Alice, it took me weeks to build those beds, because I designed them as I worked, looking at the results and building from there. Lots of trips to Home Depot for dirt, piecemeal, and then I planted fairly late, but not so late and everything caught up. Though the proportions aren't quite so long or narrow, if you place your hand on the table top with your four fingers separated (with about a finger's width in between each finger) and think about building a backboard and building a raised bed radiating out along that plank (several 2 x 12s) and positioning several bed separations so you can step between them, then you have this garden. My yard is wedge-shaped and along the sloped driveway. I can walk around the back side of this and pick from the other side of the planks (I also put chicken wire up to keep dogs, etc., from running into the bed) and step into any of the trough areas (though now many of them have volunteer tomatoes that I didn't have the heart to pull and wasn't fast enough to transplant). I filled the lower areas with an inch or two of coarse free mulch so it wouldn't be too slippery after watering, but this rain is really testing this system.

Last year my eggplants were on the level ground and we had similar rain and they simply drowned in the mud. Now they're about 12 inches above the orignal level of the bed, as are all of the tomatoes, peppers, everything else. I didn't build frames, I simply beveled the soil and kind of tamped down the edges. Since it isn't framed, I can move the raised beds fairly easily in the off season, or pile it all up and move it around and rebuild them (though I don't plan to unless I have to).

I have this idea for taking Bobert's leftover deer fencing and putting it stretched out horizontally over the top of Alice's garden to protect it. That hail would never know what hit it, eh?

SRS