Greetings,

I do not have a green thumb.  My fingers are rather pale from years of wearing gloves while hiding in collections storage at other museums.  With that said, my historic house museum is located in an agricultural area in New Mexico.  The lawn is mostly grass, with sections that have gravel around modern outbuildings and assorted old outbuildings relocated onto concrete pads.  Historically, the grass lawn went up directly to the house's foundation.  There are two flower beds the length of the front of the house that were installed at some point in the past fifty years, that are not particularly deep (ranging three to six feet in depth), that are bordered with rocks.  I had the idea that we can have a Spring Fair and a Harvest Fair each year (coinciding roughly with Easter and Homecoming).  The Spring Fair would include various flowers or other vegetation that kids could plant in those flower beds while learning about planting and calving, to go with the existing plants and large sign.

Here is my question: what should I do with those flower beds between now and next spring?  They were mostly exposed dirt, grass, and weeds when I started earlier this year.  I do not want to leave them in that present condition, and the custodian already self-assigned the task of removing those weeds and grass.  Would it make sense to put a barrier layer over the dirt and leave it until it can be pulled up the week before the Spring Fair?  If so, what would be the optimal material (for aesthetics, price, and labor hours)?

Thank you,

Michael R.

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