In the Garden: Trying out a new system.

One of my goals from the garden of 2012 was to figure out a solution to my kitchen garden problems.   The main problem is that I have a cat who loooves to use the garden as his personal restroom.  After a season of this, you can imagine how the quality of the soil is affected.  Combined with a dry year, my kitchen garden produced pretty much nothing last year.  

This year I want that to be different.  

I convinced my husband to build me two raised garden beds on top of the existing garden site.  We used scrap lumber from some other recent projects, so it didn't cost any money to put these two beds together.

Once we had the beds in place they needed to be filled.  I've had the book, Lasagna Gardening, on my shelf for two or three years now.  I've been wanting to create a lasagna garden of my own, so this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.  Lasagna gardening is an organic gardening method in which you create layers of peat, compost and mulch in your beds.  If you search this type of gardening on the Internet, you will find loads of information.

I started with a layer of wet newspapers at the bottom, to keep out any unwanted weeds, etc. from the ground.  Then, I layered shredded paper, dry leaves, compost, and cow manure with layers of peat moss in between.  You can use many different types of compostable materials for your layers - it's all about using what you have available.  I spent about $50 on the peat and manure, but the rest we had at home.

I'm looking forward to planting in my new garden beds!  I am thinking of trying the square foot gardening method - have you tried it?  I've been reading up on it over the last week.  Sounds intriguing!  

Also in my garden this week - blooming tulips!  

(P.S. - Can you tell I am enjoying my new photo app?)