IMO, The best thing you can do is go to your local Agricultural center or call them on the phone. They should have a horticulturist on staff and free advice and pamphlets. I think Rosemary will grow in you area. Please google Rosemary zone hardiness. Also you could check EDIS online. It is university based data. You can beef up your with kitchen scraps. No meats. Just veggies that are spoiling. Oak leaves work well too. It takes a few months for them to break down. The library is a good free place for gardening info.

Honestly, your best bet may be avoiding digging into the ground at all. Look into raised beds, and while you may have to pay some bucks up front for wood (although if you ask for warped boards or pieces with imperfections, you can get discounts at Lowes) and dirt, it could save you a lot of heartache in the long run. The depth of the beds all depends on what you plan on growing (roots like carrots and turnips require more depth than... say strawberries.)
Look into growing your food in hay bales or square foot gardening. Grow your own plants from seed using Winter Sowing, and you'll have so many babies you'll be giving them away. See if there's any communities around your area (Knoxville has Ijams Nature Center, for instance) that has local meetngs and gardening sessions throughout the year.
I think the dirt will be the most expensive part, but doing little by little will get you a long way ;) I'm also a teenager and I know the struggles with the dollar bills.

Winter Sowing will send you some free seeds for a SASE. Also check out the Seed Exchange on here. If you have never posted there, tell them you are a newbie looking for some free seeds.

You can plant stuff like jerusalem artichoke and garlic in the ground right now but it is too cold for most other stuff although there are plenty that you can start in the home or winter sow.

As far as your soil is concerned, if you have any fallen leaves left to rake up, toss that on the space you are planning your vegetable garden. It will decompose by the spring and help your soil. You can definitely grow straight in the ground. The yield won't be as good as growing in "optimal" soil conditions, but stuff will grow.

Hey Treeroots! Are you going to the Spring Knoxville Plant Swap? We are going to try. I'm winter sowing now. Hopefully I can trade and acquire more plants this spring. Did you have a good Holiday?

Promise :)

Promise, I probably will, if I can wait that long... See the swap thread for gushing. I don't wanna thread-steal ;)

GardenerLee - One thing I've learned about gardening is, nothing is cheap. There are more inexpensive ways of dealing with things, but never cheap! I've seen folks grow right out of the soil bag. That is probably the most inexpensive way to get started. You can also grow out of totes, I've seen that work well for city dwellers. If that is too tacky you can invest some money in containers and plant varieties that would do well in them. Raised beds and square foot gardening are very efficient but also an investment.

Sorry to go off topic on your thread. Please forgive me. I seen that TreeRoots had posted and got excited. Good luck with your veggie garden! Come back and let us know what you're doing.

Promise :)

I'm on a tight budget this year, so I might try the hay bale method, myself. I've seen people swear by it.

Stephanie! That has to be the most amazing way of gardening I've seen yet! We use straw for our potatoes anyway. We already have most of that here. I especially love how the watering is done. Thank you for sharing.

Hi I heard mention of Knoxville Plant swap but didn't see any dates. I am new to the area too and thought that the plant swap sounded like fun. Jean

Pfelinus, the plant swap in Knoxville is officially the East Tennessee Plant Swap. There's a thread, that at the time I am writing this is just below this thread, with the basic info. But I will give it here too since you mentioned it.

The Spring 2015 East Tennessee Plant Swap will be held at New Harvest Park, 4775 New Harvest Lane, Knoxville TN 37918 on Saturday, May 16, 2015. Setup will begin at 9:30am. Swapping will begin at 10:00am. We will have a pot-luck lunch at around 11:30am or noon. Please make plans now to come join the fun on swap day! As always, new gardeners are especially invited to attend. There are always plenty of plants in need of good homes, fellow friendly plant addicts excited about trading, and the best food around. Even if you don't have much to offer for trade, PLEASE come, make new friends, and be prepared to leave with lots of awesome stuff!

The swap is entirely free and absolutely nothing will be sold, but it does cost the coordinators a little to reserve the park and pay for hosting services for the website. A donation of two or three dollars per person, with a maximum of five dollars per family, would help us cover these expenses.

Find more details about the swap at the website, www.easttnplantswap.com. Also, consider posting your haves/wants on the Forum of that site. Closer to the time of the swap, the Forum will be buzzing with activity. I hope to see you at the swap!

GardenerLee, it is great to know that the new generation is interested in growing plants! Clay soil is hard to work with and it will get better each year if you can make compost. You don't need a fancy bin. Just start piling up leaves and grass clippings. Your neighbors won't charge you for these! The first 'garden' I had was pure clay in which I grew some pretty amazing tomatoes and pole beans on my neighbor's fence (with his permission of course). He called my garden beginner's luck! If you want to start growing now I would recommend that you go online for free seeds and start them in a sunny window. Yogurt containers with holes punched in the bottom cost nothing, If you live near a wooded area you can dig under the leaves and get some pretty good rotted compost and good dirt for the yogurt cups. If you have any gardening neighbors, talk to them! Most people I know who garden are happy to meet the beginner, and they also might gift you with plants. Read as much as you can, but don't be intimidated out of starting because you will be cautioned to death about all of the things that can go wrong. Just do it!

Hi GardenerLee,
Clay is hard to work with. Most important: NEVER try to work with it when it is wet. It will compact horribly. Also, avoid walking on your growing beds. Put down old boards or stepping stones where you absolutely must step.
When money is scarce, scrounging becomes your most valuable skill. Gathering leaves has been mentioned. If there are grocery stores or restaurants nearby, you might ask them if you can collect their waste vegetable matter for compost. Mix it well with fallen leaves in a pile or a trench.
Train yourself to keep an eye out for anything being thrown away that could possibly be "recycled"/re-purposed. Anything from discarded pallets to old dresser drawers can provide wood for raised beds. (even flimsy wood will last a season.) Just avoid anything that has been chemically treated (usually has an ugly, greenish-gray overtone and often has a chemical odor) Treated lumber should never be used near anything you plan to eat, since the toxic chemicals leach into the soil.
One last note, if you are able to make a single significant investment in gardening, I recommend a good digging fork (aka "potato fork"). A decent one will cost you $40 or more, but if you take care of it you can pass it on to your kids. It is the best tool you will find for loosening and "fluffing" soil and mixing in amendments (compost, etc). A cheap one will break, especially working with heavy clay soil, but a good one will serve you well for years. A lot of people will say a spade is the most important tool, but I use a fork for many of the same jobs. If you've loosened things up with the fork, you can get by with a lower quality spade to move them.
Happy gardening.