Your plan sounds good to me, incorporate manure into the soil, cover for weed control. I would not worry at all about the grubs. If they are in manure they most likely don't eat plant material. They probably would be benificial if they survive the tilling. However, my comment is related to your garden boxes. I figure that, among other benefits, one of the main points to garden boxes is that you can put whatever substrate/soil you want into them so that you don't have to use the soil you have. If I had clay I would have put loam or even a soil less substrate into my boxes. A friend of mine uses only a 50/50 mixture of peat moss and dried cow pies collected from the pasture with no soil at all in his boxes. As the peat and manure breaks down he just adds a new layer, so no tilling. His garden grows great!

Fuchsias bloom on new wood and are easier to prune now after a frost. They need the hair cut to be beautiful next spring. I don't grow my hair as long as I can because it glues to the top of my flat head from the weight. I prune fuchsia back to the edge of the pot with a round top. Or I pull and stake them up to be confined to the edge of the pot. The in ground ones I cut them off as the stem starts to edge over and droop. It's winter time, we and the plants rest. We get to start over soon enough. I get out an cut out all the slimy stuff that glues other plants down like jellied impatiens. But I don't touch the euphorbia because I want it to come back. And there is a big brown frond on the tree fern that is protecting everything below it that stays too. Personally I don't like a bunch of jury rigged junk thrown over my garden because it is too unsightly. I bring some pots in and pull others close under the eaves. Other then that it's winter time and it's best just to rake leaves and be neat.

This table has simply been sitting beneath the living room window for months, until I finally came up with an idea. I'm terrible about picking up sample cards at the hardware store. Last week in the kitchen section I found sample cards printed with different types of countertops -- green marble, tan sandstone, deep green sandstone, etc. I picked up a bunch because -- I'm still 6 years old at heart, what can I say! I didn't have any plans for them, just liked the way they looked. Happened to look at the table again and what struck by the fact that it looks a little Moorish, like the inlaid mosaic tables of the Middle East. And suddenly the light bulb went off! It didn't take long to formulate a pattern, and I spent a night or two cutting each piece out with a razor blade. Here's a snap of the first 3 medallions laid out, along with some of the sample cards and some of the extra "tiles". I have all the pieces for the table top cut out. My plan is to paint the wood with a dark chocolate/black stain, and I need to figure out how to handle the panels on the side, but -- what do you think about it so far?

The only recognized/certified professional organization for landscape designers in the country - the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) - is based in Harrisburg, PA. The website has changed recently and it is no longer very user-friendly IMO, but you can access the PA-DE chapter via Facebook (apldpade) and request referrals for qualified designers in your area. And often, better independent nurseries and garden centers in your area will have a listing of landscape professionals, including designers, that they will refer to.......if they do not have one on staff (and beware of those offering services for free for the previously outlined reasons). In the overall scheme of developing a new landscape, design fees tend to be one of the least costly line items :-) It is impossible to say how much a design master plan would cost, as it depends on the size and scope of the project and the skill and experience (and name) of the designer involved, but compared to the labor and materials involved in creating a new landscape, the expense is minimal.....usually from a few hundred dollars to as much as several thousand for larger, more complex project. Just an FYI, but it is important to find a designer that has experience in the type of work you are looking for as well as one that you can communicate with easily and comfortably - working with a designer is a very interactive process!! Ask to see their portfolio of built work.