HI Judith, Although my techniques are my own, I have had great success with only 80sq ft of gardening space (5 plots @ 4'x4'.) Because my backyard is on a slight grade, one end of the garden (the lowest) is a raised bed , where the other end is a bordered bed utilizing 4x4 untreated timber to create the border. My first year, I dug up the grass and weeds that comprised my lawn and placed them on a sheet of plastic to dry out so I could add them to a compost pile, which was also new at the time. I then turned the soil to a depth of about 9" to discover rocks, clay and a smattering of rich topsoil. I mixed in (3) 40 lbs. bags of horse manure compost, 2 bags of bat guano and a bag of limestone. I then judged the height of my garden and layered timbers for the borders, so that at one end the timber may be partially buried and with the descending grade it becomes fully exposed. At the most extreme end I used repurposed 1/2" thick rough hewn plywood from a shipping crate that created a raised bed of about 9". I left a 2' path between each plot (to allow for a "push" lawn mower.) Those paths are now covered with landscaping screen and a layer of river jax.<http://www.thestonestore.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures… Every year I layer the plant beds with newspaper to act as a weed deterrent. I also cover the newspaper with mulch that I create from my own tree and shrub clippings. I have an electric chipper that works great for small branches and twigs. When the gardening season is over I pull the plants and cover with mulch and let the ground sit fallow for the winter. In April I just hoe in the newspaper/mulch and start again. I use fish emulsion to get the seedlings stable and after about three weeks a one-time only watering with 10-35-10 of the dreaded Miracle Grow (unpopular by many opinions, but effective, and yes I know there are other subsitutes out there, but this is *my* garden.) The biggest problem I have had is with the boring worms. They absolutely devastated any squash or zuccini that I have planted in recent years and since I don't want to use a pesticide I just choose not to grow squash or zuccini. I will gladly trade my overstock of cantaloupe for squash. Although I haven't seen a cantaloupe this year, I have 4 plants that have started running and flowering like wildfire and I am anticipating a cantaloupe "problem." Also, it's my first year growing cantaloupe so most of those flowers could shrivel and die off leaving me with cantaloupe deficit, but if the cucumbers are a harbinger of things to come, I will be in the cantaloupe business very soon. Good luck with greening up your thumb. Ryan Parker Drew St "Farms" On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Judith Duke &lt;dukejudith(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote:

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 &lt;dukejudith(a)yahoo.com&gt; To: gardening &lt;gardening(a)eastraleigh.org&gt; 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