Dana,
We are in Central Texas so here's some answers/opinions from a fellow Texas gardener.
You are in the USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) zone 7a. Do a search on USDA and you'll find a map and explanation of normal high and low temperatures.
Yes, do get your soil tested before you start to dig. Your local Agrilife Extension Agent or the nearest USDA office can do that at a very reasonable cost.
You don't dig rows--you dig a square or rectangle, and plant in rows.
Don't spray with Sevin (referred to as "7" in your post). There is no need to kill what may not be there. It does not repel animals.
Animals like squirrels can be repelled by scents. When you need to worry about that next spring, we'll handle it.
Spend the winter preparing your garden, and in March you can plant lettuces, broccoli, chard, cool weather crops. You can spend part of the winter studying plant catalogs and gardening books, and adding to your knowledge.
Don't rush out and buy compost, manure, whatever until you get the results of your soil test. If you need to add something, it will probably be compost. Buy from a reputable nursery, not a big box store. All compost is not the same, and a nursery will stand behind their product.
You don't fertilize with kitchen waste. Kitchen scraps (not meat, not dairy) go into a compost pile, where they break down with grass clippings, leaves, newspaper, etc. and become compost, which then goes on the garden. Compost is not a fertilizer, but a soil improvement.
Crop covers allow light in. They are also referred to as row covers. I doubt if you will need them.
Hope this has been helpful. Feel free to visit us at www.rgf-tx.com which is our website about our farm. We have gardening tips, recipes, photos and chicken and bee stories and a contact if you have questions or comments. We are not selling anything, just sharing our experiences on our little farm. We also have a free e-newsletter if you want to sign up for it.
Just wait until you have your first fresh vegetable from your garden-all the work is definitely worth it!

Hi, Tex! Welcome to the great and wonderful world of gardening. Just a note to let you know that you have an outstanding mentor in Marlingardener, whose post was exacting. Misterbaby.

Thank you for your response Marlin. It sounds like I can learn alot from you. I found a website that told me my zone is 3. So its really 7? Interesting :) Thank you for answering all my questions. I was hoping to get started planting soon. So you think I should wait until March? I found a planting guide that told me the only thing I can plant now is spinich. Is that correct?? I dont want spinich...at least not right now. My biggest loves as far as veggies go are lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and corn..and I would love to plant some watermelon or cantelope. My kids love that stuff!!! So if I find a spot in my yard somewhere where the garden will be and get some dirt to be tested, does that mean the dirt will be the same all over? Im assuming so but please let me know if Im wrong. Im so glad to have stumbled upon this website and a fellow central texas gardener that seems to be very knowledgeable. I will definately check out your website! Thanks and Im sure you will hear from me again soon!!! Dana

Oh yeah, and potatoes would be great too :)

Dana,
Your soil should be fairly consistent throughout your yard, unless you are in a new home and the contractor brought in fill dirt. If that is the case, you will need to have every spot you want to plant checked out.
I know it's hard to wait, and all gardeners want to jump the gun and plant right now, but please, to keep from being disappointed, wait until spring and start your garden then. You'll have plenty to do preparing your site, and your work will pay great dividends.
Melons, cucumbers and potatoes take a lot of room. There are bush type cukes, or you can trellis them on a fence, but melons and potatoes are ground gobblers.
I'm not sure about the zone 3 thing. Perhaps it is the alternative zoning that has popped up in recent years. However, most gardeners, garden suppliers, and garden books use the USDA zoning.
Glad to be of help, and remember that what works for one gardener may not work for another. However, I'll be glad to discuss gardening with you any time!

Thanks again Marlin! We've been in this house for almost 3 years and the house itself is 13 or 14 years old so I suppose the soil will be the same everywhere. Yes, I am anxious to jump in but I will spend time getting things ready and plant the good stuff in March! Question: how long does it take for soil test results to come back? Since I have a small yard, I will try to stick to things that dont take up alot of room. So take something like onions. If you plant in a 3x3 area, how many onions (like the big white or yellow ones) can grow there (assuming that ALL OF THEM grow which I know is not always the case)??? Im just trying to get an idea of how much space I will need and which veggies I should stick with to maximize the space I have. Thanks again!

