You will need to first master gardening in Georgia. I don't know where you gardened before, but I can tell you as a first time Southern gardener when I moved here, I had a LOT of challenges to cover come!
There are farmers markets and you must contact each individual farmers market to find out how they operate. You will need to reserve a spot and pay for your booth at the farmers market. The link below will give you some information about our growing season and planting information if you need it. It will also tell you more about any guidelines you need to follow when selling produce or other goods at a Farmers Market.

http://www.caes.uga.edu/departments/

The Georgia Organics website is an excellent place to learn more about market growing in Georgia, they have some forums and bulletin boards. Their "The Dirt" magazine also has loads of information about selling your produce.

http://www.georgiaorganics.org/

Gardening in Georgia is definitely hard! Good luck with all that clay soil! Yuck! Also, watch out for squash borers, squash bugs, cabbage moths, tobacco caterpillars, and pretty much every other bug out there!

I'd like to offer a suggestion. If you are unable to sell all of your produce at your local farmer's market, why don't you see about donating some of it to your local homeless shelter? Times are very tough now, and a lot of charitable organizations are receiving fewer donations even as demands are increasing.

Also, here are some great gardening books:

* All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space by Mel Bartholomew
* Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte
* The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner Batches, Grow Heaps, Comforter Compost, and Other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and Producing the Most Flavorful, Nutritious Vegetables Ever by Barbara Pleasant
* The Complete Herb Book by Jekka McVicar
* Guide to Georgia Vegetable Gardening by Walter Reeves & Felder Rushing
* Jerry Baker's Old-Time Gardening Wisdom by Jerry Baker
* Month-By-Month Gardening in Georgia (Revised Edition): What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year by Walter Reeves and Erica Glasener

Best of luck with your gardening!

P.S. - if you can afford to do it & have the same crappy clay soil that I have, I highly recommend that you consider building raised beds for your gardening. Mel Bartholomew's book on square foot gardening will tell you how to do so.

Ahhh, youth! I think starting small would be sage advice at this point. Until you have hoed okra in August there is really very little that one can say which might be construed as truly supportive other than....start small! Heatstroke is very unpleasant.

I'm curious where you gardened before... I came from the Midwest, where the soil is as black as midnight! (Gosh, I miss that dirt.) Depending on where you were, it may be a very different experience, or not!

You should make a day trip to Callaway Gardens - if you are anywhere in the driving vicinity.... They have Mr. Cason's vegetable garden - HUGE! Good programs there too!

And I am with MadGardener - raised beds are super if you have clay soil. I swear my yard is on a layer of total hardpan. We tried to till the soil and broke the tiller, it was so hard. (Many years ago, when I was stupid...) :)

Good luck to you!!!!

Last year, I tried lasagna gardening on my clay soil and was very pleased with the results. I'm sure that it would have been even better had I used even more layers than I did. I used whatever I had--laid wet newspapers, an old sheet, compost, grass clippings, wood chips, straw whatever I had over the whole area.
I pulled apart the mulch to make pockets for plants. Last year I used mushroom compost and Black cow mixed, but this year I may use promix.

I'm gradually trying to reclaim my weedy, tangled overgrown backyard in this manner. Wish me luck.
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

I need some advice from fellow square foot gardeners. This year will be my first attempt at square foot gardening. We will be starting with a 4'X4' plot. I need personal recommendations on vegetables that can be grown by a first-timer. I am located in NE GA--Lake Lanier area. I appreciate all the help I can get. I had thought about growing bush beans; tomatoes; and lettuce--so far--I could definitely use other suggestions. Thanks.

I recently inquired about the farmers markets here, and after completing a license/application, according to the Macon Farmer's Market manager, you are then covered at all the others (within their network of course). The fee is $5 a day at Macon and Cordele (not sure of the others).

Craigslist.com is also another excellent place to post your excess for sale. I have had wonderful success selling seedlings (last year) and strawberry and blueberry plants (this year). There is also a site called kijiji.com with many different GA cities listed for the same type of adverstising (all free btw).

GA gardening is definitely a challenge, I'd agree, but to me the trick is to find out what does the best where you are with what you've got and then change it up from there.

lasagne layering is hands down the best way to improve hard clay soil...I"m a living testament that it works and works WELL. I had an area that was once covered with kudzu and weeds and was as hard as a rock when you tried to dig in it...I covered it with about a foot of OM starting with newspaper and/or cardboard boxes laid out all over it., then grass clippings, by the bagful, leaves as they were available, free composted material from the city of Perry, more newspaper etc. topped off with chunks of moldy hay (definitely would skip that part in the future) And when I went to plant my tomatoes this spring, that ground was like butter!! full of worms, black, BEAUTIFUL, the only thing left was a bit of the hay on the surface.

Eileen, you can start lettuces and greens early. They don't like hot weather...then in summer you can try your tomatoes, beans, peppers both hot and sweet, okra if you like it (but your space is small for okra, but you can get bush okra), basil, try some zuccini or pattipan squash, if they succumb to borers you'll still get some squash from them and if the vine dies, rip it out and replace with more beans if you'd like, eggplant, southern bush peas....
All fairly easy!

Red clay? I'd like to have some. I live on Pine Mountain above Warm Springs and all we have is rocks. I've sifted out hundreds of wheelbarrow loads but what's left won't grow anything. I've resorted to raised beds which works well for my 2,000 plus iris and I plan to try a variety of vegetables this year after several years of only lettuce and tomatos.

I second the suggestion to donate to a homeless shelter or food bank. Food banks regularly take in food from home gardens. I am certain they would love to see you visit weekly with your donations of excess vegetables.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant a Row for the Hungry