Hi Brenda, I'm a New Orleans native, raised in St. Bernard and displaced due to Katrina. So now I live in the Tupelo area which is NE Mississippi. So I'm a bit farther north and east, but you should just love the Natchez area. It is a great gardening city / gardening culture, and great climate. I'm not sure of the soils but I would think it is delta soil which is much better than up here -- clay. Although I've gotten used to it and clay does have its merits (water retention in a drought). The best sites for you are msucares on the web (from Mississippi State University). They have county agents, and agriculture programs, master gardeners etc just like LSU. Also felderrushing.net -- he's a gardening guru, very down to earth, and has a radio show on Friday a.m. and repeats on sat. am on MPB -- Mississippi public radio, you can find all this on the internet. I think you are in zone 8 and so you will be a few weeks sooner and a few weeks later for the first and last frost dates respectively, but it is not that much different from the northshore New Orleans. Rainfall is about 55 inches per year in Miss. I beleive, although alot of the state is at a deficit due to drought, Jackson MS, Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta all 15 to 19 inches deficit for the year. Not sure about Natchez. There are several excellent Mississippi gardening books: Passalong Plants, Tough Plants for Southern Gardens I beleive both by Felder Rushing, also author Norman Winter, and Steve Bender; also Southern Living Garden Guide and / or Southern Living Landscape Guide or similar titles by Southern Living. I think you will very much enjoy Natchez, I've always felt that Louisiana and Mississippi were sister states, having grown up s.e. of New Orleans and just a stone's throw from the Miss. Gulf Coast, where many of us spent many weekends and summers.

Seems like most of Florida is great for birding, including Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park. There should be a few migrants still going through at that time, although most will be crossing Kentucky! http://www.waltonoutdoors.com/rocky-bayou-state-park-a-perfect-place-for-family-adventure/

Thanks.... As I am typing this my wife is telling me that she already told me and that this is proof that I don't listen to her.

I bet you'd get lots of activity on the Texas Gardening Forum (that's where the Ft Worth & San Antonio Swaps have been posted for years).