Hey!

We are in Lakeland, Fl... We have about a 12x12 area that we made for our summer garden... Which bombed! They only things that really produced, were a few tomato starters I bought from the Heirloom Seed Co... Buti don't know if that since they are up north, their earliest ship date was still maybe too late, because some of the starters only produced like 1-2 regular tomatoes... The cherry tomatoes made about 2 pints worth total... And two larger varieties didn't even produce any. I don't know if it was because I started them late or if it was our soil or something else. We mixed in organic soil and organic mushroom compost in with our soil about 6 inches deep.

The other stuff in our garden that bombed was broccoli (figured out it was wrong season, brussel sprouts, some sort of pea or bean (apparently it was a winter variety, some little peppers (they only grew about a few inches up).

So, we are trying again!

I have a pretty big yard, so I could move my garden spots... My side yard has full sun, and it's an area of maybe 30x100 (I'm a bad estimator), but there is no water hose access over there... Just a sprinkler or two.

Our current garden spot is kind of under a huge oak tree, so part of day some of the garden is under the shade.

I could also make 1big or 2med above ground plots next the 12x12, and that would be mostly in direct sun all day.

IF I should do above ground ones, do I cover the bottom in plastic or newspaper to prevent weeds growing up?

Next question when and how would I start the following seeds? (all the following seeds are organic if that matters)

Carnival carrots

Radishes

Swiss Chard

Edmonson cucumber

Crystal Apple cucumber

Early Fortune cucumber

True Lemon cucumber

Watermelon Moon and Stars

(herbs-common thyme, chives, cilantro, parsley)

This garden is really for my almost 3GS old daughter and I... My husband will help me with the building of it, but the rest is up to us! And she loves picking things, and there really wasn't much to pick this summer- other than weeds;-)

Please help!

I really want to do this right. We don't have compost, so if anyone also in the area knows of a good, inexpensive organic soil source in our area, that would be great.