With weeding you start asap and just keep at it. There's no trick to it. The longer you wait the more weeds you'll get.

What are these onions? Is it garlic? Or leeks? Or a wild onion like weed? I don't know of any onions which would survive your winters.

Hi! I’m zone 6, too. I’ll give what advice I can! At least what works for me. You can take it or leave it. :)

First off, are you wanting to plant the whole plot this year? If not, you could make lasagna gardens in half of it (or some other proportion), and then try to manage the other half this year. Then the lasagna half (or whatever) would be beautiful for next year, and you might not be overwhelmed. :) just an idea. If you’re not familiar with lasagna gardening, there is a lot of information out there that is easily available. You basically layer a compost pile on the ground, starting with a layer of cardboard or heavy newspaper to smother perennial weeds.

As for the weeds, I tend to pull them up and throw them right back down to make a mulch. Sort of composting in place. It isn’t always the neatest looking, but it’s easy and slowly improves soil tilth and fertility. Don’t do this with grasses, though! They’ll root where you throw them down. :) Most other things give in, as long as it’s not rainy.

you can leave the onions, if they seem productive. Onions go well with most other plants, and I tuck mine in here there and everywhere.

As far as fertilizing, you may want to do a soil test first. They are fairly easy and inexpensive, and that will give you an idea of what nutrients you are lacking, if any. The main nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), and Phosphorous (P). Nitrogen is the most important, at least quantity wise. There are other minerals that plants need, but they need them in smaller proportions to the main three.

Floral, I was wondering if it might possibly be leeks or garlic of some sort, too. Although onions do survive my winters quite frequently, if I don’t harvest them.

Where you start is digging organics into the bed before you plant. Compost compost compost. Just buy some bags. That will greatly improve the soil structure. No, just because the gardener last year did it doesn't mean you don't have to do it this year. Organics largely disappear over time. Poof!

If you're serious about vegetable gardening, as noted, I'd get a basic soil test done, to see where you stand, and what your soil lacks. Not sure where you are, but local extension services usually do it economically. Maybe you have a neighbor who has already done it for your local soil. Best to think about fertilizers when you have a clue about what you need most. Oh, when you get a soil test, just ignore the N number. N is important, but it can change drastically as conditions change.

Thank you! Ive already cleared out a ton of weeds today and hope to finish tomorrow. I’m kicking myself for not starting sooner but we were initially going to have landscapers tear the whole thing out and plant grass ( we have 2 under 2 and zero free time) but my husband decided last minute that we should keep it. I’ll start adding compost and get the soil test done.

They are red onions with green stalks. I’m wondering if they weren’t harvested last year? We had a much more mild winter this year and it warmed up earlier in the season.

zones are irrelevant to spring and summer

vegetable gardens.what need to know is frost

dates to know when to start seeds and transplant

outside. Companion planting can wait till you

learn what h-ll you are doing. weeding should done

as often as humanly possible.

as for where to start you need a good

thick book or several on subject with

info for beginners though experts.

starting small is best since it it easy to get overwhelmed

when don't have experience.

I'm in z5 and my Lisbon and Egyptian Walking onions always survive the winters just fine. With the mild winter we had, your onions may be fine.

Since we don't know where you are, we can't really give good advice about what to plant. As noted, USDA garden zones are not that meaningful for summer gardening. That's not what they're for. You don't need thick books. What you need is to look up the vegetable gardening guidelines from your local extension service.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/extension-search

They will provide maximally relevant info about what works in your area, and probably tell you where to get soil tests. They will likely provide a recommended planting schedule as well, and give info about problems (pests, nutrient deficiencies) that are unique to your area.

I just wanted to congratulate you on keeping the garden. It's a wonderful thing to expose children to letting them know where food actually comes from and perhaps letting them help when they're a bit older. I loved doing that as a child and most like to copy their parents at that age. While research is showing it to be good for challenging the immune system, what could be better that being outdoors with one's children? Good for you! : -D

P.S. I second starting small. It's easy to lose one's Umph by the time everything is ready to harvest.

I would also plant something that produces fast, like zucchini so the kids can watch and eat..when my daughter was that age she was always with me, and she is a gardener still, in her 30's. It's a great thing for kids.

Great idea! Lettuces and other greens are also quick growers and can be started in cooler weather.

How giant is giant?

Do you know if there are any perennial fruits or vegetables? Raspberries are pretty obvious, but asparagus might pop up and surprise you.

