CLOSED: Free Seed For Newbies! 7/27/09. Come Join Us!

BLONDIE, Who is your bestest friend? OH MY GOSH! When you told me about those, I thought you were talking about spider plantsor airplane plants. Never did I understand what an air plant was till now. That is beautiful! I'll go chase that flippen duck.

HI Blond what is that pretty plant?

Evening all!

Mindy03 - Thanks for the link. I have been fervently seatching any and all info on the lasagna bed as I wanna make sure i don't screw anything up...LOL... cuz that's so typically me.

de blond - I have birdseed mix too! I had no idea you could grow them. For some reason, it never came to mind to plant them.. now Im gonna! think its too late in the season?

mekos - I'll have to replenish my Margarite mix this weekend...lol. and brush up on my dance steps.

Al - I think I have both types in my seed mix, I'll have to look. Do both normally come int hose seed mixes?

Seray - Thanks for the info. neighbor always has pine needles since most of his property is covered by sand pines. I'll have to go ' borrow' some...lol.

and if you are trying to layer a 8 x 8 ft bed 2 inches thick each layer.. how much Black cow would I need? anyone?

I know nuthing about black cow(except around here they're called black angus and people eat them and I'm sure you wouldn't want them in the flower garden) So must be something else. BUT Cue, You can stop dancing ant time now, I got to go to the pharmacy and get prescription filled and it's raining. Needed the rain so bad, and it finally came when I was about to leave. Back in a flash, you guys.

Black Kow is pretty good stuff. Mekos - it's manure in a bag you can buy at Lowe's and such - lol. But if cue had a Black Angus, she wouldn't need to buy Black Kow . . .

cue - my hubby is the one good with those kinda measurements. If you don't get it figured out I'll ask him when I get home for you - LMK.

Hope y'all are having a fine day.

lol, yeah, you better ask him...ROTFL.. otherwise, I may be here all noght trying to figure out how many cubic ft of Black cow I would need to fill a 8x8 bed 2 -3 inches thick!

OK - I'll get back to you on that one . . .

Hi Cue

I'd put the Black Kow on the bottom brown layer. Even though it's composted manure it can get hot if you use it straight. If you don't want to do a whole layer with it mix it with used potting soil as one of your layers. I buy 50 lb bags and that would cover about 2-3 feet 2" deep. They're $6 per bag. Loca's husband could give you a better measurement.

well, heres what i was gonna do with it....

first layer is cardboard.. 2nd layer is leaves, sprinkled with BC.. next layer is grass clippings sprinkled with BC.. then newspaper... and so forth ad so on.. think that might work?

Black Kow would be your brown layer. I think the green stays separate. This lady has the basics.
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm
You've gotten me pumped up about it. I was planning to haul in top soil for a hosta bed now I think I'll do the same.

woot! we could do it together! yeah.. the ' lasagna buddy system'...LOl.. c'mon everyone.. build a lasagna bed!!!

First layer cardboard or wet newspapers. LOL You could put garden lime on the bottom before the cardboard. I probably will do this.

I bought the book for 3.49 on Amazon. Not here yet. Couldn't resist a book. :)

Second layer Black Kow or mix of compost and Kow.

Third layer grass clippings, veggie scrapes if you're going to add them.
Fourth layer pine needles, oak leaves, worm castings, compost, some BKow
Fifth layer Grass clippings, garden trimmings
Back to brown layer etc. etc. etc. LOL That's how I will do mine.

Back to cooking! How are you going to do yours?

Sometimes you will see the gray striped seed in birdseed mixes, it all depends on what you get. Not all birdseed sunflowers will germinate, they have been treated to retard sprouting, but many will. You'll just have to try to find out for sure.

Al

OK - give me a minute and I'll have your calculations for you^_^

OK - to do a 2" layer in an 8' x 8' bed you would need 10.66 cu ft of Black Kow.


takes a bow for hubby

Now we have to figure out how many cubic feet in a 50# bag. Couldn't find it on the bag. LOL

ROTFL... ok loca.. get the hubby calculating again.. how many cubic ft of BK is in a 50 lb bag??

seray.. gonna start off with the carboard, then layer everything as i find it...lol... is compost considered green or brown?

seray - are you going to border your bed? Im not sure what to use other than lumber from Lowes... nothing really around the yard i can salvage to use as a border.

ok, just found out there is roughly 1 cubic ft ina 50lb bag of Black Kow! soooo, think I'll be mixing it with something else as $50 for a single layer in my gaden bed seems really pricey...LOL

That doesn't sound right. Let me ask . . .

I thought a 50lb bag was 3 cu ft.
The reason I say this, I buy potting mix that feeds plants for 9 months at lowe's for 10.00 and it is 3 cu.ft. It's 50 lb.
Wouldn't the manure be the same?

