I also recommend using mulch in your walkways. Place down 10 layers of newspaper under the mulch and you have a pretty effective weed barrier in place and that will significantly reduce your time spent weeding. Now as to the herbs, you can't start French Tarragon from seed; so if you bought/were given Tarragon seed its the Russian type and not worth growing (worse than a weed). French Tarragon is the culinary tarragon and does not produce any viable seeds; you start it from a cutting. I have heard of folks actually rooting cuttings that they bought in the grocery store! I'd recommend that you plant the oregano in a very large plastic pot, and then sink the pot into the ground so that ~2" of the pot's rim is above ground. That way the oregano will not invade the rest of your garden. I didn't see mint on your list; if you plan to grow mint please keep in mind that it is ferociously invasive. The thyme spreads but is easy to relocate. Chives can self-seed everywhere if you don't snip off the flowers (use flowers in herbed vinegar or in salads as an edible garnish). If you are turning the garden by hand its ok to sprinkle the herbs throughout the garden for beauty. However, if you are tilling or if the community garden is disked using a tractor you will want to keep the herbs in one corner of the garden so that you can preserve them. Basil and coriander (cilantro) are annuals; your other herb choices are perennial.

This is my first attempt at corn. My stalks on average are about 6 feet with the diameter of the stalks only about around as a quarter. Every stalk has an ear of corn, but when feeling them they are not fully formed. I pulled one yesterday and it was sweet, yet not fully formed and of course small. About 3 weeks ago I searched the internet to find out when corn is ready to harvest. One site said when the silk turns brown and the corn starts pulling or angling away from the stalk. Mine are doing that and some of the husks are now browning. They get plenty of water and sun so based on what I've read here, it was my error not to fertilize more. I'm thinking I should go ahead and harvest what I have. I don't think I'm going to get anymore and I don't want what I have to rot. What say you folks?

I've had full dump truck loads (they're about 30-40 cubic yards) left in my driveway on 3 occasions over the last 5 years. I had to move them myself and usually could do it over a weekend. I use a very large, light plastic wheelbarrow and a very large, lightweight plastic shovel (looks like a snow shovel.) The big lightweight shovel makes it easy -- could not do it w/ a standard shovel or heavy wheelbarrow. On one occasion, I rammed a big sliver of wood through my leg by walking too close to an unfinished raised garden bed while hauling the wheelbarrow full of compost (the sliver looked like a pencil and went in the front of my leg, out the back.) I drove to the doc-in-the-box to have it what I couldn't pull out myself (ouch), removed. The doc got a new ultra sound machine and decided to use it on my leg to look for remaining sliver bits. He also gave me a picture of my "baby" embedded in my leg :) However, that's nothing compared to my neighbor who did the same thing except with gravel! And, he considered renting a bobcat, but decided to use a shovel and wheelbarrow instead so as not to crush his sideyard. We nicknamed him "The Machine" -- one hard working & tough guy! I would never try to move gravel -- that'd be a back breaker for sure. Am certain I could find a couple of high school football players who need some extra cash to do that kind of thing for me! :) Celestial

"I am starting a new veggie garden and have used a box scrape to clear the grass away. What is left is clay soil that has never had any amendments." There are varying degrees of "clay soil." Is the soil clay loam, sandy clay loam, or simply hardpan clay? What percentage of clay to sand and organic particles? Etc. If indeed it is a poor, hard clay soil, then it needs to be amended with organic material and the organic material needs to be thoroughly blended in with the top 12" of soil into which the garden crops will be planted. The organic material will glom with the clay particles and provide a texture that allows water to perk down through the soil without chronic saturation as would be a problem with hard clay only. "I wanted to increase the fertility before planting in the spring and I have access to cow manure." Cow manure is a great source of oganic material especially when it's mixed with bedding material and thoroughly composted before being blended with the clay soil. Still, the emphasis is on blending the organic material with the existing soil so that the organic material is well incorporated into the soil texture to a depth of at least the top 12 inches of garden soil. "My plan was to fence our 14 cows in the garden area for Dec. and Jan. and feed them hay so that they would concentrate their raw manure over the garden soil." First of all, I don't know what the area of the garden is. You don't say how many square feet of area un which you intend to keep the cattle enclosed. SOunds like a bad idea to me though simply because the cattle will further compact the soil by trampling it with their hooves and their heavy bodies. This will not accomplish the task of stirring up the soil, encorporating the organic material with the clay, and developing a good tilth needed for a garden plot. "I will layer wood chips, leaves, and mulch over the manure periodically during this time." If the wood chips, leaves and mulch aren't thoroughly composted before being blended with the raw manure, all you're doing is extending the time required to compost the materials properly. All the chips, mulch, leaves, manure, etc., should be contained in a compost heap to develop the proper heat and micro-organisms needed to break down the raw material into composted organic material ready for incorporation into the garden soil by means other than hoof trampling. "At the end of Jan. I plan on moving the cows out and moving the pigs in, who will root through the layers of manure and organic material to mix it up and aerate it." Who says that pigs rooting through the accumulated manure and spoiled feed with "aerate" it? Pigs not only root, they wallow, urinate, deficate, and add more compaction and raw material that requires proper blending and composting to process it into usable material. BTW, pig manure is more concentrated than cow manure in that it has less "roughage" from bedding and feed sources. Bad bad idea. "Then the soil will sit for 1 - 1 1/2 months before planting. I am now wondering if this is sufficient time for the raw manure to break down or if I will have to worry about E. Coli, Listeria, or Salmonella being passed to the future veggies." No. Maybe if the manure and other waste materials were heaped into a compost pile, and the interior temperature reached the required 130*F plus temperatures required to "pasturize" the material, and you stirred the compost occasionally to incorporate oxygen and to move un-composted material from the outside of the heap to the interior "working zone," THEN you might be able to get a finished organic material suitable for gardening in a couple of months maybe. Working compost at sub-85*F average daily temps by laying it flat on the ground even during warm weather, is a much slower process and usually leaves raw pathogens. And here you're talking about trying to accomplish grade-level composting in winter weather! Bad idea. Additionally, preparing a new garden bed from unworked soil, especially hardpan clay, requires working up the bed at least one season ahead of planting. You may still have time to work up the garden if you mix say 5% - 10% organic material with the top 12 inches of soil, thoroughly incorporating the organic material with the native clay soil NOW. To calculate how much FINISHED organic material to apply to the top 12 inches, measure the dimensions of your garden to get the square footage. In this case the square footage will equal the cubic feet because you are tilling one foot (12 inches) deep. So, when you have the square footage, you can either acquire 5 - 10% of that figure in composted organic material in cubic feet, or you can calculate it in cubic yards by dividing by 27 (cubic feet per yard). Or you can calculate it in pounds by estimating that one cubic yard of compost equals about 1000 - 1400 pounds depending on moisture content. Example: 100 feet x 100 feet garden area = 10,000 square feet. 10,000 square feet x 12 inches deep = 10,000 cubic feet. 10,000 cubic feet/27 = 370.37 cubic yards. 370.37 x 5% = 18.51 cubic yards. 18.5 cubic yards of composted organic material is going to be about 18,500 - 25,900 pounds or 9 - 13 tons of compost. You'll get by with less than 5% organic material if your soil is clay loam. You might even get by with less than 5% organic material if you soil is hardpan clay. But I would want more myself ... more than maybe 10% even. JMO.