I'd plant the melons about 10 ft from any area where you don't want vines. You'd be even safer with 12-15 ft, but you can work with 10 ft.

Wokney, I was under the impression that we could cover the grass underneath with cardboard or several layers of newspaper before we filled in the beds. We already dug up about half the grass in the spot already when we leveled the ground. You say most new gardens fail because of weeds... wouldn't breaking up the grass and tilling the existing soil increase the chances of exposing and sprouting some buried angry weed seeds? I'm pretty sure we have St. Augustine in the yard, and I'm not sure how well established it is. The homeowners (this is a rent house) said they resodded the entire back yard a month or two before we moved in (October or November '10). However, when we were leveling the ground, we DID have to break through a BUNCH of roots to get to the actual soil. I wouldn't be TOTALLY opposed to digging the bed into the ground, but I'm pretty sure my husband would be :( He hates digging. The soil here isn't terrible - I was actually pretty happy when we were leveling the ground because about every other shovel of dirt had an earth worm or two. But it is predominantly clay, and I feel like I've been fighting with clay my whole life since I was a kid helping my parents in the garden.

1) Am I being too pedantic in thinking that the roots penetrating the native soil is not considered to be organic gardening, especially with the remote possibility of chemicals from the PT wood posts leaching into the soil and the possibility of residual chemicals in lawn treatments over the years. len - native soils should be considered to be organic for the purpose of eh exercise at least, in a word don't be concerned about it just concentrate on the job at hand. 2) How long will cardboard take to decompose to the point that roots can penetrate? I usually plan just after May 15th every year. Will it decompose enough by the time the roots grow to the bottom of the container? len - i prefer news paper it does a better job on the tough weeds like nut grass/sedge, but again if you can get c/board easily use it, nothing much is going to grow up through that and 6"s of garden medium. whether it breaks down over 6 months or 12 months again should not cause you any concerns. 3) What happens to my veggies (tomatoes, cukes, and herbs) if the roots can't penetrate the cardboard this season. Will they die or will their growth just be stunted? len - so long as you have at least 6"s of medium the vege' roots will be fine as will the plants keep them well mulched up to 8"s thick. 4) How long do lawn treatments stay active in soil? len - don't use any treatments if they have been used then in time they will be all but gone, just build you raised beds which will create a growing zone above all that. 5) How thick of a layer of cardboard are we talking? I say Jon's photos and it looked like he had several layers. len - again for me 20 to 30 pages sometimes 40 pages of newspaper better than cardboard but if you have heaps of cardboard use it and don't be concerned it will disappear and do a job. so what is done for now is done, move onto the next bed project and take a look see at our presentation, this is all about you doing what you feel will work best for you, nothing is set in cement ie.,. use others ideas as a guide not a recipe. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden

You can just put little soil pockets in that bed and plant now. There's little difference between what you did and a lasagna garden- sounds like a great idea. If there's not enough depth of the compost on top- then a touch of soil and some clover seed, or something would be a great cover crop. If it looks reasonable in the fall- you could plant garlic to overwinter (depending on where you live). Sorry- I just get excited when I hear about plots like that and I have to be nosey and plan people's gardens :)