This message was edited Jul 28, 2009 8:25 PM

Mekos - I think you're pretty close. I just went and looked at my potting soil bags and I would guess the 2 cu ft ones weigh probably 30 lbs full for comparison purposes.

Cue - you can ask at the place you buy it or compare the bag size to some potting soil bags that are sold in cu ft. You can get a pretty good idea. I would think a 50 lb bag would be between 2 and 3 cu ft volume wise.

Since when is spreading cow manure an exact science? I would just toss in a couple bags, spread it around and be done with it. Might add a little lime if it's smelly.

Hey Cue, did you know that horse manure was the absolute BEST fertelizer for the veggie garden that you can get? Better than cow manure! DID you know that? Don't have to mix or add or do anything except spread it on. Horse manure is PURE and just better. Do you have any horse farms around where you are? You go get it and it's usually pretty cheap for a truck load. You wouldn't need anything else.

no stables around here...lol

Loca - i was reading two separate places ont he web that 1 50lb bag of Black kow was equal to 1 cu ft. they could be wrong... either way.. it will get mixed with someting else, cuz it has to spread across 8' x8' at least 2 inches.

actually chicken poop is even better i have a picture for all this is my favorite tree on the lake i live
i might have to try the lasagna bed when i start in the back yard, hmmm sounds kinda interesting,

Chicken poo is good if you let it sit for a while before you plant - it's a "hot" manure. Rabbit poo is really great as well and can be used fresh and it will not "burn" your plants.

cue - check the sizes of the bags. Hubby says you really can't convert the lbs to cu ft - it's like apples and oranges - but you can compare the bag sizes to get a good idea. The manure should be only a part of your layers anyway. The more variety of "stuff" you have the more variety of nutrients and micronutrients you'll have in your amendments. You can use things like bone and blood meal, kelp meal, rock phosphate - the list is endless - lol.

Variety is the spice of life and even so with your lasagna bed - lol . . .

i have my son go fish in the lake and bring back a fish or two for my plants now and then too,
yes that is true about the chicken poo for got about that, i agree on rabbit poo much better, well i have a severe headache and am going to take a shower and go to bed now see ya all in the morning

Hi

Sounds like everyone is going to be making Lasagna. Alright!

Cue I think I will border with landscape timber. I have some extras that I've moved into the woods when we moved here. I want mine to kinda slope towards the path so it's just to get started and to define my space. I don't think you really need a border to build the layers. A french trench border would look nice and define the space just as well when you finish.

Blond will join us. Maybe Arejay when she gets back. Mekos? Flower? Siichan? Who else is making Lasagna?

Pictures once the first layer gets down?

I've been trying to do it in a compost bin , but didn't know that was what they called it. BUT mine isn't doing so great. I think I got more dead brush than anything and it isn't layered so great, it's in a bin. I might just take the bin up and put some landscape timbers down and start the las. like you guys. Then plant it in the spring. BUT I just might go to the black angus farm a mile down the road and get the manure. Or head 10 miles and get the horse poop. I got plenty chicken stuff, that burned my plants a while back, because I didn't let it cure out first, won't do that again.( Lost a lot of good plants and had to start over.)

Mekos: Why not just start fresh like us. You can use the compost you have in the bin as the brown layer. It would work and you could use it all up and start over with your compost.

I got fresh manure once from a slaughter house. Took forever to break down and was most unpleasant. LOL Had more black soldier larva than anything else.

Wow...Im not sure I can catch up here...Lasagna beds, bidding wars, hot peppers, I feel like Ive been gone for weeks ..I know it was just a few days...Be back tomorrow...

We missed you. We run amuck as they say. LOL

Thank You Sherri, I missed all of you too. Ill catch up eventually.

HI Robin. Missed you. Hurry back -safely. We're just having fun and cue is getting us all doing a lasangna thingy. You got to help us out.

OK, you guys, what do ya put down first, again? Then what?

I just went to check on the seeds under the blue grow light and I got Orange Jasmine sprouting! YES. My snake gourds are sprouted and growing. I got a couple other things(can't remember what they are) sprouted and on their way, too. This has been a great day. We got a little rain for about an hour, and weather lady says maybe another tomorrow. (Dancing a little jig) Doing the happy dance.
Forgot to tell ya, Robin, my mint cuttings look GOOD. They are not wilted at all.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2009 10:47 PM

First is cardboard or wet newspapers. If you need to or want to add lime do that first then the papers.

I have one snow on the mountain euphorbia sprout Mekos. :) Waiting for the others.

OK, thanks. Good night all.

If you live in the desert like I do, lime is a no-no. Our soil is very very alkaline. Lime raises pH, which is good is you have acidic soil. Just thought I'd throw that out there...

You all are probably in bed - lol - silly time difference...