Dana,
How long to get soil test results varies. If you send it in now, not long. However, if you send it in April, a LONG time!
Your onion question--get slips (they look like tiny green onions, and don't worry if they look a little dried out on top. Usually available in Feb. or March at feed stores and big boxes and Wallyworld) and plant them 3" apart. Then when they start to grow and are green onion size, pull every other one and enjoy! The others will grow to be big. They are ready to harvest when the stops start to flop over. You can plant onion rows about 18" apart. I plant two rows 18" apart, then leave a walking path, and plant two more rows. That way I can reach to harvest from either side of the close rows.
Please use the contact on our website--I feel like we are abusing GW by having all these lovely conversations on their dime. If you contact us through the website I'll send you our personal e-mail address and we can chat all we want.

How big of an area do you have available? The smaller the area, the more concentrated your planting will have to be and you will have fewer vegies to choose from. That being said, there are dwarf/compact varieties of almost every type of veggie available. There is an important rule however: grow what you (and your kids) will eat. You mention onions. Yes, there are wonderful varieties of onions that taste much better than the ones from the grocery store, but onions take a long time to mature (2.5 - 4 months depending on variety) and thus will occupy that space for a long time. You have to ask yourself is the onion worth it, or is it better to have two crops of something in it's place.

When thinking about those home grown vegetables that are leaps and bounds beyond grocery store veggies, I would have to say the following are your best bets:

Peas
Beans
Carrots
Tomatoes
Potatoes (*)
Lettuce
Spinach
Celery
Cucumbers
Radishes
Broccoli (*)
Melons (*)

The ones marked with an asterisk are not easily adapted to small spaces in that they are either too big, require too much space, or draw too many nutrients. Does not mean that they can't be grown in a small space, just that they will require special handling and represent a real trade-off.

The key to success, as Marlingardener has pointed out, is to grow the soil. Once you have grown the soil, growing the veggies becomes that much easier. Get to know what your soil is like (from external tests but also from your own testing and exploration), know what your soil needs, and for God's sake don't call it dirt :-)

Michael

Haha, Sorry michael. Did I call it dirt? I certainly meant soil since I would never grow my veggies in dirt :)

Isnt there some way to test the soil at home? I read there are strips you can purchase but will it tell me the same thing as if I was to send it off to be tested? Also, what about a local nursery? Can they test it for me?

The zone 3 you read about was relating to the average last and beginning frost dates. Texas A&M divided the state into 5 areas for these dates. The zone 7 is relating to the lowest temp generally found in an area.

I think the biggest thing you need to know about growing vegetables in north central Texas, is that we have 2 growing seasons. We start in late January with onions and have most things planted by the end of May. Then again in mid July, we start planting for the Fall. Planting certain things even a week late will really reduce their production as much as planting them too early. Either the heat or insect arrival will hurt them.

I will say I like growing things here. Once you get the hang of it, it's fun so don't get discouraged.

Home test kits are pretty much useless as they are notoriously innaccurate. Your best bet is to have the test done through your extension office (I guess, because I'm Canadian and we don't have extension offices up here).

Here is what a typical soil test result will look like (mine from the spring):

{{gwi:118170}}

As you can see, it measures pretty much everything of importance, especially pH, organic matter, calcium, micro-nutrients, etc. Then, at the bottom, it gives a reccomendation for inputs. These are largely geared to a scale of agricultural production, but a "home and garden" test may be better suited to small scale.

Without the test, I would not have known that my soil had a fairly high pH (thus I do not add lime, I add sulphur), had a high organic matter level (it was a former cattle pen), and was high in zinc, copper, iron and especially boron. This knowledge allows me to cater my inputs to what the soil needs, and also alerts me to watch out for specific problems with plant growth.

