Just retired and now have extra time and wanted to start a garden. I am pretty ignorant when it comes to gardening so wanted to start here for some answers. Sorry if questions seem simple, but I really am a beginner. Probably should have started my questions a few months back.

What I am thinking: I have a hay pasture close to our home and was wanting to convert a small part of it for a garden. Not sure what size I need to start with. Not sure if it would need to be fenced. The soil in this location appears to have a good few feet of black topsoil. Just wanting to get started and am thinking tomatoes, sweet corn, carrots, green beans, snap peas, potatoes, spinach, lettuce....not sure how easy or hard any of these would be to grow.

First: Is there a book or source of good info to help me learn about gardening, preferably something I can read and use as a reference that you can recommend?

Second: What do I need to do to the soil for prep? Can I just disk under the grass and then till? Or do I need to spray it first? Any definite things to add like lime, better topsoil etc?

Third: General timing for this?

Fourth: How do you keep weeds and grass from growing? Old fashioned hoeing or tilling between rows or chemicals?

I have a kubota tractor and 7 ft disk. No tiller attachment or walk behind tiller. I can run a water line to the site so watering isn't an issue with well water.

Thanks for any initial guidance!

I'd start by cutting up the location when it is dry enough. Keep it cut till your ready to start planting.

You might consider getting you a one row cultivator. Theyre sitting around everywhere. After you get your ground ready, you can lay your rows off with it. Then you can come back and plow with it and clean 90% or more of it like that. If you get good at it, there wont be much hoeing. I would suggest turning it or chiseling it before you disk it up good. Actually, on a day it has rained and the grounds wet, put full angle in your disk and make one pass with it. This will turn the grass over and kill most of it. Wait a few days then run a turning plow or chisel over it. You really need to get some penetration if the ground is compacted. Then disk it up good. That one row cultivator will be your best friend after you get used to it.

I couldn't make a garden without my tiller ! I have a rear tined one and it pulverizes the soil and I can get up close to my rows of plants . Tomatoes , sweet corn, green beans are really good choices. Carrots ,spinach and lettuce require a little extra expertise or they do for me . They are really small seeds and take a while to get big enough to work around . You can buy spinach and lettuce plants which might be a better option. Red or white potatoes are easy to grow and are usually the first things you can plant. Make your rows a little wider , plant in a deep furrow, cover good , and as they sprout pull dirt to them covering them up. This makes harvesting easier when they make. You may want to plant yellow squash and have some pepper plants also. And every Southern garden has to have okra ! Lastly as bad as I hate it , you have to do some hoeing. Some folks do raised beds and do quite well but sounds like you are going to grow a traditional garden. Good luck !

Thanks for the input so far! I'm sure I will make mistakes but I'm hoping that the plants will overcome any I make.

I didn't read all the replies so this might have been mentioned.

First thing, very first thing....

Amend the soil. Add organic matter to it. You're in cotton country so get some rotted gin trash (the jwalker special) and pour it to the soil.

Make sure and Soak your Okra seeds in water for about 4 hours prior to planting. Plant VERY shallow in furrow.....like no more than about 1" of soil coverage. I don't plant it until May....it's like Cotton.....LOVES hot weather.

Any preference on seed brands?
Is there a way to decide how many packets of seeds you need?
Thanks.

I would advise getting your seed at your local Co-op. They will probably be a lot less expensive than what you buy online. I recommend buying tomato plants vs starting from seed. Never buy seed form Ebay or Amazon. I've been burned by paying a premium for a certain variety of tomato and they ended up being a variety that's no where close to what I paid for. Up here in North Alabama it's usually too late by the time they start bearing fruit to start over from seed. I'd strip the vegetation from your garden spot as much as possible. Take a soil sample and have it tested. Lime accordingly and turn under with a mold board plow. This will bury most weed seed so deep they won't be able to germinate and if they do they won't be able to make it to the surface. Good advice above about soaking okra seed and not covering too deep. A 1/4 pound will plant about 3-80' rows and make a ton of okra if you fertilize it and it gets adequate moisture. Keep it cut every other day and don't let the pods mature and it will produce until frost. Plant climbing peas and green beans in the same furrow as field corn. The beans and peas will fix nitrogen in the soil and climb the corn stalks. I'm sort of partial to white Trucker's Favorite or Hickory King field corn which are late maturing open pollinated varieties that are not sweet but very starchy. They make excellent corn meal, grits and are excellent cream style with just salt and butter. It does get very tall and needs a lot of moisture nut it is a heavy yield and you can save the seed for next year. I space my rows at about 26"-enough room to make one pass with the tiller and close enough that it shades out weeds quicker. I also plant a little bit of Merit if it is available again or Peaches n Cream sweet hybrids. Both are early maturing hybrids. I plant the OP and hybrids on opposite sides of the garden. Before I forget-a Mantis tiller for weeding is a real labor saver. I plant melons, cantaloupe, squash, cucumber, zucchini and set out tomatoes in the middle. You can spray the young grassy weeds with Clethodim according to the label without injuring the broad leaf veggies. Don't get it near the corn or it will destroy it. Apply early in the morning when there is a calm wind so it doesn't drift on the corn. I plant Straight Eight cucumbers that mature in 55-60 days from seed. I also plant Marketmore is a later maturing variety that doesn't stunt or get as bitter in the hot, dry days of summer. Plant about 5 seeds per hill spaced about 6' apart OR......if you can trellis them they will take up a lot less room and you won't walk over and kill the vines when they start maturing. Use 13-13-13 as a starter fertilizer for most everything. I use 5-20-20 in the corn and side dress with 0-0-34 ammonium nitrate when the corn gets knee high and again when it begins to tassel. I am lucky enough to have these lovely moths that come out at night and lay a worm egg in the tassels of my corn that burrows up in the ear. So I have to spray the tassels once a week with Spinosad to prevent that. The Co-op also has 10% Permethrin labeled for corn worms. Don't water the foliage of your tomatoes to help prevent fungal diseases that can't be controlled once they are on your plants. Give the tomatoes PLENTY of space. Trim leaves that are touching the ground. Indeterminate varieties will flower and produce fruit and repeat all season while the plant continuously gets taller. Staking or caging is a must. My Park's whopper hybrid get nearly 8' tall. Pull blooms so you only have four or five fruits to make larger tomatoes. Determinate varieties begin to bloom and produce fruit for 3-5 weeks and stop blooming for good. Roma tomatoes are excellent when ripe in salads, sauces and salsa. If you like snow peas of sugar snap peas they are ready to plant in South Alabama. Good luck. Post some pictures this summer!

Thanks for the detailed help Chiilinhunt!! Much appreciated!!

I would get a soil test and treat appropriately. Keep the garden to a manageable size--start small and see what you can manage.

That's no fund. Plant an acre so you get so overwhelmed that you have dreams about getting lost in it! But yeah that's a good point.

Like ChillinHunt said, your local CO-OP is your best bet. They normally have great advice too.

Another piece of advice. NEVER EVER buy anything from Burgess. We all probably get those catalogues. But don't be fooled. You most definitely don't get what is advertised, and I don't see how they stay in business. I learned the hard way after dropping nearly a benjamin on what I thought would become year-round food for our wildlife. Apples, cherries, various berries. What came was little twigs that even the best green thumb could not revive. I may be the exception, but highly doubt it.