Hey, thanks for your thoughts! I thought I had set up this up so the comments would be emailed to me, but apparently had not... anyway, I think I'll try several different plants & see what is most successful. I am leaning towards a mix of thyme, sedum, portulaca & dianthus. We have rosemary & lavender in the yard & they grow into bushes, so I would like to stick w/smaller plants. Also the lemon balm is already an escapee from another bed! Not sure yet how high blocks will be... it's been so rainy, I haven't had a chance to hang out in the yard... Cyrus, why don't u innoculate the sides of your pine tree beds w/mushrooms? That way the entire bed is working for u! Thanks all, sharon

I have several beds made from cinder blocks. If you want to sit on them, I would suggest 8x8x16. I have mine at different levels. Some are just one level, mainly for a divider between plants and pathway. Most are two high, easy to sit on and reach into. I also have a few that are three high, great for potatoes, as I can take the blocks off to get to the potatoes easier. Cattle panels are great from one bed to the other. i have grown pie pumkins on them. but now have dedicated them to my tomatoes. All of the garden is on a drip system and timer. Love my garden!

I wouldn't screw the inside corner together. If it looks to you like it may not hold, then use nails through the stakes into the form, leaving part of the head exposed for easy removal after pouring. Nails are priable, screws aren't. You can use a nail to hold the outside corner pieces together. If you put a level on the existing border, is it level on its own or does it have the same slope as the driveway? If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably make it parallel/level with the driveway, just for ease of the outside form. But if the existing border is level on its own (not parallel with the driveway), then you're stuck with that on the extension. Not a big deal on the inside form, but it makes the outside form tricky. I suppose if you just use a full 2x4 on the outside, which would stick up above where you want the new border, you could trowel the concrete level with the inside form. I've never done it that way, but it seems like it would work. Since your outside form isn't secured to anything like stakes, consider putting some block on top of them, to hold them down, as well as in. I've never oiled form boards. To remove them, stick a wonderbar in between the concrete and wood and gently pry them apart. The concrete won't be fully cured, so subject to chipping if you just beat on it. On the inside forms, if you take out the long board first, that will make the short board not be wedged in, as it'll have the 1.5" that the long board took up. You could pry against the fence to shift it that way and loosen it. And you could dig out the dirt to make it easier to pry off.

Hello. You didn't say whether this is a new home for you. I spent the first year checking out the sunshine in our backyard. My backyard was a south facing yard. The back fence shaded the back yard almost 4 feet into the yard. Which meant I started my first cinder block line just over 4 feet away from the block fence. OR the winter garden would never get any sun. During the summer time, the block fence might radiate too much heat back off the fence. My cinder block garden was 3 cinder blocks tall. 24 inches interior width. I started with 1 brick high. I found the roots didn't have enough room. So I went up to 2 bricks. Again, not tall enough for tomato plants if you bury your seedlings deep like many recommend. So, I went up to 3 bricks high. Perfect for me. I agree with previous posters. If you make the garden too wide, you won't be able to reach all sides of the garden. Important when you are trying to find the peas within the vines, tomatoes under their leaves, or to pull radishes that are ready for your salad. I put the blocks right on the hard AZ soil. I then added mulch, mulch, soil, manure, mulch, manure.... It took almost 3 years to get the perfectly blended soil for all sorts of vege's. Shoveling, raking, and spreading more manure did the trick. I mulched all my kitchen scraps I could. That certainly helped with the health of the soil. Oh by the way, the soil won't bulge out or push the bricks away. At least in my case. Any extra water leaked between some of the cracks and down to the bottom of the bricks. Making sure you have enough water to absorb into the soil so your plants have a chance to drink before it runs out at the bottom. Good luck!!