The question really is whether you think you'll get a hard frost (e.g. the moisture in the soil actually freezes to any extent) or not. The tubers will survive in the soil with cool temperatures, just not frost. Remember, they are shallow root plants so you only need to freeze a couple of inches of soil and you'll kill or damage the roots. It would take several weeks of ground frost to kill the tuber (think about what happens at the end of the season.) I too am in Zone 5, and am on the side of a lake (which usually means our temperatures are slightly higher than others) but you are more daring than I. But my reason is that most of mine are 8" tall already and I don't want to have to bother with coverings for frost warnings. Most of my tubers took 15 days to go from nothing to a cuttable sprout. Were they in the ground, that sprout would have had a couple of sets of leaves above the ground and would have been highly susceptible to frost. The up-side of your plan, however, is that even if the above-ground part gets frosted, a root system should get established as well, so a new sprout should come up quickly. Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you. Cheers, Russ

If you have made yourself a shade house/area you could use that later in the season to start your seedlings of broccoli, etc. You've mentioned that your property is windy so you might want to make getting wind protection a high priority. Wind will whisk away water from your plants like you wouldn't believe. Also do a check around for making yourself some plant shaders. Homemade trellising, horticultural mesh and shade cloth - even ancient bedsheets (at a pinch, and out of sight of the curious!) can all help to protect young plants until they are well-settled. If you plan to grow from seed - it definitely pays to have a set up that lets you start plants under shelter (wind, hot sun, any frosts) ready for setting out later. Some plants need to be direct drilled (sown straight into the soil) because they don't transplant well but others you can grow from seeds out of the ground and move in as land becomes free of the last crop. Some of the crops you've mentioned - asparagus and artichoke - are perennial and really need their own custom-assembled grow-site to give you great results. Some of the others - pumpkins and melons - are in for most of the growing time - particularly if you have several varieties on the go. You might want to consider setting up a separate place for crops that aren't going to be around for months at a time. One way past that is to get the vines to grow up a frame. I think there's information about this style of growing in the Square Foot Gardening forum. As summer seems to be a 'quiet' time because of the heat - you could use the interval to set out your beds and build some of the shelter and workspaces you could find useful. (Better than winter, for true!)

The weather this year has given us "slow starters" a window of opportunity. Everything you mentioned, with the exception of the tomatoes, can and should be direct seeded in the garden. I fear you will have to buy tomato plants, unless you know someone with too many seedlings. Perhaps you could work a trade, seeds for tomato starts. If it were my plot, I'd lift the landscaping cloth, spread the compost, plant, and then use the leaflitter and mulch to keep weeds down as much as possible. It is going to be very difficult to judge how big a hole to cut in the cloth for a mature plant. Your tomato seeds can be started in late June for a fall garden. Your county's agricultural extension agent has a list of vegetable varieties suitable for your area. This free list will have the best Texas-friendly tomatoes on it.

I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was thinking of not starting anything early this year and just plant all in the ground. This will be only my third summer of growing and still in the learning process of it all! I have started my plants indoors the last two years, but last year I did it too early and most of them got to leggy and almost all died after transplant. I had much better luck the first year I did it. Looking to plant Tomatoes, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Basil, Zucchini, Lettuce.