We are in the process of setting up the beds for the garden

I chose a project called "Seed to Salad" that I found on the Garden based Learning section on the Cornell Cooperative extension website. Each 4H member will get a 3x3 square of garden. They will design salad gardens to mimic quilt block patterns, or maybe a design of their own choosing. We will plant cool weather crops that can be harvested by the end of the year (lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, swiss chard, green onions) and have a salad party.

Because the planting will start in early April, we needed to have the beds ready for spring. I don't know if any of you have tried to dig a garden at the end of March, but it is pretty muddy. And if you till a patch when it is wet, you actually will compact the soil.

Instead of tilling the ground where the garden will be, I chose to take advantage of the large quantity of dried leaves available in the fall and try a method call sheet composting or "lasagna gardening" where you layer different organic materials in thin layers alternating with soil, and by spring, you should have beds that are fully decomposed and ready to plant.

The ideal ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen in a compost pile is 30:1. Leaves are higher in carbon (high carbons are referred to as "browns"), so you need to alternate them with higher nitrogen materials (called "greens") like coffee grounds, manure, grass clippings, and vegetable peelings. Besides using the leaves to build the raised beds, I am hoarding the leaves to use as mulch, and to have an adequate source of "browns" to balance out the "greens" in the summer compost.

We still need more sources of greens to balance out the browns. Mrs Robbins brought beautiful aged manure from her farm, but we need to get more.