I'm learning too, so take my (extremely spammy) advice with a grain of salt. I start seeds early so I can transplant them into my garden, so hopefully my advice will help. When using seeds from last year, depending on the type of plant, the amount of seed that may still be viable will vary from type to type. Some seeds last seemingly forever, while others need to be planted the same year they were collected. Do some research online to find out. Be careful with potting soil. Many brands can be too thick in texture and full of things like fertilizer, which can affect your seedlings' ability to grow. It's better to get seed starter soil, or soil that's lighter in texture. As for florescent lighting versus LED: not all light from bulbs will work for growing. It all depends on your setup, what you're growing, what sort of budget you have, and if you're growing indoors or just starting plants to place outdoors when spring arrives. The last one is important because the larger and more mature the plant, the more light you'll need. If you're just starting seeds indoors, most types of florescent lights should do the trick, though more experienced people here may have better ideas. Florescent lights are generally inexpensive and widely available, which is probably why that site recommended them. Since this'll be in a greenhouse, you'll have to consider things like moisture (ie, will the light fixture be okay being in a greenhouse year after year?), how you'll hang your lights, and how you'll space them around your seedlings. I grow in the basement, so I use a wire shelving unit and raise the seed beds to the light. If you can't hang your lights from the ceiling, you can possibly affix your lights to a frame (you can make your own with wood, pipes, repurposed shelves, buy kits, etc) and put them on small chains with s-hooks, so you can bring them up as the plants get higher. I plug my lights into a timer so that they're not on 24/7, which saves electricity.

While plug transplants are available for some strawberries you'll more commonly find bareroot plants from most nurseries. Everything else on your list can be started outdoors from seed but you are in Boston area with a shorter growing season so I would suggest you buy started plants for everything except beans. With cucumbers and lettuce you may have more difficulty finding seedlings but buying those could give you a 3-4 week head start. You might seek out farmers' markets in your area that include transplants. I sell those and even pole beans as potted transplants and patrons in my region enjoy the opportunity to harvest weeks earlier. With row covers and other new technologies you could consider starting many of the crops earlier since your raised beds should dry out sooner and have warmer soils than adjacent soil plots.

Sorry for the small image! I will attach one with larger font below: Thank you Ken and Lane for the advice. To Lane -- I will reconsider my choice of blue spruce based on the humidity in our region. I do plan to cut down a lot of the hybrid poplar and willow stuff as it grows and as the more sturdy evergreen trees grow taller. To Ken -- I love oak trees, but I don't want more trees that are close to the house, and I mostly want to stick with evergreens as I love year round color and not dealing with leaves. I would consider planting them further from the house though. As for the soil, there is definitely a lot of clay (we are actually near Westerville) but I'm hoping that all the excavation will loosen some of the top soil. Also, I am fine with the planting ending up being a bunch of tall trees -- in fact, that's what I prefer. Basically, in 20 years (we hope for this to be our forever home) I would love to look out our front door and practically see a forest of mostly evergreen trees separating us from the road. I just want to make sure that I do it in a way that ends up crowded in a good way as quickly as possible without hurting the trees. I too worry about the lifespan and strength of "fast growing" trees, but I do prefer to have at least part of this planting growing as quickly as possible. So my thinking was to mix in 3 different species of these fast growing trees so that I don't have to worry about losing them all at once to disease, and surround them with better long-term trees so that as they die/loose limbs, I'll still be left with a little mini forest of evergreen trees. I hope this helps give a little more detail into what I am looking to do. I am definitely open to different species than the ones listed above, and I am fine with planting further apart if I can still achieve a dense, forest-like area in the future.

How giant is giant? Do you know if there are any perennial fruits or vegetables? Raspberries are pretty obvious, but asparagus might pop up and surprise you. I agree with suppressing weeds. I'd suggest that you start by covering the vast majority of the garden with something--plastic, landscape fabric, newspaper, planters' paper, cardboard, something. This is assuming that there are no perennial fruits or vegetables growing; I'm not suggesting that you smother those. The idea is that this allows you to press the 'pause' button on most of the garden, so it won't slowly grow a weed jungle while you're getting your bearings. Ideally, this weed suppression covering will allow the rain to come through, especially if you're in an area that has summer droughts. So plastic, the cheapest and easiest option, isn't the best one. Another possibility, if you're working with a tiller, could be to till the whole thing and plant most of it with a green manure. (You can search for seeds/seed mixes for green manures.) But this means that you absolutely must get out there to till the green manure in at the right time. This is why I don't do this. (Well, plus I hate tillers. I don't disapprove of them, i just hate using them.) When the garden is 'paused', then I would suggest that you start with one modest-sized bit. In my garden, my bed size is 4' X 6', just because. That's a nice little bit of dirt to work--if the soil is reasonably moist but not too moist, I can get one bed weeded, forked (these days I use a broadfork, rather than a shovel, for bed preparation), amended, fertilized, and ready to plant in something between thirty minutes and three hours, depending the state of the soil and how many weeds there are. (Thirty minutes assumes that the bed is already in prime weed-free shape and just needs a little refreshing.) (If the soil is too dry, I generally have to presoak it several days ahead, but for me that's a summer strategy. If the soil is too wet, I either have to wait for a long enough gap betwen rains, or put a tarp down over a bed or three and, again, wait several days.) I'm babbling along at great length, aren't I? So. Put the garden on pause. Choose a nice little area not too much bigger than 4' X 6'. Buy a bag of organic fertilizer (for vegetables) and a bag of organic compost--you might end up having compost delivered by the truckload, but I'm suggesting a small-scale start. Dig or fork the area--there are probably any number of YouTube videos for that. Add fertilizer in the amount recommended by the bag, and add compost, and mix in. (I mix in with a smallish hula hoe, even though that's not what a hula hoe is for.). How much compost? When the soil is in decent shape, I add about two-thirds of cubic foot per 4' X 6' bed, per year. When the soil is bad, I might double that. Get some lettuce seed (or some lettuce seedlings, if you're entering shops in these nervous days) and some disease-resistant snap pea seed. Plant half the bed with each. Then prep the next bed. That's my starting advice.