So very new to gardening and I need help!!

[koltsmom]

Hi y'all! I am very new to veggie/herb gardening and I'm doing pretty good (if I do say so myself) but I need pointers! I want to plant a winter garden as well so any tips that you can give me would be appreciated. I live in Texas and have black dirt that is hard as a rock, I had to do a raised garden this summer but I plan to till up the back part of my backyard for my winter garden.

If y'all can tell me what's best to plant and when, that'd be helpful!! Y'all be blessed! :D

[walkeasy]

I am in VA, so I'm not really sure of your weather...
but
put in a pvc hoop house over your raised bed. It will smooth out drastic weather changes and extend you a season. I put mine on a 4x8 raised bed for $15 in 30 mins.
spinach, beets, carrots, loose leaf lettuce, kale, etc all do well in cooler weather.

[whizzkid]

Would you be able to tell me what else is suitable for a raised flower bed? I've just recently become a homeowner and would like to take advantage of the beautiful garden I've the pleasure of owning. I'm literally an amateur when it comes to stuff like this, hence why I joined the forum! I've had advice from Garden Larch (http://www.gardenlarch.co.uk/) about raised flower beds, but is it a stupid question to ask if you can grow fruit on raised flower beds if you don't put a hoop house over it?

Cheers!

[Whitney77]

Hi there,

What part of Texas? Last weekend, I went to a tour in Duncanville, TX (10 minutes south of Dallas) of a tucked away farm where they were growing everything in their backyard from peppers, lettuce, and cabbage, to herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers. It was all on a tenth of an acre. They mentioned that they were going to be starting up square-foot/raised bed gardening classes this summer so that may be something you could look into. Hope this helps! If you google "Aquaponics and Earth", it should give you info about upcoming classes. They said they'd been doing it for a good number of years in texas so I'm sure they'd be able to answer your questions about what to plant, how much to water, etc.

[Charm Dreier]

Start out with a bunch of mulch. Just mulch the area that you want to garden in heavily, like between 6" and 16" of mulch, any kind will do. This will prevent you from having the rototill later. It will condition the hard baked soil and get it ready, nutrient and bacteria wise, for growing.