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Raised Bed Gardening
	Get out of line! Raised Beds in the Vegetable Garden In 19th century Paris, growing vegetables reached a zenith unparalleled even to this day. Small market gardens using intensive methods supplied the city with an incomparable variety of fresh produce throughout the year. The famed English gardener William Robinson remarked in his book Parks and Gardens of Paris that  “The culture of salads for the Paris market is not merely good—it is perfection.” Using techniques dating back to the 1600s it was not unheard of for these gardens to produce asparagus in December; radishes, lettuces, and mushrooms in January; cauliflower in March; strawberries in early April; peas in May; and melons in June. Similar methods were employed for centuries by the gardeners and farmers of China. Unlike the use of row planning in “modern” vegetable gardens, which wastes an incredible amount of space, the gardeners of 19th century Paris maximized the production of their market gardens by using their limited space as efficiently as possible.
A hallmark of these methods was the use of intensively planted, heavily amended raised beds. Somewhat forgotten with the advent of the “Green Revolution,” raised beds found their way into American gardens through the work of Allan Chadwick at the Garden Project at the University of California at Santa Cruz. On a steep hillside above what was then the main entrance to the campus, Chadwick carved a veritable Eden out of heavy clay soils covered with native shrubs and poison oak. In early 1967 when he began his work at the Garden Project the soil was as hard as rock and no one could imagine the transformation it would undergo. Using techniques Chadwick described at “The Biodynamic French Intensive Method,” techniques Continued on next page

Grass Substitutes for Problem areas
Camapanula	Sometimes despite a gardener's best efforts to improve the soil and care for the grass, a lawn fails to thrive.  Insufficient light is often the cause of the problem. Other times the location is too hot or steep to keep well watered and fertilized. On such sites a gardener is well advised to consider low maintenance alternatives to turf grass. The following plants are excellent choices for difficult locations: For Shade: Campanula: Spreads quickly and is beautiful to behold. Vinca Minor: Best choice for dry soil; has periwinkle blue flowers Pachysandra: Spreads quickly through underground runners but is not invasive; thrives in acid soil Lily Turf: Ideal for use around ponds and the edge of streams; best with well drained soil and light feeding. Baby Tears: An evergreen, emerald-green creeping ground cover with tiny leaves. It is a soft, velvet-like carpet growing 2.5cm (1") high. This must be kept moist. Sword Fern: A tough fern that tolerates some sun and looks good through winter. This can look more like a shrub than a ground cover Hostas: Lush yet elegant appearance; dozens of varieties and easy care make hostas a popular choice for shade. This can look more like a shrub than a ground cover. For Sun: Rockrose:  Attractive grey-green foliage and long bloom period.  A fire resistant favorite in California, rockrose tolerates salt spray, ocean winds and desert heat. Sedum: This is a large group of hardy and tender succulent annuals and perennials. Sedums are very easy to propagate as almost any tiny leaf or piece of stem that touches the ground will root. Trailing Gazania: 12" high perennial from South Africa. It is a perennial that flowers in the summer and requires little water.
Pachysandra
Sedum
Vinca
Iceplant
Hosta

Preventing Common Lawn Diseases ?

Maintaining a healthy, vigorously growing lawn is the best way to prevent a severe disease outbreak in a turfgrass. A 5,000 square foot lawn contains about four million turfgrass plants, each requiring optimum amounts of water and fertilizer, the right mowing regime, and an aerated, well-drained soil. About 75 to 85% of common lawn diseases can be avoided altogether just by optimizing these practices to avoid stressed grass, which is much more susceptible to disease outbreaks than healthy grass.

For a disease to occur we need all 3 sides of the disease triangle to be present. The pathogen (in most cases a fungus), the host ( your often stressed lawn) and finally the environment (could be a wet lawn all night). If you will familiarize yourself with the guide that accompanies this article you can often adjust one of these variables to shift the advantage to your favor and diminish your risk. Your best defense against lawn disease is a healthy lawn that is watered in the monring with deep infrequent waterings, and is also not over- fertilized. Our Lawn Disease Guide Dr. Earth Lawn Care Article