Give her a challenge and she'll come up with creative ways to solve it.She and her husband Steve are the owners of Cole's Orchard in Green Bluff.
When she wasn't working as an assistant course director for physical therapists at Spokane Falls Community College, Mary enjoyed growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers in her eclectic garden.In recent years, she has struggled with the roots, which seep into her planting bed.
I set it off with five layers of gray mow, and it worked fine, but soon roots crept up stealthily between the places Where I had nailed it to the bed.She dug up the whole bed and pulled out a network of roots from the soil.
Despite changing several layers of commercial weed blocks, the roots returned within a year.At this point, Mary felt very depressed and decided to try some unusual solutions.
She bought a vinyl sign on Craigslist, folded it in half, picked up the pad, covered it on the side, then screwed it out and relined it on the metal bed.
"Before I put the pad in, I tilt the soil beneath it to create a slight downward slope towards the front of the bed for drainage purposes," she explains.