Posted by bloomville z4 NY (My Page) on Thu, Oct 12, 06 at 16:57 Hi all, Over the past several years, I have built about 6 raised beds of various lengths in a field near my house. I have used newspaper and hay as pathways between the beds. I like the rustic look (and scent!) of the pathways, and they seem conducive to housing toads, snakes, and other desirable critters. However, there are 2 disadvantages to this method: (1) The paths have to be "rebuilt" with new hay annually, which is time-consuming and laborious (2) by mid-summer weeds are cropping up through the hay in many spots. I can live with all this, and may continue to, but I'd be interested in other, environmentally friendly (and low cost) options that are lasting and also aethetically pleasing. I'm eager to hear your ideas! Posted by veggievicki 7b (My Page) on Thu, Oct 12, 06 at 18:32 I get mulch from our county mulch yard. It's free, so you can pile it on as thickly as you've got a way to haul it home. I get the fresher stuff. Seems maybe the acidity helps keep weeds down. The down side is some ends up in the veggie beds so you have big chunks of stuff that gets in the way of the garden fork and small seeds. Posted by granite z6 NC (My Page) on Fri, Oct 13, 06 at 1:08 I've had my pathways in mowed grass (terrible, clippings blown in to the beds, etc), grass clippings, leaves, pine bark nuggets, wood chips, and hay. I vote for wood chips. I vote STRONGLY against pine bark nuggets as they float around when it rains, never make a good firm path, and don't get the job done. Grass clippings rot in quickly, so I use them more to mulch around the beans than in the walkways now. Posted by rosebush z7 NC (My Page) on Fri, Oct 13, 06 at 10:12 Bark mulch (shredded) works for me. Tried the straw/hay on paper one year and the sprouts came fast and furious. The mulch can be piled thicker on cardboard and works great. Posted by terri_portland 8 NW OR (My Page) on Fri, Oct 13, 06 at 16:06 Is is possible the seeds in the hay are sprouting? Straw is a better option, it's been stripped of seeds (for the most part) and still has that lovely farmy earthy smell. Posted by hunter_tx 7bTx (My Page) on Fri, Oct 13, 06 at 17:12 One thing you might consider is relaying the newspaper really thick. I used newspaper in a new raised bed about four years ago, and it's still working great. You could also consider using pea gravel or small river rock stones on top of the newspaper. Mrs H Posted by bloomville z4 NY (My Page) on Fri, Oct 13, 06 at 20:57 Hi all-- thanks for these thoughts/ideas. alas, the price of straw was crazy last year--around here, I was quoted a price of $6 a bale--couldn't afford it given how many I needed. as for thickness of the newspapers--maybe that's the issue. I guess I need to keep experimenting, and you all have given me some new ideas to experiment with! Posted by laceyvail ...

Denise, What you see there is ONE established McCartney rose (pink) and several Pope John Paul's in pots. I've been heeding Geof's advice and trying NOT to dead head or prune in order to slow/prevent thrips damage but these roses continue to grow despite my attempts, lol. Okay, your turn. What is in the vases? I love the orange ones. BTW, I took a trip to Nelson's this past weekend since I was in town for a wedding. Picked up ten roses. I'm about all out of space, lol. It's getting close to the time I'll be planting all these roses in the ground. Waiting for a slow down in weed growth. Great pics on the other thread of a similar title ;-)

Marie, I love your Merry Bells. I just bought one of those and I’m looking forward to next year with it. It’s already past bloom right now and not in the ground yet. Sorry to hear about your Redbud. I had the same trouble with my Japanese Maple ‘Bloodgood’ this year for the first time. It has leafed out but a LOT of dead branches up there in the canopy. I’m going to try to keep it watered well this season which is not easy if we are not getting rain. How do you irrigate your garden? Love your Calycanthus. I added one a few years ago and it was small, it was still getting established and the rabbits ate it down to the ground over the winter. It has come back up and is about 8” high now, but I wonder what the point is if the rabbits will repeat that next year. Thanks for reminding us of Claire! The forum hasn’t been the same without her. I miss her ocean views and her birds, her kind thoughtful posts and her consistent participation. Deanna, Your Sagae looks great, compared to mine, that the rabbits have nibbled around a number of the leaves. Is ‘Blue Moon’ a woodland Phlox or Phlox paniculata? Poor Azalea! I feel like that is going to be my story with the rabbits and my Calycanthus. That ‘pot ghetto’ doesn’t look so bad. I had mine down to zero last year, but I’ve done a lot of transplanting and moving around this spring and I have one started again. Soon to have a LOT more added to it. [g] I’m so sorry that you are having trouble with posting to Houzz. Not in the least surprising, but sad, because there seems to be no hope of them straightening themselves out to offer a better experience. I continue to think they are short staffed and I won’t be surprised if we go to post one day and it doesn’t exist any more. I seem to be able to post and post photos without any issues. It’s only when I need to do a search of the forums that I start getting frustrated. Or try to use the messaging function. And my notifications on comments is hit or miss. But I use my laptop - an Apple. I know some people use a tablet. If you have one, it might work to post from there. I haven’t been posting in part because I’ve been too busy. I was able to hire someone to help in the garden and I have been able to tackle some projects that have been on the back burner for awhile. And I’ve been ripping apart some of my beds, so they haven’t really been great for photos. We are also in the process of getting some of our fencing replaced and I’m going to need to move a LOT of plants that will be in the way, that I don’t want to get trampled in the process. Which is not a bad thing, because it is along a border that needs a complete renovation any way. I’m almost finished with my front bed, except for a new vegetable area that I’m stuck on. I have to do something to protect it from rabbits and the ideas I had to do that are just not working out. But something will work out, it’s just time consuming and not the fun part of gardening. In the mean time I have opted to grow more vegetables in containers this year. My raised beds in the back are just not doing the job any more. Not enough sun, tree roots, and 9 year old wooden beds. That’s about it from here. I would take a few photos but it’s very windy here today. A nice breeze to sit out and enjoy the day but not great for photos. I’ll take some and start a June thread this week. Hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!!

