Lasagna
Gardening
By
Patricia Lanza
Lasagna
gardening is a nontraditional, organic, layering method you can use to create
better soil while making an attractive looking garden.
The name comes from the layers you will be using to make the bed will
remind you of making lasagna.
Lasagna gardening is an easy, time-saving way to install and maintain a
garden without removing sod, digging, or tilling, Close planting and generous
mulching greatly reduces the time spent on weeding and watering.
Because of the healthy growing environment, lasagna gardens have fewer
garden pests, which reduce the need for insecticides.
Depending
on what you want to grow, first choose your site, most likely in a sunny spot
unless you are wanting to build a shade garden.
Because you are building a garden up instead of digging down, you will
have a lot of flexibility in choosing a site.
Begin
by gathering your ingredients.
The key ingredients are organic materials:
Peat
Moss
Animal
Manures
Shredded
Leaves
Hay
or Straw
Wood
Ashes
Sawdust
Grass
Clippings
Household
Waste (Coffee Grounds,
Vegetable Peelings)
For
the first layer, you will need something heavy to smother the existing grass and
weeds. You
can use thick pads of wet newspaper or flattened, overlapping cardboard boxes.
Soak your newspaper in a large bucket of water first.
Spread out over the area.
Next add a 2”-3” layer of peat moss.
Then begin building 4”-6” layers of your other organic materials
until the bed is 18 to 24 inches high.
There is no exact recipe, just use the organic materials you have access
to. You
may finish off the top layer with a scattering of bone meal or wood ashes to
provide extra phosphorus and potassium.
You
can plant a lasagna garden the same day you assemble the layers by just pulling
back the top layers and inserting your plants.
Water well.
Finish by mulching with a layer of straw or other mulch material to
conserve moisture.
You can also assemble your lasagna garden in late fall or early spring and “cook” it first. Cover the bed which is 18” to 24” deep in early spring with black plastic and secure the edges. The sun’s warmth will trap the moisture and heat the bed. If you leave the plastic on for about six weeks you will have a dark, crumbly material that is a joy to plant in. Remember, no digging, no tilling, and no weeding. The easy approach to gardening.
***Reference: This information was taken from the book Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza.
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