Hey All,

I'm interested in putting a garden on the west wall of my house next year, and was curious to know if my ideas are good, or if it'll need a little work:

The area that I am looking to take advantage of is a strip of ground between the house and driveway that is probably 8' wide, and 20' long that gets full, unfiltered sun from mid-afternoon until sundown. There currently is some landscaping done here, but my idea was to put a couple of raised beds up against the foundation (2' or 3' wide and 4' or 6' long), fence in the 3 sides so that the local critters will have a harder time of accessing the goods (deer, rabbits, raccoons, mainly), and then add a hose spigot on that wall so that I have easy and immediate access to water and can include some drip irrigation if desired.

Out of that plan, the big unknown is if having the raised beds up against the foundation will be detrimental or not. I know that it's not a good idea to have soil and/or mulch in contact with window frames, wood siding, or exterior sheathing - but in my case, I've got a block foundation, with a crawlspace behind this wall (so no windows), and about 3' between the current ground level and the top of the block (so 36" between the soil/mulch and the first piece of accessible wood). I'll most likely make the beds using a single row of cinder blocks (so 8" deep), and am not planning on growing anything overly large the first year (pepper plants and trellised snap peas being the tallest - I've already got the electrical conduit, re-bar and netting for the trellis, too).

If drainage would be a concern, then there is a downspout on one corner that goes underground and empties on the far side of the driveway. It might be possible to include some drain tile against the foundation and underneath the beds that ties into this to make things a bit easier.

So, good idea? Bad idea? Workable idea with some changes?

TIA,

Mike