Permeable means it s ability to allow liquids to pass through. Chicken wire is fine if you have moles/voles but landscape fabric is only mildly permeable. Testing consistently shows it slows drainage substantially. It is not ever recommended for the bottom of a bed by experienced gardeners and it would have no effect on the moles and voles anyway. 75:25 compost:loam is high on the compost side and the quality depends on your definition of "loam". Means many different things. But as long as it isn't so-called "top soil" or sand a 50/50 mixture of it would probably work. More commonly you see the recommendation for 40:60. But you will have to add more compost at least once a year and better 2x a year as it continues to shrink as it decomposes. I get the impression you aren't interested in first trying to improve your native soil and incorporate it into the bed, correct? That is the best route to go. But if not then you need to understand that overtime it can affect whatever you fill your bed with unless you made some sort of solid bottom box which is not at all recommended. But you can still make it work with a framed raised bed on top of it with chicken wire or hardware cloth on the bottom IF you keep the bed well and frequently amended with quality compost. Over time the leachate and soil bacteria will improve the soil below the bed as well. Dave

Organic - unless you live in a newly built house where the builders have removed the topsoil you already have 'topsoil' in your garden. It may be clay soil but it is probably absolutely fine as the basis for starting to garden. I have very heavy clay but with compost and muck added it grows good crops. There are not many places in Southern England that do not have soil which will make a reasonable garden. If you really want to be planting stuff out in a couple of weeks you are looking at a large outlay in bagged compost and loam to fill raised beds that fast. I really do believe the cheaper, and in the long run, better option would be to dig the ground you have. It's more work but will give you a good garden. However, if you are set on filling up raised beds about 2/3 potting compost to 1/3 garden soil or John Innes would be about right. Plus you will need some sort of retaining edging unless you are just going to mound the earth up. This is going to be very expensive.

What a nice space for a garden. I like the rock wall. What kind of light does this area get? Dappled sun and shade all year like in the photo, or either more sun or more shade during the growing season? What is your soil like? I find it difficult to tell how large the area is, so a ballpark estimate would help to tell what there is space for. I'd start with removing any non-garden plants growing here and then mulch (cardboard with cut-outs for the hosta with an organic mulch like chopped leaves or wood chips on top) and weed a lot the first year so that when you add plants your weeding and maintenance will be minimal. Since this area will be visible as folks go in and out of the door, having plants with year-round interest and/or some ornament such as sculpture or a birdbath will be important in making this area appealing. I think I would try to plant mostly lower growing items in the front part of the garden, or at least airy plants so that the stone wall is a visible feature. If some of these are evergreen/gold/red, they will provide interest in the winter. In the upper part behind the stone wall, if there is room I'd add background plants with year round interest such as a colored foliage evergreen, and /or variegated red-twigged dogwood, ones that would stand out well against the light walls. With any woody plants, check the ultimate size and be sure you have room to paint or do maintenance behind it if it isn't a plant like the dogwoods which don't mind being cut to the ground. If there is enough light, a pretty trellis with a clematis that gets cut back in the winter (type 3 pruning) would feature the clematis in the growing season and the trellis in the winter. I would probably put a row of low-growing or easily pruned evergreens such as one of the smaller boxwood varieties under the window to provide winter interest and then plant the rest of the area with perennials to give you more interest in the growing season. Particularly in a smaller garden such as this that is in such a prominent place, thinking about varying the foliage color and texture (as you are doing in thinking about adding coral bells) will help add interest to the garden when there aren't many blooms. In addition to the library as a resource, Pennsylvania has public gardens that might give you inspiration, both for plants and for design. Here is a link that might be useful: Pennsylvania public gardens

