Pic helps a bunch. Your raised beds look good, and looking at the far one it looks like you used the plastic only on the sides where the wood is. So I don't see a problem with the plastic. You simply have raised beds, not containers. At 8" depth the cardboard is unnecessary. You can just pile the dirt into the beds on the grass, on the grass will be smothered. At 8" in the near term it will limit your root depth, and may cause problems with deeper rooting plants and roots veg's. If it were mine, I'd take it out. With the soil on top of the underlying turf, it will settle over time as the grass underneath decomposes. My experience with St. Augustine is that settling will be ~ 1". With the cardboard the settling will be a bit more, maybe 1.5". Now, the grass -- it looks like you're in Cocoa Beach (zip code), and the turf looks like a very decent stand of St. Augustine. Your problem with the grass won't be the stuff in the beds that gets smothered, it will be the stuff on the outside that comes right up to the edges. It will try to find a way into those beds, and usually St. Augustine is successful (if there's any Bermuda in there it tends to be even more invasive). I would encourage to develop a turf-free zone around those beds. There are many options. On the soil - since you're dealing with uncomposted horse manure, I would suggest no more than 1" of that per bed. Add it on top of a base soil fill in the beds, then mix in in well, trying to get it distributed through the entire 8" depth. The base soil in those beds would ideally be a loam or sandy loam, if you can get it. Being in Cocoa Beach I suspect your base soil is rather sandy. You could use that (if you have some to move) along with some compost and the horse manure, but you'll probably have better luck with bringing in new soil. Check landscape supplies in your yellow pages. Final point - exposure. Don't know when that picture was taken, but the beds are in complete shade. Where do those beds sit relative to the fence -- west side, east side, etc, and what is the direction of the fence line (N/E/S/W)? The good news is you're in the beginning so with just a bit of work you can get it right and enjoy some great growing. Since you are using raw manure I would encourage you to heed to 90/120 day before harvest recommendations. Someone getting sick because you were in a hurry just isn't worth it. Be patient. Since we're already into May, and you're way down there in south FL, your timing is really good for fall planting. This post was edited by TXEB on Sun, May 12, 13 at 15:23

terryjean, what good taste we have! LOL. Is RU own root also? The Lady is my first own root and I was shocked at how small she was. She is quite a surprise all around. Her blooms are huge and last. Transplanted her today and the rootball stayed intact so I was happy. artemis_mo, you won't be sorry. I can't stop looking at her.

Leave a lite on for him, read to him during the day in his bed, tell him Grandma or Mom needs to lay down and rest and his bed is so soft and nice. Maybe happy times associated with his bed during the day will make the bed less fearful. My son went through a stage of being afraid of the dark. I put a 10 gallon aquarium in his room and used it as a night light. He watched the fish, when I felt the time was right I told him if the lights aren't turned off every once in awhile algae grows and the fish won't like it. Pretty soon he was telling me to turn it off. I never closed the doors in our house for ventilation reasons so there was always some light while we were up and our voices probably help him adjust.

Biting is common among toddlers, but I know it's disturbing to parents and caregivers. Have you or the parents met with the daycare to troubleshoot the problem? I can imagine when it happens: struggling over a toy. Maybe he needs individual supervision at daycare to head off a biting incident. Could you go a time or two to help out and watch over your grandson? You might be able to observe frustration building and intercede before a bite takes place. A 2-minute time out doesn't seem like much, even for a 2 year old. Do an internet search; there is a lot of info about biting toddlers. Best wishes.