NOTE--To see an on-line version of this newsletter, copy this link and paste it into your web browser: http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=307&firstname=$$firstname$$&emailaddress=$$email$$ ========== Birds & Blooms Newsletter - Seasonal Suggestions Dear $$firstname$$, Greetings from Birds & Blooms magazine! We hope you enjoy this BONUS newsletter, which explains why raised garden beds are head and shoulders above the rest. You may decide to... ********** Give Your Gardens a Lift! IN Elgin, Illinois, Janice W. thought her dream of a vegetable garden was impossible because her suburban yard had only a few inches of topsoil over rocks and clay. "Then my husband, Dale, designed an octagon-shaped raised bed," she relates. "It's a three-tiered strawberry bed surrounded by an 18-inch walkway and a 4-foot-wide vegetable bed. It's so much fun to garden now. We enjoy fresh produce all summer, give some away and still have enough to do some canning." Saved by the Bed Other readers have shared similar success stories about their raised beds, which solved many of their gardening dilemmas. Here are just a few examples: After having old tree stumps removed from her Parksville, British Columbia backyard, Karen B. used raised beds to eliminate some hard labor. "It would have been an endless task to pull out all of the huge tree roots still in the ground," she explains. "So we built a raised garden right on top of it all. I love to quilt, so that's how I came up with the geometric layout." Karen's project includes seven raised beds made of rough cedar planking surrounding a three-unit compost bin. To view a photo, visit: http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=311 In Belleville, Michigan, Kathy B. says a creek that runs behind her property would overflow and flood her gardens after a heavy rain. "Since we built our raised beds, we no longer have to worry," she adds. Raised beds combined with season-extending fabrics help Helen G. of Yarmouth, Maine tackle a short growing season. "In spring, the soil in my raised beds warms up weeks before the surrounding soil," she observes. "I place a couple of screws along the side of each bed so I can easily attach floating row covers to protect against late-spring snowstorms and freezing temperatures. I harvest some vegetables a month earlier than most other gardeners in my area." All Shapes, Sizes There are lots of ways to build raised beds--they can come in all sizes, shapes and materials. In West Chester, Pennsylvania, Chris and Miriam S. bolted together 5- and 7-foot lengths of 6- x 6-inch pressure-treated lumber to make two beds that are almost 2 feet high. "We attached benches around the top so that we can sit and do all our gardening," Chris notes. "We filled the beds with topsoil and composted manure and grow some of the biggest tomatoes and other vegetables that we could ever hope for." Bob and Lon W. of Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia also used wood to contain the raised beds in their yard. "I don't like to spend a lot of time mowing the lawn, so we made raised island beds in our front yard," Bob writes. "I have access to treated pieces of dock piling cutoffs. I chain-sawed them to length and split them in half with an ax and sledge. Then I set the split pieces vertically in a trench and backfilled. With rocks and driftwood placed among the plants, the beds have a very natural look." More Choices Concrete, rocks and bricks also make nice borders for raised beds. "When I retired from my building business, I had a lot of concrete blocks left over," shares Arthur H. of Athol, Massachusetts. "I used them to create the raised beds in my backyard." The 4-foot-square beds are made with three layers of blocks topped with wood frames. The flower beds are 32 inches high, which makes them easy to plant and tend. "The color they provide is a pleasure to see from our back patio," Arthur says. To view more photos, visit: http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=310 A mountainside location in Sudbury, Vermont proved challenging for Otto S. He tried wooden raised beds before opting for concrete ones instead. "The concrete beds don't rot and are not lifted by frost like the wooden ones were," he observes. "And in the long run, they are cheaper to make and maintain. We wanted to fence in the beds to keep critters out, so we anchored our fence posts right into the cement--this has worked out very well for us." Brick was the material of choice for Susan and Joe J. when they built a series of raised flower beds at their Victorian home in Beaufort, North Carolina. "We have 12 raised beds covering 5,500 square feet," Susan informs. "In our area, we don't have to worry about frost heaving the borders of each bed. So we just cemented two courses of bricks together. It was that simple...and we love the pretty results." Now's the time for you to plan your own raised garden beds! ********** HAVE A FRIEND who enjoys bird-watching, bird feeding or backyard gardening? Feel free to forward this newsletter! This email was sent to: $$email$$ If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can sign up for yourself. Visit http://www.birdsandblooms.com/RD.asp?ID=312 TO CANCEL your newsletter at any time, visit http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=313&email=$$email$$&OptID=1 TO UPDATE your e-mail address and other information, visit http://www.birdsandblooms.com/RD.asp?ID=314 HAVING PROBLEMS linking to our Web site? If clicking a link in this newsletter doesn't work, you can simply highlight and copy the link, then paste it into your browser's target address field. ********** Birds & Blooms magazine brings beautiful backyards from across America into your living room--through vivid, full-color photos. It's like a friendly "chat" over the back fence with your bird-and flower-loving neighbors. To subscribe on-line, visit http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=309 ********** BYE for now from the Birds & Blooms staff...see you next month! ********** Copyright 2004 Reiman Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Birds & Blooms, P.O. Box 991, Greendale WI 53129-0991 1-800/344-6913 THIS newsletter is now available in a graphical format (HTML) that includes photos with the stories. The computer code below is HTML. If your e-mail program does not support HTML, visit https://www.reimanpub.com/registration2/text.asp?email=$$email$$