Lots of information on to raise or not to raise garden beds.  NICE--and thanks!   I really like the idea of transitioning from raised beds to in-ground, as the first-stage raised beds would help discourage/kill any lingering grass AND be a good source of soil amendment on down the road.  My previous veggie gardens weren't in raised beds, but they were delineated by  1x6 frames.  Though it's a bit more work, there are definitely several advantages to framing or walling off the beds, raised or not.   First, as already mentioned, paths are great (I always layered mine with those big coarse bark chips, but stone/gravel works great as well)!  Not only do they allow easy access for carts, wheelbarrows, mowers, etc., they keep you from slogging around in the mud.  And they look so pleasantly tidy :-)   Second, if you're trying NOT to walk on or compact the soil, you can prop some sturdy planks on the 'walls' like a bridge, across from side to side, and weed or feed everything from your plank perch.  And, of course, those loose boards can be moved wherever you need access.   Third, of course, the hard boundaries help contain any mulch you may add. . .   I'm especially encouraged to hear the voles may not be the only ones to benefit from my vegetable plantings!  I DO have a dog; unfortunately, however barky and fierce-looking he may be, he actually looks on rabbits and squirrels with a live-and-let-live attitude.  I had thought a cat might be a better opponent for voles. . .but it might hurt the dog's feelings :-)   Obviously, this discussion has got me thinking a LOT about vegetable gardening.  Thanks!   Judy --- On Sun, 6/12/11, gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org <gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org> wrote: From: gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org <gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org> Subject: Gardening Digest, Vol 2, Issue 7 To: gardening(a)eastraleigh.org Date: Sunday, June 12, 2011, 2:59 PM Send Gardening mailing list submissions to     gardening(a)eastraleigh.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit     http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/gardening or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to     gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org You can reach the person managing the list at     gardening-owner(a)eastraleigh.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Gardening digest..." Today's Topics:    1. Re: Intro, vegetable gardening, raised beds       (billdupre1551(a)aol.com)    2. Re: Intro, vegetable gardening, raised beds (Vanessa Van Horn) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:08:44 -0400 (EDT) From: billdupre1551(a)aol.com Subject: Re: [Gardening] Intro, vegetable gardening, raised beds To: gardening(a)eastraleigh.org Message-ID: <8CDF73A85565FD3-E60-3B532(a)webmail-m007.sysops.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" I put in three 4-by-8-foot raised beds last year. We have not had a problem with voles in them  - and we have voles in our yard. I definitely did not dig down three feet and use hardware cloth; I just dug up the grass, placed the wood on top and filled with compost, cow poop and even some red clay. Thanks for the note on the tomatoes. I was thinking ours were taking a long time. Bill DuPre 1413 Morecai   -----Original Message----- From: Judith Duke <dukejudith(a)yahoo.com> To: gardening <gardening(a)eastraleigh.org> Sent: Sat, Jun 11, 2011 11:01 pm Subject: [Gardening] Intro, vegetable gardening, raised beds Hello. Most of my gardening experience has been in southern California, the majority in the Mojave desert.  So my focus was largely on water conservation, native plants, and xeriscaping (with the exception of vegetables, of course). I had some fairly large vegetable gardens back then, so here, I  keep thinking I should plow up some of my boring-to-mow backyard and grow something I can eat.  A few questions, though: Can I just dig up existing 'lawn' (courtesy title), amend the soil, and go for it?  Or are raised beds a must?  And speaking of raised beds, does that mitigate the vole problem?  I don't know about you-all, but my property seems to be Vole Mecca.  I Googled "raised bed" + "vole", and the recommendations are insane: dig down 3', line the whole bed with hardware cloth, etc. Anybody have problems with the critters? BTW, tomato blossoms generally don't set when night temps are over 50?, daytime over 90?. . .which would account for their slowness during this blazing spring.  Also, I'm curious about the various reports of planting regular peppers with hot ones.  I always heard they should be segregated, as otherwise they cross-pollinate, giving some unexpected bite to sweet peppers; I remember one source calling peppers "promiscuous".  Is this not a problem?  It would certainly  make garden planning easier not having to work around that. I've been reading this thread and saving up my comments, so here are a couple of the plant sources that've occurred to me along the way.  Major focus on xeriscaping: http://www.highcountrygardens.com/  I relied on them quite a bit in the desert; I expect many of their plants would also work well for eastern gardens.  For heirloom and cottage garden seeds http://www.reneesgarden.com/.  I grew her Carmello tomatoes (yum!) for years.  And it's worth checking the website for the free recipes if nothing else (I bought Cookbook #1 and am going back for Cookbook #2). Pray for rain. Judy _______________________________________________ Gardening mailing list Gardening(a)eastraleigh.org http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/gardening