The measurements of 4x8, are the length and width of your garden? If that is the case, know that some of those plants get very large. Eggplant, tomato and peppers grow fairly large and can easily consume all of your space. You will want to choose compact varieties or do some selective pruning to keep them contained. Keep them staked or caged to contain their encroachment on your other plants. Carrots and spinach require little space to grow well as long as you harvest regularly. Grow your peas and cukes upright on a trellis or use your chicken wire as a trellis and allow/train these plants to grow upright. You can use stretch tie or twine to aid in training them upward. Plant your tomatoes and peppers where there is abundant (minimum 6 hot hours) of sun. Thinning is the removal of the weaker seedlings that have germinated too close together. Choose the stronger seedling to remain behind. If they all appear equal in growth just gently remove all but one as per the spacing required for the chosen plant. Hardening off means slowly exposing them to fluctuating temperature and wind after being protected and controlled indoors. IOW you gradually expose them to outside conditions when the weather is favorable. Personally, I would not use peat cells for seed starting. If you already have, once the seedlings emerge and begin to set leaves, there will be little to no nutrients for your plants. I would, at that point, transplant them into a seed soil mix in a small plastic pot. Watch your space and don't over plant. Stressed plants are more likely to be killed by disease. The soil in your garden should be a mix of topsoil and compost ( I also mix in a bit of "crappy native soil" because it contains vital nutrients and minerals). Plant in the topsoil and "mulch" with aged compost. Be sure there is adequate drainage with your weed fabric underneath. Many landscape fabrics do not allow sufficient drainage (even though it says so on the package). You don't want to turn your garden into a pond. Search around the web for some small veggie garden tip sites. Your space is your largest concern for the amount of plants you are placing in your garden. Specifically, watch your tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Don't be frustrated, you will learn more from your mistakes than your success. Gardening is fun and productive if you are patient and understand why things failed or succeeded. You will learn more and more as you continue. Good luck!! :) Robbie

If the wireless deer fence really works, that looks like a nice solution. From people who have dealt with deer, though, I would expect they might just learn to avoid it ... just as they learn to accept the motion-activated sprinklers. I've heard that an electrified wire that runs around the garden generally works well, as does clear fishing line strung at their chest height and "ankle" height ... they can't see it, but can feel it and become confused and avoid it. They can jump quite high, but need room in order to do so; therefore, two parallel fences spaced just right will deter them - they have to be far enough apart that the deer cannot clear both in one jump, but close enough that they can't get the start they need to clear the second. Some people install these fences at an angle, but that becomes quite space-intensive. As others have already stated, keeping the greenhouse cool in spring and summer would be a real problem, especially for those cool-weather crops you're planning. The shade house idea is a good one, however, and I'm wondering if you could get away with some type of tunnel-type structure covered with bird netting or some other mesh. For an easy-to-build frame, have you seen the faux bamboo stakes and connectors? Sort of like a large Tinker-Toy set for adults/gardeners. Gardener's Supply has them. Actually, greenhouser, deer are becoming more and more a problem in suburban areas. We're creating the perfect habitat for them. Deer actually dwell at the woods' edge, seeking shelter inside and food in the adjacent meadows ... whether that "meadow" be wild or someone's lawn and gardens. Their natural predators all but gone and an abundant food supply, their numbers increase until population pressures force them to move outward to new areas. Deer seem to be extremely adaptable and, as evident in some previous posts, become used to living around people, even standing their ground, blithely munching away on choice specimens, as a homeowner/gardener advances trying to shoo them away (I've seen it on video). Squirrelypete, I don't know that it would be any comfort to your hubby, but my dad, who loved fishing, held the philosophy that the fish got itself caught because of its own greed: it thought it was eating something else; so he had no qualms about eating it (though he'd never have hunted).

