Mud Pie Monday

I've been researching my problems with ants this past week.  Those things have been the bane of my existence for a while now.  What to do, what to do, what to do?

First of all, I've decided NOT to move the garden.  It's current location is primo - located next to the Purple Martin House, and with great sun exposure.  It's not as close to a water source as I would like, but I can adapt.

So, I asked "Frank and Fern" of "Thoughts from Frank and Fern" for advice in one of their gardening posts.  They, along with one of their readers, recommended used coffee grounds.  I don't drink coffee, but I can get my hands on used coffee grounds at work, and at church. 

I still have a couple of garden boxes in the ground, but I haven't actively worked the soil in that box since the ants pulled out all of the onions and left them in a pile for me.  (Hey, c'mon, they very well may be smarter than me. Next thing you know, they'll take apart the garage and move it across the yard.)

I think I may have a little bit of synergy going on here.  I read an article in Mother Earth Living News recently about Layered Gardens. You might have also heard them called Lasagna Gardens, because there are alternating layers of materials, much like you layer materials in a lasagna. 

I had several piles of leaves that never made it into the big brown bags that went out with the leaf collection this fall.  I get hold of coffee grounds at church, and some manure from the farm down the road for a few dollars. 

This weekend, I layered up that first box with newspaper, coffee grounds, leaves, and manure.  Hopefully, liberal layers of coffee grounds will help defeat - or at the very least confound - the ants. 

With my luck, the ants will knock over a convenience store, bring home the coffee machine, and brew up several pots of coffee from the grounds in the garden.