To answer your questions... I am not sure what was used on the lawn, but I guess I could call the local chem lawn service and find out. The yard has been recently treated, but I wasn't sure that even a year would be okay. I was also thinking about composte. If I use grass clippings and leaves in my composte that have been on the yard, I am still getting the chemicals. This is quite frustrating. I was thinking of just pruchasing some plastic kid swimming pools to use as "raised beds", and starting an "organic" mulch pile. This would take care of the chemical problem. Has anyone tried gardening in those plastic pools??? Then again I am sure the chemicals in my yard are no worse than the chemicals on the food I buy in the grocery store... Decisions, Decisions...

Yes bone meal is high in P and also a good source of Ca. But it is also very slow to decompose and affect the soil or become available to the plants. So you might see some results from it the following year. Plus it has effect on the soil pH and as is well established, plays no role in the prevention of BER. Since very few soils can be found in the US that are low in P or Ca deficient adding it for those purposes is a waste of money and effort. Yet the claims persist, primarily due to posts just like this add-on to a thread from 3 years ago. Dave

Agree there are many simple solutions but no, landscaping fabric isn't one of them. If the bed is not leveled to begin - higher/deeper on the downhill end - with you'll have issues with water from above issues too. So leveling the bed is the best solution. But if that isn't possible then water diverting is the way to go. There are many ways to divert downspout water available. Trenching around the bed to divert the water away is a common solution. There is perforated drainpipe that can be laid between the water source and the bed, even a landscaping tie longer than the bed is wide can be used. The landscaping forum here offers many discussions on methods used to divert water. And GoogleImages has 100s of pics on diversion methods used. Ways to divert water away from the garden photos Dave

"... raised bed soil, coco coir, work castings and compost ..." There is a missing ingredient here: dirt. These are all fine amendments, but the primary ingredient for organic gardening is still dirt, or to use Embothrium's term "rock particles". You are trying to garden in a compost pile, rather than in soil. What kind of soil is underneath all of this? Is it sandy? Clay? Whatever it is, your garden will be better off if you dig down and turn all these amendments into the underlying soil. The mineral plus the organic amendments will do a better job holding moisture and nutrients for plants. Once you have soil that is a mixture of mineral and organic material, you prevent drying out by using a mulch on the top. I tend to mulch heavily - 4 to 6 inches. It actually does double duty - it regulates the temperature and moisture in the soil, and it gradually decomposes to create a layer of compost on the surface by next spring. Once you do that, you no longer have to water as often because the sun never hits the soil. Bonus: it keeps weeds at bay and weeding to a minimum.