I've been blind since my early twenties (about 20 years), and began active gardening about 4 years ago. Last spring I put in some mixed flower / herb / vegie beds using ideas from the Square Foot gardening forum here at Garden Web. I knew that I would be able to orient myself better using the intensive methods they describe. Creating long straight rows by yourself just isn't that easy! But there were some other advantages to the techniques they use for sq foot gardening. One thing they do is use carpet squares as a seed guide and weed suppressant. Put holes in the carpet using the suggested spacing. Lay the 12" x 12" square for planting. Sow seeds in holes. When the seeds germinate they come up through the holes. Weeds don't get a chance! Before trying this I do recommend you read over at that forum, as some folks also describe some disadvantages to the carpet method. I adapted the carpet idea and used Braille paper instead. It's not quite 1 foot square, but it's close, and it's thick and absorbs water easily. I found that I could either borrow my husband's eyes to cut holes or I could fold the paper different ways to get the spacing I needed. The paper may need to be weighted down to prevent wind blowing it away, but once dampened it tends to stay put. It worked great to suppress weeds. Only thing is  I was just dealing with 3 garden beds, each just 4' x 5'. This intense method also means that once plants are mature there isn't much space for weeds. I don't know if there is a way to adapt these ideas to a larger garden, but I sure understand your husband's battle with weeds. For me I always worry that I'll pull up what I planted -- that was something else the method I describe helped me to avoid. Hope this helps  or at least gets him thinking about some ways to deal with the problem. Happy gardening! BA

Hi all, Palo Alto, California is just about what is considered the Northern end of Silicon Valley on the Peninsula side of SF Bay. Real Estate along Page Mill Road has the distinction of having once been the most expensive in the entire United States, topping Manhattan for a brief time toward the end of the 90s, just before the economic tech boom came to an end. For gardeners, the area has some wonderful places to go. The Elizabeth F. Gamble Home and Garden is located in the City of Palo Alto, at the corner of Embarcadero and Waverly. It is a working garden as there are several beds which are planted with a large variety of plants. The home itself is apparently a museum and the folks at Gamble provide classes on Gardening. The Gamble Gardens are a nice way for folks to see those flowers that bloom in Winter ( now ) and later, in the other seasons. The photos here should help to answer some of those questions about which plants flower right now, like this Iris ... Here's a shot of the Gamble Home, 'The Carriage House' ... Also in Palo Alto, is prestegious Stanford University which has a sprawling well landscaped campus and ... The Cantor Center for Visual Arts. The Canter Center hosts an Auguste Rodin Sculpture Garden, a Garden of Stone. Often, one of the things that makes or breaks a garden is not the plants, but the trappings, walls, figurines, a trellis, etc. While touring the garden spots in the Palo Alto and Woodside area, choose to visit the Rodin Sculpture Gardens and Stanford's excellent Visual Arts Museum. It's a treat. And inside the Cantor Arts Center ... And now for a formal garden ... The Filoli Center in Woodside, located just of the 280 and sitting for all intents, right on top of the San Andreas fault, is a huge estate which is a California Landmark. Like the Hearst Castle, the grounds and mansion are open to the public. Filoli has special events throughout the year when they feature floral and garden displays that must really be something to take part in. Inside the mansion ... Back outside again ... Well after that, I feel like Italian food. There's a place in San Jose called Santana Row. It's new and is right across the street from the famous Winchester Mystery House. I saw this place recently and had to try it ... A street scene from Santana Row is included and notice how happy the staff from Maggiano's is to see me? Ciao! BTW: Did you see the Humming Bird in the Filoli Garden pictures? Little guys are hard to photograph, but I froze one in time. The Gamble Gardens are a nice way for folks to see those flowers that bloom in Winter ( now ) and later, in the other seasons. The photos here should help to answer some of those questions about which plants flower right now, like this Iris ... Here's a shot of the Gamble Home, 'The Carriage House' ... Also in Palo Alto, is prestegious Stanford University which has a sprawling well landscaped campus and ... The Cantor Center for Visual Arts. The Canter Center hosts an Auguste Rodin Sculpture Garden, a Garden of Stone. Often, one of the things that makes or breaks a garden is not the plants, but the trappings, walls, figurines, a trellis, etc. While touring the garden spots in the Palo Alto and Woodside area, choose to visit the Rodin Sculpture Gardens and Stanford's excellent Visual Arts Museum. It's a treat. And inside the Cantor Arts Center ... And now for a formal garden ... The Filoli Center in Woodside, located just of the 280 and sitting for all intents, right on top of the San Andreas fault, is a huge estate which is a California Landmark. Like the Hearst Castle, the grounds and mansion are open to the public. Filoli has special events throughout the year when they feature floral and garden displays that must really be something to take part in. Inside the mansion ... Back outside again ... Well after that, I feel like Italian food. There's a place in San Jose called Santana Row. It's new and is right across the street from the famous Winchester Mystery House. I saw this place recently and had to try it ... A street scene from Santana Row is included and notice how happy the staff from Maggiano's is to see me? Ciao! BTW: Did you see the Humming Bird in the Filoli Garden pictures? Little guys are hard to photograph, but I froze one in time.

