Thanks so much, everyone! I have now finished three beds and have started on the fourth. I have a male friend coming over this afternoon to help fill two of the beds (I filled one by carrying 5 gallon buckets of wet compost--ouch!). The stone is dry-stacked. What I got is thin wallstone. The reason I went with thin is that I wanted to be able to easily carry the stone myself. Also, I wanted the overall wall to be as thin as possible because the stone relative to the outside dimension of the beds eats up planting space. I got it from a local quarry this time, but I got it at a stone yard when I did the retaining wall in front of my house. If you have patience and determination, this is totally doable. It's like a big 3D puzzle. As far as the material to fill the beds, I ended up ordering it from a local garden center run by an agricultural college. However, the head horticulturist at my favorite big commercial garden center also recommended another private supplier. I was really surprised how willing many of the people at the garden centers were to recommend options other than what was available to buy at their business. I'd go to some good garden centers and ask for recommendations. Thanks again...your nice words are helping to keep me going. Lisa

That's great news. I am happy for you especially since your son is military. No matter how any of us feel about the war, we appreciate our military people. We spent many holidays alone. Because of the parents and step parents issue, I decided what ever day my children could be with us was "the" holiday. The Christmas my oldest granddaughter was four, they were stationed in Abeline. We lived in San Antonio and my son's father lived in Kingsvile and my DIL's mother lived in Robstown. The kids had their Christmas at home and then drove to SA. The next day we had our Christmas. The day after they drove to Robstown and had Christmans at my DIL's mother's house. They went to my ex's on Christmas morning and had Christmas. Soooooo,my granddaughter got up the day after Christmas expecting it all to happen again. She was a tad disappointed.

House is about closed up now. Windows are in, roof is on, HVAC is done, plumbing rough done, electrical done Monday. Siding goes on next week and then drywall. Cabs are at the fabricator. Flooring (tile) starts install Oct 19. Crazy!

On my phone I can't type. Or rather I can, but then Houzz erases EVERYTHING. When I use voice recognition, it write almost what I say, but I can't edit without gobbledegoop coming up. It repeats the word multiple times.I think with Houzz's issues we need to cut people some slack. Sometimes a laptop isn't nearby or convenient when we just HAVE to respond to a post! I'm just happy people still love to garden. : ))