My husband and I have summered in Wyo. for 12 years. I was fortunate to start out with an established yard and grass. This year I'm not liking the look of my grass. It has failed to green up in its usual fashion and appears to be struggling. What I do regularly, is put on compost in late Sept. In June when we arrive I put on Scotts weed and feed and try and intimidate the dandilions. With the porus ground I water reg. and deep. I have never re-seeded. I had it mowed mid June, but no other care until we arrived the end of June.(We usually get her the first part of June.) I'm not sure what type of grass I have. It looks like maybe bluegrass. It has a very thick root system. Any suggestions as to what I should do to prepare for next summer and what my problem might be? By the way, for sklubritt, I've had good luck with baby spinich in a large pot. I cover it with a cardboard box at night if I think we might get a freeze. Thank you for any help.

I must say starting an orchard as a first for growing edibles is bold. I would encourage you to contact your county agrilife extension service and see if they have any information that would help you be successful. Plum, pears, and peaches are commonly grown in your area. I use to live in the Dallas area and do not remember anyone growing apples or cherries. The close space fruit tree growing seems to work best in dry climates like California. I would pay attention to what scottfsmith on this forum writes since he has similar humid conditions like you have. Someone closer to home is Neil Sperry. I think he still has a call in show on one of the Dallas radio stations on Saturday. He talks more about flowers than fruits but is knowledgeable on both. You will need to watch out for fire blight on the apples and pears. Peaches and plums are bad about getting brown rot. This forum has been very interesting for me seeing what everyone is growing and if I have a chance to grow them in southeast Texas. It has saved me money and time by finding out what might be possible and what would be a waste of resources. Just remember, all of us have made mistakes and over time we can be successful growing something.

Warning: Wall of text. I'm one year in, but I learned a bit from my mistakes. 1. I was going to start with a raised bed for this year since I don't have any compost of my own ready and don't feel the soil is of good growing material if I just till for this year. So, does anyone see that as not a smart move? For organic gardening, soil quality is the most important, it will determine whether have have any success or not. When I started, I bought junk 'organic' home depot brand "Vigoro" soil. It is extremely heavy, with no nutrient and have zero water retention ability, which mean you water it and the next day its dry. If you can buy bulk topsoil it would be nice, but you have to be very careful who you buy it from. You have to first find out what good soil should be like, imo (!) it should not be too heavy and have a bit of a sponge feel so the roots can grow easily, but also have some structure and not too soft. It should have good water retention, for a place that is very hot with expensive water bills, this important to me. I personally like to add to my soil a good amount of peat and coconut coir for water retention. Peat moss is acidic which is good for some plants. I like coconut coir more because it seems to retain it's structure better and wick up water more evenly. With peat moss, there is more chance of getting dry spots hard to get evenly wet again, so I do not over use it in my soil mix. The biggest mistake I did when I started was not using enough compost and not having a compost pile, this would go a long way to save money without having to spend too much on fertilizer. Ultimately my point of view is it takes years to build up soil quality, so it's an on going process, you're not going to have great success first year with fresh soil unless its already very high quality to start with, at least that's how it was for me. 2. My goal is grow really clean vegetables. What soils or soil additives can I purchase that help me meet that mark? This is a very complicated question and imo usually go in hand with the issue of sustainability. If that isn't important to you, there are lots of good organic soil amendment products you can use, some more effective than others. And also whether you will use animal based fertilizers, there seem to be a new vegan movement who refuses to use animal-based sources in their soil, I think it is possible if done right, but not all plant-based fertilizers are from sustainable sources. I stopped buying soil or soil amendment from big box stores. Except "Lambert" is a peat moss based soil brand sold at Home Depot and claimed to be sustainably harvest, I do like their peat moss. It's most convenient to look for nurseries and local companies who will sell soil and compost, especially in bulk for wholesale prices, this is what I recommend. I also like local resources. It's very easy to get free horse manure and compost yourself. I make compost pile from local leaves and I get free wood chips for mulching. See if you can find local municipal piles for leaves and wood chips, I guess some people are concerned they can have contaminants, ymmv. The main things I add to my soil are: leaves compost, mushroom compost, horse manure compost, worm casting, comfrey, wood chips for mulching, and less frequently: fish emulsion, rock minerals, biochar. I do admit I sometime use Espoma products to amend certain nutrients in my soil. I personally like using local horse manure compost since they are grass eating and preferably non-juiced. If you are afraid of diseases, the manure needs to be properly composted for months, this is also require to kill the weed seeds in the manure, or you can buy pasteurized compost manure. Chicken, rabbit and other birds manure will have higher nutrient contents than horse and cow manure. But for even higher NPK rating, you need to look at bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, greensand, and fish based fertilizers, they have different NPK values and it's depended on what your soil needs. When it come to pest control, like sprays, I stick with products that are OMRI listed, however, to me OMRI is just a label like "USDA Organic" which doesn't really mean anything about the quality of the actual product. I would never buy MiracleGro even if it's OMRI listed, that's just me. 3. What is the best source for super healthy seeds? There are many places to buy seeds, from your local nursery, to many heirloom seeds companies to eBay. Unless you buy heirlooms, the usual popular hybrid seeds variety you buy regardless from where are likely sourced from Seminis, which is a seed company owned by Monsanto that control about 30% of the seed supplies. Obviously, if you live in a hot climate and obtaining seeds from plants that has grown in hot climate for many seasons will give you better results. It's more important to look for variety that does well for your climate and disease resistant. Some variety resist disease better than others. For me it's more important to get seeds affordably as they can be pretty expensive. First place I would check is local nurseries for seedlings. I admit I like the Bonnie plants at Home Depot whenever they go on sale. Some seeds companies I like are Botanical Interests, Baker Creek, and the Seed Saver Exchange. But I like eBay as well mainly for cost saving as long as the seeds are organic (you'll just have to trust the seller and ask them). For tomatoes, imo there is no better place than TomatoFest. I am beginning to not buy from Burpee and Park Seed nowadays. 4. My land has maybe a 20 degree slope to it. Raised beds are supposed to be on a flat surface. Can I offset by putting stones or extra wood under the raised bed to level it and fill with extra soil? This could be a good thing as long as you don't have run offs from rain or something. If you can observe correctly the direction of the sun for different seasons, you can build raised beds with an angle toward the sun to increase sun exposure, this generally is useful if you live in a colder climate zone, the angle sun rays hit the soil makes a big difference. You don't need to make a flat raised bed, one side can be taller with deeper soil, and this can accommodate plants that require more root spaces or need extra light exposure. 5. When I'm ready to plant is there a good step by step on that anywhere? There is a very big YouTube organic garden community, I suggest you look there. Shameless plug: I personally like OneYardRevolution, Alberta Urban Garden, MiGardener, they have some very good tutorials and info. 6. If I want to grow to make as many meals as I can what are my best mixes of veggies and herbs to grow for both that and the health of the garden? I don't think there is any right answer to that, it depend so much on your specific situation, your location and what you like to eat. I personally feel that each person have a different scenario and challenges, just because one person is very successful with one method doesn't mean it will apply or work for someone else. For starter, you should grow plants that grows well in your climate. Growing easy to grow crops and edible perennials is a good idea. Maybe plants that doesn't require so much nutrients for yield. Sweat potatoes is a stable plant for my garden because the leaves are edible and they grow insane without needing much water. I also like plants that self seed easily like malabar spinach, I will always have an abundance of these in my garden. Mustard and arugula are very easy to grow, bokchoy is an amazing producer. I also like plants that are easy to save seeds like okra. - Side note, I used to make raised beds with woods, but I think I will stick with cinderblocks from now. I really like the fact that it is cheaper than wood (from where I am) and will last much longer. And they are modular so you can change the size of your bed easily. The only downside is they are heavy. Also you should consider the width of your raised bed. I will no longer make raised beds wider than 3ft because I feel this is ideal size for me to be able to reach to the middle. 4ft wide gets uncomfortable for me, especially if you need to dig the middle, you don't want to stand on the soil itself and compressed it in the process. Lastly, you should check the type of trees in your surrounding. I have serious issue with invasive roots from surrounding trees stealing nutrients from my raised beds, so I'm probably going to have to dig trenches around my beds.

