The first thing you need to do is check local ordinances etc about selling. It may not be allowed in a residential area. I buy heirloom tomato and pepper plants from a backyard grower. I have to order the plants ahead and pick up on a specific weekend. Here in NH, it's usually around Mother's Day. Her neighbors do not like the extra traffic and don't want people turning around in their driveway. She also sells plants at a farmers market but has grown a good mailing list of people who want to order. She emails her list a few weeks ahead and only puts one ad in the weekly farmers bulletin. I know that's not what you asked but I wanted to make sure you checked into it. I think having hardened off plants would be great but June 1 would be late in our area. Memorial Day is the traditional planting time but IMO too late for many things like lettuce and cabbages. I have seen requests lately for where to buy cabbage and broccoli plants in August when people would like to get in a fall crop. Don't know if there's a decent market for it. Others are already thinking mums. I think it's great if you can get the kids involved. They can have specific chores and get paid a specified amount. We expected our son to bank half his earnings to save for college. Have you checked with local adult ed classes and your county extensions for any classes on market gardening and greenhouse growing? Eliot Coleman's book Winter Harvest gives some good growing advice plus some tips on what's worth it and what isn't (he grows veggies for restaurants). You might get some insight into popular vegetable plants to grow for sale as plants.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and photo ideas grannybj65, I have a really nice digital camera and plan to take LOTS of photos all along the way as I develop the garden. The photos linked here were taken by a good friend. I have an eye for good snapshots so once I'm down there I'll be taking dozens of photos from all angles and different weather conditions. The joy of digital photography - you never run out of film. LOL One of the things I like to do is take a series of photos from the same angle all day long on a sunny day to get a general idea of where the shady and sunny spots are. Doing that a few times throughout the year as the Earth changes kilter I'll perfect an image in my mind of where best to place different plants based on their light/shade tolerance. Looking at the photo of the front of the house dead-on, I just got a great idea. Facing the house, the living room is on the right side with the single window and the kitchen is on the left side with the double windows. In front of the double windows inside is the kitchen sink, so it is not a spot that will have tremendous "looking out the window" appeal. So, as the cogs turn in this hard head of mine, I'm visualizing lattice from the center pole on the porch going to the left corner, then around to where the porch meets the house. Then cutting a rectangular window out of the center of the front of the lattice and framing it a bit so there is a clear view out to the road from the kitchen window. And then I can visualize the lattice painted white (or more likely light gray as I'm not too fond of white outside) and covered in Scarlet Runner Bean and Clematis with maybe some "Joseph's Coat" (Amaranthus tricolor) in front and some dwarf Cannas with some "Love lies Bleeding" (Amaranthus sp.) along the side. The scarlet, violet, purple and deep reds and burgundys will all be in harmony with one another, at least until I decide on a totally different look down the road. I can have a nice metal frame rocking deck seat out on the porch hidden away behind the wall of vines where I can sit and enjoy the shade - and a good spray from the gardening hose on all the vines will create a nice cooling breeze. Well, it's a thought anyway. :) I saw on eBay this evening someone in San Diego California is selling several batches of Tillandsias (the common T. ionantha). They are offering them as a box of 50 child fist-sized clumps of them for around $20 if I recall - quite cheap. I immediately thought how neat it would be to buy 50 or 100 clumps and then carefully wire them to a wire-frame wreath for a living, blooming front door wreath, especially once the front porch is semi-latticed in and well shaded. A few sprigs of Spanish Moss draping down from the wreath here and there would further kick off the effect. It would live on the wet air, constantly regenerate itself with new growth, and bloom off and on throughout the year. During the colder months I could bring it inside and hang up it in the living room window where it can get plenty of bright indirect light. Ok, I'll shut up now.

Hi bosewichte, Well, of course, it's hard to tell what may have caused your problems by just reading your post. Basically, it sounds like you did everything about right. There are a few things that I do wonder about however; they may or may not be the cause of the problems. First of all, I think you should get a thermostat for your heat mat. Without it, you really don't know what the temperature of the growing media is. Usually, you don't want the temperature to go over about 75 or 76 degrees. Then, you mentioned filling and using plastic dixie cups. Actually, they're pretty deep for seed germination. To prevent the growing media from staying too wet, shallower containers probably would have been better. In any case, you want the media to be moist and not wet. When the seeds germinate, their roots will need oxygen, which can be driven out by too much water. Also, watering seeds from the top can easily cause the seeds to be buried too deep. Most folks agree that gentle bottom watering is the best. If the growing media is moist (not wet) before you put it into the germination containers, and you use the plastic domes, you probably would not need to add any more water until after the seeds have germinated. My guess is that your seeds ended up too deep and/or the growing media was too wet. You should see slight condensation on the underside of the dome, but if water runs down the sides it's too wet. Hope this is helpful and good luck in the future with your seed germinating. Art

Oh Robin, I just read your original post and your recent post. First I am sending a hug. You might need to send one right back to me as we just bought a fixer-upper ourselves out in Scotts Valley. As I read your original post I kept thinking, yep, that's us. Yep, that too. (Except your listing photos are gorgeous and ours, well, they are not.) I do think you make a great point that people need to think about how they will use a house. We will likely lose one bedroom with moving some walls around (not load bearing, thank goodness) and I have people telling me how horrible that is for resale but this is our forever home and we need to do what is right for us. I don't have much to offer in the way of ideas but will send a barrel of emotional support up the peninsula to you. Good luck!