In my opinion, if you are only planting 2 or 3 tomato plants, there is no reason to stagger them. I am in zone 7 North Carolina, so my growing season is likely different than yours, however, my tomatoes grew and produced all summer long and into the fall some, not just 1 month. Plus the tomatoes you are planning to grow are 3 different types used for 3 different purposes (roma, slicing, cherry) so it is ok to have some of all at the same time. Do check to make sure if the tomato varieties you are growing are determinate or indeterminate. Indeterminate tomatoes can easily be trellised 1 per square foot by keeping the suckers pruned as it grows upwards. Tomatoes do not grow onto a trellis by themselves like beans do - as they grow, you weave them in and out up the trellis. I have left about a little over a foot of room behind my trellis that I can walk behind it and tend to my trellised plants from the back side. In fact, my garden interior dimensions are approx 18 feet x 2.75 feet (31-32 inches). I have that 32 inches divided into 3 squares - 12 inches, 12 inches, and 7-8 inches deep for the back square where my trellis is. My trellis sits about 3-4 inches in from the back garden edge over the middle of my 8 inch square. This was plenty of space for my tomatoes planted one plant per 8" deep x 12" wide square last year. I did keep them pruned to one main vine only. I have read that sugar baby watermelon can easily be trellised. I have those seeds myself and will be trellising them this year. I will also note that I have a very strong trellis. I will be growing the following on my trellis ... peas, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew (if I can ever find any seeds!), cucumber, blackeye peas (cowpeas). Peas and beans are planted on the trellis in 2 rows of 4, one row on each side of the trellis, all in one square foot, which will give you 8 bean plants per square foot. Cucumber is planted 2 per square foot in one row along the trellis. Unless you are pickling cukes, I think 1 or 2 plants is plenty. If you do 2 squares of beans, 1 square of cukes, and 3 squares of tomato, that is your 6 feet of trellis. However, here is an idea ... you were going to originally have 2 beds of 4x4, I am assuming they were side by side ? If so, could you do one bed of 3x8 ? There is no such thing as too much trellis in my opinion ! With 8 feet of trellis, you could also trellis your sugar babies. If you do not trellis the watermelon, I think you should plan on putting it elsewhere, as they take up a lot of room on the ground. Or possibly plant it in a corner of the bed and sprawl it outside of the bed. Assuming 3x6, with your 6 squares of trellis planned for, that leaves 12 squares ... I recommend the following ... plant your 2 pepper plants in the middle row next to the tomatoes on your trellis. The 10 remaining squares can all be broccoli and carrots and the watermelon. Staggered planting for those would be good. I have read online to plan for 5 to 10 broccoli plants per person and 20 to 40 carrots per person. Obviously, you will not have room for all that, so do what you can. Mel recommends 16 carrots per square. My carrot packages call for 2-3" spacing between carrots which would be 36 carrots per square on 2" spacing (6 rows of 6) or 16 carrots per square on 3" spacing. Last year, I think anniesgranny planted on 1.5" spacing at 64 carrots per square !! She harvested some of them as baby carrots though and reported great results. Watermelon will likely yield 1-2 melons per plant. This is also my first year for broccoli. I have read that once you cut the first head, more little ones will sprout from the cut area. Broccoli & carrots are spring/fall veggies, while all of your others are summer veggies. In the south, we have a definite spring season and a very hot summer season which does not work for broccoli & carrots thru the summer. My broccoli will be done by about June 1, at which point I will put something else in that space (bush beans) and then in the fall I will plant the cool weather crops again. You grow girl website has a seed planting chart based on last frost date that is easy to use ... http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/, click on The Lazy Gardener's Seed Starting Chart. For companion planting, this website has a long descriptive list http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html. If you do end up using cinder blocks, a lot of people use the holes in the blocks to plant other things like herbs, flowers, onions, etc. Be sure to calculate the width of the blocks in your plan to account for what the interior dimensions of your garden will be. My bed is built with 4x4's of treated lumber and 2x8's of untreated lumber. I do not have an answer on the slugs question, as I luckily did not have a problem with them. I have just started my first compost bin this year as well, so am not speaking from authority, but I think there is no problem with compost being in the shade from what I have read. Mine is, so I really hope it is fine ! You can build a free compost bin by using shipping pallets (find for free on craiglist) and tie them together with wire coat hangers. It also looks pretty nice in my opinion with the boards oriented vertically. Do a google search for compost bins made from pallets. Finally, check out the square foot gardening forum on gardenweb and also read the FAQ's for that forum. Sorry this reply is sooooooo long ! : )

