by Susan
(Switzerland)
Hi, I am planning to start a no dig garden in my allotment, which has been in use 10-20 years already and has been cleared for me to move in.
I can get cardboard for free, but the lucerne is really expensive and the nearby municipal dump is giving away compost. Is municipal compost safe? Can I use that instead?
It is now late autumn and my plan would be to cover all the ground with cardboard, then the beds with 2 inches of the pre-rotted compost. Would that work?
by Michael
(Doylestown, Pa.)
I live in southeastern Pennsylvania and I have something digging up my planting beds. I have raised beds with lots of earthworms (I think that's what they are after). The garden is surrounded by 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch wire fence that is buried 1 foot down and goes 4 feet up. Something digs up my garden. There are no obvious breaches in the fence or the gate, so I assume the creature is climbing over the fence. It doesn't eat the plants but destroys them going after whatever it is looking for. It makes holes that are about 3-4 inches in diameter and about 6 inches deep. Can you please help me identify this critter and how to get rid of it?
Thanks
Michael
You know those barren, sloped, stony, weedy, sandy or clay compacted places where you look at aghast and wonder how you could ever get a garden going there? That's where lasagna gardening proves its worth.
Just toss down layer upon layer. That's what a lasagna garden is — layers.
The layers are not so planned as a no-dig raised bed garden, where the compost is pre-made and added.
With lasagna gardening it is done by sheet composting whereby the scraps and weeds and old boots if you like are all dumped in one spot... well, layered on top of each other.
It's all recycled in one spot.
It really looks like a pig's breakfast, but boy oh boy does it work!
Start with whatever materials you have; maybe old leaves, then 5-10 layers of newspaper, or some thick cardboard, next a bucket of kitchen scraps, seaweed, some grass clippings, then straw. Soak it well with water.OR... start with cardboard, then old grass, straw, old horse or chicken manure, some soil or compost, then coffee grounds, more grass, prunings, fruit peelings, veggie scraps, wood chips, seaweed... just keep piling it on.
Honestly you can do any topsy-turvy way you like with whatever organic material is at hand. It will eventually all rot and provide a great home for your plants.
Obviously there are tried and true materials and the order they are layered, that speed up the process. It does help of course to alternate layers of carbon (brown, drier material) with nitrogen (green, living material) which provides a balanced state of aeration and moisture.
What it really rots down to is that lasagna gardening is just like other no-dig methods, whether done by gardeners, or in the wild...
With lasagna gardening — as with all no-dig methods, using newspaper or cardboard, or your old school reports if you want to, suppresses any greenery underneath and decomposes well. Equally important, earthworms love paper and stampede towards it, nicely aerating the soil.
Build up your layers of sheet composting to roughly 60cm (2ft) then watch as earthworms and microbes get to work... and within a few months your lasagna garden will look like a normal garden.
It may take a year for all material to break down completely and you can top up with a layer of scraps or suchlike and mulch any time.
Plantings can be done immediately, but remember it will settle quickly to a lower level, and for small plants there will not be much nutrients released from the material until decomposition occurs.
To plant seedlings and seeds in your layer garden, use some compost or potting mix.
For shrubs, or any plants that need some soil around their roots, you will need to dig a hole and put some compost in first.
Making a lasagna garden can be done at the end of summer and left over winter ready for planting in spring. If made in spring, add compost or good soil so that the plants have something to get their teeth into for growing to begin with.
Here's what has worked for me, and I can tell you it's more than one way! I have successfully tried:
So you can see the lasagna gardening method is ideal if you are renovating or have recently moved and need to 'tidy' up the place.
The various other raised bed gardening methods are all described here:
No Till Gardening
Straw Bale Gardening
Sq ft Gardening
Raised Vegetable Garden
by mama mia
(woodacre, california)
the dreaded blackberry bushes!
hi, we live in northern california and have half an acre of south facing property, a bit sloping, and i am getting ready to make my no-dig garden with the layers, etc - i'm so excited and have all my little seedlings starting to sprout on the kitchen counter...
my one question is the about the blackberry bushes. about half of the gardening space is overgrown with them. can i cut them down to the roots and start the layers at ground level? or do i have to pull out the roots... please say i don't have to pull out the roots... :)
thanks for any advice!
mia
by Susan
(Switzerland)
I am putting together a no dig garden and am wondering, do I need to leave an area free (not mulched) for carrots and parsnips next spring, or can I sow those in situ then?
by Glenn
(Western Australia)
I am restricted to a concrete base in my raised garden, my garden is 3m x 1.5m x 1m deep.
I have put 300mm of pea straw in the base then layered sheep manure 2 cm thick, a layer of rich soil, then a sprinkle of blood and bone, then pea straw, then manure and so on. Then I topped it with 300mm of good quality soil and covered it over with mulch, all watered in with seasol seaweed solution.
My Question is, Have I done this correctly as my vegies are doing great (2 weeks on) or will I have problems from the concrete in the future?
Secondly, my garden has subsided a little with the decompsing of materials, do I just top it up with another couple of layers as in the first build or what is the go there?
Cheers Glenn
