I think that lifting weed fabric that's underneath rooted plants could either be a great thing, or be disastrous. If the roost grow into the fabric (as they often do), you'd be ripping root systems apart as you lift the fabric. If roots don't penetrate, the fabric will hinder root growth and plant growth in turn. ;The fabric will also prevent some amount of GOOD critter action among the roots too, although this might not be that big of an issue for you. Also, if you have "wildflowers" that like to send down fast and deep taproots, this barrier will not be good. Nor will you have great luck transplanting them. :P I use a lot of cardboard, newspaper, and even paper grocery shopping bags as a method of creating new beds primarily. Thinner paper material is good in areas where it's more dry and the breakdown of organic material happens slower (like on hot dry sunny slopes and in a new rock garden, for example). I use cardboard where stuff happens faster, and in my yard cardboard is about the right thickness and has the right "stuff" to quell weeds while breaking down fast enough to allow the plants on top to establish happily. A good recipe for a fast and beautiful bed without a lot of work or worry: - a space that's about 10x10 feet in size or so - about 100 paper grocery bags - about a cubic yard of good compost -a roll of black landscape plastic or a bunch of black garbage bags - one order of a great seed mix This time of year, you mark your space, put down paper bags on the ground, wet them with a hose, then layer over about 6 inches of compost. Wet really well, then lay black plastic or plastic garbage bags over the top and let it sit over the winter. Then in the spring, pull back the plastic, seed it, and keep it watered. Viola, a new flower bed! Here is a link that might be useful: An Awesome Wildflower Mix

Thanks everyone for your input! I'm hoping to add to the mix later on this fall when the leaves start dropping, and the city hopefully will sponsor another compost giveaway day like they did last spring & fall. That will definitely give me a better thickness. Currently, I'm working on about a 6-8" layer of 'stuff,' and will hope for more as I can get leaves. Course, then I'll have to worry about shredding those to add to the mix, and putting them down...another chore. The site is hot & dry, so mulch will be a have-to thing. Budget constraints will not allow it for this year, but that's ok; I won't have to worry about moving it if I add to the mix later on. The base- yes, it's compacted soil & gravel. Yesterday as I was moving a shrub I found a bed spring in there, and another piece of metal. My guess is it's another one of those "throw-whatever-we-have-available-into-it-just-to-build-the-road" sites, and there's more where that came from. Needless to say, I re-planted that particular shrub slightly shallower, and put new loam/compost around it. I layered the grass clippings about 2" only...hopefully that won't be too thick. And started to 'mix' the loam/compost with them just in case. The pile of loam is huge. 15 yards...we have a small team of 4 going up tomorrow to move some more of it, and I'll do some again today. Tedious work to say the least. No power-equipment to do the job. All by hand/shovel. I broke my pitchfork yesterday, too. Had to get another one this morning on my way to work. Sigh. Plantings will include maintenance-free wild-flowers such as shastas, Queen Anne's lace (a nice filler & reseeder), daylilies, coneflowers, gloriosa daisy, other Ruds...that sort of thing. There are 8 beds in the design, and the space is triangle-shaped with the 'point' of the triangle at the back, so there's a long (89 feet) of sidewalk frontage. A strategically placed 'tree' of some sort donnes the center of the space...that works. Here's the plan: Those little shrubbies are Yews, and many of them need to be moved out of the new pathways. They were originally 'installed' checker-board style...just dotting the space. I have no clue what some of the other low-growing (& totally misshapen) shrubs are, but most of those will either be removed or re-located in the space where they won't be seen much...just to take up space so we don't have to plant as much right away. There's about 6 forsythias, too. MY plan is to get rid of the smaller mis-shapen ones entirely, but we don't have enough fillers yet to do that. Later. I'll winter-sow all of the annuals (marigolds mostly only cuz they are easy and come in a variety of colors & sizes) to save on that cost. I have several sources of perennial donations, and places & can divide stuff like ditch-lilies & coneflowers, and my own spaces need some re-working, so I can donate some things. So that's the initial plan. Subject to change without notice ;)

There is vo reason to put some kind of barrier on the soil under a compost pile since the compost pile itself will stop any plant growth under it simply by shutting any plants access to sunlight off. Normal newsprint, printed daily by your local newspaper will be printed with soya based inks whether Black and White or Colored. Think how difficult it would be to print a colored picture in the middle of a page using a different ink source. Even to colored comics pages are printed using soya based inks. What does still use the matallic, petroleum based inks are the glossy ad pages many of which if you look closely you can easily see the varnish used to keep those inks from smearing.

I would put the smaller pot all the way to the bottom of the bigger pot, no soil beneath it. That way any root infiltration through the drainage holes will be minimized. Roots that come out of the smaller pot's bottom will surely grow into soil that is beneath them in the bigger pot if you put soil there. When transplanting time comes those roots will be near to impossible to preserve....you'll have to cut them off where they emerged from the drainage holes, adding to the rose's transplant shock. Always minimize a rose's stress, transplant shock in this case, whenever possible. Maintain the soil level at the pot's top appropriate for the smaller pot, even if it is sitting considerably lower than the rim of the bigger pot. In may look a bit strange, but I promise not to report you to Martha Stewart's Aesthetics Squad. Moses