Easiest to prep in the fall. Do you want a raised bed so you can plant earlier or do you want to direct sow? Any chemicals thrown out under the shed? Are you going to trellis the cucumbers? Do you have a good turning fork or garden fork. They are the easiest for me to work with. Soil - Do you have access to horse manure (needs to hit 130F for three straight days to get rid of harmful bacteria), rabbit manure ready right from the get go, leaves - we have lots I run the lawn mower over them to mulch them up, breaks down easier. I have learned of a 40 horse barn that I'm accessing here in the South. I let the manure cook, add fall leaves and this year will be adding straw from my small area of straw bale garden. If you have no compost yet, straw bale gardening is a quick way to get lots of it by summers end. Worse thing about the horse manure - my dog thinks it's her personal playground and took livestock fencing out to get to it:) Do you want to put some type of row covering over it so you can get earlier veggies? PVC or electrical conduit works fine. Have you started composting?

I can only use a mini tiller due to hardware cloth under my beds (for gophers), so on the beds I'm not using for winter growing, I get the neighbors' leaves and grass clippings, suck the leaves up in my leaf grinder, lay them out and cover with cardboard. I use my spading fork to poke holes in the cardboard to let the rain seep in. I'm also doing something new and putting the sections of my compost bins (normally 4 sections high, using 2 sections in a 4x8 bed) straight onto the bed! I'm going to turn more often and am hoping that I just have to rake it out in the spring! We'll see! Nancy

I see a few issues with your plan. 50 lbs of dolomitic lime is not going to do much for 10k square feet. For 10K square feet you would need about 400 lbs of dolomitic lime per application. The other thing is you might need calcitic lime, not dolomitic. Did you get calcium and magnesium levels from your soil test? According to the label Weed B Gone shouldn't be applied less than 4 weeks before seeding. If you spot spray weeds, it's probably not a huge issue, but a blanket spray with a hose end sprayer might prevent some germination. Questions: 1: You can put Milorganite down, I would apply it after putting the seed down. 2: Weeds need to be actively growing for it to work well. 3: Again, make sure you are using the right lime. Raising pH is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes a long time, and dolomitic is the slower of the two. It's hard to say how much, but I would venture a guess of 5-10 applications of 40 lbs. per 1000 square feet, so 3-6 years. 4. Powdered I think is better applied with a drop spreader, but make sure it is calibrated correctly. Pelletized is much easier to apply. 5. I've used top soil, top soil/peat moss mix, and peat moss. I preferred the top soil/peat mix, but it requires a lot more than you think it will take. I think you are underestimating costs and amounts of materials. Do you have hoses for the whole yard and timers? The only straw I would use would be shredded straw, and that's like 10 bucks a bale and you would probably need around 10 bales. Also I don't like that blend of seed personally. Midnight is a great KBG cultivar, but I don't think it is the best to mix with TTTF. Also the only TTTF cultivar they listed that I have heard of is Essential, but there are many better ones out there.

Oldryder, The only thing I'd change is the aluminum sulfate. The preferred acidifier is sulfur. Get it in the ground now for next spring. If you use a sulfate, use ammonium, not aluminum. I believe the key to good blueberry production is plenty of organic matter in the soil. Be prepared to mulch heavily once they're planted and keep new plantings well watered. Dry spells can be the death of young blueberries. My favorite mulch is chopped oak leaves--tho many prefer wood chips, pine straw, or sawdust. Brook