These tips are all great! I use the "pack 'em in" theory of gardening to cut down on the weeds as others do. It also cuts down on the chore and expense of mulching. I used to deadhead, but the goldfinches and other birds really appreciate the seed heads, so now I do lots of my garden clean-up in the spring. Actually the plant material is brown and dried up at that point and I've found usually I can rake an area and the dead stems come right up. As opposed to clipping back in the fall when I have to cut each stem. There simply seems to be "less" plant material to get rid of after a winter since it's all dried and shriveled up, if that makes sense at all. I am really learning to settle down about getting it all done. This summer I haven't worked too much in the garden (because of the heat) and it has been so enjoyable finding other fun things to do (like the beach, etc!). The thread about garden seating pushed me to add adirondack chairs to the backyard and lately after work I come home and read a magazine out there instead of weeding. Much more enjoyable. What LL said is true. If people aren't gardeners they won't even know they're weeds and I really think that most gardeners going through a garden that has weeds think to themselves "PHEW! I'm SO glad to see that they have weeds too!!" Let's face it, ALL gardeners fight the weed battle and can appreciate weeds in any garden. I still have not learned to garden the size I can take care of. I'm only on phase 3 of my yard and have another 2 or 3 fairly sizable areas to work on. However, I have learned to pace myself and work for about 5 years on a certain phase of building an area before moving on to another area. During that time I think a lot about the next phase (plant material, design, most especially how will it be watered, etc....) So far we've been OK with the amount of space we've gardened. I'm wondering in which phase I say "Uh Oh, now I've bitten off more than I should have!" I know someday that will happen but for now I'm going to keep my phased approach and hope for the best. Unfortunately, once all the phases are done, I'll be 15 years older and at that point will be looking at how to pare down the garden!! LOL! Pfmstin, I've never heard of that material and it sounds very interesting. I'm definitely going to check that out. Xantippe, what type of edger to you have? Do you have a machine? So far, my DH is my machine! We're (OK, really HE) is edging many new garden beds and anything we (HE) can do to reduce time/energy would be great to know. You see, the less time he spends on edging, the more time he'll have to help me with other things! LOL!! Gardenweed, Amen to planting more fall plants. The garden season for those of us in northern climates can be extended into November with flowers and color. There are so many great fall plants and shrubs out there that are worthy to extend the season. You know, I've heard many times about cardboard and newspaper under mulch and have "thought" about doing that for weed control. But some of you brought up a very good, important point with that tip in that the worms love it. I hadn't thought about that before so thank you for mentioning it. I am going to use this tip in the backyard where it's a new area and needs to be covered.

A raised bed under trees is generally not a good idea. If you raise the level of soil around a tree's trunk, you usually sentence it to a slow death as the bark that's supposed to be above ground slowly rots. If the raised beds are further away to protect the trunk, the tree roots will grow into it looking for nutrients and you will be facing the same situation as in an "inground" bed. It will just be a bit easier on your back.