I have an area in mind for this tree. It is currently in a large pot. It is a red maple, called Bloodgood(?) and is supposed to get large/wide. The spot I have picked Im not sure about tho. I am planning to do a small raised area near my back fence (approx. 8 to 10 feet away) The reason I want to put it in a raised area, is one, our soil sucks. Its very clay-ey. And second the area is a bit lower, and water will pool there after heavy rains. I live in Northern CA, in Sonoma county. My concerns......that part of my yard gets sun, until about 1 pm in the afternoon. Im worried about it being too hot for this maple. Currently the pot that it is in, is directly across from where I want to plant it.It wont get much wind, as my yard is fenced in. Our neighbors have a large old silver maple, which helps shade the area later in the afternoon. I guess my questions are..... Does this sound like a good plan? Will the wetness of the area be helped by raising it using a *raised bed approach*? Any ideas/suggestions?

I have a fairly large flower bed (3 FT wide by 40 FT long) that is full of weeds and needs to be re-bedded. What is the easiest way, with respect to the amount of labor involved, to dig it up, re-mulch, and re-plant this bed? Should I just dig out the plants I want, rent a tiller and go nuts? Is there some way to kill the weeds so that they will not grow back? I have been told that burying the weeds by mixing them up in the dirt will not kill them and they will just be harder to pull out since the roots will be deeper. I don't know if this matters but, I intend to replace all the "high maintenance" flowers with drought tolerant shrubs like Indian Hawthorn, Mexican Heather, etc. This area gets lots of hot afternoon sun. The soil is typical Houston, TX blackish clay.