Hi, Angela- We're in very different zones, so I can't say about when your stuff should bloom and set fruit. But when your squash and tomatoes really take off, I'm afraid the crowding will hamper their production. Here is a link to some recommended plant spacing for square foot gardens. Keep in mind that some people still consider that too close. My recommendation would be to remove the squash. You can try planting it somewhere else, but I've never transplanted them after they've been in the garden for awhile, so I don't know if that would work. They will get really big, as you see in Kristi's pictures. I can buy local squash cheap at the farmer's market, but there's nothing like a tomato out of the garden. That's what I would base my decision on. If the peppers are getting crowded out, you could try those in pots--I grow a lot of peppers that way. Don't feel bad. In my first garden, I had to surgically remove cucumbers that were strangling my tomato plants. By the way, squash blossoms are often very low to the ground. That's not a problem, you might just want to keep an eye out for little ground-level nibblers. And there's no need to worry about getting the flowers wet when you water. Here is a link that might be useful: Square foot garden spacing

Some good news is you never need to rototill in preparation for a lawn. In fact that is the worst thing you can do. Start now to get into good lawn habits. Here they are... Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. Seed in the early fall. Is shade an issue? If not then Kentucky bluegrass is the type of grass that will spread to fill in holes and thin spots. But it does not grow in shade. In shade you'll need fescue. Hence the sun/shade seed mix. Fescue does not spread like KBG. If you can get a seed with no rye in it, I would take that over one with rye. Rye can be beautiful but for beginners it can trick you into making a mistake at the outset. Rye does not spread either. For a rental you can get your seed at any box store. Seed from there comes with weeds but who cares? You'll get your deposit back anyway even with a few weeds.

Growing from seed in the numbers you are talking about will require much additional equipment other than just the greenhouse so there is that cost to consider. And you have set yourself several major tasks to learn all at one time - (1) learning to work with a greenhouse - each has its own personality and problems that have to be solved, its own set of demands, so unless you already have a great deal of greenhouse experience there are challenging days ahead on that one issue alone (2)learning how to grow from seed - again do you have any experience doing so? I get the impression from your posts that it is no, correct? If so then pick a couple of simple ones to start like squash, tomatoes, zinnias, or marigolds and stay away from petunias, impatients, peppers, etc. You can research every variety online just by Googling "how to grow_________". (3)growing for commercial production all at the same time? Most of us who do all that and look back on any one of those learning experiences would advise you to slow down and back off a bit ;) as there is guaranteed frustration and disappointment going that route. So I add my encouragement to yiorges-z5il above - start small and learn first. This year focus on getting acquainted with your greenhouse and get on good terms with it. You have to teach it who is boss! ;) Learn how to control and balance your light, shade, venting, heat and cooling controls, pests, humidity, storage, supplemental equipment, etc. In the process of doing that try growing say 50 of your needed tomato plants and a small variety of annuals just for yourself. That will be more than enough to teach you basic seed starting techniques, which will need supplemental heat and which don't, germination percentages, how to store seed (never in the GH), watering, staged transplanting, pest control, etc. Then next year you will be in a much better position to know what you can handle. Alternatively - install automated systems and plan to hire at least 1 full time or 2 part time helpers - preferably experienced - or put in 10 hours days seeding and re-seeding, watering, and controlling the environment and 16 hour days doing all the required interim transplanting. ;) Good luck! Dave

seysonn - NCHFP isn't just some unknown organization. It is the research labs for USDA/FDA and are the recognized national authority in safe food preservation/canning for both commercial and home food canners. All other approved sources of home food canning info/recipes/instructions are based on their recommendations and regulations. And yes, if you explore their many publications (or take their classes) they are well aware of the whys and do explain how density can be calculated and why their testing has determined that adding flours, pastas, and other thickeners cannot be recommended. Basically it because the amount of processing times required to compensate for the increased density would be so detrimental to the quality of the food that it would be unpalatable. Further since the thickener of choice is easily added at preparation/serving time after the jar is opened there is no justifiable reason to process it to death simply to compensate for the thickeners. So it isn't a matter of just adding 5 or 10 min here or there. Not to mention that very few home canners are able to or have the interest in measuring the density of their foods and doing all the calculations. Especially when it has already been done by professionals. Beef stew is already processed for 90 min. (quarts) so say you add flour to it. Now you have to calculate the density. Density = mass divided by volume. Calculate the mass of the container, then the mass of the container with all the liquids and subtract the mass of the container and you have the mass of the liquid. Then you do the same for all the solids. Then measure the volumes, etc. etc. etc.and discover that the density of it has now increased x fold. How many min do you has to that 90 min processing time for each increase in density? 10 min, 20 min, 60 min? What happens to all the vegetables in that stew? Slushy mush with a scorched taste most likely. You really want to do all that? If it is enzymes, bacteria, they say that @ 240F they are all destroyed. No they say at 240+ for a specific period of time and that period of time differs from bacterial pathogen to pathogen. The time is always the variable. Campbell does it all the time. Lots of discussions here about the many differences between commercial processing in high pressure autoclaves that you can play football in and use 260-280 degrees F at 50-70 psi (after first irradiating the foods) vs. the common home pressure canner at 240 and 10-15 psi. No comparison what so ever. Dave