You could also grow some quick growing vegetables like Lettuce, Peas and Radishes.

Herbs that grow easily are Basil,oregano, thyme and rosemary. They are great for cooking with. Good luck with your garden!

Why do you plan to do containers rather than in-ground? There are a lot of drawbacks to containers.

carrots,lettuce are a cool season crop you should start them right away if at all.I would ditch the container idea and plant corn,zucchini,cucumber in the ground just wait till it gets warmer and free from frost.The containers might be 30 gallons but by being round you don't get much growing area to begin with for stuff like corn.Good lick.

IMHO container gardening isn't the way to go-unless you're in an apartment or something which has no place to dig a traditional garden.

Rethink round containers and go with rectangular ones, more space for plants. Also, NO CORN-it has to be planted in rows at least 4 deep for pollinization, you'll tie up your "ground" for a long time and get knobby, unfilled ears. I didn't see peppers, tomatoes and such which do well in containers.

Read the instructions which come with your planters or inspect the bottom for drainage holes, some are solid with thinner places for drainage holes to be knocked out. You need drainage. If yours are solid, consider ignoring the "holes" in the bottom and punch a couple about an inch from the bottom in the sides. That provides a reservoir of water in the bottom. One of the big issues with containers is they need a lot of water as the plants develop and if you forget for a day and it's hot outside...:-(

Visit your local library and pick up a book or three on container gardening, I've also attached a link to the container gardenig forum here at GW.

Good luck,

Ev

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening

Soil requirements for containers - should contain garden soil, peat moss, compost, perlite - if you can find these. About 1/4 peat, then the rest added to make a rich mixture. Peat needs to be hydrated well - takes awhile to absorb water before planting.

Your containers need drainage holes in the bottom, and some type of mulch - straw, grass clippings, etc. to the surface when seedlings emerge -

Agree tomato, peppers, onions, garlic, lettuce, herbs would be the best bet.

Bejay

I hope this is not all discouraging to you, but truly these folks are giving you good advice.

You live in the Deep South. Our seasons are dramatically different from folks who live up north and so are our gardening practices. However, that is not bad news. In our part of the country, we can be eating something fresh from our gardens 12 months a year. Honest!

Here's the first thing you need to know. We have 2, even three growing seasons:

Warm Season: begins right after your last frost date. Your

Average Last Frost Date is vital to know. You can find it on the internet. About a week after that date you can plant: tomatoes, peppers, beans, butterbeans, cowpeas, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, corn (though it really is a space hog. Better to just buy it.), sweet potatoes.

Because our growing season is so long, you can usually get two crops during the warm season. For instance, I plant green beans in April. Then, when it gets really hot, they quit producing, so I pull them out and plant cowpeas after them. Similarly, I plant cucumbers in the spring, and when they are done in early July, I pull them out and plant squash, and so on. This is called continuous cropping. You can find info on the web about it.

Then there's the late warm season. In mid August, I plant new green beans, and more cucumbers, and hopefully, my potted tomatoes perk up and they all bear until frost. In late August, it's time to start planting Cool Season crops.

Cool Season crops: These are vegetables that will get going in the late warm season and then yield food throughout the winter with little or no protection. These are: Broccoli, Kale, Mustard Greens, Collards, Turnips, Beets, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, lettuce.

It's entirely possible to plant some or all of the cool season crops in early spring too. They will make until hot weather moves in.

Now, while it is entirely possible to grow all or nearly all of these crops in pots, it is not possible to grow very much of them, nor to grow them as economically as you can in the ground. The primary reason for this is: A. Pots and potting soil are expensive. You need big pots to grow food: at least 5 gallons and 20 or more gallons is better. Pots that size can easily run more than $20 a piece IF you can find good deals. And then there's potting soil. You can easily use $7 to $12 worth in each of your big pots. Then there's fertilizer that must be applied at least every other week to your pots throughout the season and water which must be applied daily if not twice daily. In other words, container gardening is expensive in both time and money.

This is not to say that most of us don't grow some food in pots. Peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes do particularly well in the right pots. They are all plagued by alot of soil borne diseases when planted in ground, and you can completely avoid this with container growing. However, most of us use pots as supplements to the ground, not as the primary garden.

Finally, just a word to the wise. Your gift card notwithstanding, I would buy my bagged fertilizer locally. You will find it for much less cost, and there won't be shipping charges.

We truly do wish you the very best and will be most happy to help with as much info as you can stand! :)

Donna's advice is excellent. If you can grow in ground, it will be more work but less expensive. If you choose to do so, you might want to buy a good, basic gardening book, like the vegetable gardener's bible by Edward Smith. If you don't have decent land available for a garden, take some time to study container gardening in the garden web container forum. The soil mix you use makes all the difference.

Yeah, I would recommend going with peppers and tomatoes for your first time. They're easy to grow, hard to kill, and make lots of food for you. Best of all, they both grow quite well in containers.

One thing to note though, if you're getting premade soil (like miracle grow) you probably aren't going to need much in the way of fertilizer, as those are already mixed in with slow release fertilizers from the get go, and it is possible to over-fertilize.