Deanna, The Berms. The last two winters I have been focused on figuring out more ways to address drought in the garden. My full sun bed in the front of the house, slopes away from the house , of course, as everyone’s does. So the rain runs off into the street to some extent. I already capture the rain coming down from the downspout into the rain barrel, but I thought, maybe if I built a Berm along the low street side of the bed, it would keep the rain on the property and keep that bed moist. It has really been successful in that regard. Of course, it’s not a great year to judge it because we have had so much rain. Next time we have a drought will be more instructive. Aside from that purpose, I am seeing the added benefit of building up the soil. I chose the location by where it would capture the most water and fit in with the design of the bed. It allowed me to still grow the plants that don’t like wet feet on the other side of the Berm, at the top of my steepest slope, if I want to - like Salvias. All the plants directly behind the berm really benefited this year. Not only water, but fertility from the Berm breaking down. The volunteer squash was such a delightful surprise. The foliage is so attractive and the plants have remained healthy all season. It has just taken off all along the top of the berm, and I’ve had to “arrange” it around the Sedum AJs and Grasses. It climbed into a Sedum and deposited another squash, which was a fun surprise this week. I had a half dozen seedlings and I thinned out to two of the strongest. That squash has grown 100% better out front in full sun on that berm than it ever did in the back where I get 5hrs tops and tree roots to contend with. And I don’t think it looks out of place with the rest of the perennials and shrubs. I want to do it again next year. I also had volunteer borage come up. I discovered a few years ago that Cardinals have some kind of interest in the Borage plant, that I still don’t know what it is, but I grow that for them now. I think I can grow the squash and borage together in the Berm next year. But there are so many possibilities for what you can grow there. And you could grow nothing in it too. I wouldn’t plant perennials or shrubs in it, because it does break down and needs to keep being replenished. I have grown them right up next to it though. To build it - well, depends on whether you compost or not. I have two passive compost bins that I bought from the town years ago when they were trying to encourage people to compost. I fill them up with any kind of plant material - deadheaded hibiscus blooms at the moment, weeds that are not going to seed, grass clippings, leaves. Then we collect kitchen scraps - egg shells, coffee grinds, banana peels, vegetables, orange rinds, paper towels sometimes, tea bags…etc. Nothing diseased. I leave the tops off the containers to allow the rain to keep it moist and if it doesn’t rain I have to water it. That’s all I do until it’s full. In the fall, last year and this year, we have a pile of branches from pruning in the spring that I haven’t used yet. We have grass clippings. By the time I am building the berms, I’ll probably have brown leaves. I will take it all….the branches on the bottom, and then layered on top the contents of the compost bins, the leaves, the grass clippings. I make them a couple of feet wide and a couple of feet high. Maybe 18”? Depends, I don’t want to shade the plants behind them. I shape them like a long wide sausage…lol. I do curl the end sides to keep the rain from running around the side of them. Then I top them off with a good thick layer of bark mulch. I’m not sure I would always do this if it was in an out of the way area, but right in front of the house along my best bed, I wanted it mulched. This year, I plan to replenish by pulling back the bark mulch and adding to it then adding another thick layer of bark mulch again. I want to add more branches this year to slow down the break down. If I could get away with not having to replenish it every season, that would work out best. I’m also adding new locations where I plan to grow vegetables next year, for the fertility. I found the beautiful soil in July and I constructed the Berm last Fall. So, not that long really.