Go to your local ASCS office and get a copy of the local planting guide. It will give you a good start.

A lot of what you want to know is going to come from trial and error. You must know your frost free date which for your area will be somewhere between the 15th of March and 20th of April. Here are a few basics.

1. corn - plant the first sweet corn seed the week you are frost free. Deliberately overplant the early corn because it will not germinate as well as later plantings into warmer soil. Corn should always be planted at a rate of at least 3 seed per hill and hills should be between 12 and 24 inches apart and rows 36 to 48 inches apart for most common varieties. You can then succession sew more corn seed every 2 week for the next 2 months so corn will be maturing continuously over a roughly 2.5 month period of summer. Be sure to plant corn in blocks of 4 or more rows so it will be properly pollinated. Thin the corn to 2 stalks per hill. Corn requires highly fertile soil. Silver King is an excellent variety to start with though it is rather long season.

2. Beans - most common pole beans should be planted with hills between 12 and 20 inches apart and rows 36 to 48 inches apart. Plant 2 or 3 seed to each hill. Give them support to grow at least 6 feet tall. Beans require moderately fertile soil. You need about an 80 ft long row to feed a family of 4 with fresh snap beans and to can or freeze enough for winter. Bush beans have simimlar requirements but plant them thicker with an average of 4 seed per ft of row. Rattlesnake is an excellent pole bean and bush blue lake or contender will work for a bush bean.

3. Potatoes - plant sets 1 month before last frost. You need about 100 ft of row to grown enough for a family of 4. Put sets into the soil between 9 and 12 inches apart. Be careful which varieties you plant, most are unproductive in the heat and humidity of the SouthEast. Kennebec is an example of a highly reliable old variety that is commonly available. Potatoes require very highly fertile soil.

5. Onions - start seed indoors in trays on the 1st of January and set them out in the garden a couple of weeks before you are frost free. Super Star is a hybrid that is outstanding in our climate. Onions require moderately fertile soil. Plant them in rows 4 to 6 inches apart with rows 12 to 15 inches apart.

6. Peas - Plant green peas one or 2 months before you are frost free. I planted mine the end of January. Maestro is a variety that performs well as does Sugar Snap. Seed should be planted at a rate of 4 to 8 seed per ft of row. You need at least 80 ft of row to have enough for fresh eating and to put up enough for a few winter meals.

7. Cowpeas - Plant any time from frost free up to the middle of July. I prefer to plant about the 1st of July for a heavy fall crop. Good varieties, well, just about any cowpea will do great, but White Whipporwill is a personal favorite and Pink Eye Purple Hull will do very well. Seed at a rate of 2 or 3 seed per ft of row for most common varieties. Cowpeas need low to moderately fertile soil. They will make most of the nitrogen they require.

8. SweetPotatoes - Plant about 3 weeks after frost free and plan on about 8 hills for each person. A family of four could use around 32 hills with 9 to 24 inches between hills. Most common varieties perform best with spacing around 12 inches between hills and with at least 5 ft of space on each side of the row to sprawl. Sweetpotatoes require the lowest fertility soil of any crop I currently grow. They still benefit from a small amount of nitrogen early in their growth. Georgia Jet and Nuggett make excellent varieties for your climate.

9. Tomatoes - start seed indoors in trays 6 to 8 weeks before you want to set them out. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and need fertile soil with regular watering to produce at their best. Good varieties are Big Beef, Sungold, Druzba, Red Brandywine, and Burgundy Traveller. Plants should be set in rows so that each plant has a minimum of 15 square feet of growing space. Good spacing could be 4 feet between rows with 3 feet between plants or you might go 5 feet between rows and 2.5 feet between plants which is what I use. Determinate and dwarf varieties take less space.

10. Radishes and carrots - plant spring radishes at a rate of 6 to 12 seed per ft of row and carrots in the same row with about 20 seed per foot and with about 40 total feet required for a family of 4. The radishes will help break the soil so the carrots can grow. Fall radishes should be about 4 seed per ft with about 30 ft of row and sans carrots. Rows should be one foot apart. You can grow radishes most all summer if they have some shade in the evening.

Someone else can tell you about watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, cucumbers, etc.

DarJones

Wow! Thanks so much!!! I'll print this for reference. I've just learned that I'm too late for most of the herb seed I bought. I believe you plant melons around here about the same time as okra...when the soil is warm. (From reading the seed packets :) and remembering when my parents did it.) I'm planning to plant seed for summer squash and cucumber next week and continue every two weeks. Does anyone know the latest plant dates for those?

bugtussellmom

Be careful about planting summer squash and cucumbers every two weeks! Unless you plan to feed hundreds, you don't need to plant them every two weeks. They're like many vegetables -- once they're planted, they continue producing until disease or frost kill them. Haven't you seen a poor idiot trying to get rid of the summer zucchini s/he's planted too much of? They're very prolific! I once had a boss (who should have known better) who loved gardening and every summer he brought in grocery bags full of zucchini, trying to get people to take it home with them. We'd groan when he came around with that bag! Then he tried bringing in zucchini bread. That got old, too!

Better is to determine how much of each vegetable is needed to supply your needs and just plant that many all at once. Anything more will overwhelm you!

anney,

Years ago, newly married friends of mine bought a house previously owned by an avid gardener. The soil in the garden area was excellent. My friends were completely new to gardening and started off enthusiastically. One of the things they planted was a long row of yellow squash. When that squash started producing they went nuts trying to use it, freeze it, do anything but waste it. Of course it was impossible and they were guilt ridden.

Jim