You are already seeing that there is a rhythm to our weather. The trick is to plant the vegetables that will grow during each weather pattern. Here in central MS (our climate is very similar. My daughter lives in DFW), it goes kind of like this: In late March or early April (right after last frost date), plant the stuff that will heat check in mid summer: snap beans and tomatoes; and the long season heat lovers: butterbeans, peppers, and eggplants. And the short season heat lovers that will yield their space to something else in mid summer: cucumbers, summer squash, (Vine Borers make them a short season veg most years), and corn. As the snap beans and corn finish up (late June to early July), plant cowpeas, winter squash, and okra (this could have been planted earlier too). I also pull out cucumbers at this time and replant them, picklers this time. All of these thrive on the worst heat of summer. (with ample water). Oh, if you want a second crop of tomatoes, start your seeds by mid June. I usually leave the tomatoes in the ground through the worst of the heat, IF the plants look good. When it cools down in late summer, they will commence bearing again. If they look bad, I pull them out, add compost and fertilizer and plant fresh plants (no later than mid July) which will bear till frost. In mid July, I start seeds for collards, broccoli, caulifower, and cabbage in a place that has dappled shade. In late July, you can plant fresh snap beans. I like poles best for their flavor, and I think they do better in our heat too. In early to mid September, you can direct sow kale, mustard, and asian greens. In late September or early October, plant onions, carrots, lettuce, garlic, spinach, and set out your plants you started in July. I grow all my cool season plants under mulch and row covers, using my tomato cages as hoops. With the row covers, all these plants typically make it through the entire winter and we eat from them regularly throughout. There is an added bonus of growing this way. If you pick your greens, or cut the entire plant (do NOT pull them up by the roots) to harvest, there will be virtually no grit in them. The mulch and row covers keep dirt from splashing up on the leaves. It saves untold hours of cleaning greens inside. In February, I plant sugar snap peas. Some years, I get a harvest, and some years it gets hot too soon and I don't. On those years, I just plow the plants under the soil and figure their nitrogen fixing roots are a bonus to the soil.

I second George's suggestion that you start out with something that you like. If you like tomatoes, Black Cherry is a great one to start with because its flavor is outstanding, it is a heavy producer and it is relatively fast--you'll get ripe tomatoes within about 55 to 57 days of transplanting it into the garden. Sungold is another wonderful one with those same qualities, but it produces golden-orange tomatoes and takes about 60-63 days. Both of those are cherry types. If you want a larger slicing type, there are many hybrids that have some disease-resistance, produce well and produce heavily, including Jet Star, Better Boy, Whopper, Goliath, Celebrity, and Supersonic. If I were planting a 6' x 4' bed for a first garden, I'd put a trellis across the back of it and raise pole beans or something else that climbs on the trellis. The trellis would be simple...a couple of fence posts and either woven wire fencing, twine that you've run back and forth (pull it tightly between poles because with time it will sag) or lattice. On your trellis you could grow any of the following: pole beans, vining cucumbers, black-eyed peas (don't plant until the soil is really warm), a small-fruited vining winter squash or mini-pumpkin like Jack-B-Little (ornamental, but fun for kids), gourds (ornamental), luffa gourd (make your own sponge) or relatively small-fruited cantaloupe (muskmelon). You eve could have pole beans on most of the trellis and a couple of vining cukes at one end of the trellis. In front of the trellis, you could plant one tomato plant, using a tomato cage to support it. Divide you bed in half, and plant that tomato plant and its cage in the middle of one half of the bed so it won't be too crowded. That would leave you three more feet of space beside the tomato, and in that space you could plant any of the following: two pepper plants (one sweet, one hot, for example) or a couple of small eggplant plants, like Hansel and Gretel, or a bush cucumber like Saladbush or any combination of 2 of these 3: pepper plant, eggplant, cucumber or bush-type summer squash (like zucchini, yellow crookneck or straightnect squash or a pattypan squash). In the very front of the bed, you could plant a single row of radishes, or one of the short carrots like Short 'N Sweet, Petite 'N Sweet, Parmex, Tom Thumb, or Little Finger or a half-row of radishes and a half-row of carrots. You'd be surprised how much you can cram into a small space and the plants will shade the ground beneath their roots and help keep their own space cool. Mulching will help keep weeds down and make it a very low-maintenance bed. Above all else, have fun with it. Dawn

Find a local gardner to help you...tomatoes and peppers need at least 5 gal containers and larger is better...be sure and put a handful of epsom salt in planting hole of tomatoes and peppers, can add around plant and water in... (will prevent blossom end rot and also help grow healthy plant)....blight is bad and needs to be dealt with early in season....watering plants correctly is critical...not enough plant slowly dies...to much and plant slowly dies (lack of oxygen). make sure soils drain good...i use hydrogen peroxide when watering sometime (16 oz 3% per 5 gal water to help supply extra oxygen to roots)...make sure water is chlorine free (let sit in open container for 24 hrs) or garden hose chlorine filter...hope this gives you some ideas to think on...also foliar feed with good compost tea (pull up dirtdoctor on web for good compost tea formula) ...the indian

Cheese and crackers. Fruit bowl, veggie tray, egg salad or cucumber sandwiches as made for tea parties! Celery stuffed with cream cheese. I've made a frozen fruit slush. Take cans of crushed pineapple, fruit cocktail, sliced strawberries, bananas if you like. I drain all but the pineapple. Mix in a large bowl and add orange juice or Sunny D so that there is plenty of liquid. I've purchased the small plastic punch cups and pour the mixture in those and freeze on flat surface. Let them sit out a couple of hours before serving.