Beginner Gardening: Lasagna bed, so far, 1 by MaryE

MaryE wrote:
This one looks from the back porch into the lower corner. The hollyhocks will be moved outside the fence next year so I can use the inside for dahlias. After putting down the newspaper/cardboard layer and the straw/manure layer I made some pathways with chipped mulch from a tree trimmer. When I dig a hole to plant something the top few inches are nice and crumbly and sort of a redish brown color. Under that I find a bit of paper sometimes and then the soil under it is hard clay. Eventually it will soften up I hope. When I started planting about 6 months after I started layering, I used potting soil in the holes the first spring since the straw layer hadn't broken down as well as it has now. In a warmer climate (winter) it would have been faster to decay. edited to correct spelling.

This message was edited Jul 30, 2005 12:52 PM