Well darn, now I see the thread about the St. Augustine grass. I'll follow that one ... no need to have two threads for what's essentially the same question!

Is there still snow on the ground? If so I would not put out the leaves. Wait till the snow is gone, lay out the leaves, run them over with the lawnmower, then use them to mulch beds. Or create a compost pile with them. as far as your mulched beds, let it stay mulched, I don't lay compost over it, you could. I like the looks of the chopped leaves. I lay out compost then the leaves in the fall time to give the bed all winter to get all of the goodies into the soil as much as possable. That also give the worms time to find it all. The only thing I have ever laid over a mulched bed is coffee grounds. But then I lay coffee grounds everywhere. Sandy

Thanks for the help! Yeah normally we do have fairly dry summers but it's been crazy here... we had snow last week (no kidding). OK just a few snowflakes, but still! It's been really wet and kinda cold so far except it finally warmed up the last couple days and I hear it's now supposed to stay that way for the rest of the summer. I do plan on making sure the whole thing stays moist. Will definitely be watering in the layers as I build up the beds. I might even, for the beds I'm not using, cover them with black plastic to hasten the decomposition a bit (IE, making room for MORE stuff!). I'll be using one of the beds, mostly for garlic and maybe some radishes but I'm also 7 months pregnant and so I don't think I'm gonna want to do TOO much in the summer heat this year :) One bonus is that there's a drive-thru coffeeshop literally a block away and so I'm gonna see if I can get it set up where they would leave the day's grounds out for me to pick up on my way home from work. I think that would be awesome! I'm also trying to get the OK from the higher-ups to do a coffee ground collection bin here at work but no word yet. The company has had a major "go green" push this year and so I'm thinking as long as they feel they can trust me to keep it clean and not smelly (in other words, take the grounds home every day) I think it'll be ok. It's just a matter of convincing them :) The lawn also needs some work, nothing terrible but it's pretty sparsely growing. It's pretty nice because the whole place is like a blank canvas and the landlord has told us that we can do whatever we want and they will pay for materials on anything that will improve the place. Not sure if that means plants/landscaping or not, but I think it does. I definitely plan on stockpiling OPL as much as I can this fall. One of the neighbor kids does yardwork for a lot of the elderly neighbors and so I'm gonna see if he'll just bring over the yard waste after he's done, especially the leaves if he rakes in the fall. I do want to be careful about lawn clippings, I want to avoid chemicals so I'm gonna have to talk to him to see if he knows who uses chemicals on the lawns that he mows on a regular basis... but I'm willing to bet with all the huge old trees in the neighborhood that I'll have all the leaves I can handle. I know a lot of people put them in the trash but they can only do one bag per week, so I can't imagine it would be a problem for me to just take them.

Several studies have shown that either the glyphosphate in Roundup, or the surfactant in it that allows it to penetrate and kill the plant, is highly lethal to amphibians, and and to earthworms. Other studies have shown that it interfers with hormones and damages human placental cells, and possibly the placental cells of other mammals (you wouldn't want to spray it anywhere near where farm animals graze). It can inhibit mycorrhizal fungi (a bacteria that helps plants take up vital nutrients), and there are reports it can kill beneficial insects like parasitic wasps and lacewings. I have not read anything about using it around septic beds, but given that it is implicated in harming or inhibiting many organisins, including bacteria, I'd not recommend using it there. Ditto for your well area. I would suggest you rethink your desire to get rid of the clover too. Clover has been rebranded a weed only since the developement of broad leaf weed killers. Prior to that it was a very much desired addition to lawns because of it's ability to remain green throughout the heat and drought of summer. It also fixes nitrogen, allowing a healthier grass growth, which in turn discouraged other weeds. I've never read anything about poison ivy and veggies. Even if the veggies can't take up the urushiol, it can't be good to garden in poison ivy :-) Poison ivy is a pain in the a**!!!!! Most people don't have a reaction to it the first time they come into contact with it, so your experience is normal. It takes one or two exposures to become sensitized to it first. Lots of people also report that dogs don't have problems with it, but they can get the oils on their fur which then become a problem for you when you pat the dog. You can keep it to a minimum if you are dilligent about pulling it up as soon as you see it. Since you just moved, you might have a lot right now. You can buy cheap gardening gloves at a dollar store and latex gloves at a drug store. Use both! Put your feet into a couple of trash bags (might want to use two or three layers if they're thin), and tape them shut as high as they'll go and you're fairly well (and cheaply) protected form the oil. Throw out the gloves and trash bags inside another trash bag. You can also pick up some cheap clothing at a local thrift shop - wear it while removing it and them throw it away. By removing what you can see, you'll cause a growth spurt from any remailing stuff, but if you repeat the process every week or two for this summer, you'll have gotten rid of most of it without having had to resort to Roundup. Check nearby trees and undergrowth for old vines - they're hairy. If they're too big or high to remove easily, just hack through them and remove what you can - the rest of the higher up stuff will die and be out of the way so you won't need to worry about it. It sounds like a great place though! You're so lucky to have that much room! A lot of work to bring it into shape, but that's half the fun :-) BP