Chop Chop

With the weather man calling for rain starting last night and continuing on for a couple of days I was really feeling the pressure to finish my outdoor chores. After reading Rosemarie's review of her leaf blower/chopper I did some research and was pleasantly surprised to learn you can find these for around 60-70 dollars. So, in keeping with my impulsive garden weekend I ran right up to HD and bought one. If you don't have one of these things and you have lots of leaves, GET ONE! It did get clogged up a couple of times, probably because it rained a little last night so the leaves were damp. One warning, this thing also chops up animal feces that may be hidden in your leaves and it is very stinky and very disgusting so be careful! (insert gag reflex here)I offered to rake the morning glory ladies' leaves if they let me have them and even though they said they ARE composting their leaves this year (2 houses in a row in the burbs composting leaves - ROCK ON!) they'd let me take what was there today since they just raked yesterday, the yard was totally covered today and there are still plenty of leaves left on the tree. Man that raking is hard work!

I raked their leaves and my leaves then put wet newspaper (thanks GB) on the grass left in the new front beds. I have to say I felt like a complete fool out there laying newspaper on my grass.

Then I vacuumed up all the leaves with my handy dandy new blower/leaf chopper dumping them on the wet newspaper as I filled the collection bag.

Here's what it looked like when I finished. I was so thrilled that I completed this project before the rain started. Then I sat with a backache waiting for the rain to come to help mat down the leaves but it has yet to do so. THANKS ERROR PRONE WEATHER MAN!

So, my lasagna garden is finished as far as my original plan but I just do not think this stuff will fully decompose by spring next year. I'll probably add coffee from Starbucks but maybe it needs something else? Anybody have any ideas?

Productivity Slightly Up

I was finally able to get outside for a couple of hours today. I got a few things accomplished but I still have plenty left to do and last I heard we are in danger of a light frost tonight. I don't really know what that means for my garden but I know all you gardening bloggers are obsessed about it so it must be important.

Here's the composter in it's new home. I put it by the door for easy access. I started a batch today using wood chips and plants from the kitchen garden that I needed to git rid of (broccoli, tomato, oregano). That I was able to recycle the plants made it so much less painful to cut them back.

Here it is about half full before mixing.

And after mixing. Carolyn - you were right! It was much harder to turn with stuff in it. The package insert says finished compost takes 6-8 weeks but I'm sure that's probably in the summer. It's getting colder so I'd be surprised if it was ready that soon. I plan to add leaves and coffee grounds if I can get more from Starbucks.

I also built the second raised bed. YAY!

I put the cardboard box the composter was delivered in in the bottom of the beds (it was the perfect size for these 2 beds) and then put newspaper on top of that and wet it. You may notice in the picture that the papers are all the same. Here's a little known fact that will probably change your opinion of me in some way. Mr. W and I use to have a weekly reading of Savage Love, a very inappropriate sex column published in the Chicago Reader that would embarrass the even the un-embarrassable. I will spare you the details of the column but for some sick reason we find it entertaining that this guy mixes sex and politics in an ever so disgusting way. Anyway, we fell behind in our reading but my dear Mr. W has been keeping every issue in date order for years, in case we ever got a hankering to pick up where we left off. So, I was granted approval to use them in the new raised lasagna bed - Savage Love lives on! Funny comment by non-gardening bf "is there any chance that somebody will find all those papers later and think we are crazy".

Remember the homemade composter I made earlier this summer? Well, I dumped the contents into the new raised beds too. Holy crap you should have seen the 2 big ass worms that were in there!!!! It was so gross but I guess my little contraption was working. Can somebody tell me how those worms get in there? They were much too fat to have fit through the small holes I drilled in the bottom.

Here is what the the beds looked like after I dumped all the crap in that I've been piling up here and there. As I suspected, it didn't even make a dent in it. I plan to add the rest of the plant material from the kitchen garden along with as many leaves as I can get in there, then cover it for the winter.

I still need to plant bulbs and I still need an assistant!

Crap I Still Need To Do

1. Start compost (the new composter is still sitting in the middle of the living room. Mr. W is not happy about this and has chastised me about it daily)
2. Build 2nd raised bed (I bought the wood today!)
3. Plant bulbs (I bought a few crocus and allium tonight)
4. Rake leaves
5. Lasagna the raised beds
6. Pick remaining tomatoes (it's going to be in the 30's tomorrow night)

I need an assistant!

Planning MSG 2008: Lasagna Gardening

After reading Colleen's review of Lasagna Gardening, I started thinking this could be exactly what I need to get ready for next year's garden. I picked up a copy last night after work.

Book Review
What I like most about this book is the no-nonsenseness of it. After a short description of how she thought up the idea of Lasagna Gardening, Patricia Lanza gets right to explaining how to build a Lasagna Garden and describes a few of the ones she's built herself. I don't like garralous how-to books so this is right up my alley. Unfortunately, this makes the actual information of this book more suitable for a pamphlet - the rest seems to be general plant information but that didnt make me regret the purchase. I hate reading how-to books and thinking chapter after chapter "GET TO THE POINT, ALREADY!!"

So, about MSG 2008, I've already thought of 5 different places I could try this lasagna gardening!! I'm so excited!

Front Garden:
This is the new garden I started working on last weekend. After reading the book, I realize I could have just put wet newspaper down over the grass and started dumping stuff on top of it, but I'm not that regretful. I was able to use some of that sod in my expired veggie garden, anyway. I'm planning to finish removing the sod from the front garden, then try the layering over top of the dirt in hopes I'll have rich soil to plant in next spring.

Raised Bed Veggie Garden:
I had planned to wait until next spring to build my raised veggie beds but after reading this book I'm thinking I should do that like TODAY! My thinking had been, what's the point of putting the wood frame out in the yard now since I couldn't plant anything until next year. All I'd be doing is reducing the life of the wood by one year having it sit in the winter weather. BUT, there is the problem of filling the beds next spring once I build them. With Lasagna Gardening, I could simply build the beds, put down wet newspaper, then start layering stuff on top of it. I mean the leaves are about to start falling, plus I do still have the rest of the veggie garden to use for greens once I pull it out. If I start now and cover the beds with black plastic, I should have a very good start on filling those beds so that I don't need to bring in nearly as much dirt next spring. Plus, the soil will be so much richer than simply dumping top soil in the raised beds, right? What do you think?

Basketball Garden:
Immediately beside the basketball court is a 25 x 2.5 foot area that currently contains lava rock, and weeds. I bought the rocks 2 summers ago before I knew better. I didn't buy enough to look good, plus the rocks poke holes in the weed barrier so the weeds grow like crazy. It looks like crap! I had decided that I'd remove the rocks next spring and plant some sort of ground cover that could withstand basketball abuse, maybe creeping thyme or something that would smell good? Anyway, now that I've read about Lasagna Gardening, I'm thinking maybe I should go ahead and start on that now? Same principle as the others, I'd have great soil for planting by next spring.

Alley Garden x 2:
There are 2 small spaces by our fence and garage off the alley and even though I wouldn't really plant anything fancy back there, I do hate that it's so weedy and ugly. Maybe I could lay down the wet newspaper to kill the weeds and layer it so that I could plant some no-maintenance wildflowers or something back there next spring.

Another thing about this whole Lasagna Gardening thing is that it gives me more stuff to do in the garden now that everything is almost finished. What I love most about this is that it seems to be a way I can use things I already have around here to build great soil for next year. This satisfies the green side of me, the cheap side of me, and the lazy side of me!

Wow - I've got lots of work to do!