If you're past any chance of frost, plant an herb garden (seedlings are available at greenouses, home stores, etc.). Fresh herbs are awesome, and they're very easy to grow.

Where do you live? If you're in the states, I can get you some fab websites to look at.

That would have been a useful piece of information to include from the start, wouldn't it? I'm in the middle of the UK, where we usually have mild-ish winters (though not this year) and warm but not hot summers.

I'll see if I can figure out if y'all are organized in zones or something similar, like we are. It's rule of thumb is that summer veg like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. go in *after* the last frost. There should be an average last frost date available for you somewhere online. If you buy plants ready to plant, no worries ahead of time. If you start from seeds, you need to do that 6-8 weeks before you plan to plant.

This looks like a good start.

alto, me and the boy started a big allotment project six weeks ago, and got this book. We've found it really helpful, basic, easy-to read, and I think it would suit your needs. (We're in Kent.)

ooh, thanks Stewriffic, for that second one! I just plugged in my 'zone' (I went for 'UK - temperate to cool', though I could have chosen 'UK - temperate to warm') and it gave me a list of stuff. I'll do some more investigating.

I can't encourage you enough to just jump in even if the books overwhelm you a little. You will figure things out as you go along, and successful gardening is nothing if not accumulated experience. I personally found my eyes glazing over early on reading about nitrogen-fixing bacteria and the delicacies of seed starting and so on, but it's not all that hard to get plants to grow, as it turns out. There's plenty of finesse once you get into it, though, but it's much easier to ask and answer questions once you have some specific plants you're thinking about and watching. So, definitely enjoy the books! but don't let any books scare you.

YES, just jump in for sure.

Check out Mother Earth News. Chock full of interesting stuff [look out, plenty of ads]. Sure need to search around though, I'd suggest the Organic Gardening tab at the top.

Or start here... Know When to Plant What: Find Your Average Last Spring Frost Date

More Tips. Lots of information on that page....

Credit given to Anonymous Blogger cold weather gardening help. That thread has more info and links too.

I'll second starting with herbs.

My first gardening book (I was probably around 17-18 and just getting into gardening) was very helpful was The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. This is when I really learned about the importance of soil, composting, etc.

Florida is a different world when it comes to gardening, so I mainly own Florida gardening books, but The Garden Primer is a great place to start.

After you learn about the importance of good soil (and planting the right plant in the right place) on the internet or a book I would recommend buying a book for your part of the world/climate that is a "month-by-month" gardening guide. I love these sort of books because they pretty much tell you what you should be doing as far as pruning, planting, fertilizing, etc month by month. Also, start very small and don't plant more than you can take care of. If you have two plots, I would plant just one and see how it goes. Gardens are a daily responsibility, even if it's just to walk through and assess. Good luck.