Landscape fabric is the pits and in my opinion not worth the money. It does not prevent the weeds growing in the dirt on top of the fabric only the ones that come up below it. It will get holes over time and then you have the big job of digging it out. As for the slope and the decorative rocks--dig out the soil at the back of the rock so it's sitting level. Then back fill the soil so the back is submerged--no slippage. Do all your planting--of rocks and plants. Then cover the exposed soil with a layer of wet newspaper about 4 layers thick and spread mulch on top of the newspaper. Use only the black and white pages. You will have to do the newspapers and mulch every few years because the paper will decay--and by the way add organic matter to your soil. It is more effective at controling weeds than landscape fabric and costs nothing and you are not stuck doing the whole bed again to get up the landscape fabric.

Container gardening, if the hour is late and you are fit to be tied for what to do, might be the best, cheapest, and most certainly quickest answer. DH and I moved into this house three years ago, and there really is no place suitable for a garden, except right up next to the house on the south and west sides, where the prior owners HAD rock, then barkmulched on top of it to cover the rock. Now, it's an ugly combination of rocks and bark, and since we both work full time and have three teenagers, time constraints didn't even allow for the "dig up and make it a real garden" option; besides, there are a few nice low shrubs that we didn't want to tear out. So, I did a little research and found the Earth Box. Did a little more research, and didn't begin to want to deal with their customer service, so continued to research. Found Garden Patch Grow Boxes, spoke with reps at customer service and felt pretty good about the company. Bought thirteen of them, and then found an Earth Box at a garage sale--great, this way I could compare. For the record, there is no comparison: the elasticized cover on the Earth Box (through which a gardener is supposed to make "X" hatches and plant starts), coupled with the butt-ugly black pipe sticking out, made the Grow Box a KO winner, especially when calculated in the GB came with the first year's supply of fertilizer. I have since discovered that their plastic covers will break down during the second year, so will be replacing all covers with some 4-mil plastic that I picked up in the Walmart hardware department, and using my own fertilizer, ala EB's original instructions, to make a "hybrid" growing box. Heat? Dry? Not a problem--the GB has a 4 1/2 gallon reservoir, and even on very hot days, if I water in the a.m. and check back in the p.m., they're never dry (and must NEVER be allowed to go dry). Weeds are not a problem, either; the bonus (that I didn't realize would be a bonus) is that we have terrible bindweed in our yard (okay, so that's not the bonus--wait for it!), and I didn't end up planting my garden into the ground right where the bindweed seems to be the worst. I never thought I would swear by container gardening, but I have grown carrots (in the same box with the tomatoes--who needs a separate stinking box!?!), peppers, radishes, eggplant, tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, cantelope, and flowers in my boxes. HUGE BONUS for container gardening: when we get our first hard freeze, I can take those suckers in the garage, and we'll have fresh tomatoes from our own garden well into January. They may not be as flavorful as those sun-warmed and -ripened that we miss from last August, but they're better than those pink mushy things loosely marketed as "tomatoes" at the local grocer, and not just cuz they're free! Good luck with your garden, and let us know what you end up doing!!!

Hey everyone! Thanks for all your thoughts and compliments. I haven't heard of a rock vac before. Boy that sure would have made my life easier last year. I dug tons of rock from the front of my house. Lots of back breaking work and I still didn't get them all but that spot looks so much better now. The worst part about the rock around my house is the amount of dirt mixed in with them. They would be so much easier to remove if they were all above the dirt. I may look into renting a rock vac (if I can find one) if it's not too expensive, but if I did that I would probably want to remove the rest of the rock out front too. That would make it worth it. I will most likely wind up raking or digging as many as I can before the plants come up. Maybe I can bribe my son to help me.. It probably wouldn't hurt to remove those two large hostas at the same time. I'm sure they will come out in a million chunks..

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