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

Farmer-just a reminder that most people won't even notice the trim anywhere. How many of us paid attention to all the details we're now consumed with daily before we started to build? Just a reminder to help keep our sanity when it all seems too much! We're still on vacation. We got word that we passes the green point inspection, the town water inspection(we're in CA where our town had had severe water restrictions for many years), and fire. Paver driveway should be finished today. Now we just have to pass the county one. Our builder said we won't pass it on the first go round as the inspector is known for finding something wrong every time-sort of to boost his ego and let others know he's important. Hopefully when we get home next week we'll be able to start moving things in.

Palm trees? What kind of palm trees. Hopefully, not Royal Palm trees. They are terrible. They have a huge root system that mats at the ground level they will over take your roses if you just dig a whole and put the roses in the whole. I have ended up digging huge 4 foot deep trenches and lining it so the stupid royals (in my opinion tall weeds). That being said, there are things you can do to still have nice roses even if the palms are around, it might just be a little more work, but well worth it.... One of my best pinks, is Pink Peace. Though mine is on Dr. Huey and should probably start to decline as it is about 5 years old. I would love to find it on the fort. rootstock because otherwise it is really healthy, smells great and puts out lots and lots of blooms. Did I say it smells great? I have two reds that I love. One is Olympiad. Mine is an own root and I have it in a pot because it is own root. It is doing quite well, and actually put out two bloom right after hurricane Irma. It was saying everything is going to be alright. The other red one I have has more scent than Olympiad but still not a lot, but I got it because of the size of the blooms. That one is Legends. The flowers can be 7 to 8 inches. Makes a great statement for vases. I just purchased Veterans Honor, don't know how it does. The other reds I have is Chyrsler Imperial smells great, but BS prone. Oklahoma smells ok, but also BS magnet. I have JFK, but it always looks slightly yellow, so not too fond of it. I have Sugar Moon on a friends recommendation, however, she since took hers out because she had problems with disease. Me, on the other hand loved it so much bought a 2nd one. We both live in South Florida. It just goes to show that even in the same zones the micro climates can have an effect on your garden.Though I hear that Pope John Paul does well in Florida and it is not supposed to have a yellow tinge. Fragrant Cloud is my one of my husbands favorites. (his other is Double Delight) so I always try to have one each in the garden. FC does not do well for me UNLESS it is on Fort root stock. The Dr. Huey ones never seem to make it through the summer. I have a tiny little Intrigue that I got on Dr. Huey before I knew any better. It keeps growing back wards, but I have had it for 6 or 7 years so it is probably subcomming to nematodes. I did try to get one on fort. but can't seem to find it. So I broke down and bought it again at Costco on Dr. Huey and decided to keep it in a pot, only to find out it was mislabled..... not sure what it is, but certainly not Intrigue. If you like coral colored roses, I have Regatta that does quite well. Smells nice but not like Intrigue or Pink Peace. If you like floribundas I would recommend Outta the Blue. That one was a purchased mistake for me. I got the name confused with something else, but it was the BEST mistake. He puts out lots and lots of great smelling roses.

Elmer, you are right, I was searching for the right word and just missed the mark! Thank you! The closeness works for us, but I understand it isn't for everyone. I think it helps make bit that DD is an only and DH and DSIL have common interests. We also each have our own lives and really, except for special occasions, the time together is off and on from 5:00 until about 7:30 each evening., so it's not like all day everyday. The rest of the time we do our own things, like today DH and I rafted and kayaked (he rafts, I kayak) the river running through town and the kids spent the most of the day on their bikes with the baby. I can babysit while the kids go out with their friends and they will dog sit when DH and I are away. Also because we have a party wall between sides, we have double doors and a closed door means private time. Nicole, no AC. It is pretty rare here, usually put in by southerner transplants who can't imagine life without it. Although we are also southerners we've spent enough time here in the summers before we built that we knew it wasn't necessary. We are at about 7000' above sea level in the mountains. To be perfectly honest, there are probably 7-8 days in the heat of the summer that AC would be nice upstairs and but even then only in the heat of the day (at least for DH, I hated AC even in the south). Evenings are always cool. But even on the hottest days, the temps in the basement won't even get to the low 70s (without the heat on, of course). Last August while we were building, I usually brought a jacket to go down to the basement. Nicole, you are also right. While the type of heating is fairly expensive to install, especially using warmboard, it is very efficient and cheap to operate.