finally a question I can answer! (All you freakin’ hippies and your freakin’ veggies. Grow flowers, people! It’s good for the soul.)
Dig a hole at least twice as wide and twice as deep as the root ball of the bush. Mix an equal amout of compost with the dirt you take out. Also – lilacs like alkaline soil, so you may want to add some lime. (Do evergreens and azaleas do well in your neck of the woods? Your soil is proabably acid and you’ll definitely want to add lime* – a few handfuls.) Fill the hole about halfway, maybe a little more, with the enriched mixture and press it down. Take the bush out of its pot/burlap wrapping (whatever it’s in) and loosen the roots. You will do this, honest to god, by either grabbing the rootball and tearing it apart with your hands, or, if it’s a big tangled mess that you can’t get apart with your hands, by chopping into a couple of times with a spade. No, really. You won’t kill it. Do it at the bottom if you’re freaking. Put the bush in the middle of your hole and fill in around it. The surface of what you took out of the pot should be at about the surface of the ground. Amazingly enough, even though you’re putting in twice as much dirt as you took out, it all goes in. If you’ve got a little extra, make a ring of dirt an inch or two high a foot or so out from the stem – this will help with watering.
Water Every Single Day for the next two weeks, every other day for a couple of weeks after that, and at least once a week for the rest of the summer. No, you won’t drown in. Yes, even if it rains.
*Lime, BTW, is powdered limestone, not the fruit. 
RRed is spose to help with tomatos … I would be willing to set up my garden as a test subject about this if someone wanted to get me a handful of those wall o’ water thingies. I’ve been jonesing for them for years. And Garden Cloches ( which now come in plastic for about $60 less…) I wants a bunch o’ those…please Mr. Santa Greenthumb Fairy Man!
Blah blah blah:
They say we are a Zone 5…and I laugh at those people…just laugh. I say we are a 4 or possibly a 3.8. Just this weekend we got a late snowstorm that shellacked our area with 6-9 inches of snow and today it was up to the high 60’s. My mom, thirty miles or so away got possibly a dusting.
Shirley’s Garden Hints Du Jour
If you have a (Freshwater) fish tank, when you clean it, use the old water to fertilize your plants. Fishy poo poo water is an excellent natural fertilizer for your veggies and flowers. (When your fishie dies, bury him under a flower bush or newly planted tree. Excellent fertilizing capacity there.)
Try to keep away from the store bought fertilizers. You could be contaminating your own drinking supply of water. Or your neighbor’s. There are alternatives to get higher yeilds. Some organic store bought or some through a little time and preparation.
Compost. It’s easy. It is affordable. It is wunderbar. Two thumbs up. And you don’t even need a one of those fancy dancy compost tumbler thingies that sell for a $100 and up in catalogs. You can use old pallets to rebuild into a compost bin
( which I did and it is still around after 7 years of total abuse.) or bales of hay to make a square with and chuck the composting material into it. Add some cheap beer every week or so to help things along. The yeast in it helps break it down faster.
Grab a container of Fish bait at the store while you are at it and toss them into the your compost. The red wigglers poop ( known as castings) is excellent fertilizer.
Or you can buy them by the bulk through theCape Cod Worm Farm Lady and then become a worm farmer. Put that on your resume!
If you can’t afford mulch, a cheaper weed barrier alternative is a buttload of newspapers sectioned out between the rows and around the plants. Just put them down, hold in place with rocks ( or submerge them in a bucket then put down. I have buttloads of rocks here. ) and water regularly to keep them from blowing in the wind. In the fall, rototill under. The trace minerals in there help the soil. ( Avoid the coupon and USA today section. Just the black and white stuff.) Best of all it is free. Just ask neighbors and friends to save theirs and it will be yours.
Hay ( or straw) ( I get them confused on what I should use for weed barrier.) is also excellent and affordable and can be easily mulched into the garden in the fall. I’m pretty sure it’s hay, but don’t bet the farm on it.
Make Your Garden a Community/Social Event:
Tell your neighbors and co workers and family that you are growing a garden and if they buy you a plant, you will tend it for them. I do this with a few neighbors and I get phone calls of " I hope I don’t have to call Plant Protective Services for not seeing you water the plants today on an Ozone Action Day." plus, it will keep you motivated to maintain it nicely and on a regular basis.
Watering by a drip hose is much more betterer and economical with your water bill if you have to actually pay for your water suckers and doesn’t cause the water to evaporate quickly or, if you are on a well like me sucker, spread the rust stain from the high mineral content of water, onto the cement or brick of your house.
You Grow Girl seems like a hip site & book for urbane gardeners.
That’s all I have for now. My start date for everything is June 1st. Anything before that means a week of rain and cold weather and rotten seeds. Every.Time.