Soil of the pine barrens tend to be acidic, quite sandy and nutrient poor. I'd recommend just adding a lot of compost to your intended planting area. Compost will bump up the organic matter and nutrient content, tend to neutralize the acidity and help to retain moisture. The problem with excessively sandy soil is that it goes through any organic matter rapidly. So add a minimum of 6 inches of compost before planting this season and mulch during the season with additional compost. Repeat in successive seasons and eventually you will get a decent soil. But it doesn't happen overnight :-) And start your own compost for collecting and processing your own organic matter.

And you might want to visit the Soils and Compost forum, search the archives and review a lot of the threads. If you can winnow out those who offer only their personal opinions stated as dogma, there's a lot of excellent info to be found. And do some online research into soils and soil improvement as well......unfortunately, even a basic "Soils 101" presentation exceeds the capacity of a GW forum response. It's a pretty complex issue :-)

And if you are interested in retrying your attempt at container gardening, visit the Containers forum. Growing plants in containers is vastly different from growing them in the ground and that forum is excellent in the quality of the information it presents.

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil, Compost and Mulch forum

Gardengal48, thanks much for the info and suggested links. I see from your "My Page" that you have a solid background so I truly value your advice. I could purchase compost in a store, but that's not cost effective. Sounds rudimentary, but I mentioned that I'm a novice. So, how do Y-O-U collect your compost? In a ceramic container? Metal trash can? Open air pile surrounded by mesh wire? Other?? I know compost consists of discarded vegetable/fruit skins and egg shells, dead leaves, but what else?
Thanks again.
p.s. Just discovered using this site's map that I'm Zone 6, not 7b as I originally thought, not that it makes a difference for this question.

You can make compost anywhere, so no, location is not an issue :-) There's tons of information out there about how to build a compost bin and what and how much to put in it and what to leave out. The FAQ's of the Soil/Compost Forum should get you started as will reading through appropriately titled threads but Googling will turn up countless sources as well.

I have a small garden too filled with plants and no space for a compost pile, plus I use a huge quantity of it each season, so I buy mine in bulk by the cubic yard. I also live in an area where recycling and municipal composting is very active, so I don't mind contributing my refuse to the cause.

When you are just getting started with a garden or if space is an issue, it's virtually impossible to generate enough compost for your needs. Because it is a process of accelerated decompostion, you need a whole lot of input for not very much output. For your purposes, I'd look for a bulk supplier as well, at least initially. Bulk soil supply or landscape supply yards are good possibilities, but look into what municipal sources might be available as well. Yard waste recycling is becoming a big deal in many parts of the country.

But by all means start your own for future use, if you have the room. There's about as many ways to construct a compost pile or bin as there are suitable ingredients to include in it, so research what will work best for you. FWIW, a 3 bin system, usually constructed of wood or wood and mesh screening, is very popular. The first section is the 'incoming' pile, with scraps added daily. This gets transferred to the second section once it is full - the activity of the transfer process typically gets things cooking rapidly. This is the 'working' pile. Once this heats up to an appropriate temperature, it is transferred to the third for the cooling down or finishing stage. This is the 'finished' pile and is the stuff ready to use on your garden.

I've attached a link (.pdf file) on how to construct a 3 bin system.

Here is a link that might be useful: building a 3 bin compost system

You can get lots of info & help on the Soil Compost & Mulch Forum, too!