PREPARING FOR FALL: You should be doing what is needed to get your soil ready for fall. In my garden, that might include adding compost (purchased or from one of the older working piles), composted manure or Plant-Tone plant food to any areas from which I've removed a spring crop and am planting a fall crop. You also should remove all sprouting weeds and grasses because they'll compete with your crops. If you don't have mulch, you should be saving it and stockpiling it so you can add it to beds after you've transplanted plants or after your seeds have sprouted. You indicated that Mel's Mix didn't work for you, so now is a great time to add to it to correct what you think is wrong with it. If you aren't sure what to add to correct whatever problems you had, let us know and maybe someone will have some suggestions. I am not sure if you found Mel's Mix to drain too quickly? too slowly? Was it lacking in nutrition? We have to know what was wrong with it in order to help you figure out how to fix it. TOMATO SEEDS: It is too late to start tomato seeds now since your fall tomatoes need to go into the ground in July. I'm planting my first fall tomatoes in the ground this week from seeds started 5 to 6 weeks ago. It will take me about 3 weeks to get all the fall tomatoes in the ground since I am putting them in, one by one, to replace other plants that are finished. For example, the small section of Texas Honey June Corn is done now and I am going to put 9 to 12 plants in the area once occupied by it. For the rest of what you're planting, I'm going to give you the dates I would most likely plant them here. If you are in OKC, you probably should plant about a week earlier than me. If you are further north than OKC and have an earlier first fall freeze, then plant up to 2 weeks earlier than I do. LEMON CUCUMBERS: These grow great here, and I'd plant them here in southern OK between August 1 -August 15. Be sure to pick them while they are a bright yellow. If they start turning an orangey-yellow, you've left them on the vines too long. KENTUCKY WONDER POLE BEAN: I'd probably plant pole beans for fall anytime after July 15th, and probably in your case as closely to that date as possible. SEQUOIA BUSH BEANS: Aug. 1 - Sept. 1 here SNOW PEAS: Sept. 1 Oct. 1 GARLIC: Sept. thru Oct. SWEET POTATOES: As soon as possible since they take roughly 85 - 110 days to mature and you need to have them harvested before freezing weather arrives. COW PEAS: Now. Anytime from now through August 1st. BLACK-SEEDED SIMPSON LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept. 15 BUTTERCRUNCH LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept.15 BUTTERNUT SQUASH: Anytime in July TOMATOES: July 1-15 is best for tomatoes with longer days to maturity, and by the end of July for tomatoes with shorter days to maturity. The earlier you get them in the ground in July, the larger and more ready they'll be to flower/set fruit when cooler fall temperatures arrive. Summer-planted tomatoes need more water to get established and grow than spring-planted tomatoes, so keep a close eye on them and keep them moist but not soggy. CARROTS: August 15 - Sept. 15 CHIVES: These are more of a cool-season crop and I usually only plant them in late winter or early spring. To start them in summer, I'd start them indoors in a flat or in paper cups in a sterile soil-less potting mix in a cool room (approx. 60-70 degrees) that doesn't especially have a lot of bright light. That way, they'll think it is early spring and will sprout. Pre-soaking the seed will help it germinate more quickly. Once they sprout you can move them into light, and gradually expose them to outdoor light and harden them off before transplanting them into the ground. I probably would start the seed in early Sept. and hope I could get them into the ground in late Sept. or early Oct. Or, if you know someone who has chives and will give you a clump, you can divide them and plant them anytime. Just cut back the tops by about 60-80% when you divide them. They'll regrow just fine. Mulch can be anything that covers the soil surface to keep it cool. Well-mulched soil can be 20-30 degrees cooler than bare, unmulched soil in our summer heat. I use whatever I can get my hands on because I have a big garden and it takes a whole lot of mulch to cover all the ground. I add mulch just about weekly. You can use bagged mulch and it is one of my favorite kinds of mulch. It looks nice and it decomposes into the most gorgeous dark brown compost that enriches the soil. Just be sure you use it on the surface of the soil and don't work it into the soil. If you work it into the soil, it can tie up oxygen so you want to avoid that in general unless you're adding extra nitrogen to the soil to compensate for what wood chips will tie up. You also can use straw, hay, grass clippings, compost, shredded paper if you shred your old bills, junk mail, etc. I like to put down a layer of newspaper or cardboard around the larger plants and pile mulch on top of that. The paper or cardboard will keep weed seeds that sprout from working their way up (if they sprout beneath the cardboard) or from working their way down (if the sprout in the mulch). As the paper and cardboard decompose, they turn into compost which further enriches your soil. Do you see a pattern here? Every bit of organic (with organic in this case meaning "once alive") matter than you use as mulch will decompose and enrich your soil and you don't even have to use a trowel or mini-tiller to work the compost into the soil because over time, the rain and earthworms will carry it down into the soil. In the fall, you can ask your neighbors to save their raked/bagged leaves for you. Then, stack up all the bags and save them for next year and use them as mulch. If you want for the whole leaves to be decomposing into leaf mold, shred or chop them, put them into black leaf bags, wet them down good, tie the bags shut, and poke several air holes in them. Pile them up in an out-of-the-way place and let them sit there all fall and winter. In the spring you'll have lovely partially decomposed leaves to use as mulch. Conversely, if your soil needs improvement, you can till them directly into the soil in the fall (chop or shred them first or they won't break down), but then you'll need to be stockpiling something else to use as mulch. When we mow (and we mow anywhere from 1 to 4 acres most of the time so we get lots of clippings), we catch the clippings in a grasscatcher and dump them wherever we need more mulch at the moment. We mow the acre around the house weekly, and the other 1 to 3 acres closest to the house anywhere from 1 to 3 times per month. For us, clippings are our primary mulch during grass-growing season, but I use more hay, straw and wood chips in spring, and chopped or shredded leaves in fall and winter. If you will heavily mulch your beds this fall after your crops are done, and by heavily I mean several inches, that mulch will keep weeds from sprouting in your beds all winter and early in spring, and the mulch will start decomposing and 'feeding' the soil, so it is a win-win situation. Dawn