If your soil is well drained, then it's far better to plant in the ground, amending the soil as needed. And having lived in locations of deeply sandy soil, it's easy to grow a garden!

So! Regarding the other questions....have you visited your local Extension office or explored the extensive website? The UF Extension website is an excellent place to download all kinds of gardening publications, including a Florida Vegetable Guide. You'll find the answers to what and when to plant.

They also have herb gardening information as well as butterfly gardening halp.

Of course, you can learn from the website about how, why, and when to take soil tests. UF does the analysis in their labs.

I would buy transplants now for your garden unless it is quite warm there on a regular basis. I never had a caterpillar eat my parsley plant. Rosemary is a great perennial for soups. I plant thyme, chives, basil and holy basil. The basils are annuals that prefer hot weather to grow and they go to flower quickly. I cut my flowers off weekly. I do leave a few to attract honey bees and butterflies and for seeds for next years plants.

Thanks for all the great info. I will definitely check with UF's extension office as well as Levy County's. I already grow a few herbs but they are in my butterfly/hummingbird gardens: bee blam, parsley and dill. I am going to plant some for me now :)
I will definitely be planting directly in the ground,thanks Rhizo.
Zackey, I do have a long enough growing season to start from seed but I'm impatient so I'll probably grow most from transplants:)
I'll post pics this spring when I get it started. Thanks!