I agree with suppressing weeds. I'd suggest that you start by covering the vast majority of the garden with something--plastic, landscape fabric, newspaper, planters' paper, cardboard, something. This is assuming that there are no perennial fruits or vegetables growing; I'm not suggesting that you smother those.

The idea is that this allows you to press the 'pause' button on most of the garden, so it won't slowly grow a weed jungle while you're getting your bearings. Ideally, this weed suppression covering will allow the rain to come through, especially if you're in an area that has summer droughts. So plastic, the cheapest and easiest option, isn't the best one.

Another possibility, if you're working with a tiller, could be to till the whole thing and plant most of it with a green manure. (You can search for seeds/seed mixes for green manures.) But this means that you absolutely must get out there to till the green manure in at the right time. This is why I don't do this. (Well, plus I hate tillers. I don't disapprove of them, i just hate using them.)

When the garden is 'paused', then I would suggest that you start with one modest-sized bit. In my garden, my bed size is 4' X 6', just because. That's a nice little bit of dirt to work--if the soil is reasonably moist but not too moist, I can get one bed weeded, forked (these days I use a broadfork, rather than a shovel, for bed preparation), amended, fertilized, and ready to plant in something between thirty minutes and three hours, depending the state of the soil and how many weeds there are.

(Thirty minutes assumes that the bed is already in prime weed-free shape and just needs a little refreshing.)

(If the soil is too dry, I generally have to presoak it several days ahead, but for me that's a summer strategy. If the soil is too wet, I either have to wait for a long enough gap betwen rains, or put a tarp down over a bed or three and, again, wait several days.)

I'm babbling along at great length, aren't I?

So. Put the garden on pause. Choose a nice little area not too much bigger than 4' X 6'. Buy a bag of organic fertilizer (for vegetables) and a bag of organic compost--you might end up having compost delivered by the truckload, but I'm suggesting a small-scale start. Dig or fork the area--there are probably any number of YouTube videos for that. Add fertilizer in the amount recommended by the bag, and add compost, and mix in. (I mix in with a smallish hula hoe, even though that's not what a hula hoe is for.). How much compost? When the soil is in decent shape, I add about two-thirds of cubic foot per 4' X 6' bed, per year. When the soil is bad, I might double that.

Get some lettuce seed (or some lettuce seedlings, if you're entering shops in these nervous days) and some disease-resistant snap pea seed. Plant half the bed with each. Then prep the next bed.

That's my starting advice.

For weed control, you have to get on top of it. I use a pre-emergent weed killer like corn gluten, or something called "Preen" which is easy to find in a lawn and garden section. Also buy a cultivator with spokes, often called a "garden weasel" and maybe a hoe and garden rake plus spade. All will help with weeding small weeds. Depending on size and storage, you may want to buy a rototiller. Once you get on top of the weeds, use mulch to keep them down. Mulch between plants. Hay is a common mulch, as is cut grass but not it if has a lot of weed seeds. You can even use shredded hardwood bark if it is organic. 2 inches of mulch is your starting point. Also start to compost. Compost is the best medicine for a healthy productive garden. Have fun with it. Don't expect perfection!

I'm in your zone too, and my scallions come up year after year as long as I dont pull up the bulbs. I agree on picking something with fast rewards like zucchini or cucumbers. happy gardening!

Don’t put sunflowers near a vegetable garden. They are allopathic. Likewise don’t put a bird feeder with sunflower seeds there.

True about allelopathy of sunflowers. Sunflower extracts are even being considered as herbicides! But that's only a problem if the sunflower roots overlap with the vegetable roots. So if you keep the sunflowers a yard or two away from the veggies, you'll be fine. BTW, although the plants are allelopathic, compost made with sunflowers isn't toxic, as natural decomposition eliminates the allelopathic toxins. Interestingly, they even poison themselves, so you can't plant them close together.

Were I you I'd be overwhelmed with all the responses, so I'll keep my commenst short.

I'm in the same USDA zone as you and see you started tomato and pepper seeds. I watch the weather and if there are no cold fronts already here or coming I will set out a tomato plant or two on May 15. I continue watching the weather and if no warnings come I'll slowly set out more plants till June 1. Then I set out pepper plants.

You can cheat these dates if you're prepared to cover the seedlings. You can use gallon milk/water jugs or plastic wrap around a tomato cage or a few sticks in the ground. If I need to water a few plants from a container I moderate the water temperature so I'm not chilling the roots.

I don't have good results with peppers, with the seed starting or growing the plants.