My first year of gardening was in my mid teens (I was given a fairly sheltered life and still prefer it). I had made two 2Âx4Â raised beds 12" high, filled them with topsoil harvested from an out of the way location (on the property) and a few bags of store-bought manure. My parentÂs place happened to be where a full grown bodybuilder would be lucky to get the tip of a shovel 3" into undisturbed ground , so the filling of the beds was an ordeal. I planted each of the beds with 3 rows of red bush beans (I donÂt know why anymore, I was just a kid). I watered and waited, watered again the next day, and again the next. Then at one strange moment the next day I looked upon my creation and just happened to notice the five 18" tall tomato plants growing in each of the beds! You might think that at this point I was very excited about having plants in the garden, or that one of my parents was being nice, making sure that their child had a successful first garden - I tell you now that this was NOT the case! First, I was 15ish - not 5ish! - I knew there were differences between plants and had a bit of a grasp on the concept of time. There is no second point, but what I tell you now is that I had awoken a sleeping gardener who had coveted my land and claimed it as her own (sure she is my Ma and technically maybe it could have possibly been her own, but anyway). I listened to her excuses and cleverly concealed my rage eventually salvaging a bit of a "crop" from my remaining shaded/stunted red beans. Long story short - The next year I grew a 98 lb. pumpkin(who knows why? I was just a kid) - I was aiming for a 100+ but oh well ( IÂm still waiting for the "Pacific Giant" pumpkin) Oh, and I also had probably about 10 Roma tomato plants... :) Many years have passed... I have a garden at my own place now but continue to garden with Ma in the same spot (that has expanded quite a bit). It has been rewarding beyond words (even though the scars from that first year have left me a bitter, bitter husk of a person.) Pep talk time: Get back out there and garden! The fall crops of many vegetables are said to be better than the spring crop - especially root crops. The link below seems to be a good one for your state - it is from an interesting college called Purdue (where it seems that they are famous for making train parts in addition to gardening calendars). Check out Table 2. Too bad that you donÂt have a piece of ground that you could garden regularly for a while - IMO the ground improves quite a bit during the first few years. Maybe you could make raised beds and take the soil with you ? - I read somewhere that this was a French tradition. Best of luck to you! Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/ext/Pubs/ho/HO_186.pdf

I know it takes a little while for it to start really cooking and that once it does, if I add anything to it, I'm starting all over again, right? Because you won't be able to turn the pile, just fill the bin as you get materials ... keep topping it off with grass clippings, dead leaves and such, keeping a reasonable balance of "wet green" versus "dry un-green" stuff. End with a layer of dried leaves and pack them down in the fall. Let it sit until when you look about 6-8 inches down it's looking like dark crumbly stuff. If you aren't turning it and watering it, it takes longer to compost but it still gets there. By next spring you should have the center core of that bin as a nice finished compost. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheap Wire Compost Bin: Cold composting method

Thank You.It took about 5 weeks to develop that much roots and I did not use any hormone. The medium was sphagnum moss and perlite. I did transplanted in smaller pot I have no idea how many gallons. All I know it is 7" high and 7" wide.I keep it for the time being in what I call green house under fluorescent lights. Probably I will keep it that way until I take it out in May. Abe

Definitely beginner's luck! Meanwhile we had three houses sell out from under us when we were looking, and are still hunting for a cottage almost two years later. It worked out great for them because this house is head and shoulders above the listings she was showing me in a similar price range. Like, tiny one story cottages that looked like they were last updated in the 1970s compared to this updated 1.5 story. They did have to make a few compromises of course but nothing major. They never thought they could get something so nice.