Little Gift For Valentine's Day

I thought I'd show you this little gift I put together for my co-teacher for Valentine's Day. 

Ummm, I was at the store earlier today but totally forgot about getting her a little something! So tonight, I looked through my  gift stash to see if I had anything that she would enjoy. We are celebrating Valentine's Day at work tomorrow.

So I found a pink set of homemade hand warmers, some strawberry gum in my pantry (it's fresh!) and a couple candy canes I hot glued together to make a heart.

She loves pink, her hands are often cold and she likes peppermint and chewing gum. 

How's that for gift giving rationale? Ha! 

I dressed up a plain tiny gift bag with some trim and a thrifted crocheted flower (like I used here). Hot glue gun to the rescue! 

A small gift but something cute that says, "I'm thinking of you!" 

Lasagna Gardening, Take 1

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for working in our garden!

I've been interested in lasagna gardening for several years. Lasagna gardening is a no dig, no till method of gardening. Instead of digging and tilling dirt, one makes layers of peat moss and other soil enriching components. Basically, you can take a hard piece of ground, put newspapers down to kill the existing grass/weeds, then layer the other stuff on top--within months you will have a lovely rich soil to plant in.

Andy gave me the book Lasagna Gardening for my birthday last year. So I've been itching to get started!

We started with our existing garden plot which has wonderful soil but lots of aggressive weeds.

First step is to soak newspapers and then put thick pads of them all over the soil. I had Andy's parents save newspapers for me and also got a big box of them from a lady via Freecycle.

 The second step was to pour a layer of peat moss down. I sectioned the garden into quarters and used cardboard to mark off a path.  Looks like a cross, doesn't it? I had to make another trip to Farmer's Exchange to pick up an additional bale of peat moss. By the time this is done, we'll be on first name basis. ;-)

Next, I made layers of compost, grass clippings and a sprinkling of bonemeal--all stuff we had already. No picture of these layers, because....ewww! Not all my compost is fully decomposed. I covered this with a thick layer of straw. I only used about 1/2 a bale so straw is a cost effective addition to the lasagna garden at only $5 a bale.

The garden is smelling lovely at this point...

 I started putting mulch that we already had on hand over the path area to make it look nicer. Apparently, I didn't get a picture of that...

Done for today with layering. Last step is to cover everything with black plastic and secure it. Not only will covering it help the layers to "cook" and decompose, it will also help to deter a very nosy dog who finds compost and bonemeal to be quite delightful.;-)

I'll be adding more layers in the coming weeks--more peat moss, compost, straw, etc.

Stay tuned for more adventures in Lasagna gardening!

This is our first time using this method so if you have experience with this, please share!

And my sincere apologies to my readers who are covered in snow...;-)