In southern USA, after April 15th, most locations are without frost. What have you planted or will you plant soon?
Sadly, I won't be planting anything new this year. An unexpected IRS bill (to the tune of over $10,000) has put a severe cramp in the budget. I hate it, because we just moved here two years ago, and I was just starting to get the yard and garden started. I put in a couple of nice beds with stone walls, and brought in some good soil. Oh well, I'll just have to make due with the perennials I planted last year. My husband's happy, we planted strawberries last year, and they've already started to bloom, so the fruit shouldn't be too far behind.
Mal, unless you are way out in the middle of nowhere, there may be some sort of a community garden near you where you can just help out with the garden and share in the produce. Seeds are not very expensive, and the vegetables you get from the plants will more than compensate for the little bit of money that you spend on the seeds. Actually, when times are hard, growing a garden is one of the best ways to save money and stretch the food budget that there is.
It finally dried out enough that I tilled the garden Sunday. Monday we got over 2 inches of rain so I still haven't planted anything there, In the raised beds along with the perennial strawberrys and asparagus I have potatoes, carrots, 2 kinds of onions, both early and late cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, radishes, lettuce, garlic, Swiss chard, and Tabasco peppers. I hope it dries out a bit soon so I can plant corn, crowder peas and okra.
We have been geting that rain here, as well. I think you must be just chasing it out of Arkansas and over here into Alabama, @Sheldon Scott. It was pouring so hard that we moved all of the tomato plants and everything else we have growing in planter pots, and put them up on the porch where they would not drown. I was noticing this morning that the tomatoes are starting to get leggy; so I hope we have some sunshine and we can set them back out in the yard again. Last year, it stayed so cold and rainy that everything had a terrible time growing. The tomatoes were 4' tall, and about 8" across ! Plus, we barely got any maters from them.
Unfortunately for me, I can't grow veggies from seeds for the life of me. I can get flowers to grow beautifully - from plants, seeds, cuttings, divisions - it doesn't matter. But veggies are another matter. Even when I plant nice plants, they never produce well. My mother-in-law insists it's because I haven't planted them at the right phase of the moon. As funny as it sounds, she insists that certain things should be planted during a full-moon, others at the waning or waxing. And she always has this beautiful, bountiful vegetable garden. She also insists that you can't point at cucumbers (or they die), that you can't go into the garden when you're on your period. She has a bunch of "old wives" superstitions, and as I said, they work for her. My husband was calculating how much it would cost to buy plants, vs. how much produce we'll get from it and it seems to be about a wash. I may break down and buy a few plants - I can't imagine not planting anything all season. I started gardening over 30 years ago, and can't remember a single year when I haven't spent time and money in the garden. My husband always says that it was cheap therapy!!
Mal, what are you trying to grow from seed? Some things such as beans, peas, beets, Swiss chard and okra, are easy to grow and can be planted right in the garden. Other things may be slow to germinate and need to be started indoors.
I've tried growing beans and peas from seed. They do great as far as sprouting and growing. I have the prettiest plants. I grow them up a trellis, and they look healthy - nice and green and bushy. But they don't produce much - the pods will go from tiny one day, to huge and fat the next, so that they are tough and almost inedible. I've tried growing carrots from seed and again, they sprout and produce pretty plants. But when I dig them up, they are almost round they're so fat, instead of long. I've tried growing them in raised beds with nice loose soil, so it's not like they're trying to grow down through rock hard soil. They are bitter and tough. The same with lettuce - it is so bitter that you can't eat it.
There are some types of carrots in which that is characteristic, such as the Thumbelina, Danvers Half Long, and Nantes Half Long, but I have had that problem too, with carrots that aren't supposed to be stubby.
My favorite garden vegetables this year will be squash, cucumbers, Silver Queen corn, tomatoes and okra. However, I will not be planting them, I will be going to the Farmer's Market and enjoying their success!
I've not planted vegetables for quite a while, but I ordered mystery vegetable seeds from a freebie website so we shall see what I get.
Tomatoes, bell peppers, cayenne and jalapenos so far this year. Also, the sweet basil I plant every year and I've added lemon balm to the other herbs that come back in my garden. And we've added three blueberry bushes this year. There is still room for something else, but I'm not sure what I'm going to choose for that spot. Mal, I'm awfully sorry the IRS hit you guys so hard. That's got to be rough as well as completely disgusting. Your strawberries sound like they're going to be good, though. I've never had much luck with them, but I think they would do a sight better here if I could just convince hubby to build me a large, deep box to plant them in with a screen over the top to keep the birds away.