more lasagna
Apr. 2nd, 2009 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7It's gorgeous out-- 64 and sunny and not really at all windy.
I finished up the lasagna bed-- cardboard & newspaper, straw, peat, compost & grass, peat, chopped leaves, peat, and a dusting of soil/compost/coffee grounds/ wood ashes on top. It's only about a foot thick, which is much thinner than most descriptions of a lasagna bed, so I may not really have done it right. Oh well-- I just didn't have enough material, I guess!
I have the chicken wire from last year's compost heap, have stretched it out and nailed it in place by twining stakes through it. Some of the stakes aren't long enough. So I have the stalks from those ten-foot daisies twined through-- some of them are really strong! I couldn't break them with my hands, easily, so i kept them. They're garden stakes now. As substantial as the bamboo ones I could've bought for $2 apiece...
So there's a pea and cucumber fence. I'll post pictures later.
The wood ashes dried my hands out something fierce. Don't know why I didn't put my gloves on. Duh. Oh well.
Now to plant peas... I'm thinking of planting the peas along the north side first, so they'll be nice and tall by the time the cukes come up, and maybe they'll keep bearing a little longer instead of getting smushed by the heat later in the season?
Peas and lettuce to the north, beans and cukes to the south, and pole beans at the end climbing the 9-foot pole... I wanted to put a ring at the top of the pole, though, and forgot. I have the rings from an old lampshade... Then there could be a lot of strings hanging from the ring, instead of just one slippery pole for the beans to climb. I have to figure out how to get the ring to stay atop the pole, though. Hmmmmmmm...
I want to make a second one of these, parallel and a few feet to the north, but I doubt I'll have enough materials. I have some stuff left over but think I'll probably be putting it in the big garden bed at the south wall of the garage, which was given over to perennials before I moved in but has since become mostly weeds. (I didn't know what was what and so left it alone, since most of it seemed to be flowers; the weeds are taking over now, though. I just want to put some cardboard over it and start over...)
That one, since it's not over sod, wouldn't need to be as thick-- it would basically be glorified über-mulch.
I poured myself a cola when I got inside, thinking it would be refreshing, but I guess I drink so little pop nowadays it's just making me feel sort of gross. Oh well! I need to go brush my teeth, urgently. Pleh, pleh, pleh.
I finished up the lasagna bed-- cardboard & newspaper, straw, peat, compost & grass, peat, chopped leaves, peat, and a dusting of soil/compost/coffee grounds/ wood ashes on top. It's only about a foot thick, which is much thinner than most descriptions of a lasagna bed, so I may not really have done it right. Oh well-- I just didn't have enough material, I guess!
I have the chicken wire from last year's compost heap, have stretched it out and nailed it in place by twining stakes through it. Some of the stakes aren't long enough. So I have the stalks from those ten-foot daisies twined through-- some of them are really strong! I couldn't break them with my hands, easily, so i kept them. They're garden stakes now. As substantial as the bamboo ones I could've bought for $2 apiece...
So there's a pea and cucumber fence. I'll post pictures later.
The wood ashes dried my hands out something fierce. Don't know why I didn't put my gloves on. Duh. Oh well.
Now to plant peas... I'm thinking of planting the peas along the north side first, so they'll be nice and tall by the time the cukes come up, and maybe they'll keep bearing a little longer instead of getting smushed by the heat later in the season?
Peas and lettuce to the north, beans and cukes to the south, and pole beans at the end climbing the 9-foot pole... I wanted to put a ring at the top of the pole, though, and forgot. I have the rings from an old lampshade... Then there could be a lot of strings hanging from the ring, instead of just one slippery pole for the beans to climb. I have to figure out how to get the ring to stay atop the pole, though. Hmmmmmmm...
I want to make a second one of these, parallel and a few feet to the north, but I doubt I'll have enough materials. I have some stuff left over but think I'll probably be putting it in the big garden bed at the south wall of the garage, which was given over to perennials before I moved in but has since become mostly weeds. (I didn't know what was what and so left it alone, since most of it seemed to be flowers; the weeds are taking over now, though. I just want to put some cardboard over it and start over...)
That one, since it's not over sod, wouldn't need to be as thick-- it would basically be glorified über-mulch.
I poured myself a cola when I got inside, thinking it would be refreshing, but I guess I drink so little pop nowadays it's just making me feel sort of gross. Oh well! I need to go brush my teeth, urgently. Pleh, pleh, pleh.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 12:35 am (UTC)Don't wait on the peas. Get them in as soon as you can.
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Date: 2009-04-03 02:59 am (UTC)I want to get that lettuce started too because I never, ever have enough lettuce in my garden. It always winds up staying too small until suddenly it's hot and it all bolts. Bleh. I'm trying a couple different kinds this time.