Make mine a lasagna

I went to a couple of gardening workshops yesterday. One was on sustainable vegetable gardening, and the other was on the sorts of beds one can use in a vegetable garden. Both were interesting and I got a lot of good info. I've been doing a lot of gardening workshop/lecture stuff lately, it feels like. You know, as opposed to actual gardening. We got some snow this week, but it will be gone soon and it will be time to get going on it.


I purchased some of these brackets, which were sort of expensive, but I figured if I got them, I could make one really nice bed that will last a while. One of the emphases yesterday was on reusing materials, but I find I usually don't have the patience to sift through the freecycle and Craigslist stuff for more than a few minutes. I feel like I'm wasting my time. I know I should work on that more, and thought maybe if I could find an old bathtub with feet, it would make a fun planter for the raspberries I'd like to grow (image).

One of the techniques mentioned yesterday, which is very appealing to me is called Lasagna gardening. It's so very simple it seems like it wouldn't work, but the instructor assured us that it does. You start by soaking old newspapers (think 1/2" thick or more) or pieces of corrugated cardboard in water long enough for them to get really wet. You lay those down and overlap them a lot so for weed control. Then you layer uncomposted organic stuff - a mix of anything you'd normally compost. Then you add actual compost, and top it with a layer of topsoil. Sounds like it's worth trying.

In other news, I'm back doing the online dating thing. It wears me out, but I told myself I'd devote some effort to it before the weather go too nice, in addition to trying to get out and join things, attend things and do things. This past week I met someone, exchanged some good emails, and finally talked and Skyped with him last night. It was only when we were more or less face to face that we both realized there's no chemistry. Is it effort wasted? In the big picture, no. You have to be willing to have that happen a few times. I figure I've got really no more than two of those in me before I take a break. It is draining. He had such a cute smile... but we inhabit different worlds.