I've been lurking around a couple of forums for awhile, gathering ideas for the garden. This weekend I finally bit the bullet, turned off the computer, and did some real work. I went rock picking at the farm where I work--they're building some new barns and there are literally TONS of rocks for the taking. I also snagged some horse poop while I was there. I used the rocks to make a border for the exisiting front flowerbed, and extended one end of it around the corner of the house. In the new section, I layed down wet newspaper, and covered that with some bagged topsoil I had laying around (that DH bought and never used), some horse poopies, and layed down flakes of moldy rotten straw on top of that (for a height of about 4-5 inches). Went to Starbucks for coffee grounds--which was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be--and sprinkled those on top. Wet it all down with the garden hose. Then, this morning, I went and sat in line at the city recycling center for the free mulch giveaway (they make it from all the yard waste collected in curbside containers). Got enough to cover my new bed, the existing beds, mulch around DH's baby trees, and still have a big mulch mountain left over. YAY! DH and the neighbors thought I was nuts with that new bed, but that's okay. I'm proud. Because I did it all myself, and it didn't cost a dime!