Spring gardening 2012

I know we have several days until Spring, but I am getting ready!!

Our yard is on slant and thus our nutrients drain down hill with the water.

I have had a garden in the back of the yard and the side up near the house. I have tried gardening in pots and all attempts have been mediocre at best.

So this year I am making a lasagna garden which is kinda like raised beds.

Of course I should have started back in the Fall with the layering process of leaves, compost,

grass clippings, twigs etc. but what the heck...it has to be a better garden than the past.

Because I am making it in the same area as last year, I really did not need to put newspaper down to keep the weeds out. I started with the leaves from our four oak trees that were already in the space, then I cut up some of the old stems and put some top soil down next.

Then I added compost, manure, and garden soil. I mixed this all on top of the leaf mixture and squared it up or rounded it up!

I mixed peat on top of that and racked it all together and back and forth...last ending with more garden soil...kinda organic and kinda NOT.

I had old bricks that I decided to place at the end where it might drain to help secure it a bit

, not lasagna at all...and I like them so much that I continued around two other sides. That left the side near the yard open and it looked odd. I place a old landscape beam there and I think I like it ok...at least enough until the plants start to grow and cover it up!!

Here's my buddy trying to dig up a rose bush that grew into an old crepe myrtle...he had to give up and try another day!!

And here it is all finished...well, we do need to lay the papers down to make the walking path and then layer with pine or straw...but it is ready to begin planting!

And paint the fence too.

...to be continued.

Blessings, 

Kathy