Lasagna gardening (layering), any tips?

Posted on Sep 04, 2009 under Gardening Tips | 4 Comments

Hey.. Has anyone ever did what is considered "Lasagna Gardening", aka the "No dig garden", or "Layered Garden"?

I’m planning to try it… …and am wondering – anyone here ever have success with this method? Any tips to share?

=)

I was fascinated when I first heard of this…. so I tried it… I hate to till!!…. I did a large bed in my backyard…. covered it first with newspaper and compost, then started building my layers…. started early fall….. built layers until the weather turned really cold, then covered it all up with mulch and waited till spring….. when I started planting, there were already changes to my red clay soil.. and more worms than I’d ever seen in there before!…. it’s now a happy and great-growing part of my garden….

for layers, I used anything and everything EXCEPT the listed peat moss…. here in the south, that’s not used much since when we dry out, the peat dries out, too and it’s miserable to try to rewet that mess…… so in mine there was
compost, shredded newspaper, soil, fall leaves (shredded or whole) …old potting soil, straw, grass clippings from the neighbors….coffee grounds, egg shells, black cow bagged manure, soil conditioner (bagged, shredded fine, pine bark and additives)… leftover granulated fertilzers…. kitchen goodies… etc…

every time I went to Lowe’s I grabbed a bag of something to take home and spread on it…. that way it didn’t cost me much at one time….. and the layers don’t have to be THICK, just ‘there’…. so coffee ground were broadcast each day…. and anything that showed up like grass clippings and bags of leaves , same deal….

this is basically just ‘sheet composting’… so to keep it working, add water when it’s dry outside… rain usually takes care of it, but it will ‘cook’ best if kept on the moist side…. just like a compost pile…..

since learning of this, I’ll never dig and till again…. and no more scraping off grass, either!!… I’m hooked!…

Gardening Tips, Advice, anything helpfull for a BEGINNER starting a new garden?

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4 Responses to “Lasagna gardening (layering), any tips?”

  1. Spam Says:
    September 4th, 2009 at 9:13 am

    This site has good info, it says you can also do it with container gardening, I might try that

    http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf582744.tip.html
    References :

  2. Carl Says:
    September 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am

    I went to spams site. That Lasagna had sawdust and manure in it. Please remind me not to eat Lasagna at your house.
    References :

  3. OneRunningMan Says:
    September 4th, 2009 at 10:38 am

    References :
    Ref: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1999-04-01/Lasagna-Gardening.aspx

  4. meanolmaw Says:
    September 4th, 2009 at 11:26 am

    I was fascinated when I first heard of this…. so I tried it… I hate to till!!…. I did a large bed in my backyard…. covered it first with newspaper and compost, then started building my layers…. started early fall….. built layers until the weather turned really cold, then covered it all up with mulch and waited till spring….. when I started planting, there were already changes to my red clay soil.. and more worms than I’d ever seen in there before!…. it’s now a happy and great-growing part of my garden….

    for layers, I used anything and everything EXCEPT the listed peat moss…. here in the south, that’s not used much since when we dry out, the peat dries out, too and it’s miserable to try to rewet that mess…… so in mine there was
    compost, shredded newspaper, soil, fall leaves (shredded or whole) …old potting soil, straw, grass clippings from the neighbors….coffee grounds, egg shells, black cow bagged manure, soil conditioner (bagged, shredded fine, pine bark and additives)… leftover granulated fertilzers…. kitchen goodies… etc…

    every time I went to Lowe’s I grabbed a bag of something to take home and spread on it…. that way it didn’t cost me much at one time….. and the layers don’t have to be THICK, just ‘there’…. so coffee ground were broadcast each day…. and anything that showed up like grass clippings and bags of leaves , same deal….

    this is basically just ‘sheet composting’… so to keep it working, add water when it’s dry outside… rain usually takes care of it, but it will ‘cook’ best if kept on the moist side…. just like a compost pile…..

    since learning of this, I’ll never dig and till again…. and no more scraping off grass, either!!… I’m hooked!…
    References :

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