I have Happy Returns and it's very nice. I don't know the other 2. I agree with spacing 18" apart and in a triangle - one at the back and 2 in the front or vice versa. Also, put an inch or 2 of mulch on the soil. I would water them more than twice a week if it is really hot weather until their roots are established. Good luck!

Roxyl, I think no one has tackled your questions because the answers would fill a book, or a year's gardening course!! What kind of soil? Clay, well-drained? soggy? acidic? If clay, then you need to lighten it with compost, woodchips. Did you just move in? If so I would wait a year before putting anything permanent in. Most of the things I have put in right away, I regretted later. I have two methods for weeds - planting fairly close, weeding (hands and knees!)and mulching, then with other areas I am experimenting with landscape fabric and mulch. Both have their drawbacks. The "lasagna" method sounds intriquing but I haven't tried it. Hope this helps a bit - good luck! I always feel sorry for worms too - they work so hard, then I cut them accidentally in half.

I will give you my thoughts, for whatever they may be worth. Crop rotation - this is mostly done to hinder pests from locating the crops easily every year. In my garden, I wouldn't think it would make any difference, because the entire thing is only 25 ft long. If I wanted the best prevention methods for pests - it would be to use row covers, when possible. You can also plan your planting times to miss the most active period when pests are present. I really can't speak on the subject of diseases, because so far this year - I haven't had any. But, i'd also like to add - if you stop the pests before they get started, most of the diseases won't be present. How many to plant of each? Simple, how much of each one would your family eat? Also, I would consider which ones are usually only eaten fresh, versus which ones can be frozen/canned. For instance - I'm planning on growing 8 squares of carrots this fall, and if I follow the recommended spacings,(and all germinate) - that's 128 carrots, that can be frozen very well - and used this winter for all of the stews, soups, and other dishes that my family might eat. Now, lettuce would be a different story....as far as I know, it can't be frozen - so, it would have to be eaten as it came in to season. If I were to plant 20 squares of romaine lettuce - there's no way my family could eat it all - that would be 80 HUGE salads. Of course, staggering the plantings could help on this. Interplanting - your tallest vegetables would need to go on the north side of the garden, and shortest on the south. Squash need alot of room to grow, and carrots, radishes do not. If you plant a squash next to small items, the squash will completely overtake the little plants, and they won't receive as much sunlight. Anyway, I hope this is of some help to you. Feel free to ask more questions, if needed - we are all here to help. EG

Oh, yes, I wasn't following the description that well, and was looking at the labels on the pictures. The dairy sink being the separate one makes sense. I also totally missed the 24" dishwasher on the plan. So sorry about that! Ignore entirely what I said about it. That's why I ask questions. Besides learning more, I also get my mistakes fixed. :) And it helps my approach to know that your rabbi requires separate dishwashers. That pretty well points to the other requirements you have. :) One really important piece of advice: Have a backup plan for Pesach. Unless you're much further along than you sound like, you're in the zone of if everything goes right. Make a plan for what to do if things go wrong and you're not in your new kitchen in time. At least if the sinks and appliances are in on time you'll be able to cook ahead. :) Re the overhang (which doesn't show at all on my screen), 30cm should be adequate. It's a little tight, for long term comfort, but so is the width. For squeezing in a few kids for breakfast or baking it should be fine. OTOH, I have many fond memories of my mother bringing the mixer to the table so that we could make hamentashen, cookies and other fun things. If you're kneading by hand, you might like doing that on the table better than the counter unless you're tall. My optimal height for kneading or rolling is 33", which is halfway between the standards for table and counter. I figured out, however, since I have a carpet under the table and don't want to bake there, that I could use my counter by wearing tall clogs, rather than having a special, lower, baking counter. :) Can you explain more about how the range and window will interact? Do you ever kasher the oven for dairy baking? Would you ever consider getting a wall oven rather than the toaster oven? I know there are budget limitations, but sometimes you can build what works for you now then allows for an easy transition to a planned change in the future. The big problem with the toaster oven niche is the heat. Toaster ovens aren't usually well insulated and they throw a lot of heat around all sides. OTOH, if you have a niche big enough to transition into an oven later, it should work well for either. I think the whole niche should be lined with tile for it to be safe for the toaster oven. That's five sides. The whole plan makes much more sense to me now that I know that the L is the dairy zone. If you had enough produce for that to be your parve zone, I'd think you had a farm and could process it outside. :) Yes, the whole thing makes a lot more sense now. I can definitely see all the baking and dairy meals in that area. I just think you're going to need a bigger dairy oven as your kids get bigger. Teenagers are a lot like goats--they'll eat anything and everything and leave a wasteland behind them. Is the dairy cooktop induction? The boil time would be great for pasta, and it's really wonderful to cook on in general. You can melt chocolate or make toffee (matzah toffee!!! major crowd pleaser) without a double boiler on induction, for instance. The biggest issues I see for the perimeter flow are the path from the stove to the dining room, which I assume is outside the bottom opening, since the other is the laundry. (Do you have a kitchen porch? Or is that the laundry? Or does it open off the laundry?) I'm thinking the straight path is going to be handing things across the peninsula, which isn't a good idea, dripwise. I'm not understanding the prep flow, though. If the parve sink is on the right, then it's the parve counter that runs by the stove? And if you wash meat on the meat side, and then carry it through the parve zone, does that make sense? Or do I have it backwards still? Regarding pantry size, the amount of pantry storage you need is just a bit more than your cabinet will hold. Do you have a makolet (sp?) on your block? That relieves a lot of the storage pressure. 60 cm really isn't enough for a family of 8 for American style, shop once a week, storage. If you can send a kid out for a can of whatever six days a week, it's a lot easier. The best way to know if it'll do is to start with the must haves. If your baking supplies will be in the pantry, for instance, group them together as if they're on the right sized shelves and see how much room they take up. Do the same with all your staples. Since you won't have drawers (roll out tray shelves), consider collecting boxes that will fit that you can slide in and out...but remember, either one takes up some of the shelf width. One way to gain more room in the kitchen is to find some space elsewhere for the cookbooks. You can copy out your most used recipes and put them in a single binder. Keeps your books clean, too. :) That takes a lot less space than all the books. I'm not assuming you have room for them elsewhere, but if you can find it, you'll have more pantry space. I think you've done a good job of squeezing things in, covering your requirements and staying on budget. I keep thinking of ways to change things around, but they start to compromise that. Regarding the backsplash and corner by the range, tile before you put the range in, including behind the riser. Just let it be what it is. It'll be much more comfortable to cook with the range away from the wall, even if it's just by that little bit, the tray cabinet is good to have, and it gives you a place for a spoon rest and a trivet on the far side. As to colors, the Formica sounds like a good color. I was asking about the floor because that ubiquitous stone (agreed about the ignorable factor) is nice and light and should look fine with the color you're describing which is more toward a medium value. I think you could go with either the black or the blizzard white (very low speckle factor) Caesarstone and have it look good. The black will be snazzier, but show more streaks. OTOH, the white can yellow over time and exposure to sunlight. It sounds like it will be attractive, warm and pleasant. Too much "character" in a small, busy kitchen can be overwhelming. Your neutrals should have enough variation not to be boring, and enough boring to be calm amid the chaos.