> The only space near the cafe is a strip about 1 1/2 meters wide and 15 > meters long, between the sidewalk and the street. That's with a 1/2 > foot of grass space left on all edges of the garden bed for soil > spillover. I'm confused about this part. It makes me imagine: Sidwalk Six inches of grass 4.5 feet of vegetables Six inches of grass Curb Street Is that correct? If so, then I would strongly (ever so strongly) urge you to remove all of the grass. Grass is an aggressive weed, and you will spend the rest of your life weeding it out of the vegetables. If you want to leave a six-inch edge free of vegetables, I would suggest instead planting a low perennial ground cover, like creeping thyme. As a separate issue, I would also strongly advise against eating anything grown right next to the street, and especially urge against eating anything raw. What about growing plants suitable for flower vases instead? You could demonstrate the _idea_ of urban gardening, and display flowers and other decorative plants in vases on the tables, without any risk of inflicting food-borne illnesses on your patrons. Editing to add: "Plants suitable for flower vases" could include edible flowers and attractive edibles - perennial herbs, chives, daylilies, and, to fill space the first year, nasturtiums. This post was edited by chickenfreak on Sat, Jun 8, 13 at 21:52

First trial. Wouldn't start, confusion about the choke, when done read the manual again, says to start with choke closed on a cold start, open on a warm start. Forgot to turn the switch to on duh. Whatever. I had turned the blades to till and set out to enlarge and reshape a small patch I had done with a tractor. I did have to break up some sod on the edges. But no matter where I was in there, it likes to bounce, does a number on your arms, hope I get used to that, I did put on hiking boots and took my watch off. One hand is still shaking an hour later. It is easy to miss spots, but overall I am pleased, got the manual out, read it again, and now all I don't quite understand is messing with the throttle, air filter, will get into that later. Think I understand how to do the oil now. It is a pain to clean it. I didn't want to hose it or soak the tines in a bucket, so took them off, pulled off all the stuck grass and dirt, washed down with a scrubbie and old cloth; it's in the back hall air drying. I don't think that detangle tool would do much for me, easier to just take the tines off, time will tell. I'm hoping it will be a little easier in cultivate mode in an area that is dug and planted. Next I will try the edger to neaten what I did today. I don't think I would try to break up very much sod ever again, and I don't think it would be safe to use on the terrace the way it bounces. But I can see what it will do from the sidewalk and find a way to get the rest done. The bottom line is that I could not have hand dug and gotten the soil so fine, would have taken a lot more time and energy to do that, never could have broken up the soil that well. It does run quietly, is a real little work horse. Thank you for giving me the courage and info. A lot of that is in one of the manuals. The arbor is dis-assembled and stored in the garage, had to move on without it for now.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I've been looking at the maple and I've actually noticed a piece of tar paper (?) covering a big old knot. It is also losing some largish branches fairly consistently. There's nowhere that looks dead or hollow or anything though. I really want to keep this tree but I am concerned about its condition. In reference to the foundation plants, those are boxwoods and the ones in the sun seem fine but the ones on the shady side don't like it as much. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good foundation shrub that handles sun and shade well? Cause the right hand side is really full sun and the left is virtually full shade when the tree is leafed out. If the magnolia is no danger to the foundation then I think we will probably leave it for the moment. I think if we are able to prune it to keep it small-er it should be ok...I'm not positive though, part of me wants to move it while it's still smaller, since if it does ever get too big we'll probably have to just cut it down... The whole front yard is a logistical mess that is as dangerous (try walking down that concrete slope in the winter!) as it is bizarre. We are hoping to take the walkways out and re-grade the entire yard eventually.

I hope everything works out to your satisfaction. I cringe when I see that transition. I also had flooring installed to match existing hardwood, both of which come off a higher kitchen floor. When they installed my transition thresholds, they were 1 1/4 high with no slope! When I said that was unacceptable, he said that looked the best with the "massive height difference" and ugly tile edge. No way can that be code. Meanwhile there is a perfectly acceptable reducing threshold right across from his installed by somebody else. Thank goodness you have someone who will work with you for such a big job. I just got sick of talking about it. I was able to find a 3/4 reducer, cut it to fit with a small lip over the tile. If the edge is not perfect I'll run some grout. The poly is drying on it to match floor. Installing them tomorrow.