Garden Eyes Too Big for Garden Tummy?

Well, I've done it. The first lasagna gardening has been put in place, in just under two hours, please, and is a respectable 4 x 12 foot. It was just as easy as the book promised.

I'm so excited about this, that I'm going to be putting in two more gardens over the weekend, along the back and side fencing, for my herbs and cut flowers. What was really fun was watching the expression on the faces of the two fellows that helped me clean out the copse of trees in the back. You would have thought I was showing them a parade of blue elephants!

And, lucky me, there were several bales of old straw that were perfect as compost. They were only recognizable as straw on the outside. The slightest movement caused them to fall apart and reveal an almost completely decomposed center, which was perfect for the lower levels of the layering process. Since I'm going to be building each bed up to a height of 24 inches, I'll save the top five layers for real peat moss and soil.

We've been given a respite from cold, harsh, days, so I should be able to finish everything before another blast of cold weather is upon us. I would like to have at least one good rainy, snowy, coverage over each bed to hasten the decomposition of everything before I start planting in February.

During that rush of cold, I'll be getting my planting sheets ready, using newspaper and a very thin flour solution to position the seeds in their final resting place. Although this isn't mentioned in the lasagna gardening book, it's something I have used in other container gardens. By putting at least two seeds together for syzygy, I'm able to cut out the thinning and transplanting step for almost all of my veggies. This is simply a great way to garden in retirement.

Will be picking up a new digital camera over the weekend so that I can post some pictures at my Creative Handz site. A fast Google on lasagna gardening will bring up any number of sites that show the process, so I don't feel too bad about not sharing mine. I do, however, want to chronicle each garden' s progress.

Now, back to my catalogs.