Lasagna Gardening???

[green-girl]

Has anybody heard of Lasagna Gardening before? And can someone explain it to me??

[Millymollymandy]

Er, is this something to do with the spaghetti tree?

[green-girl]

HAHA You said exactly what I thought when I read about it!

I'm trying to figure out what it's all about - cos it seems a little wierd to me! I got a bit of a flyer with my deliver of Organic Gardener magazine this month....

[Wombat]

G'DAy Green girl,

I've seen the book, but can't remember the main thrust of it

Nev

[Lyds]

Think its something to do with different layers of waste to build up a growing medium - never tried it..... or I could be wrong, answers on a postcard please

[Magpie]

There is a book called "Lasagne gardening", so if you ask at your library they might be able to get it for you.

Have you tried Googling it?

From what I understand, it is layers of compostable material, all balanced between nitrogen and carbon based stuff. Very precise, form what I remember.... All designed to eliminate weeds and balance the soil.

[Lyds]

Found it on Amazon 'Lasagna Gardening' by Patricia Lanza, sounds jolly interesting, no weeding wot?

[Millymollymandy]

I've Googled it too to read about it. Sounds very expensive and where do you get peat moss from? Isn't that a bad thing to use like peat? I also don't think that a layer of newspaper and some layers of compost on top is going to keep out a lot of perennial weeds. I have seen them grow through all sorts of stuff.

Sounds like it's gardening for lazy rich people!!!

By the way we have an enormous heap of turf and weeds that we removed from our veg patch when we dug it over and there are spuds galore coming out of it, not to mention the bracken coming through it, 3 foot of this stuff doesn't deter bracken!

[shiney]

It's a pity that weeds aren't as delicious to eat as potatoes etc! Wouldn't our lives be easy if we could just harvest weeds to eat? Why do weeds grow so sucessfully?

[wulf]

As they say, a weed is just a plant in the wrong place. Of course, for a lot of them, the best place is in the compost heap (before the have a chance to set seed) or fermenting away in water to make a nice tea for the garden (with more vigourous ones, like bindweed).

Wulf

[Andy Hamilton]

It's a pity that weeds aren't as delicious to eat as potatoes etc! Wouldn't our lives be easy if we could just harvest weeds to eat? Why do weeds grow so sucessfully?

If you get yourself a copy of food for free then you might not dissmiss weeds so readily. And in a few months you are welcome to try my dandelion wine.

Most of our edable plants now are culitvated versions of weeds. Culpepper also said that he would rather a field of couch grass than of wheat, alway thought he was a bit mad though

[Lyds]

Are we all invited to the Dandelion wine party?

[greenchi]

It's how I build all my gardens...... on top of ground. It's a no dig way of gardening.

I could bore you with loads more info if you want or you can google...Sheet-mulching and maybe permaculture.

It's definitely worth looking into. You can build up some really healthy fertile growing mediums with scraps and throw aways.... IE cardboard boxes in my food growing areas and save the newspaper and carpet for any ornamental garden areas.

I've turned lawns into garden beds in a matter of hours using this method.

[Andy Hamilton]

Are we all invited to the Dandelion wine party?

Yep only one bottle though as it is an experiment. Probally better to wait for the elderberry wine party

[alcina]

Lasagne gardening is one of the "no dig" composting and gardening techniques. It's not expensive and you certainly don't need peat! It's basically just layering compostibles up on top of the soil and planting straight into it. You layer greens and browns alternatively. Greens are high nitrogen items like coffee grounds, grass cuttings, chicken poo, fresh plant cuttings that are physically the colour green etc! Brown is high carbon items like wood shavings, paper, dead plant cuttings, autumn leaves (though leaves can take a long time to break down and are often better kept aside for leaf mould) etc. You end up with a raised bed - though not necessarily that raised as, of course, the level will sink as the compost...composts! Variations on lasagne gardening are Sheet Composting and Interbay Mulch.

Take a look at the soil forum on gardenweb. Their FAQ is particlarly informative:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil ... 18213.html
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil ... 24742.html
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil ... 14638.html

Alcina