Veggies vary in whether they are sensitive to photo period. The veggies you listed above are not, but many of the bulbing veggies like onions and garlic are. They don't get triggered to bulb up until the amount of darkness is in the right range. If you wish to grow these crops you will have to choose the variety you want. Onions, for example are long day and short day (require different dark period to bulb). There are also a few day neutral types which would probably work better if growing with other veggies. With your hot climate (summer anyway) you will probably find your best luck in the other 3 seasons for outdoor growing. Look into the crops you wish to grow to determine if they are warm season or cool season. Tomatos, cukes and peppers are all warm season while radish and lettuce are cool season. You just have to figure the amount of time the plants take to mature and pick the months where the average temps are closest to ideal. Warm season stuff ideal temps are 75-90F and cool season stuff ideal temps are 60-75F. Radish are quick (30 days or so), lettuce is also fairly quick (60 days or so, less if you harvest it young). Cukes are fairly quick (60 or so days until they start producing), but you want to allow at least a month of solid production before cold or extreme heat/drought do them in. Tomatos and peppers both require a long time from seed (at least 90 days). These are both crops you would do well to start indoors in soil and then 6 weeks after seed for tomatos and 8 weeks for peppers, put them outside in the ground. Consider growing the peppers in containers buried in the ground. They are perennials so you can take them inside when the weather gets cold and grow them on under lights and then put them back outside when it warms again. Hope this is of some help. Also, please post back how well the veggies (particularly the large crops like tomatos and cukes) do indoors for you under the floros. I have only attempted tomatos to fruiting under 400 watts of HPS lighting and wasn't terribly impressed. If I did it again I would probably go to 400 watts of MH and 400 watts of HPS combined. Oh, one other thought is to consider the pollination needs of the veggie. There are cukes that do not require pollination, but many do. This requires insects or your diligence to do it manually. The rest of what you listed doesn't require insect pollination, but fruit set may be enhanced on the peppers and tomatos with some insect pollination. Have fun!

Well, I did a little search for winter sowing Basil and Parsley, and I read that people in your zone have been winter sowing both just fine. However, my concern with Basil is that it is tender, so even though it sprouts, if you get a cold period, that could kill off the sprouts. Personally, I'm waiting until April to WS mine, but I'm also in a colder zone than you are. Parsley I'm going to WS as soon as I get some soil.

Vettin; Just noodling around the internet I found this website that looks pretty good for your area (http://users.sitestar.net/~jmfarron/bfgardening/NoVa_gardening.html). Many of the butterflies you will encounter are the same for much of the east. There are many many species of milkweed in North America of which Monarchs feed on a variety. The species of milkweed you are growing will determine whether you can grow it well in a pot. Do you intend to keep it there and not disturb it? Asclepias curassavica is a tropical milkweed, sometimes called bloodflower or mexican milkweed, and is an annual. It can be grown in a pot. It is a good one for a beginner. It is not too late to start it. However, you will not have a crop ready for early season Monarchs. Also, you will need more than you think. If you grow the annual though, it won't spread in the ground. You will have to ask the others about the dog thing though. I don't have one. Maybe plants some bushes for some of the other butterflies? Some spicebush for spicebush swallowtails? Dogs shouldn't get into that. Good Luck, Elisabeth

Hi CJ, I created a food garden in similar conditions two years ago with great results, and thought I'd share what I did... To begin I dug out the area (I chose a circle about 15 feet in diameter for the garden), and like you, I hit impossibly hard substrate less than a foot down. I mixed the loosened top layer of soil with a few bags of topsoil, manure, and some of the organic material under salvaged dead pinyon pines. I then fenced the area in, of course, mulched like crazy with straw, and hooked up some hose from my washing machine to give it graywater (not actually supposed to be used for vegetable gardening, but that's ridiculous unless you're washing soiled diapers). With that thick layer of straw, all the necessary moisture is retained between laundry loads (using appropriate biodegradable detergent only of course), and any plants that cannot grow up through the straw from seed are started indoors, hardened off, and transplanted into the garden. I would discourage raised beds anyway, as they don't benefit from the moisture-retentive and temperature-mediating properties of the ground. Also, rainwater cannot flow into a raised bed, only out of it. Sunken basins are much more appropriate for this climate (check out the book "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands" by Brad Lancaster, which goes into detail about this, as well as has a chapter on ancient Native American gardening methods). So, my three tips for gardening here would be: 1. Keep it small, this allows much more control over every part of the process, increasing yields. 2. Mulch like crazy... Oh, did I mention I have never had to pull weeds from my garden? 3. Pay attention to the weather and animals to minimize plant losses. Good luck to you!