Design Considerations

I've been chatting with friends and neighbours who often pop over to see how the mound is going and a couple of people plan to build their own - here's some things I've learnt through ours

- Tomatoes and cucumbers need very high stakes!
- The mound should not be too wide as its not a good idea to stand on it. The top mound is too wide for me to comfortabley reach the front side of the tomatoes. The width should be so that you can comfortably reach into middle and any height (eg stakes) on far side.
- zucchini go wild and are spiky! our plants have taken over the front of the mound and I can't get into the front section of the mound without either standing on or scratching myself on the plant. I think zucchini better at a back section where you won't regularly have to gain access
- there is hardly any weeding, but lots of picking, harvesting, training, staking to be done- I think our mound is a little long as I have to right around from top of citrus garden down to corn bed - I would prefer a short cut through to other side
- when planting, think in physical dimensions what the full grown plants will be like- the mound has little 'sub-climates' due to shading and access to water, lettuce will do well in the shade of other plants whereas things like capscium need more direct sun
-careful of planting delicate plants near the ditch- my lettuce and parsley often gets a bit trampled by myself or the hose
- don't be shy on layering on the cardboard. I've done practically no weeding in past three months and I am thankful to Tiny for insisting on thick, thick layers of cardboard that overlap

Thats all I can think of now-