I'm leaving!

I mean, I'm going outside on a lovely fall afternoon to rake some leaves. In past years I have let the wind blow the leaves, mostly from the huge sycamore in my front yard, down the hill, into the creek, to be washed down to the Shenandoah/Potomac/Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic Ocean. That has worked, mostly, except for the leaves that get stuck around the bushes at my front porch.

However, this year I'm thinking about my vegetable garden. Leaves make fine compost, so I'm trying to maneuver the leaves inside the deer fence to cover the dead stalks (and wasted produce). The goal is the so-called lasagna garden, although I have some serious doubts. I'm supposed to cover the layer of leaves with newspaper, which I'll moisten, and then cover that with the compost that's been "cooking" in the bin. That won't be enough to cover the whole garden, though, so at some point I'll have to find some dirt to put on top of that. With any luck, in the spring, I'll be ready for planting without all the backbreaking preparations we had this year.

Here I leave.