I am a Georgia transplant myself and liked it here. The winters are short and growing season is long, compared to New Englan. But there is one draw back: The natural soil here is not that good. It is mostly red clay. So if you want to start a garden patch or plant trees you have to do quite a lot of work to amend the soil. I did it mostly by adding lots of top soil, leaves, compost, manure, leaves and also some double digging and screening to get rid of the small stones. I also hunt alot of worms from here and there and let them loose in my garden. They mostly are suffering from malnutrition (LOL) but after being introduced to my garden they gain some weight. In Connecticut the soil was excellent, dark black and worms were plenty and fat(grin)

Moni, I love those first pictures; plants can be so sculptural. Down in Bowlegs, where the dandylions and purple henbit have been blooming since the last of Feburary, the hyacinths, species tulips, early daffodils, forsythia, and quince have come and gone. The heather is about to finish blooming, while the Dianthus, Darwin tulips and deep purple "Cemetary" Iris are blooming in full force, with muscari sprinkled about. Both the old fashioned purple and the Confederate violets are flush with blooms. The purple looks especially nice with the new growth on the blue spruce sedum where the two have set up shop together. The "Burning Heart" tulips planted late last year (December!) have been stealing the show in the front beds with absolutely *huge* flowers that just laughed at all the rough weather. Strawberries are beginning to color up, and the rabbiteye blueberries are covered in blooms and if the number of blooms is anything,it looks like the red mulberry tree is going to have a bumper crop. (My Grandson adores mulberries) The lilac and clove currants are lending their perfume to the air and so many plants with fragrant leaves are up that I probably spend half my garden time just wandering around touching and smelling. :^) The race was on between the Old Blush, the Green Rose and yellow Lady Banks as to which would bloom first, but the Lady won by a whisker. The leaf buds on the crepe myrtles are beginning to unfurl, and there are hopeful buds on the peonies. Merryheart, like you, my peonies have yet to bloom, but the foliage sure looks nice. Dawn, I wish I had some kind of water feature in the yard to grow water lillies in; what a lovely flower. Still, the majority of the Iris haven't even sent up buds yet, and neither have the long rows of Twin Sisters daffodils, so it looks like there's still plenty of spring left to enjoy. :^)

Two feet between plants will give them plenty of root space and above ground space, though some of them may overlap a bit. I think that seed packs will tell you to plant a little closer but that is because (for picking purposes) it doesn't matter too much if plants of the same vareitey overlap each other alot. I would save the plant food spikes for container grown houseplants. For fast growing garden vegetables you want evenly spaced nutrients that the entire root system has access too. You could go with liquid blue stuff periodically, or mix granular garden fertilizer, or slow release pellets into the soil before you plant.

Thanks for the replies. I didn't plant any Jalapeno's. I planted sweet banana peppers. I also planted Pasilla's and Lilack Belle's and some tepins.