Many people get confused about what the various ratios we talk about are. The 30:1 refers to the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen, elements in the material to be composted and not the ratio of that material. Some of us will talk about mixing 3 parts vegetative waste with 1 part manure a ratio that will give an approximate ratio of 30:1 in that total mixture of material. Just to help confuse some even more leaves have a C:N ratio of between 40 and 80 to 1 while grass clippings will be more like 20:1 so how much grass clippings to add to how much leaves depends on when the leaves are used. If just after they fall off and the C:N ratio is lower you would need fewer grass clippings to accomplish the same thing as you would if the leaves were just piled up until next spring when the C:N ratio is closer to 80:1. However since you are putting this directly in the garden those ratios really do not mean much, and putting the grass clippiongs over where you have buried the vegetable scraps will help keep your Lab from finding them.

I would definitely start Carolina reaper and manzano now. Uba tuba (aka bishops crown, Christmas bell, bishops hat, peri peri etc.) grows very quickly but takes a long time to fully develop its larger fruit so you may want to start them now also. All the rest I would hold off on.

I live in zone 7a (formerly 6b) and would like to try growing delphinium and foxglove from seed. The temperature is in the mid-80s in the afternoon, which seems hot for seed planting, but I read that now is a good time to start them, so they can be put in the ground before winter. Has anyone in my zone tried to grow these plants from seed? If so, did you have better luck direct sowing or starting indoors? Any tips would be great. I should add that this will be my first attempt to grow anything from seed, but I am not averse to an adventure and am willing to experiment.

It is really difficult to sort through a massive post and address all the issues in one thread without creating more confusion for you or giving mis-information, much less writing a whole book long answer. So I hope you don't mind if I sort of pick and choose some of the issues you are dealing with to discuss. First, AFTER the bed is constructed and planted is not the best time to seek advice on how to do it. That time is before you do it. :-) So unfortunately you are going to get more done-wrong replies than done-right replies. But that is part of learning too and we were all there at one time or another. You have some problems to fix and they do need to be fixed. "3.5 ft square raised bed with soil about 6 inches deep filled with 3 cu. ft Nature's care organic raised bed soil, 1 bag Black Cow composted manure, and 1.8 cu. ft. Whitney farms planting soil." 6" is not deep enough for the plants you have there. They are tap root plants and that tap root is often 1-2 feet long or longer. So hopefully there is good soil below that bed that they can access. 6" is not deep enough for much of anything except some shallow rooted leafy greens. So yes the bed needs to at least be filled to the brimand before next season increased to at least 10" deep and deeper if possible. I couldn't find the info on what is beneath it, what it is sitting on? The fill components you used, while not ideal in some respects, are ok but they lack the needed minerals so yes, use good quality top soil and try to mix it in well with all the other ingredients. Do it now while the plant roots are still small so you can mix it well as close as possible to the plants. That first bed is also over-planted. A 3.5' bed can hold 2 tomato plants and 1 pepper plant MAX. Since it is so shallow all the roots are going to have to run horizontal just below the surface. San Marzano is normally a large plant and if it was given ideal growing conditions it could easily be 6' tall and 4' wide. It is going to shade the pepper plants badly. I would move the egg plant and most of the pepper plants out of the bed and into containers. Pepper plants will do well in a 5 gallon bucket if necessary. I don't understand the purpose of the PVC pipes so won't talk about those. But I agree with rgreen that the extra boards need to go. On the 3x10 plot what is all the black plastic? Hope fully the whole bed isn't just soil piled on top of black plastic or you are going to have real serious problems with drainage and rotting plant roots. The plastic needs to go ASAP. The plot diagram for the second bed is crowded but since already planted, too late to fix now. The spacing on the tomato plants is too close to be ideal so will require some extensive pruning and a great deal of support to keep them from taking over the whole 3 foot width and shading out everything else. And you need to get your trellis support in ASAP so installing it doesn't do root or plant damage. How deep is this bed? You are going to have some problems this year but you will learn a great deal in the process so treat it as a learning season and don't let it discourage you. Keep your expectations focused on that learning. Keep good notes to refer to next year, do some research in to the nutrient needs of your plants and how to feed them, learn about the differences between the water needs of tomatoes vs. peppers, keep adding more and more growing mediums to the beds as much as possible, and fix as much of the problems as possible. Hope this is of some help to you. Dave