>> Rick, putting plastic anywhere near my beds would kind of defeat the purpose of having a natural environment, ya know?
True. Fortunately, drying out too fast isn't an issue for you. Is ATL Atlanta?
Ahh, they last 20-25 years. Good for all practical purposes.
I was wondering because my SO and I wanted to buy a manufactured home part way up a steep hill. It had a view like the Lord of the Manor! And it had a lot of plantings in the front yard (steep) and back yard (very steep, extending up higher than the roof of the house). The plantings even had a smart drip/spray irrigation system set up with mainlines and feeders. I WANTED those gardens even if my ankles would have suffered and given out.
It was all terraced with many landscape timbers, each with one side fully buried. Like a series of shallow steps or very shallow terraces.
I'm sure from the looks of the manufactured home that they had all been in the ground 25-30 years. Surrounded closely by forest, there was probably no shortage of termites and wood-eating fungus. I don't know how (or if) they protected landscape timbers 20-30 years ago.
Anyway, after the inspector pointed out how the deck and ? skirting ? were rotting, and the leaks and mildew indoors, he explained that we would have to re-engineer the whole slope, unless we wanted the back yard in the living room.
THAT was a case (unlike raised beds), where a 20-year solution was a short-sighted stopgap measure.
We had to give up the view, and I had to give up the gardens. But my ankles will live to walk another day.
