A lot of the good qualities of a gravel path depend on the type of gravel you use. I don't know all the ins and outs of this. I've seen some great gravel paths that were long lasting and some awful ones. I've worked a lot with mulched paths. Need to be topped off every year. Limbs for borders is a great natural look, but they will gradually decompose and have to be replaced from time to time, depending on the size and type of wood. I imagine bark mulch paths will speed the decomposition process of wood borders, comparitively more than gravel, but the wood itself is prone to that if not treated with nasty poisons. The paths I worked with for years at various parks and camps were wood mulch with log borders. Very easy maintenance but not maintenance free. Also occasionally suffer from outbreaks of bugs, but a lot of that depends on weather, and the state of the environment around them. Things can get out of balance . . . or not. I like mulch, but if I knew how to do it right I'd go for gravel paths if you want a contrasting look between the paths and surrounding beds. I have had pavers in a gravel path and pavers sunk in grass, and hated both. I do like pavers though, and have never used them mixed with bark mulch paths. I imagine them shifting, but that would depend on the design and maintenance I guess. My pavers shifted in my old gravel path, but that's because I unknowingly put the darn thing over a dry stream bed in a drought cycle. I sure learned the hard way when the rainy year came.

Easy. Assuming it's a thick pile of soil, it will definitely block sunlight and kill off the grass, but there will be some stragglers and will come thru. A bit of an irritation to deal with that grass that came through and you won't have a clean edged flower bed unless you edge it with a small trench. Technically speaking, you really don't need to remove the grass in order to create a new bed. You could have layed down newspapers which have been wetted down and piled on the soil. Cut a clean edge using an edging tool the edger will prevent grass from the surroundings from invading the bed and the newspapers will prevent any stray grass from surfacing. So to remedy this situation, I would suggest removing some of that soil from a spot and set it aside. Add the newspapers, and then returning the soil, then work on the next spot and do the same method again. A bit of work but I think much less than having to dig out the grass. to plant in the bed immediately, dig a hole in the soil and cut through the newspaper so the plant has access to the soil beneath. The grass will be dying but your plant wont.

Same genus, Ryan, different species - the primary differences being the hardy fig (F carica) and it's edible/delicious fruit is usually, but not always discussed here. By all means, share your pictures. Hopefully, by seeing results of your ministrations & manipulations of trees in the genus, others will gain an appreciation for the fact that when healthy, these trees can easily be manipulated and bent to the growers will. Al

Does it really matter how people get into gardening? If they are making an effort, more power to them. I'd much rather see that than yet more landscaping/lawn care businesses dumping chemicals on lawns and chemical-filled RED mulch around trees and shrubs and against houses!! I moved to Maryland from Texas almost 4 years ago. After having my beautiful antique roses die when I moved from San Antonio to San Angelo TX (yeah, expensive hard lesson there), I didn't do much at all with gardening, mostly because we were in a rental house and were in the middle of a drought. After we moved to MD, I waited until we knew that we would be staying in this house for longer than our military tour of three years. Last year, I decided I wanted some flowers and planted a couple of roses and a hydrangea. After moving the hydrangea to a shadier spot and moving a couple of the roses to a sunnier spot, everything did well, which encouraged me to keep digging... Our town has a freecycle group, and I got some plants from a very active member of the local garden club, who has encouraged my efforts from day one. The club's motto is basically 'your $10 membership fee should get you $300 worth of plants the first year'. The members are generous with their extras and well informed, such a great resource to a military transplant like me!. Gardenweb's Mid-Atlantic forum is a terrific group as well, they had their spring swap this past weekend and I came home with a ton of plants. They prefer that we use Latin names, but more to limit confusion than because they're snobby. Instead of railing about how horrible the situation is, how about doing something about it in your area? *Talk to the manager at HD/Lowe's/wherever about ordering plants that will actually do well in the area. *Is there a local garden club?? Is it full of stuffy snobs comparing their umpty-year gardens or is it active and welcoming to new gardeners? Is there a 'garden open house' where new gardeners can go to see local neighborhood gardens and get their questions answered? *Is there a gardenweb (or other online)forum for the area? *Are there any plant swaps in the area? Would it be possible to have a plant sale with a portion of the sales going to beautify a local building with plants that will grow well so new folks can see natives in a local setting? *Is there a freecycle group in your area? Post some plant 'offers' and get people involved! Just like with cooking or sewing or any other craft, a skill must be LEARNED. Give people a chance to learn the skill by starting with the easy stuff. You don't expect a new baker to start out with a wedding cake or a person new to sewing to start out with a double wedding quilt. Be reasonable and make the effort to HELP new gardeners, not bash them down. Lynne