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

Thank you all for your comments. The kids these days are hard to impress. That's why I like to create something that no one else has. Hopefully that way he will remember that Grand-ma made it for me. His first comment was..."does it walk?" His Great-Grand-ma said.."Only if you make him Hon" haha. The older grand-kids want money but the little ones are still fun to make something for.

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.

I did call them after posting this yesterday.. They said it looked pretty comparable to their conditions of their sod, and was likely related to too much water we've been having in the area. I didn't apply fertilizer, and they've recommended not to now until cooler weather...