A couple of valuable tests you can do at home are the following:

1. Soil texture/composition: Using a large quart mason jar, fill the jar with about 3-4 inches of your garden soil. Dig a small hole, about 6-8 inches deep and try to get all levels (topsoil and subsoil). This soil should be then well sifted, and then pulverized until it is a very fine, even texture. Into the jar with the dirt, fill with water, leaving about 2 inches of air. Add a drop of dish soap to the water, and seal the jar tightly. Tape a piece of masking tape to the side that runs from the bottom to the top of the water level (this is to make the marks that you will be making below). Shake the holy bejezus out of it. After five minutes of vigourous shaking, when your arms can't shake any more, hand it to someone else and have them skake it for five more minutes. Then, set the jar down in front of a bright light and start to record. After one minute you will see a defined layer - this is the amount of sand in your soil. Then after about twenty minutes, you will see another definite layer - this layer as this is the silt. After about three days, you will see one more defined layer - this is the clay. On top of the clay you will see a bunch of settled junk like weed seeds and such. This is the residual organic matter and need not be much concern.

After everything has settled over a few days, this is what you will see:

{{gwi:118171}}

The bottom layer (up to 0.75" is the sand) - disregard the weird looking lines in this layer, that is just a reflection of the wood table. Then the silt runs to about 2". Then the clay up to just about 2 3/4".

If you then do the math for this sample, the sand is 27% (that would be 0.75/2.75), the silt is 45% (1.25/2.75) and the clay is 27% (0.75/2.75). This means that my soil is a silty-loam soil, confirmed by practical experience.

That being said, there are patches of my garden that are more sand, or more clay. I know these areas and know what to plant there. It is great to run tests, but getting your hands dirty and exploring the soil is very important.

2. drainage: related to the soil composition test, a drainage test will be very valuable. Take a standard, empty coffee can and cut out the bottom. Dig a hole about 4-6" deep with the same diameter of the can. Put the can into the hole and press down to seat it firmly. Then, fill the can with water. If after an hour your can has not fully drained, then you have a fairly slow draining soil (typical of clay based soils). However, if your can is fully empty after, say, 30 minutes, you have alot of sand and will have problems with nutrient leaching.

In both cases, obtaining the data is relatively easy. Knowing what to do with that data is the start of your gardening experience.

Hope this helps.
Michael

Thank you shebear. I appreciate yourr comment. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time so I think it will take alot to discourage me. Maybe if I plant 5 veggies and none of them grow...that might cause me too throw in the towel but otherwise...Im really looking forward to the experience!

Marlin-I will contact you through your website :) A very nice one it is too :)

Because you say you are limited on space, I'd like to suggest that you look into a combination of lasagna gardening and square foot gardening. It will give you a much bigger yield per area that growing in rows will, and it's easier to get rich soil in a new garden, because you will only be putting your compost exactly where it's needed. If you do a search on this site, you'll find tons of information. There is a separate forum here dedicated to square foot gardening. Basically, you would go out and find things like leaves, manure, and kitchen scraps (vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, but no animal products) and even cardboard and newspaper, and layer them where you would like to plant. They will break down over the winter and give you a good spot to plant in the spring.

I'd also highly recommend that you purchase a copy of the book the Vegetable Gardener's Bible. It will tell you lots about basic techniques, and also provide information about each of the types of veggies you might consider growing.

Thanks for posting that report Michael! Lots of good information there :) Hopefully when I get mine, I'll be able to understand it ! LOL

Thanks Lantanascape...I will check into lasagna gardening and read more about it. It sounds like that will be a good thing for me to do considering my space.

Another way to increase your garden size is to grow in self watering containers. I have started using them and have a regular garden on my deck. if you are interested in more information on containers please E-mail me.
Glenn