LEAVES, leaves, leaves. I'm going to try something called a "compost sandwich" using some of the billions of leaves that have fallen in the past few weeks.

If you're building new garden beds, or just enriching the old ones, make compost sandwiches on top of them now. Also called sheet composting, or lasagna gardening, it's simple and makes wonderful, loamy soil. The key is to alternate between "greens" (nitrogen-based plant material such as fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, tea bags, and perennial plant clippings) and "browns" (carbon-based plant material, such as leaves, twigs, wood chips, straw, shredded newsprint and cardboard).

Start by covering the area you want to make into a bed with cardboard - a great way to recycle those old corrugated boxes. Next, add a 2-inch layer of newspaper. Water each layer to speed up the decomposition process. After the newspaper, add "greens." If it's grass, keep it thin. Again, don't forget to water lightly between layers.

A layer of manure comes next, then a thin coating of topsoil. These can be purchased in bags at any garden center.  Next, "browns." Try to use something other than newspaper, but it can be used if you have no leaves or other materials.

Now, for the good part. Leave it alone! (The only work you might have to do is to add a bit of water, if it's a dry winter.)  Let the sandwich sit throughout the cold months- the method works best when you just let them alone for several months. Voila! Instant garden beds.

LEAVES, leaves, leaves. I'm going to try something called a "compost sandwich" using some of the billions of leaves that have fallen in the past few weeks.

If you're building new garden beds, or just enriching the old ones, make compost sandwiches on top of them now. Also called sheet composting, or lasagna gardening, it's simple and makes wonderful, loamy soil. The key is to alternate between "greens" (nitrogen-based plant material such as fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, tea bags, and perennial plant clippings) and "browns" (carbon-based plant material, such as leaves, twigs, wood chips, straw, shredded newsprint and cardboard).

Start by covering the area you want to make into a bed with cardboard - a great way to recycle those old corrugated boxes. Next, add a 2-inch layer of newspaper. Water each layer to speed up the decomposition process. After the newspaper, add "greens." If it's grass, keep it thin. Again, don't forget to water lightly between layers.

A layer of manure comes next, then a thin coating of topsoil. These can be purchased in bags at any garden center.  Next, "browns." Try to use something other than newspaper, but it can be used if you have no leaves or other materials.

Now, for the good part. Leave it alone! (The only work you might have to do is to add a bit of water, if it's a dry winter.)  Let the sandwich sit throughout the cold months- the method works best when you just let them alone for several months. Voila! Instant garden beds.

A mystery to me

George McKinney sent in the following question:

"Can you or some of your friends identify this flowering shrub/bush?  It grew from a root given us by a friend who did not know what it was. The root looks pretty much like a parsnip - fat white carrot, about 6 inches long. I planted the roots this spring and they finally came up around June, made a bush about 2 feet tall with multiple stalks growing from the top of the root. There are shades of red, pink, orange and yellow mixed together on the same bush, flowers are about the size of a morning glory, and they want to bloom in the evening. It is sitting in half shade and appears really happy. 

 "So, does anyone know what this is, and should I lift the roots for winter, or just mulch. Allowing for the long time it took between planting and growing, it seems that it wants to be left in the ground."

I sent the photo to Barry Glick of Sunshine Farms in Renick for identification. He couldn't figure it out, and sent it to Tom Vasale, gardener extraordinaire, in Charleston, who did figure it out!

"You've both seen this 'flower bush' before, many times! It's an old-fashioned pass-around plant that is a hardy herbaceous perennial, not a shrub. It also self-sows and the flowers are either the pinkish-red as shown in the photos, yellow, white, or a combination of the above colors," Vasale said.

"I think you're thrown off by the photos, which are a bit larger than life. It's 'Mirabilis jalapa,' commonly called Four O'clock. Wikipedia has some interesting trivia about Mirabilis jalapa."

Sometimes, it takes a village to raise a flower.

Reach Sara Busse at sara.bu...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1249.