In general, landscape design looks at the clients' needs and wishes for the property as a whole and the creates a design that then meets as many of those as possible in the most pleasing way. Other than the sheds and the veggie garden, how do you want to use the yard? To my mind, that needs to be answered before any real plans are made. Is privacy (fence) more important than the veggies? Does it need to be there year round, or is privacy only really important in the summer when you will be outside more? Do you want a large open space for games or running around in the center? How much shade is there over the course of the day along the chain link or in other spots of the yard such as along the deck? Do you want a "pretty" yard or a kid-friendly yard or is the growing of food more of a priority or are they all of equal priority? Where will you be most likely to walk or drive and so will need to be left open? Where is water available, and would you be able to add hose bibs in other spots as needed? Do you want afternoon shade for the deck or other areas, and would you be more likely to plant a tree, or add a structure such as an arbor or shade sail? What other wishes do you have for the yard? As others have said, the more sun, the more successful the veggie and fruit beds will be, so too close to the sheds and the nearby solid fence which will provide shade should be avoided. You also will want to change your grouping/way of thinking about the plants from culinary to cultivation. Melons, like all your veggies, are annual plants, while most other "fruits" you have listed are perennials. The annuals and perennials each should have a planting area so that when clearing out and replanting annuals each year you aren't disturbing the perennial plants. The strawberries will need renewing every few years while each of the the shrubs and vines, which are fairly permanent, have different maintenance needs, and so should be planted in separate areas. If you grow herbs, some are annuals and some perennials. Consider overall goals and how else you will use your yard to help determine the best spot for the veggie beds. For instance, if you want the center of the yard left open, then think about putting your food plants along the chain link instead of a fence since it looks like it gets good sun. Or is the solid fence important enough the you should stockpile your soil for now or make temporary beds and then when the fence has been added, create the beds and plant food crops? Could you use the berry bushes and kiwi vines for your privacy instead of a solid fence? They are deciduous, so wouldn't be great for winter privacy. You would need to leave room between the shrubs and the chain link for accessing the vines. Fruit plants don't need as close access as herbs or veggies since fruit tends to be picked in chunks, while veggies tend to get harvested for particular meals, so think about putting the veggies and herbs closer to the house where there is easy access from the kitchen. Would you want veggies as a border around the deck, or does that either not fit the plants' needs or your wishes? So create a list of uses and priorities for the yard as a whole (swimming pool? play structure? bocce court? badminton net? trash can storage? etc, etc), prioritize them, and then start thinking about placement. You have already made one big decision, the shed size and placement, and so before making others, I would stop, step back and look at the yard overall. Take some time over the next growing season to look at sun and shade patterns (if you map sun as it changes from the vernal equinox until the summer solstice, you will have a good grasp on how it will look but in reverse for the rest of the growing season) as well as wind before planting anything permanent if successful cultivation of food crops is a priority. Once you have a good handle on growing conditions and your overall goals for the yard, then you will have a better idea of where is the ideal placement for each of the various uses you have for your yard.