Lasagna gardening

I know I saw a discussion on Lasagna Gardening on one of these forums but I can't find it. Would someone humor me and give me some information or point me in the right direction?
Thank you.

Bonnie

Well, I actually have a few lasagna beds. I know we've talked about it in the veg gardening forum. I've mentioned it in the rose forum and the Texas gardening forum. I'd be happy to tell you of my adventures with lasagna beds and I also have one of the books to help me with pictures (I do best with pictures). I'm sort of an intermediate beginer but I know others have used this method successfuly for some time.

What do you want to know?

I just want to know the easiest way to prepare a bed. My sister lives in McKinney and she is "not" a gardener. She has a bed in the front that is about 8ft x 10ft and the soil is that black clay. She needs to enrich it. I saw where you layer paper and other stuff and just let it sit over the winter, then plant in the Spring. That would be great for her gardening talent!

Bonnie

Well, it is some work but it does work. I used cardboard and you have to make sure that it is wet when you first lay down the carboard or newspaper and start to build the bed. I built the layers up so that I had an even two feet high all accross the bed. I did one over winter and my next suggestion would be to cover the entire completed bed with weed block so that the wind doesn't carry parts of the bed away. You can remove that in spring or just leave it and cut holes to plant. Also, you to have to make sure that the bed doesn't dry out. It shouldn't be sopping wet, but make sure that the bed remains moist. I used losts of shredded leaves and manure (various). Also grass clippings and chicken bedding. The book says to use several peat moss layers, but I found that in my case I didn't need as much of the peat and used more layers of shredded leaves. I found that the peat kind of repelled water even though I soaked it first--it dried out fast. I also used as much of my own homemade compost as I could find.

Did I leave anything out that you particularly wanted to know =)?

Check the Soil and Composting forum.

Doug

thank you Terri, that should do it!!

This thread caught my attention as I am building a small garden spot this way this fall.

I am stalled out as I had been adding household scraps ( vegies peelings, watermelon rind, eggshells ) All those goodies have attracted the most incredible population of butterflies, bees and yellow jackets. They are coming to the moisture, the color, the food. I just cannot bring myself to cover up that layer. Especially since we were really lacking in bees earlier this summer.

I do have good intentions to complete it. I had also saved some information and links in my journal that I will share if you are interested too. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/115323/

Thanks podster. That will be useful information too.

Bonnie

Here's the thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1037637/

Thanks for all the information!