Even though Queen E is rated as zone 6b, the one I planted last Summer (close to the house on the East side) did survive the Winter with just some cane damage above the snow line. She is a little slower at putting out new leaves & canes than some of my others, but still alive. I am also quite new at rose growing, and tend to spend as little as possible on things that I am not sure will survive here. My interest is mostly in climbing roses, or trying to train ones that are normally shorter than 6 feet into stretching out a bit. Ran out of room in the choicest gardening areas of my property, so decided a few years ago to go vertical. Have a passion for clematis, and am trying to come close to some of the beautiful pictures I've seen of roses & clems growing together. Marie

I sow all of my citrus seeds in a shaded location, usually with just plain potting mix. Sometimes, I collect a large lot of seeds over a month or so, after eating each orange or grapefruit or whatever, and when I'm ready, I may soak them in water over night, the morning before planting them. Next, I usually just plant them all in one large plastic plant pot, spread out evenly, covered somewhere between 1/4th and 3/4th of an inch in potting soil. You can also use a marker on the pot, with the date the seeds were sown and which type of citrus seeds are planted. Ya know, grapefruit, kumquat, orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, etc. When you sow a lot of different seeds, you'll be glad you put a date on them, because it'll tell you when it's time to give up on them and reuse the pot and soil lol. I usually gather up all of the pots either the seeds, seedlings, plants, or cuttings did not survive in once per year, and during that time, it's kind of like Christmas all over again, because you get to go out and find more seeds and cuttings or to step up pot sizes for plants you already have. After planting the seeds and optionally marking the pots, the pots are just sat to the side somewhere, for up to a year before I even check on them again if they're not already sprouted, getting watered with everything else when we don't have enough rain. When they get about 3-5 inches tall, I pluck them out and put them in individual pots, because their roots really start to tangle a lot with each other. Then, they're put in 3.5 or 4" pots, followed by gallon pots when needed. If you get this far, then you'll undoubtedly want to give it some type of acidic feed, like peat moss, pink bark, pine needle compost, or a citrus or azalea feed. Good luck

Welcome, Carrieann, Last year was my first year with SFG. I think your plan along the trellis sounds good. I am planning something similar. You could plant some lettuce around the outside of the tomato sq. and by the time the tomatoes get big, the lettuce would be used up. Peppers are supposed to get a couple feet tall (the ones my son grows in his lab are at least 4' tall) and could go in front of the trellised veggies. You might want to plant beets for the greens instead of spinach. I found its flavor to be superior. It takes a good amount of spinach to make a meal. Swiss chard is another green leaf option. It does not stop producing leaves and sometimes will make it through the winter if protected. Unfortunately, I think deer got mine last year. If you could pick up some broccoli plants at the garden center, it would not be too late, but if not then wait until late June and start some then for fall harvest. About bugs - one of the gals on this site used Illusion tulle (wedding veil tulle) as an insect barrier. If you use a coupon at Joann Fabrics, you could get yards of it cheaply. It looked very nice, is light enough to float over the veggies, light and water get through easily. If I hadn't already ordered floating row cover, I would definitely gone the tulle route. I had fun doing potatoes and plan to do more this season. I did some in a large square plastic pot about 16" sq. and 14" deep. You just plant the seed pieces in the bottom and then keep adding soil as the plants grow. I didn't have any trouble with many bugs and if you haven't gardened before, they probably won't know your veggies are there. Marigolds are the flowers you want and you can get small varieties. They are very good for warding off pests. Nasturtiums are supposed to be good also and are edible. Another thing you might try is companion planting, just type that in and google it. You can get some ideas of what goes where and also what will enhance what you do grow. I made the mistake last year of planting all kinds of companion plants, like borage (huge), chamomile, catnip and they got huge in the garden and I eventually removed them to make room for veggies. Have fun, Keski

put your far left middle sf by other sf on right side,put snap peas in front of far left sf ,swapplaces with zucchini n potatoes,reason being peas can climb sunflower as a trelis and zucchini is a vining plant so it can sprawl over corner of box on ground,one thought is how deep is your box for potatoes wiill it work in that shallow of a box?need 8-10 inches of soil for potatoes make back row north side,just a thought have fun