Floodthelast, last year I used an umbrella to shade some seedlings that were planted in June, during very hot dry sunny weather. This is not good weather for planting or transplanting anything, but can be done with careful watering and shading the plants for a few days. Make sure containers are watered well before planting time - this makes it easier to get the seedlings out and separate the roots. (Since I mostly plant those little babies individually, it really helps.) Seedlings can also benefit from a very dilute balanced liquid fertilizer. I'm strictly organic, so use liquid seaweed, about 1 tablespoon of the seaweed concentrate per gallon of watering can. This also feeds the soil micro-organisms. I've tried fish emulsion, but that attracted raccoons who would dig up the soil looking for the "fish". Seaweed doesn't attract critters. Some people use a diluted compost tea and say this works wonders for seedlings. I dug up an FAQ on this by trudi - Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing Seedlings and a Simple Explanation of N-P-K

Update: There's an utterly gorgeous crop of lettuce growing in the system right now. Most other plants aren't as far along; the lettuce got an early start. Some lettuce roots stick out the bottom of the pot, but rather than those exploratory roots dying off like I expected, they still look white and healthy. I guess they're getting O2 somehow. Well, I'm not going to complain. :) Germination was poor in several pots, although almost all of my seeds are old. My spouse dropped our (non-waterproof) pH meter in a bin. It shorted out. She took the batteries out and let it dry out, then put them back in. It behaved very strangely -- not only was it off on the pH, but it still ran when the meter was turned off -- just with a dim screen! Thankfully, this latter symptom has gone away, so I think all we need to do is recalibrate it. Tip #1: When suspending the light fixture with a taut hitch, tie an additional half-hitch at the loose end of the rope. This will prevent the taut hitch from accidentally pulling undone over time. We lost a taut hitch and our light fixture fell down (thankfully, it didn't break any bulbs, since what it ran into was the floating trays, which absorbed the shock). Tip #2: Silicon gel should not be used to patch leaks. It seems to work at first, but it doesn't last; the leaks will just open back up in time. Instead, use "3M High-Strength 90". It's one of the only adhesives in the world that your average consumer can readily acquire in small quantities which can get a good polyethylene bond (I should have gone straight to it the first time, as I have dealt with polyethylene film before for different purposes and came to the exact same conclusion). And it's really convenient to use, since you can just spray it out in big swaths across the plastic, and it'll foam up a little and fill in the gaps. Tip #3: When making homemade nutrient mixes, a spare coffee grinder will work *wonders* for dealing with the pelleted nutrients. Tip #4: When dealing with calcium nitrate, never leave it exposed to air for more than a few minutes. It'll absorb moisture from the air until it liquefies itself! Tip #5: To get dilute mixes like lettuce to have a proper (read: very low) EC, you'll want to keep all of your cations down to the bottom end of their normal range except potassium, which you should have below the normal range (lettuce doesn't like it much). Try to hit the minimum sulfate (~60ppm), then make the rest of the anions nitrate, since lettuce loves nitrate. High-EC plants like tomatoes are easy, but tomatoes also don't like much nitrate (~80ppm); for the most part, use sulfate salts in a tomato formula composition. Remember that (from what we've read) seedlings like to start off with extra-diluted macros, but micros should always be at full strength. Also, to keep EC reasonable, we found we could only manage 30 ppm silicon in the dilute and semi-dilute mixes, but we were able to manage 100ppm silicon for the tomatoes. Apart from all of that, it's all pretty noneventful. :) Plants just sit over there growing.

My wife organizes a yard sale every year for her church. When it's all said and done, every thing left is picked up by good will. maybe you can donate it to some organization. Remember, no matter how little you have, there's someone out there with less. Sorry about the sermon:-)

Wow, nice plots! It's a shame they're not well-used. I haven't managed anything like this, but It looks to me like one big challenge and time-consumer will be to keep things properly watered. I hope it won't have to be watered by hand, carrying gallons of water at a time! Are you planning to dedicate one bed to each vegetable? That might be easier for instructing individuals who will help. I'd try to go with vegetables that are high-yield and low maintenance, like zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, etc. And if you go with quick-growing cool-weather crops like lettuce, I'd either intermix those with larger plants that will shade and keep them cooler, or plan to plant a late crop of something else in those beds. You say you're planting pollinators... I'd consider planting an entire bed as cutting flowers. :) If I did this, I'd start out by treating it as a basic gardening 'class' for clients/volunteers who are interested. Someone will need to show and explain how/when to plant, weed/tend/water, harvest, etc., for basically everything you attempt to grow.