Hello everyone. I have been trying to figure out what to do about my existing raised beds, which were made with untreated lumber and are now rotting after about 6 years. After reading about these concrete block beds, I'm considering just removing the screws from the rotting lumber and putting concrete blocks down around the the existing beds and just let the wood continue to rot away. I have two 3x8 foot beds, four 4x4 foot beds, and a 3x6 foot bed...all of them are only 6" high. The 3 block height beds pictured above are really nice looking...are they high enough to keep rabbits out? If that would let me get rid of my rabbit fencing, it might be worth the expense and back pain of rebuilding them with concrete, although I would have to get a ton of additional compost to fill the beds. The additional height would also allow to me to quit worrying about weeds, grass, etc, growing in between and sometimes into the beds...I could just spray vinegar around and/or take the weed whacker through the area. I appreciate any advice!

I am revisiting this topic of watermelon varieties to grow out. I do dot grow that many at one time for I need to put them out in shorter rows and have enough land left over for changing the location of my patch. I have enough room to grow 14- 16 melon vines in 5 different locations which is still a bit short of room since I grow 2 crops a year. My goal is to not touch the same soil till the 4th year. I would like to hear different viewpoints and especially Southern growers who grow in extreme humidity and heat like myself, which is zone 10b in Southwest Florida. Anyone in the South of Florida usually gives up growing melons. lol Florida is #1 in Watermelon production in the Country so we have no excuses and need to understand timing is the key. I have had successful crops but have been away from the game for a few short years and am getting back to planting Watermelon again . I started about 2 weeks late getting my seeds out in the beginning of Sept. Vines are getting big quickly and I feel it will be a successful Fall, which is not easy here due to the winter is coming fast. Our Spring crop is usually much better but I was game to get some in. Here is my list for my grow out. I use a wide row method of growing so my row is 6 ft wide and plants spread out 3 ft apart in both directions and are 2 deep in the row. Soil is amended to a sandy loam and I use a triple 14 Polyon coated fertilizer and run a ph of about 6 - 6.5. I top dress every 2 weeks with a triple 20 water base fertilizer and Calcium nitrate, both at half strength or slightly above. 1. 2 Orangeglo 2. 2 Crimson Sweet 3. 2 Golden Honey 4. 1 Bush Sugar Baby 5. 1 Sugar Baby 6. 2 Leelanau 7. 1 Legacy 8. 1 Jubilee 9. 1 Legendary 10. 1 Yellow Baby Doll 11. 2 Orange Crisp In the winter into Spring will be trialing a few more to the list and they are Starbrite, Summer Flavor #720, Grandeur, Royalty, Golden Gem. I would be growing Gold Strike but the seed is not being sold any more. That is the best yielding watermelon I have ever grown and it kills me not to have it any more. I do like the hybrid vigor for watermelon production but am keeping some of the better OP types in my trials to see if any shine. Actually I am growing more OP's with this fall crop.

We still own our last house, and not because we want to! We moved out of that house on Thanksgiving weekend of 2005 and spent the winter getting in shape to sell - taking off wallpaper, fixing the bathroom ceiling, cleaning, painting and mouse-proofing the basement, putting flooring on the steps to the basement, and painting the whole main floor. Then we had the original wood floors refinished. March 1, 2006 it went up for sale at $160,000. A year and a half later, we got our first offer, a rent-to-own situation for $140,000. Because she had credit problems to fix, we did a 2 year lease before purchase. By that time rolled around, the house was not worth the contracted price and the deal fell thorough. Going price for a house like ours? $85,000. This is where the insurance comes into play. We are paying high-cost landlord insurance. The agent told me that he is being told to stop the insurance on all empty houses! If we could not find a new tenant, we would have an empty, uninsured house. Luckily, we had my father-in-law's caregiver and her husband ready to move in. Part of the deal I made with her to get her to return to Michigan and resume her caregiving for Dad was that she could live in our old house at the same price she had paid to rent the two=bedroom apartment they had here before going back to Florida. So I am getting about half of the cost to keep up the house each month in rent, but am glad to have someone in the house at all. I told the agent that I would move back to the house before losing the insurance. It is only 5 minutes from my work. I could see DH on weekends and I could keep one of the three dogs we have there with me at the old house. There is so much vandalism of empty houses that insurance companies are no longer insuring vacant home in the Detroit area. ML, we have a high deductible, I thought - $1000. I have never heard of a deductible by percentage. How does it work? I agree that oceanside and barrier island properties should not be insurable if it means that we all have to help pay when they are destroyed. I expect to hear that a lot more areas join that list as global warming changes weather patterns. Places like Paterson NJ or the area around the Red River in North Dakota might not be insurable soon.

You seem to have your heart set on copper. I would definitely buy what you would like. I would just check the return policy before ordering in case they are not as nice in real life. I would only buy a custom sink, at custom sink prices, if I had to due to my kitchen configuration or if it was an unusual and beautiful looking sink... Keeping in mind of course the copper will turn brown...or green. I personally am more concerned with backaches due to the depth of the sink, which depth is corrected by using grids in the sink which grids also save the sink bottom. I am not sure that I want to commit to using grids all of the time. With a farmhouse sink, I know that I will never fill the entire basin with water (have you seen how big the farmhouse fireclay sink really is?) but will have to use plastic dishpans that would be stored under the sink for wash and rinse water and I think that pulling them up from under the sink and drying them and putting them away under the sink would get old very fast. So I am going to stick to a double basin, hopefully not too deep sink. Currently, the Kohler Indio has my attention, I like that the faucet is in the sink, rather than on the countertop. I also like that it has the cutting board and colander that fit across the sink keeping all of the mess in the sink area rather than on the countertops. I hesitate to purchase any cast-iron sink because I do not think that they will work as well as those made 50 years ago when people were not aware of the environmental impact of the manufacturing process. However, DH really wants a white kitchen sink so I think that's the way we will end up going.