That's a loaded question. It depends on your latitude, whether there are clouds that night, soil temperature, wind (try to shelter it), location (south-facing is best). Only a thermometer will tell you, and the difference will vary with time of year. Also, what type of film? If using plastic, I recommend 6 mil. Is there wood in your cold frame construction or all plastic? A cold frame with lumber as some of the walls will hold more heat at night. With only plastic and PVC, it's more similar to a low tunnel than a real cold frame. Will 50 F outside fry them? If it's sunny and February, yes definitely. It may rise into the 90s or higher inside. If it's December and dark and cloudy, leave it closed. If it's the type of cloudy day that's still bright, open it a bit. Only experience with your setup can tell you exactly how much to open for a situation. At night you will get anywhere from 2 to 12 degrees F of moderation but this really depends on the factors I listed, and more. A low tunnel type of setup gets much colder than a traditional cold frame. You can improve heat retention by another 2-6 degrees by tossing a heavyweight floating row cover fabric or blanket over the whole frame at night. Lastly, don't grow any warm season crops in your cold frame in winter. You probably knew that. For cool season crops, freeze protection is not vital but the bigger the moderation, the more vigorous they will be and the longer they'll survive. They'll easily take 20 F and well below now and then, but if that's *every* night with no recovery in day temps. to at least the 50s, you'll start to see damage. The amount of moderation you get increases with lowering outside temp. If it's 10 F, and you have a blanket-covered, wood-framed cold frame in a sheltered spot, it might be 25 F or higher inside. Possibly. If it's just single layer plastic all around in an exposed place, it might get down to 12 F inside. Do not mulch the soil in fall. Although mulch conserves soil warmth, that very factor leads to very cold air pooling above the mulch on clear nights.

I spent a total of $30 on enough materials to cover 3 beds. What I used for the hoops was the cheapest 10' PVC pipe I could find. At the time it was 3/4" but it doesn't matter much. Just get one more pipe than you need that is large enough to fit the smaller pipe inside it. Make sure you test it in the store. Not all 1" pipes fit a 3/4". To cover it I went 4 mil clear plastic contractor's sheeting. My brother splurged on 6 mil but I think it's a bit too thick to be translucent enough. Not sure, time will tell, we're both doing winter gardens with them. To attach the hoops to the bed, I cut the bitter pipe into 6 inch sections and buy stainless brackets to clamp attach it to the outside of the bed at proper intervals. Then I just take my smaller pipe and put it into the flagpole like stand on each side. That provides great stability. Though I also use one pipe to attach to the top of the hoops. I used zip ties for it but the best way would be to drill holes and connect with nuts and bolts. I may do that. Not sure. All these supplies can be purchased from your local hardware store or big box retailer. I like shopping local but the cost is a bit more (where I am). You're choice. To keep my plastic on, I bought a box of jumbo binder clips from any office supply store. They're big enough to clamp around the plastic and PVC pipe. I realize this isn't a perfect solution as they rust, but they were cheap, so I guess I'll just buy more every couple of years. Hope that helps. Good luck extending your season or fall gardening. Here is a link that might be useful: Post after I rushed to throw it up to battle a spring snow storm...

Hi Erika, First, I love your design ideas and layout. The mix of surfaces is great (definitely not too many) and very similar to what I'd like to do. I do think your sink should be centered under the window, especially if you are concerned about it now you will not be happy when it is installed. We obsessed about this in the design phase of our new kitchen so much that we added a third window to that wall to be able to center our clean-up sink under it. My layout is similar to your's with the long island, although my sink (centered under my 3 windows) would swap places with your range. I have a lowered baking center in the same place as your butcher block area. So instead of moving the placement of your large sink - For your prep sink, have you considered putting it at the other end of your island? It might be nice to have a sink down at that end of your kitchen, for entertaining, serving drinks. I think it would look great down near your hutch as kind of a "bar" sink. I don't see where your fridge is but it's always nice to have a sink close by. And a sink at that end would be great for use as a "prep" sink for washing veggies etc for that extra person (guest or not). That extra person would then not be bumping into anyone near the clean-up or cooking center. Your larger sink (I call mine the clean-up sink) seems close enough to your baking center (which I also have in the exact location) and easy enough to turn around to get that measuring cup of water you need for your recipe or to pop a batter bowl into the sink for washing. At least that is my thinking for what would work for me. And did you also say you have a chef's sink close to the range. Sounds like a lot of sinks in that end of the kitchen, it would be nice to put one at the other end. Just my thought anyway, you need to do what works for you and the way you cook, prep, and entertain. On the mix of surfaces - I loooove it. So many KD and "cabinet people" I talked to told me similar things like "it looks like you couldn't afford it all at once" etc. I told them the point is to make it look like I did not get this brand spanking new kitchen all at once. I want it to look like it has evolved over time. I know that doesn't work for everyone but you need to do what you want, not someone else. I am mixing cabinet colors (painted periphery cabinets, stained cherry island) and also mixing door styles as well. My take is if the island is different (i.e. stained cherry) it might have been from a different time period than my wall and base cabinets around the kitchen periphery. I have seen kitchens like these and they are truly beautiful and very period looking. Hope this is helpful to you. Everyone needs to do what works for them. I can't wait to see your finished photos.