I'm a Winner - AGAIN!

I won my football pool again last week! Here are my options:

Big Pot - they should be on sale now, right?

Dirt - I suppose I need to cover the new beds in the front that now just have leaves and newspaper.

Start a patio fund - I'd like to get a patio done at the earliest possible time next spring so maybe I should start saving now?

On the subject of neighbors:
I noticed that, this time when my neighbors on either side raked their leaves, they piled them at the side of their property line closest to mine. I think they are doing this so I can use them for my garden since they saw me out there vacuuming them up last weekend. Isn't that nice!! So, I'm off to take advantage of them. Is 8:45 too early for the loud leaf blower?

On the subject of seeds:
I'm participating in the Garden Bloggers Seed Trade that Colleen organized (see link on my blog) and I'm making my 3rd trade this week! I'm pretty excited about this! I really can't wait till next spring. I think I'm going to turn my basement into a greenhouse (or whatever it's called) so that I can start some seeds indoors. Coupled with the Winter Sowing I plan to try, I should be off to a great start on plants next spring, huh?

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?