First the ground has to be workable, which is confusing for me because that is about 11 months a year, here. If it is too early, you can spread Black plastic over the bed. Black plastic holds the heat at night to ward off freezing, so you can turn the soil mid day. A trick for next year, prepare the soil in late Fall, as if you are going to plant it the next day. In the Spring All you have to do is turn it once to add amendment. For now when you can push a pencil all the way into the soil it is ready to work, remove the Plastic & till. As for planting seeds, you need the soil temperature, use a agriculture thermometer to check the temperature of the bed soil. You can put transplants in a tunnel, to ward off any late frost. When no more hard freezes are likely you can use "wall of water" to keep the chill down.

"consistantly burns his trash (plastics and all)." There are few places that I know of that this is legal. maybe it still is in Pensyltucky. Big time bad practice. I dare say I'd drop a dime on him (and I live in the land of "Live Free or Die"). You might try the container gardening board for really good answers to these questions if you want to go with containers. Organic seeds- try www.highmowingseeds.com . More compost is better compost- 50/50 with garden soil is a great start, but I'm sure that the "experts" will debate that. Bigger containers are better containers for tomatoes- 5 gallon buckets will work. Smaller containers tend to dry out faster- one of the disadvantages to container gardening. The fact that they warm up quick in the spring is a plus, however, when starting out. Strawberries will send out runners and multiply- are you sure you can't plant in the ground? They come back every year, getting stronger.

The real question is, what kind of soil do you have NOW? Bananas aren't terribly picky about soil but will do best in a soil that well-drained and stays neither too wet nor too dry, and has lots of organic matter in it. Probably the worst is soil that is sandy and/or low in nutrients. I wouldn't recommend trying them in 100% compost but I can't think of any soil--sand, clay, or anything in between--where bananas wouldn't benefit from the addition of lots of organic matter. Maybe a peat bog, but I suspect that's not what you have in Texas! Aside from soil, what bananas need to grow big and fast are lots of sun, lots of water (but NOT waterlogged soil!) and lots of fertilizer, especially nitrogen and potassium.

Right now is the time to plant bulbs. I planted 700 tulips last year and lots of people would stop by to let me know they were taking the long way home to pass by and see the garden. It was a lot of fun. I just added some bagged top soil and compost without really bothering too much about quantities. You plant them at twice the depth of the size of each bulb - I mean, if the bulb is 2 inches in diameter, you plant them 6 inches deep. Good luck! And don't forget to add bone meal to the planting holes. I actually finished planting late October last year. You have to plant before the first frost. And please get one of these bulb planters you step on. They are so much better than digging by hand. Though when you find a stone, it's always a pain.