corapegia- How are you doing your spinach starts? I have excellent results in the garden, but can get the seed to germinate inside. People have suggested it is too warm where I'm trying to start them and I believe that is correct. Do you have any tips to starting inside? organic_mamag - Have you tried growing spinach in spring? I also can not get spinach to grow well in the fall. They stay small or do poorly. I'm still working on a solution. For the last two years, I've planted seed on 4/22 (late, had to build the garden first) and 3/30 for spring growing. My last frost date is April 15. I plant nine seeds to the square foot (I do square foot gardening). My beds are pretty rich with compost, so I don't add anything or fertilize as they grow. I've had really good luck with the following varieties: Bloomsdale Longstanding (big), Noorman (bolts late) and Merlo (Italian). For fall growing, I want to try transplants, but as I said above, I'm having poor luck. Bloomsdale Longstanding (it grew bigger): Merlo (next to the woodchuck-demolished peas) Hope spring works better for you, Bellatrix

Pea gravel on top of hardpan?! I wouldn't remove it because it sounds like you may have to depend on it for providing drainage - in fact, you may want to add more gravel to so that you have 1 1/2 to 2" depth to insure good drainage. Build your lasagna on top, and give it an edging so that you will have extra depth. In fact, I'd give it two edgings - one that rises 6" to 8" above ground level, and another snugged horizontally on the ground for your mower wheels so that you won't add trimming to your chore list. 40 feet is quite a length so start at one end, and expect to do only one or two 3' squares at a time. You will be amazed at the sheer volume of material required to build a proper lasagna -- followed by amazement at the comparatively thin layer of rich soil it becomes after a while. This is assuming your 3x40 bed is meant for annuals and/or perennials. If you have hopes of miniature or dwarf fruit trees, then yes, you'd better remove the gravel and then pick-axe at least 2 feet down to provide room for the roots to spread. OTOH, miniature trees do reasonably well in humongous pots and very well in raised beds that provide at least 12" inches soil below the root ball.

Food is so variable that I can't understand absolutes. I think it was on Top Chef recently that they featured the heretic who first did parmesan cheese five ways, incuding frico and foam, and he's now considered a king and his efforts seminal. There are somethings that are innovative and good, but called by ”wrong” names. I remember reading that Wolfgang Puck, when he first got into the frozen foods biz, ran afoul of government regulations which defined pizza as having tomato sauce. IIRC, they compromised for that particular pizza by adding sliced tomato, but eventually decided that Michelin star chefs should define their food, not regulators, so they rewrote the definition. or something like that. I think the controversy also helped by publicising that pizzas might not have tomatoes, thereby changing public expectations. The Italian woman who taught us lasagna also taught us the ragout. There's a very basic recipe with canned tomatoes (fresh can be used—they just cost more and take a lot more work— and dried herbs that is the framework. The unwritten part is dependent on season and what you can afford, plus cleaning the fridge. Maybe not peas (shudder), but pretty much any alium, brassica or umbellifer could find it's way in, as well as nightshades and squash. Sausage for the flavor, or other meat and more seasonings/herbs/spices etc., to make up for it. Over time I've learned that a green bell pepper is necessary for it to taste "right" (and oregano, of course), and that marjoram makes things taste like pizza. Otherwise, pretty mich anything goes and it ends up pretty much the same as a whole. And using the framework of what we call lasagna, the dish, I also make lasagne, the pasta, with a barbecue chicken profile, and a pumpkin one. Definitely American. Really good.

You know, you could make the lasagne with just the sauce and the cheese (and I don't like cottage cheese in white lasagne, I find it makes it taste sour) and serve steamed veggies on the side. You can go ahead and put the spinach in the dish (I love spinach in a white lasagne). I wouldn't puree any veggies for a white sauce. They would muddy the colour.