Has anyone tried wattle fencing? Works great for raised beds. That's what I did with these two. Instead of filling the whole thing with dirt I did the whole lasagna deal. Working like a charm. Mine are 1.5 feet high but you can go as high as you can find sturdy uprights for. All you need is bendable branches for the weaving, sturdy "sticks" for the uprights and compostable material for the middle. They look rustic and work beautifully AND I don't have to get rid of my brush from the winter.

I use the Magic Puzzles app on my android tablet and love it. Just yesterday I was walking through the jigsaw puzzles in a local store and thought about how I'll probably never put very many physical puzzles together anymore because I love my app so much. Carol, like yours, mine will allow you to make puzzles of your own pictures. On mine, the pieces snap together, but not to the place they will stay. You have to solve that. It is a free app, but you can buy sets of puzzles. You don't need to though, as you can purchase them with points earned by putting puzzles together. The reason I chose this particular program was because of the few accesses that they required.

That small bed will not grow a tree, even a dwarf hardy variety. It is encased in brick, which is then surrounded by brick, and so will heat up the soil inside it unnaturally, and also dry out quickly. The roots won't be able to spread to find water, but anyway water will immediately evaporate in such an environment. Rainfall will runoff that yard into the street and not stay in the yard. Plantings there will have the same fate of drying out. The entire area is literally like an oven. The reason pizza ovens have brick in them is so the crust will get crispy. You've done that to your front yard. And that's summer conditions. In winter, the tree's roots will not only be too dry, but also be unprotected from cold. Long Island is located within the "USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 7a and 7b, which experience annual average minimum temperatures of 0 to 10 F". No tree will survive that winter if it is in that bed. I do not know what the OP was thinking by all that brick. It was really a wrong choice. I'd rip out most of it if you want any greenery, and also if you would like your house's AC bills not to be astronomical. I bet your neighbors don't like what you've done to the appearance of the block. And come time for re-sale, your home now has no curb appeal.

I am setting up six raised beds using cinderblocks... I am having the hardest time getting the blocks leveled out due to the fact my garden area is on a slight slope. Does it matter if they a completely level or if one end is a bit higher than the other . I read somewhere that as long as the stones set together well enough it is fine. I am not a perfectionist but I do want to set it up correctly