The measurements of 4x8, are the length and width of your garden? If that is the case, know that some of those plants get very large. Eggplant, tomato and peppers grow fairly large and can easily consume all of your space. You will want to choose compact varieties or do some selective pruning to keep them contained. Keep them staked or caged to contain their encroachment on your other plants. Carrots and spinach require little space to grow well as long as you harvest regularly. Grow your peas and cukes upright on a trellis or use your chicken wire as a trellis and allow/train these plants to grow upright. You can use stretch tie or twine to aid in training them upward. Plant your tomatoes and peppers where there is abundant (minimum 6 hot hours) of sun. Thinning is the removal of the weaker seedlings that have germinated too close together. Choose the stronger seedling to remain behind. If they all appear equal in growth just gently remove all but one as per the spacing required for the chosen plant. Hardening off means slowly exposing them to fluctuating temperature and wind after being protected and controlled indoors. IOW you gradually expose them to outside conditions when the weather is favorable. Personally, I would not use peat cells for seed starting. If you already have, once the seedlings emerge and begin to set leaves, there will be little to no nutrients for your plants. I would, at that point, transplant them into a seed soil mix in a small plastic pot. Watch your space and don't over plant. Stressed plants are more likely to be killed by disease. The soil in your garden should be a mix of topsoil and compost ( I also mix in a bit of "crappy native soil" because it contains vital nutrients and minerals). Plant in the topsoil and "mulch" with aged compost. Be sure there is adequate drainage with your weed fabric underneath. Many landscape fabrics do not allow sufficient drainage (even though it says so on the package). You don't want to turn your garden into a pond. Search around the web for some small veggie garden tip sites. Your space is your largest concern for the amount of plants you are placing in your garden. Specifically, watch your tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Don't be frustrated, you will learn more from your mistakes than your success. Gardening is fun and productive if you are patient and understand why things failed or succeeded. You will learn more and more as you continue. Good luck!! :) Robbie

Hi Red, I know you're enthusiastic which is great! but it is easier to deal with smaller groupings of plants when you ask a question. I hope that doesn't read mean, because I don't mean it that way, and I want to help : ) It is just that a paragraph could be written on each plant and that takes time. Bulbs - Yes, you can get seed from bulbs. Sometimes it is best to remove the seed pod of bulbs though since you want energy to go to bulb development instead of seed production. This is especially true of tulips. Also all the babies from the bulbs you listed will not be true to the parent(some types of bulbs will come true from seed,) and they will take a long time to get to flowering size possibly like 5 years. Small bulbs can be worth seed saving like scilla for example. They will only take a couple seasons to get to bloom size. Annuals- most of them are easy to save seed from. You need to know when the pod or dead flower is ready with ripe seeds. A search of this forum for many will bring up threads on them. Also The Seed Site(I'll link below) is an excellent resource. There's a lot there so check it out. I think you'll like it. If you still have trouble with a particular plant this summer/fall. Please ask. Perennials - Everything you listed, you can get seeds from pretty easily. Some have good sized seeds which makes it even easier. Again, some of them have threads on this forum and some are listed on The Seed Site. And if you have trouble later this year, please please ask! : ) Hope this helps, Remy Here is a link that might be useful: The Seed Site

2. I live in Houston and have to water everything except my most water-averse plants (i.e. sage) daily. Water-averse plants get watered every other day (and daily once it hits 100). This assumes the plants are in big containers. Small container plants need 2x daily. Disclaimer: I don't grow any succulants, so no direct experience. 3. I am concerned about your grapefruit tree. When you want to grow citrus outside of S. Texas, you generally need to graft the plant onto cold-hardy rootstock. S. Texas grapefruits otherwise won't survive a hard freeze. Even on grafted stock, it is hard to keep them alive in Houston. My in-laws are avid gardeners in N. Texas, and the way they've kept their citrus (meyer lemons) alive is by keeping it in very large containers that sit on a cart with wheels, so they can wheel it into the house in the winter. The TAMU link below suggests the same approach with other citrus. But I don't know if it would work on something as large as a grapefruit tree. Here is a link that might be useful: patio citrus care (they talk about satsumas, but generally useful)

I don't know what you ought to do, but I will tell you about what our process has been to build on our own lot. We started by asking around for recommendations of builders. You could also go on the parade of homes to try to find builders. We took the design/build route and are building a custom home, but since cost is a big issue for you, I'd recommend picking among plans the builder builds regularly, because he can probably build those plans more cheaply than a house he's never built before. Then you can get quotes for the plan(s) you're interested in. Make sure the quote is as complete as possible-- if there's an allowance, price out what you want and make sure the allowance is sufficient. Then add in a buffer for whatever you and your builder forgot to account for. Once you've got it all worked out, you will sign a contract with the builder and apply for the construction loan. The bank will want to ensure 2 things: that you can afford the loan, and that the property (house+land) will appraise for what you will owe when it's finished. If you are approved, and appraisal is good, then you can go forward with seeking the building permit. Once you have a building permit, then you can start building. Payments for your construction loan begin as soon as your builder starts drawing money from it. There will be procedures in place to ensure that your builder only takes money as he needs it to build your house-- he can't take the full amount immediately. FWIW, I'd do as much as I could to clear out the old mess before getting the builder involved. The bank doesn't want to see any kind of construction having begun before the loan closes, but you could certainly clean up the lot. And that will probably be a good thing even if you decide that you're better off selling the lot.