At my last house I had raised beds - 4' wide by 12-20' long with wooden sides about 1 1/2 foot tall. Over two or three years we built 8 of these large beds plus several smaller beds for perennial crops like stawberries, rhubarb, and horseradish. For that situation, there were several advantages. It allowed us to have flat areas on a hill; we terraced with rock walls and put the beds on those flat areas, surrounded by woodchips for mulch, so there was no weeding at all. The beds were sunk about a foot below the grade, and we had to sift the soil, which was shallow over fractured ledge, to get rid of all the rock, and then we filled the rest of the beds with composted cow manure, thanks to our local dairy farmer. So, we ended up with no weeds & great soil in flat beds from an area that started out mostly rock on a steep grade. Other pluses were sitting on the bed sides to plant, screwing trellises for beans, melons, cukes, etc. directly into the bed sides, and the ablility to plant early due to good drainage and early season warm-up. We also sometimes put plastic hoops over the beds, tucking the hoop ends inside the beds to hold them, to cover with spun-bond or plastic. On our strawberry beds, we put hinged wire mesh covers so the chipmunks couldn't eat the berries. Between mulch and the high organic content of the soil, we only had to water when it had been dry for a couple of weeks or more. Our current house had a pre-existing ground-level garden which we simply took over as was since the house needed a huge amount of work, so that's where our efforts and energy went. I miss the raised beds, and find that I have more difficulty with soil-living bugs like wire worms in my potatoes and cutworms crawling in from the surrounding field. I can't work in the garden as long since I have to bend more or sit on & scoot along the ground. (I'm no spring chicken!) The grass and weeds migrate into the veggie garden from the surrounding field, and the soil needs to be prepped in the fall so I can plant peas, potatoes, etc. earlier in spring since the soil stays cold and wet for much longer. There are two only advantages I can see to the ground level garden: it's easier to till with a machine like a big tiller or tractor if you want to be able to do that, and any crops that need winter warmth can be well mulched and will stay warmer in the ground. Garlic, which is a bit borderline as far as hardiness here, has better survival rates, and my leeks and root vegetables overwinter better with a thick layer of mulch when they are in the ground rather than in a raised bed. So, like Lisa, I will eventually have some of both, but with most of my garden as raised beds and a smaller part of it in the ground.

Nothing stops wild morning glories. Cardboard and decomposed granite is on my list for the paths. Protecting against horned rats wearing tiaras sporting an entitlement complex (deer) is Number one priority here. Wild boars are becoming a nuisance and let us not leave the coons off that list.. Thankyou for the compliments. The design was determined by the free materials and site. I am still not done. No doors and I need to raise the fence level(deer height) with some left over conduit that I have. I squished it between 2 trees to the west and East. I would like it bigger now. If I would do it over. I would do the beds a bit over 4 feet, useing a bent PVC pipe and frost cover as the determining factor . Where the Configuration looks good Then That is the size of the bed. I would also like a garden where the beds are simple rows. I maxed out the growing square footage and I came up with a complex bed shape. That made for a complex frost cloth system. A lot of irregular flopping cloth in the wind. Having gone through the process now from start to finnish, I would veer for the simple over the cramped. I would have picked a different spot for a larger plot. I have acreage, so picking a different spot was possible. I picked this spot because it was close to the water supply, close to a road for dirt deliveries and close to the kitchen. The road, trees and rock garden kept the size to about 22 X 20. OH it is not square because of the constraints. The things that make it visually appealing are also its defects. I am a furniture designer/builder/restorer so I have a tendency to design things and sometimes over build, never quite finishing if it is for me.

Gal, I deal with something similar each spring. So, our city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, redesigned our main commercial street about ten years ago. It was decided to plant trees in what amounts to concrete vaults-these things go 4 ft. down below grade, so there's nowhere for the roots to spread out to. Then, flowerbeds were decided upon at each end of these tree beds. I might not be making this very clear, but in any case, what has resulted is that each year, we have to try to plant stuff in what amounts to a mass of tree roots-almost no actual soil to work with. It sucks, let me tell you! We just do what must be done, cutting and chopping those roots out of the way. It's not right for the trees, and it's not ideal for the flowers, and so on that we then plant, but it's the best compromise available to us. In fact, because once the flowering stuff is planted, we water, fertilize, etc....the tree roots rapidly regrow back into that area. We have considered installing a barrier but in reality, this should have been done at initial construction, a point which, by the way, I made loudly and often back then!

I have the same problem. I put thick cardboard under the bed and that lasted only 1 to 2 years and had to be redone. This fall and winter I am going to raise the beds up a little and put a bottom on the growing bed. It can be raised by putting cinder blocks, bricks or any kind of wood to raise the bed off the ground. I plan to use 2" thick by 12" high pine boards as a base. Then I will put the growing bed directly on top of the base. Since the base will not be in contact with the soil, I plan to use pressure treated lumber for the base. This will also raise the bed up a little so I don't have to bend over as far.