Well, if you have serious drainage concerns and/or rock hard soil, you may have to raise them higher than 8 or 10 inches. In that case, hard sides are almost a necessity. However, you mention that the soil expands to twice the volume using just compost. If that is the case, and if that volume remains after a good dosage of rain/irrigation, then you may be able to work the soil you have. It just may take a good deal of work and input. One approach is to ammend a good deal of organic matter into the soil and let that work out your tilth problems. However, this can present you with a number of problems associated with decreased nutrient values due to higher levels of organic matter, it does not work that quickly, and it requires a good deal of OM every year just to keep the tilth viable. Another possibility is to import your soil. Get a good source of topsoil, compost and sand. Till your existing soil to a fairly modest depth (the top 3 or 4 inches) and then dump the imported soil right on top. Hill up to 6-8 inches, and that should provide you with enough viable tilth to grow just about anything (except maybe 10" long, perfectly straight carrots). As for the "raised rows", these are simply an amalgam between wide raised beds (usually 4 feet wide) and flat rows (usually 0.5-1 foot wide). You simply create a row between 1.5 - 2 feet wide, raised 4-6 inches. Broccoli, cabbage, beans, peas, kale, potatoes, strawberries, just to name the common ones, are best grown in rows for sheer efficiency sake. The reason is that in order to give each on the leg-room to grow, it would be grossly inefficient to plant them in a four foot wide bed. So instead of occupying 7 feet (1.5' path, 4' bed, 1.5' path), you are only occupying 5 feet (1.5' path, 2' row, 1.5' path).

I remember how difficult it is to get started when you have a bare, flat yard. I kept staring out the windows, trying to imagine what I could plant where. It helps if you have someone stand outside while you look out the windows. Have your helper walk around from place to place, waving his/her arms, and maybe even holding a broom up overhead. Try to imagine your helper is a bush or a tree. When your helper gets to a spot that looks good from the inside, make a note of the position, or have your helper plant a garden stake (much easier to move than a tree!) Then go stand outside, or across the street, and see if that really is a good place for a tree. Use pots of annuals which you can move around until you find a space placement that suits you. THEN dig a bed. You can always set out empty boxes, or laundry baskets or even chairs to find spots for a shrub. Anything of a similar size that's easily movable will do. Here are some general principals I've found helpful. If the front is your main entrance, plant things that you will be happy to see when you come home. Start planting close to the walk and steps. This will encourage you to expand. Take it slow. I read once that you should live in a house though one set of seasons before you do any major changes. I translated that into planting annuals at first...which will have to be redone anyway. Fall is really the best time to plant trees and shrubs, as then they will get lots of rain. And, they will be cheaper at the 'year end' sales. Plant evergreens and long season perennials in the front as you and the neighbors will be looking at this area every day. Don't be afraid to take out something you don't like. Try to transplant it, or give it away. If it lives, fine, but you don't have to put up with something you don't like. Bare ground will make you feel better than a plant that irriates you. Don't plant acid loving plants close to the foundation of the house or near the cement path or sidewalk. They won't thrive. I figured this out after losing a row of azaleas, one by one. You can buy spray paint that is specially made to be sprayed holding the can upside down, so you can mark the edges of the beds. Just make sure that it isn't 'clear' paint. (Yes, it does come that way - a friend did this!) Or take a container of flour out and use that to mark plant placement or bed edges if you want a very temporary marking. The front yard is your house's public face and a place to show off your gardening skills. Rather than screening off the street, plant so that people driving or walking by will have something pleasant to look at and your visitors will find inviting. And for safety reasons, you don't want to 'hide' your house. Burglars go for entrances that are screened off from the view of the neighbors. Re paths: Make sure you leave good access to the utility boxes. Make sure you can get a lawnmower and wheelbarrow everywhere they'll need to go. You won't want low branching trees too near paths, either. If you don't have a pleasant view out the windows, one small patch of bright color will draw your eye away from the eyesore. Try a few pots of color, just set out on the ground, and see how they draw your attention. You do want to 'hide' the foundation of the house with taller, more solid shrubs. This will help transition the house into the lot, and help it look 'planted' rather than just 'plopped' onto the lot. Place lower plants further away from the house, along the path and sidewalk. You don't have to have ANY lawn in the front, but you don't have to take it all out at once, either. Have fun! Daphne in Tacoma

floral_uk z8/9 SW UK - What an ID to type out! :) Thank you. My husband had already planted a few things - raspberry bush, blueberry busy, Gladiolas and another flowering plant (don't recall the name), and there were three small Hostas that reappeared as well. I could of course wait till when the Glaiolas stop blooming to dig them up and put away the bulbs for winter, then do as you suggested. I do agree with your method but not sure how easy it would be to do it with all these plants in there already. The flower bed kind of starts from the lawn and is surrounded by a stone wall/border as it curves and then meets the grass again at the other end. I will try to post a photo shortly. kimmq - Thank you for your input! I noticed the plastic runners on the edges of a few vertical (ish) flower beds on hillsides, or curbs and wondered why they had been used. Now I know I guess :)

With a lot of windows low to the ground, there is not a lot of planting opportunities in front of the house. There is a place for a large, dome-shaped shrub at the right corner and 3 groups of perennials or low shrubs between windows, and low groundcover below windows. It would help a lot to create a distinct hard divider to the edge of the drive in order to keep the gravel in place and separate it from the lawn. A mowing strip that is 12" or wider would work. Some low hanging limbs need to be removed. It would help balance the look of the house if there was a tree at the left. But we can't see the surroundings of the left side well enough to know if that's possible.