yep, of course i knew it, lol!! thanks for the advice. i've ripped out the spinach that had bolted, added some compost, and then moved all 4 peppers - wish i knew how to add pics - they're still in the same bed but have waaay more space! they seem to be doing ok - still no flowers though and the leaves are a little droopy. my bush beans are fruiting like crazy, as well as the squash, which i was worried about because as soon as the flowers opened, they'd shrivel up and fall off! @ hosenemisis - we've had to major heat waves in the last couple weeks, as i'm sure my neighbor 'davis sue' can attest to. we've been so unusually warm the last couple months, so not normal! i'm right on the SF Bay, but in a pretty little valley (you know the california 'happy cows'?), and the immediate bay area never gets too warm during the summer. our heat happens late august through october. it's usually cool, foggy mornings, with very mild afternoons, and chilly evenings. so with this unusual weather, i'm looking for my brassicas to bolt any moment! @ deep roots - thanks for the compliment about the bed depth, i was needing that about now, lol!! in my second bed where the cabbage and broccoli are... well, the broccoli is growing like crazy, poor cabbage - they're barely getting any sunlight. i pulled one out due to me ripping it apart chasing aphids! @ savis sue - so why is the yellow pear insepid? i wouldn't mind getting rid of it, but my dd ladybug picked it, and it's the only plant fruiting at the moment - she'd kill me!! well, thanks for all the info you guys. i guess there's nothing left for me to do but to wait and see what mother nature does with me and my poor little patch! be well!

Marla's right. Of course last year was a really bad year for weather/crops, I think I grew more in our small garden the year before (at least tomatoes and zucchini! Cukes were about the same, I had 3 plants that produced well and the picklers didn't do anything this year) than I did with the expanded garden and 200 row-ft of heirloom tomatoes (that all drowned in Irene). But doing the schedule F (Marla's helping me) I found that while I only spent $45 on seeds, the starter pots and mix were over $200, drip hose was $150 plus $60 for rain barrels (my tomatoes were 1000ft from the house), deer fencing and bird netting added up, and I only sold $50 worth of veggies! (We did have income from hay and berries, and jams/jellies, mostly berries but some pepper jelly). BIG LOSS the first year, and I didn't even buy a table til Jan this year (borrowed one last year), or a shelter til the very last day of market (b/c it was threatening rain, it held off but as I was driving back to store to return it the skies opened and the box got soaked so I had to keep it - set it up in my basement to dry out and I'll use it this year). Now, I'm hoping the weather is better this year and we all get good crops, but even if you can sell $500 and not $50 worth of stuff each month during maybe a 4-month season ( I don't know if you'll have stuff that long even if market is June-Sept), that's only $2000 and believe me, even without buying the pickup truck our first year expenses were over $1000. I spent $400 just on gas! $125 on market fees for ONE market, plus $50 for insurance certificate. I'm wondering if I can do 2 markets this year (Tues and Fri), that's $100 for certificates naming the markets as insured, plus our insurance went up over 10% even though we didn't make any claims (I just got the renewal, it doesn't break out how much is house and how much is farm, last year the farm liability was $105). So let's say you can get liability insurance for $100 and your insurance company doesn't charge for certificates (some don't). If you find someone let me know LOL! We were getting a lot higher quotes from other companies that didn't charge per market for certificates. But figure in your market fees for 3 markets, and all the gas you have to use to get to/from even if you don't use any/much ON the farm. What are you doing for irrigation? Soaker hose and house water? Do you have a well? I watered the garden near the house from hose running across back yard, and only needed 1 month since June, August, and Sept were so wet, and I had no way of measuring how much electricity the well pump took but running a soaker hose a few hours a day can add up, esp. when your rates are as high as ours (I'm really going to have to try to figure it out for taxes - I did note in my farm journal which days I watered). Marla's right, you have to love it. I enjoyed educating the consumers at market, and the comraderie with the other farmers (though some of use were in direct competition). But it can be an expensive hobby at this scale, do your reasearch (better than I did - when a spot came up at market I jumped though I wasn't planning on starting the farm then, it was already April and I just had the seeds started that *I* was planning to use). Maybe you just want to see if your town will let you put up a roadside stand, and if your homeowner's insurance allows it, and sell the "excess" from your "kitchen garden" before you get into it as a business? You may decide to do a market or 2 next year, or you may decide to just grow for yourself. But "In for a dime, in for a dollar" I already started the business last year so I'm going to try to make a go of it for another couple of years until DH and the IRS tell me it's just an expensive hobby, not a business.