Lasagna Gardening?

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Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
I do a veriation of it. It is like composting right in the garden. The way I layer newspaper and grass clipping is kind of like it. It works great for me and is lees work tahn a pil ...but I also maintain a compost pile;)
 

Dor

Active Member
I am going to do it for the first time this year. I have an area on the west side next to the fence that I want to use. It has quite a bit of grass so I have to buy some more landscape fabric but will buy some bags of compost/manure and humus/manure and put the bags down and cut them open and use the bags to kill the some of the grass. I want to do the 3 sisters planting in that area. I plan to plant sweet corn, beans and squash and if enough room a few watermelon and muskmelon.
 

sassmuffin

New Member
Sorry computer has been acting up, can't load the pictures. I started out by tilling a large part just to loosen the top, put down newspaper, cocoa bean shells, manure and the 3 inches of compost. I divided my large section up into smaller sections with pathes inbetween for walking. This spring I will fluff them up a bit and get rid of any weeds that may have come up.
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
I use this laying to fill all my large planters starting in late winter/early spring.
Layer of chopped up twigs, clematis, and anything else I clear out of the garden. Then a layer of used soil, a layer of kitchen scraps. Then more garden clutter, used soil .... and so on.
Works great since the contents quickly decomposes.
The planters are ready to be planted by mid May and all I need to do is top off the planters with a couple of inches of fresh potting soil!
Anything that doesn't break down is thrown into the composter when I clean out the containers in late fall.
All the rest I spread out in the gardens after a good hard frost.
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
There is a wonderful paperback called 'Lasagna Gardening' by Patricia Lanza. If you do a search you may find a copy, or you can send the publisher a request at:
Rodale Inc
Book Reader's Service
33 East Minor Street
Emmaus, PA 18098

There is a phone number also available...just pm me and I'll give it to you.

Here's their website: www.organicgardening.com
 

Bernie

New Member
Thanks for posting these links PL. I'd heard about this some time ago but forgot about it. Sounds like a great way to save on the old back and it's Free. Free is my favorite price. :D I’m really excited. I thought it was going to take me years to get my side yard done. Now I think they’ll be done in a few months. I may just get started tomorrow if it stops raining.
 

Jade

New Member
Also, a great way to use up kitchen green waste. Food waste is the number one problem in landfills. Most new homes have garbage disposals, which takes care of this problem, but most of us are not in new homes, so using green waste in the garden can help to remedy the problem. Since moving from a huge recycling zone to an almost non-recycling zone I am being an advocate of recycling, for sure. I have gotten my son into it. I went to visit him and saw all of the beer cans and bottles and asked what he was going to do with them and he said throw them in the trash. We had a big talk and I told him that he was risking the future of his children. I guess he thought long and hard about that conversation, he is now happily recyling. Good news!
 

plantlover

New Member
Dor, if I were you, I'd think twice about growing sweet corn. After living in Iowa (the largest corn producing state in the country,) for 22 years, I learned that corn takes up huge amounts of space and can shade everything planted around it. Moreover, you would have to plant a minimum of four parallel rows that should be planted about 1 1/2 feet apart. The parallel rows are necessary because corn cross pollinates. The honest truth is that in a good growing season, you could buy corn so cheaply that your time, space and effort would be wasted when you way that against what you'd pay for a half dozen or a dozen ears. That's just my two cents!
 

latebloomer

Active Member
I use the lasagne technique to create planting zones on my clay soil. My raised bed was also created this way. First lay down newspaper, then leaves or dry material (straw,etc.) add a layer of soil and a layer of compost and you're good to grow!
Every year I add another layer of leaves and compost.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
Susan, what you say is true. We can buy 6 ears of corn for $1 at the produce place in Newberg. But I also have to say, that the corn that I pick in the garden and cook within an hour of picking is going to be the best corn you ever sank your teeth in to. But that's the difference. The sugar in the corn will begin to convert to starch very quickly. So corn that was picked yesterday will already have lost some of its good taste. Corn that was picked 4 or 5 days ago will make good food for stock. But I have the room to plant it and my daughter Fiona loves it fresh from the garden. I was just thinking today though that I think I will plant 6 rows this year instead of 5. In the planting instructions, we are supposed to thin the plants to 12" apart in the row. That's easy, but what is to keep us from planting another row 12" away from row 1. Then plant another row 3 feet away and then another row 12" away from row 3. Move 3' further and plant two more rows 12" apart and you have 6 rows of corn in a bit over 12' of space. I already have done that with beets and carrots with 6" between pairs of rows. Anyway, I'm going to try it with the corn.
 

phey12

New Member
Lasagna gardening is does not have anything to do with pasta, unless you include the gardening of the tomatoes for your sauce. Lasagna gardening is a technique for raised bed garden construction, where the soil is built up in layers, a la lasagna.

Originally conceived by Patricia Lanza lasagna gardening and described in her book “Lasagna Gardening” is an organic gardening method which eliminates the traditional digging and tilling normally associated with vegetable gardening.

While it is an organic gardening technique, it differs from traditional gardening approaches by using a form of sheet composting. These layers in the sheet compost are built up in a manner reminiscent of making lasagna, hence the name lasagna gardening. By building up these layers of organic material over a period of months and years you create a soil mixture that is incredibly rich in nutrients, and because of the close plant spacing and natural mulching from the layers the effort is lower because of fewer weeds and less need for water.

Building a Lasagna Garden - It’s really a straightforward approach, and is not too strictly “defined”. The steps to making lasagna garden are roughly as follows:

* Simply outline the area for the garden - Don’t bother to remove the grass or sod in the area. If needed define the area with a string or a hose laid out in the shape of the garden.
* Cover the area with wet newspapers, taking care to have the edges overlap to act as a mulch over the previous growth. Use a thickness of at least five sheets.
* Cover your layer of newspapers with an organic layer, most often peat moss is used for this first layer. A thickness of one to two inches should suffice.
* Add to that another layer of several inches of organic matter or compost. Then alternate layers of peat moss and organic matter until you have built up a bed that is at the desired depth.
* Add water to the bed until you achieve a moisture content that gives the bed the consistency of a damp sponge
 


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