Suggestions: 1) sounds as if you are suffering from information overload. That only confuses, conflicts, and over-complicates the whole process. So it's time to quit with all the books for now. Sure you can get 100 arguments for why one way is best and they can all sound reasonable. They are all just opinions because there is NOT one-right-way to garden. There are hundreds. :) 2) Pick one thing to focus on - building 1 large raised bed garden (solves the clay issue and you have experience with them) for this year and get started on it as it is rapidly going to get too late to do anything in your zone. 3) Then get that raised bed in good organic gardening shape for planting - haul in lots of good compost - and plant it. 4) recognize that you simply cannot grow everything this year anyway so choose the crops you must have in reasonable amounts and get them planted in that garden. It is too late to plant garlic and corn takes too much room for this year. Plant tomatoes, cukes, lettuce, and beans. 5) recognize that you cannot get all the garden space you want built this year. It is a multi-year project. Put all the expansion concerns aside for now. Once the first bed is up and planted you can then focus on building a second one for the fall garden - the garlic, etc. 6) accept that gardening organically has its limitations for the first few years. It is not magic and it is more work for the first few years. Those include pest problems -they will come and they will do some damage until the beneficials in the area get built up. Look into online ordering of beneficial insects. And you will have nutrient issues until your soil food web gets built up too. Accept those limitations up front so when they happen you won't panic. 7) forget 'companion planting' for now. The benefits are minimal when it even works and it complicates the process. Save it for an established garden. 8) forget crop rotation issues for now. It will help down the road but you can't do it now anyway and one of the big benefits from organic gardening is that it reduces the need for it anyway. Lastly, you say you garden organically. Easy to say and lots of folks say it without even the basic knowledge of what that means. It is much more than just "no chemicals allowed". Unless you really understand all its underlying principles, its willingness to accept less-than-perfection, you become frustrated. So for your reading focus on organic gardening only for now. The Organic Gardening forum here is a good place to start. Hope this helps. Good luck. Dave PS: I read on a forum here not to plant nightshades together because they are heavy feeders. That's hogwash. They are not heavy feeders and millions of gardeners plant them together and have for eons with no problems.

Dirtslinger2...Aside from artificial lighting, are there any windows in the room? The tallest, low-light plant that comes to mind is Dracaena, 'Janet Craig.' One problem, aside from light is, 5-6' trees might be hard to find. Home Depot sells tall Dracaenas every so often, but unless they're newly shipped, more often than not, plants acquire insects. On the other hand, D. Janet Craig, although not infallible, is hardier (insects) than other plants. There's a Spathiphyllum 'Mona Loa.' Spaths thrive in low light, but do best in medium. I believe ML is the largest of Spahtiplyllums. We used to sell them at Rentokil. The tallest were 4-4.5' tall. They're beautiful plants, look great in an room with a lot of space. White flowers form periodically. Between the size of the plant and flower stalks it'd near 5', but you can't count on blooms. All plants need light. Will these plants be kept in the same location year round, or can they be taken outside in summer? Toni

Hi Enigma; just wondering if you have checked with your Dept of Agriculture I know in most of Canada and many of your states it is considered a noxious weed. Each plant can have 20 - 250 flowers and can have between 50,000 and 175,000 seeds. One more thing to be careful of is the midwives used to use a tea made from tansey to cause an abortion. Sounds like you have a young family just saying... I enclosed the link from the Montana Dept of Agriculture but there are many more... take care Here is a link that might be useful: Montana Dept. of Agriculture

OOPS, it's on page 89, the site doesn't want me to link to one page, so just scroll down the index of left side and select page 89 (Mosaics) first stamp as you scroll down page 89