I learned the hard way that it's a good idea to uncover the soil in your raised beds about two weeks or so before your last frost date and leave it uncovered until night temps are above sixty. Mulch does prevent weeds, and it does hold in moisture, but it also holds in COLD and you want the soil to warm up this time of year. Once the soil is warm enough (hold your bare hand on it. It shouldn't feel cold) then put your mulch back down. I include a link for you just to give you an idea. You can definitely sow lettuce right now. Also greens, carrots, spinach, onions, and snap peas (and more). These like cool temps. In my garden, they are usually done about the time I plant cowpeas and butterbeans. I pull them out and immediately plant the beans. Just as a note, if you plan well, you can get three or even four crops a year from each bed: early spring (as listed above), two crops in summer, and fall/winter (reruns of the early spring crops). This is known as succession planting. I have nine raised beds. Last year, I planted 3 beds each of the tomato family (also includes eggplants and peppers), the bean family (English peas, cowpeas, butterbeans, shellie beans, snap beans), and the squash family (cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, and melons). I planted one bed of each about a week after my last frost date, then another bed of each a month later, then four weeks later, I planted the third bed of each group. By that time, the first ones that were planted were starting to poop out (not the tomato ones, as they go all season). So I began replanting, bed by bed. I loved it. I was never overwhelmed with planting or harvesting, and at mid summer, I planted different crops so we didn't get sick of eating the same thing. By keeping the beds divided into thirds, it makes crop rotations much simpler. By the way, it will be a tremendous help to you if you will keep a garden calendar. Write down the dates that you plant things, when you have first harvest, and when they are done. Next year, you'll be so glad you did. Also, make notes later, like "too early", "too late", etc. I am assuming that your beds are narrow enough for you to stand on the outside of the bed and reach into the middle? If so, when you plant, you can plant your crops in blocks. If the seed packet says to plant, say, 6 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart, ignore the row part. Plant everything six inches apart in all directions. You'll be amazed at how much food you can get from a relatively small bed. Check out the Square Foot Gardening Forum for more info on this technique. If you're into aesthetics too, take a look at the Potager forum. Never hesitate to ask questions! Chances are there are others wondering the same thing, and sometimes the posters include extra tidbidts of information that are extremely valuable to us all! Here is a link that might be useful: My raised bed garden

Howdy...Happy Friday. How's everyone doing? It's been a while since posting, but there were things that needed doing, and thankfully, got most accomplished. I'm so upset!! I lost my list of AV sizes..Now I have to jot each name down, then check each individually...I went to the first AV Questions, Part 1, lol, then copied each plant Fred listed. Thanks Fred.. Fred, nope, no name of the AV w/white leaves. Actually, last winter I rooted a few different leaves. Two were from old plants, and one, possibly two from a leaf/ves won on Ebay. All were rooted in water, but only one made it. After roots formed, the survivor was placed in a little plastic cup sent with an AV that needed repotting. The problem is, the cup had writing with some type of marker that wouldn't wash off. All it says is, CZ0499..that means nothing. At the time I didn't think any leaves would root, so I didn't bother using labels..Also, some of the leaves were from my old AV's without names, bought locally..Stores in this area where AV;s are sold do not print AV names on containers or add a tag. The reason I didnt think they'd root is, years ago I'd root in soil. For some reason, later on, no matter what I did, they just wouldn't root. A woman I know told me her mom rooted AV's in water..She simply placed a piece of aluminum foil on top of a container, punched a hole in the foil, then slipped the cutting in the hole.. What's ironic is, I told her I never ever had luck rooting AV leaves in water..when she rooted AV's, she rooted in water, and I rooted in soil. She nor I could no longer root our usual ways..so, I tried using her mom's idea and she tried rooting in soil, and both our leaves rooted.. Since, AV leaves are rooted in water. Fred, why/how does Fish Emulsion put Chlorophyl back in a plant??? That's curious. I have Alaskian and Ferti-Lome brands..does it matter which is used? Both are 5-1-1. You don't have to give me a scientific, chemistry reason..I wouldn't have any idea what you're talking about..lol I'm not thrilled w/its odor either, but it only lasts 2-3 days, and if it helps, so be it. In autumn, all plants, (not AV's) gets a foliar feed with FE. Those outdoors are sprayed thoroughly, with added 2-4 drops of dish soap (not Dawn) citrus rind, garlic, and this year Cayenne pepper. FE kills and prevents scale..Believe me. About 4-5 yrs ago, when I bought my Olive tree, it arrived scale-packed..of course, I didn't notice the first couple days, and because it was winter, (the house full) it sat next to other plants..one day while misting, I looked at a leaf and saw a ton of scale..YUCK..inspected the entire plant and saw at least 100 scale..Not only on the Olive, but those little suckers attached to neighboring citrus. A woman in Fl who sells citrus once told me she uses FE as a scale preventative. I followed her directions..2 days later, scale went to scale heaven. Or hell!! I've been making the soap concoction many years, all is mixed together and voila, organic insecticide..since, plants are bug free..if only I would overcome the fear of spraying fuzzy leaf plants...but one day I'll try it, even though I've never seen bugs on AV's. Oh, does anyone knew how long it takes for the AVSA to ship a book??? Tomorrow will be a week..am I being hastey? Is that the correct spelling?? It looks odd..LOL..then again, I only slept 4 hours.. Hope everyone has a great, safe weekend. Enjoy before winter arrives..sigh..Toni

Fred, Love your bog garden, it looks excellent! 1. I live in New Jersey - my area is supposedly zone 6b; however, i know that these zones are sometimes misapplied. Would you say that you are in a colder zone then I am? 2. When we say that iris and orchid have their rhizomes in the upper 3 to 4" of earth, as definitely seems to be the case in the field, then how would greater depth then 10" help these plants thrive and to overwinter? The only two advantages to extra depth that I can think of would be: greater water/moisture retention in the growing season and less water per soil ratio in winter so that the roots are not frozen in solid ice [mud]. 3. I think my frostline might be 18" - i was thinking of making my bog 24", so that its well beyond the frost line. However, since I'm only going to have mostly the types of bog plants that you have [orchid, iris, hardy carnivorous plants, etc], is that a waste of liner - since the roots will not be going down that deep - and maybe wont even go deeper then 10"? [keep in mind that I wont be having any sort of cattails or very large plants that might have enormous root systems? Thanks Fred, Steve

Since bamboo is hollow, I think you might actually amplify the sound. You might be able to block some sound with something taller and wider, but I don't think you would with only 3-4 ft.--the sound will come around and over. If I was going to try something, it would be larger and the side toward the air conditioner would be something softer than wood...perhaps foam, styrofoam, or acoustical tiles (like on a ceiling). Another possibility is heavy cotton batting (something like that is what our dishwasher is wrapped in, and it is nearly totally silent), but that might be more difficult to use, unless you staple it to plywood or a wooden frame. I realize none of those are pretty, but they could be disguised. To avoid digging, make it something like folding screens or 2 double posts on a stand that whatever material you use could be dropped into. I know that is not a good description, but maybe I can draw a picture of it and attach it. Look on Craigslist for free or cheap materials to experiment with--insulating styrofoam is frequently on there, along with misc. lumber and bricks (at least in our area those items are on there almost every day). I wouldn't put a lot of money into it (unless you have another use for the materials) until I had experimented and thought it would work.