LH, GDl has a very workable idea, but here is my $0.02. Water from drip will never be evenly distributed unless your drip line is down hill at a 1 percent grade. That is a one foot drop for every one hundred feet. This allows the difference of elevation drop to compensate for the loss in hydraulic head. It is not an exact science because of many factors, the difference in water amount along a level lateral is not that noticeable. Not enough to cause a difference in the plants needs anyway. That was why they came up with a pressure compensated drip line to take care of this notion. But of course this solution only provided a more expensive drip line which was more apt to clog or blow out under excessive pressure. Trial and error is the best method. Any system set up that is not keeping some plants healthy can be modified easily. Just keep your eye on what is happening to your plants and checking the wetting pattern of your system. If you can tell me the slope with vertical drop height over distance, I can give you more definitive advice. JMHO Aloha

Don't worry. If you run out of room, just pull out the under-performing plants and forge ahead. One zuke is more than enough for a family of four for fresh eating and it'll start producing long before it gets huge. You can always succession plant -- so when the one zuke gets bigger and production starts to taper off, the replacement is getting big enough to flower. There's also a climbing zuke that likes growing in containers, but I haven't tried it. When I lived in California and had a small patio, I gardened square foot style. Most everything grew with precision and exactly as the books and web sites say. In Alabama? I think there's steroids in the dirt. I get monsters here. I experimented with small melon plants last year, and Minnesota Midget really does live up to the description but all the melons ripened at once and then the plant died. I got 5 4-5" melons off a tiny little plant with a couple of 4' vines, though. This year I am trying a reportedly smaller zuke plant (cocozelle) and smaller winter squash varieties. I have lots of room but the BF doesn't eat many veggies and I need smaller portions!

Oh brother, I scewed this garden up badly. Last fall I decided I was never going to like it in iris after not waiting long enought to see how they do. I moved a batch of them iris and started the iris rows upstairs. Then I planted daylilies. This spring I see that I should have left it all alone and it was fine. Moved the daylilies out of there. So now that the iris there are finished blooming I am trying to fix that garden. Its going to be all TB iris as originally planned for the big square. I moved that rose in the picture last year and put 4 iris in the little square. Today I moved the four iris out of the little higher square and I put them back along the edges. Will continue to move iris from the second row back to the edges. But meanwhile I had planted a vitecila summer blooming clematis in the tower to give summer color. Today I put more plants in the small middle square. I put Agastache (hummingbird mint) in each corner, then yellow columbine in the middle along the edge between the Agastache. Around the tower I put common orange Butterfly Weed all around. So the small square is done. I did this today. Then I will continue to fix the iris along the edges. I just make so much work for myself by messing things up but at last I am getting this right.

Over the years, I have constructed raised beds in my woodland rear garden, that vary in height from 12" to 30". You must be careful to observe the root zone of existing trees and not cover them with more than a few inches of additional soil. The elevated beds will also need weep holes at the base for drainage to relieve the hydrostatic pressure exerted by stored water. Have seen elevated flower beds at some public gardens, constructed for the enjoyment of all, but especially those in wheelchairs. I have mostly small plants at the front of the beds and the tall one's at the rear. There is a mixture of native and non-natives, for year around interest. After many nights of frost and freezes, the deciduous shrubs and herbaceous perennials have hibernated for the winter, but the evergreen Asarum, Heuchera, Goodyera, Helleborus and some ferns will provide winter interest. Although my property is a designated Wildlife habitat, I avoided planting berried plants and grasses in these beds to limit the maintenance requirements. Advanced age has it's limitations. I'm afraid! Good luck and enjoy your efforts, it's well worth the time and energy! RB