I'm not in your area, but a few general ideas -

Areas where there has been construction frequently have very compacted soil, so you'll likely need a good tilling. ALso, depending on how the construction went, they may have put some of the deep, poor soil on the surface. You may save yourself a lot of frustration if you get a soil sample to the local ag extension office (look online for a number to call for your area/state) for testing.

Probably the best thing you could do is add a bunch of compost. Find someone with a pickup, and get a couple loads of compost somewhere. When I lived in Chattanooga, mushroom compost was widely available - not up here, unfortunately.

If you get started with good soil, pretty much everything will grow well. Plant whatever you and your family loves to eat.

Ken

Look into constructing raised beds (square foot gardens) then you will not have to worry about the existing soil :-)

Judy

Check out this same topic discussion from further down the page. She is from NC too and there is already a good deal of info discussed there.

You might want to check out the regional gardening forums here too as there is one for your area and they can offer some good tips specific to your area.

I'd agree with Ken that new construction provides less than ideal soil and so some quality trucked in stuff with a good quantity of decomposed organic matter added to it would be of great benefit.

As to what to grow? With good soil and plenty of sunshine, you should be able to grow just about anything you want to in your zone.

Good luck. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Planning a first garden

Hi Troy & Chris,
Congrats on your new home. I know you are excited and bet you are watching or will be watching the construction process. My wife and I experienced the same thing back in 1996 in central Georgia.
We went to the county extension office and was surprised at all the information that was available for FREE. I regularly stop by even now as this is where we drop off our soil samples. For home gardens there is a $6 fee for the sample to be sent off and analyzed, but the results are mailed back to you. The sample bags are free and available at the extension office. Like I said, this is in Georgia, but I am sure that NC has similiar programs.
Click on the link below as I think this is your local extension office.
Oh, and I agree about the raised beds as previously mentioned. We have 52½ acres, but still have 3 raised beds in the back yard.

Regards,
Shot

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnson County Extension Service

Hi Troy & Chris,

We were new to NC 5 years ago too. And didn't know a thing. With some help from this site, a few books and talking to folks, we are now in our 5th year of veggie gardening. We have a 1 1/2 acre veggie plot. A 1/2 acre is focused on veggies permanantly and the other 1 acre is going to be a vineyard next Spring.

I love to talk veggies and share seeds so email me through my page here and I will help in any way I can. My husband and I live in Stokes county, on the Greensboro side, meaning we are closer to G'boro than any other big city.

Congrats on your new home and Happy Gardening.

Susan

It is hard to go wrong with raised beds. And they don't necessarily have to be fancy built boxes, either. A foot of compost mounded on the ground will work also. Gradually this will incorporate into what is below it to make a good garden-bed.

g'day troy & chris,

sounds the perfect place to cut to the chase and put in raised beds, no hard digging to be done at best throw some gypsum down first then start adding, you will be growing in short order.

we have pic's and details on our site may give you some ideas?

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

1- In NC you can get a soil test for free. It's part of what you pay taxes for here. There's a backlog this time of year (well, always, but especially this time of year) so allow for a few weeks on return.

2- We have great extension services in NC - http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/

3- Hope you like clay. Hope you never "amend" your clay with sand like too many people do. Seems like a good idea to improve soil drainage, but it essentially just makes bricks.

4- Late-March to mid-April is the general start of summer growing season here for most stuff except green beans which can go a little earlier.

After reading that again I probably shouldn't have made a bold-looking list. I was just being quick/lazy so I made a list of points.

About #3...Clay isn't bad. It's hard to work, but can be nice when amended with organic material (compost, etc.) The hard part is getting it broken up to amend in the first place. Work in as much organic material and/or topsoil at least 6-8" and more if you can. Then prepare for the magic of all the weeds you've just kicked up. I'm not going to go on a weed control rant. Just be aware that if you have to disturb your soil in any way you're probably going to be finding weeds when the weather warms to their liking.

About #4...I shouldn't have mentioned the green bean thing without the qualifier that I meant the green beans can usually be one of the earliest planted and make it better than a plant that should go in later (like a tomato or pepper plant).

Here's a general planting/harvest calendar:
http://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/growingsmallfarms/plantingguide.html

If you can, check out before hand how many hours of sunlight your new garden will get. It'd be a shame to build nice big raised beds and find out the house blocks the sun all except for a couple of hours. Same thing if you have mature trees.

I completely agree. You don't care about what soil you have if you use raised beds with new soil "built" for them. I've even started a how to for new gardeners (like myself) to learn from my mistakes. Check it out if you like. Best of luck to you in your new home and with your new garden!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's gardening adventure...

I'm in the same situation in Apex, but coming from N. Raleigh.

With the current weather conditions (ie. drought) in our
area, I'm thinking of skipping the raised bed idea to begin
with. (BTW, I had raised beds before)

The clay soil will be much better at maintaining water/moisture levels than if you build a raised bed. This will come in real handy in June~August, especially if we're
still on water restrictions.

What I plan to do is,
1. Dig up the clay garden area.
2. Mix in soil ammendments. (Soil test from extension office is a great idea.)
3. Plant directly in this area and mulch well.

Now, if you plan on growing root crops such as potaotes or
carrots, you probably will need a raised bed, as clay is
not very good for these.
But for others, this will be a really good water conserving
method to start out with.

Plus, if this doesn't work well, you're 80% of the way to
creating raised beds with this work!

Lee

Though not effected in Johnson County, most of Wake is now on "stage 2" water restrictions as of Feb. 15th.

No outside watering, no irrigation...no car washing...no government action for 2 years along with massive development without requirements for recycling water on construction sites leading to this crap...

Through the local paper I'm bringing a little bad news about Clayton regarding water restrictions (town/city water service)...

"Clayton: No irrigation is allowed any day of the week. The prohibition applies to automatic systems and hand watering with a hose or bucket. Installation of new sod or new grass seed is also banned."

For those that are out of area and wonder how an area that gets 4' of rain a year and is still getting 3'-ish rain during our drought gets to this point...seriously...NO ONE DID ANYTHING FOR TOO LONG. It was just as much the politician's own blundering as much as it was lobbyists for developers.

...and honestly...It's a lot of fault of the citizens, too, based on how taken for granted our water use is around here.

That said, Raleigh expects banning a quality-of-life issue like gardening will save them up to 5% water use a day. Meh...