I've started them in late February in Alpine 4500ft elev. But it's a real struggle until the soil temperature reaches 60F which doesn't happen here until about late March. To start a month early requires warming the soil with a mini greenhouse. Also helps to have black plastic or weed barrier on the soil surface. My best method for extra early is black surface and clear poly over that. Once the plants are up keep it below 100F by day and as warm as possible at night. So ventilation of the clear poly is essential on sunny days. A black weed barrier or black poly, plastc, is a huge plus for weed control. When your average of the high and low air temp reaches 60F, the soil should also. That would be a good time to plant. Houston reaches ave air temp of 60F about Febr 20. So you could plant now with soil warming or in a month to 6 weeks without. With all out effort I can advance melon first harvest by 4-6 weeks. But around here that requires careful attention until last frost usually in April but 24F in May last year. I did harvest a watermelon in June last year with 24F in May and a brutal hailstorm in June. But it was a lot of work and most were lost to the hail, all except one area covered with hail netting. This post was edited by fruitnut on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 15:45

I personally think that anytime of the year is great for compost applications too. You may want to rake your lawn before you add your compost. Compost lasts longer than chemical fertilizers. The sulfates and nitrates wash way and deeper into the soil with every rain so you get an quick result as opposed to compost that lasts for years. ********************************************************** Fall fertilizing for lawns and shrubs begins in October... You will need aprox 4lbs of screened compost per every 100 square feet of lawn. The amount can be increased or decreased depending on the condition of lawn. ~Rodale & Staff Pg. 285-287. With compost, you should use it generously in your applications to yeaild the best results. ~Rodale & Staff Pg. 285-287. J.I. Rodale & Staff, The Complete Book of Composting, 1971 (Pennsylvania: Rodale Books, Inc.), 8. Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon.com

Tomorrow (Sunday) it's supposed to be up into the low 60s and sunny, so I am going to plant the above mentioned bulbs and etc.. This afternoon while I was outside hauling rocks, my Blue Tick Hound dog, Bonnie Belle, got one of the bags off the table, and chewed it up. I don't know if she ate any of the bulbs, but I only found three. The kittens may have batted them under the sofa. Don't know where the rest ended up. That concerned me, but she didn't get sick. Man, there was dirt all over the carpet and floor! She likes to chew up plastic bags. She must have had one swell time. What a mess!

After a few failures I was very successful at germinating and growing them. I have at least three different types. I started last late last summer (2010) and they are now producing fruit. The fruiting ones were called "Carribean red" in the store but I have some with purple and green trunks that are called "red lady" I started this past spring which have little fruit on them though the trees are Anyway... contrary to what I read, I did not strip the pulpy coating on the seeds or dry them out, I just planted them in soil, and kept them semi moist. They sprout in a 3-4 weeks with a 60%+ germination rate. One in 3 has been male which I pull from the ground as soon as I know I'm not going to get fruit and plant another in its place, generally near a banana cluster :-) I put five seeds in a shallow container made for lawn grass plugs, and move them into larger pots when about 1-2" tall. Mine I water and feed a quite a bit after they're in the ground. I give them fish emulsion, fireplace ash, and palm fertilizer (sparingly). All of mine have trunks larger than my thigh and are only 10-13' high. Just a note on edibility... tree ripened papaya are EXCELLENT eating, nothing at all like the ones you get in the market that were picked green and allowed to turn yellow in the store or at home, I liken them to cantalope in taste and generally almost as sweet. I don't think you can go wrong starting them now. Mine endured our last winter "unseasonably cold south Florida weather without losing a single one. Good luck Gary