Question regarding a garden

[solacemysoul]

Hello!
This is officially my first time posting on a blog board! I have several questions. First of all I am moving from an apartment without even a patio to a wonderful house complete with front flower garden. I am a gardening nut and have taken to apartment gardening where I have tomatoes, peppers, carrots... etc! Now I'm going this thur to dig up the ugly over grown garden at the new house and I was wondering even though it is July if there was anything worth planting in it? I already have a lovely hydrangea bush in there but everything else is weeded over. Any ideas would be much valued.
Also! I have to move all of my many plants to the new home... I have a sun room in the apartment for all of them (all being vegetable plants), and will not have room indoors for them all to continue growing. Can I plant these out back into the earth? They are fairly mature plants, some even bearing fruit. If not can I leave them in their pots out back? I am just concerned because they have never been outside let alone in the rain...
That's all any ideas/tips/comments would be greatly appreciated!
Amber

[Chris]

Yes, you can put them outside in their pots, perhaps leave them in the shade a couple days to get acclimated, or take them in at night.

You could transplant them in the garden, but this time of year it is dangerous to disturb a veggies' rootball, so I probably wouldn't.

Now, can you plant right now? Well it depends on where you live and how long your growing season is. Vegetables tend to take from 60 to 120 days to fruit. So if your frost date is greater than 120 days away, you can plant now, almost anything.

If not, you can still plant things that mature quicker or that can stand up or benefit from cooler weather. Carrots, brocolli, cabbage, spinach, any lettuce (or other leafy green you eat), cauliflower, brussel sprouts for instance. Zucchini can't stand up to frost, but it matures quickly so you could get a harvest in. The things you really might not have time for now are squash (though, if you make it into November without a frost you can do winter squash) pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers. Those would have needed to be in the ground already.

Perennial flowers can be planted of course, as can shrubs, trees, and bushes. Ornamental or edible.

[solacemysoul]

I checked my frost date and it's not untill the beginning of November so I think I might go ahead and do a little tester veggie garden out back! Otherwise I think I'm just going to plant some inexpensive blooming flowers out front to get the visual aspect out of it before the snow comes here. Your advice was really helpful I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty once more instead of planting my seeds in pots over the bathtub lol!

take care
Amber

Also* is it worth planting any herbs? I haven't had luck growing herbs inside much at all I'd like to try outside!

[Chris]

Most herbs do require full sun, so it isn't surprising you've had trouble inside.

Thyme is hardy through most of the country, is an attractive groundcover, and so you can plant it now. It is a woodly perennial and so you'll get it coming back yearly. It looks great spilling over rocks or walls or in raised beds.

Rosemary is hardy throughout the southern half of the country, is an upright woody shrub, and so can be planted now.

Mint is a perennial, but is invasive, and so I only recommend it in pots.

Basil is one of my favorite herbs to grow, fresh basil knocks the pants off dried basil. It isn't hardy, but you have time for a crop. Any plant where you're going to harvest the leaves, and not the flower or fruit, you have time for.

Oregano can also be grown from seed still, as can Parsely, Parsely is another favorite, and the plants can often live for two years with just a little winter protection (they die after two years old).