It’s officially leaf raking season here at Two Frog Home. We had that freeze a few weeks back and its been warming up since, I fully expected the leaves to just drop once it got back into the 60 degree temps. Well, they haven’t all fallen, but they are certainly falling in big loads. We spent several hours raking leaves and dumping them onto our garden. We’ll rototill the leaves into the soil just slightly before the snow starts falling in earnest. It’s our own version of “lasagna gardening” – it seemed to work well last year and its something I think we’ll continue to do. The leaves mostly break down by the time we till the garden in the spring and what remains only serves to loosen and feed the soil more, in my opinion.
We save a big garbage can full of the leaves to throw into the worm bin throughout the winter as well. The worms seem to like them, and it gives me extra food to give them when we aren’t eating as much fresh food from which to give them the spoils.
Other than raking leaves I spent some time finishing up a quilt. One of my oldest and dearest friends is expecting her fourth child next month. I’ve made a quilt for each one of her three boys and wanted to make sure the newest addition to her family (and my extended family) had a quilt of their own as well. I used up my scrap pile to make this quilt. The pieces are three inch wide strips of cotton in varying lengths and sewn together. The back piece is one solid piece of fabric – the same color as the binding. It was quilted in a pale yellow thread in free motion. The “batting” is a piece of a high-quality thrifted flannel sheet that makes the quilt warm without being overly heavy. I’m pretty pleased with the quilt, overall, and think the recipients will be too.
Independence Days Challenge – Week 25
Plant Something: Nothing, and that’s not likely to change until March of 2010
Harvest Something: Nothing
Preserve Something: Nothing
Reduce Waste: The usual composting and recycling, little purchasing. Mended a pair of Jeff’s sweat pants and one of his sweatshirts.
Preparation & Storage: Found some jars for storing dehydrated goods at a rummage sale.
Build Community Food Systems: See my canning class announcement on Friday’s post.
Eat the Food:Carrot & Rutabaga Soup, Roasted beets, eating fried potatoes that we canned from our garden,
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The dried leaves are *great* for the garden, especially if your soil is ‘alive’ enough to break them down. They are full of nitrogen and I know a few organic gardeners who make that their only real added amendment with great results. We use ours as the ‘dry’ material for our compost throughout the year.
~Tara