Dear All: For several years I've been experimenting with raised beds for growing summer dormant plants here in Maryland. I've been building these beds higher and higher to enhance the drainage. Last autumn I build another raised bed about eighteen inches high. The sides of the bed are bricks set without mortar - in effect, a dry wall. No proper drainage material was used at the base of this bed - I thought the height of the bed and the leaky walls would be sufficient to allow the sharp drainage I wanted. In late May and early June sections of this bed were covered with panes of glass (actually discarded glass doors) in the expectation that that arrangement would be sufficient to keep things dry. The glass is several inches above the soil surface, so there is plenty of air circulation. The surface of the bed looks dry and even crusty. Yet certain lusty weeds seemed unphased by the lack of water. And when I dug down an inch or two, it became apparent that there is plenty of moisture still in the soil. In fact, I checked a small sample of tulips and frits in this bed and found that some had already rotted in the hot, damp soil. Bummer! Obviously I need to change something. I'm assuming that capillary action is causing water to wick up into the bed. I'm thinking about putting in some sort of vapor barrier at the base of the bed, between the medium in the bed and the ground soil. Does anyone have suggestions about this? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where it has rained so much during the last month that you would think the soil pathogens would have rotted, too.