Here in Florida we are designing garden beds to grow cool weather crops, favorite salad greens and replenishing herbal ground covers. As we are moving into a rather dry season I like to capture rainwater along the edge of the garden bed. I dig a twelve-inch deep trench or one shovel length and make it at least five inches wide. This makes a nice ditch to capture rainwater from one of Mother Earth’s autumn rainstorms that blows in from the hot gulf water.

To keep the mosquitoes from laying their eggs in standing water I fill the trench with gravel stones. An unexpected reward for my water conservation efforts is the grass that  likes to grow into the garden, gets hung-up on the ‘cliff’’. It makes an easy way to keep the grass cut on the edge of the ‘cliff’ and out of the garden. The stones help stabilize the ditch and reduce the growth of weeds.