Check out the Dallas Morning News June 20th edition in the home section on page 2 they have the neatest instructions for building a 300 sq. foot no-dig garden w/ no dirt! It only uses newspapers,alfalfa,straw,compost,blood meal & bone meal! I'm going down today & getting the materials & try it out - I needed more garden space anyway ( don't we all ..LOL) & this is perfect for expanding my strawberry patch. If you can't get that paper Dmail me & I'll send you the instructions for it. It's so easy a kid could do it & only takes 2 hours to do! Happy Gardening Y'all!
Check out the no-dig garden!
Ohhhhhhhh...please send me the instructions.
"eyes"
If you do a search on DG you will find several threads about this style of "no dig", or sometimes called Lasagna Gardening. We were forced to take out a mature tree last winter that had a large bed of monkey grass around the trunk. This left us with quite a hole in our landscaping plus how to get rid of the stump and MG.
Decided to try the lasagna method. We now have a veggie garden in this spot.
18'x21'x20". The garden looks beautiful but am afraid we planted a little soon as we wound up with way too much nitrogen. Hence, fantastic foliage without a lot of fruit. Still think it is the best thing since sliced bread. Vegetable gardens are far more difficult than flower,IMHO. It is expected to produce more than just a pretty plant. We may have had some of the same problems had we done the bed the old fashioned way. We are looking forward to turning everything under and preparing for the next planting. Will never go back to the old way. Have no place for a compost bed and this satisfies that need as well.
Good luck
Christi
Going to go look for the best directions.
This is from "darius" in her article of May 28th, 2008.
davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1035/
This message was edited Jun 21, 2008 11:14 AM
Link didn't work, Lou C.
"eyes"
eyes, I removed one of the command signs. If you can copy and paste it will take you directly to it.
Okay guys here we go 6 easy steps. Step 1 - Lay 10 -20 sheets of newspaper on ground - soil,grass or concrete. This stops weeds & attracts worms. Saturate w/water & dust w/blood meal & bone meal.Step 2 - Separate a pad of alfalfa from the bale & dust w/blood meal & bone meal. Bales of alfalfa & straw come apart in 2-3 inch pads. Step 3 - Next add 8 inches of straw,again dusted w/blood meal & bone meal. Don't skimp on allfalfa or straw because this stuff really compresses in the first few weeks & then you lose the benfits of low water need & thriving plants. Step 4 - Wet all this down. Step 5 - Finally top off w/ 3 to 4 inches of compost,which will also compress. Step 6 - Now plant seeds or seedlings. This is word for word what the article said to do & gave no amounts for ingredients. I would say for 300 sq.feet it would probably take a mess of newspaper (black & white parts only - inserts use different paper & ink),1 bale of alfalfa,1 bale of straw, I'm guessing at least 2 or 3 lbs each on the blood meal & bone meal & a couple or 3 of bags of compost. This recipe is from the author Esther Dean & was published in the Dallas Morning News Home section page 2G on Friday June 20,2008. Hope that helps y'all & I'll keep y'all updated on how mine turned out (my nieghbor has a horse thank god so she hauling the hay & straw for me - hubby gets mad when I haul it in my Benz...LOL says it's not a farm truck & I say it drinks gas like 1 so it should do the work of one!And nope he didn't buy that one either) & let me know if it works for you - hey I'm getting too dang old to be out there digging more garden space (which I really need) & this way should run about $30 -35 at most & will put in another 10x30 plot. Happy Gardening Y'all from Texas, Catssdawg2 OK I'm going to change up the amounts drastically on what is needed for this recipe - I did a 10 x 10 section this morn ( hope you have a good back for this - them bales aint light..LOL!) about 250-300 sheets of newspaper if you go for the 20 thick layer of that - 2 bales of alfalfa( I spread it a little thinner than the 2" in recipe - it tends to be really high ih nitrogen & I want vegies not foliage) & at least 3 bales of straw & at least 12-16 cubic ft of compost- y'all know you are reading the post of a dead woman when DH finds out I was hauling bales & compost in his '02 E430 Benz - & I used about 4 lbs each of the blood meal & bone meal & really could have used 5-6 lbs of the bone meal. It really didn't take long to assemble except for stacking the newspapers in piles of 20 (& giving the nieghbors a good LOL as it was a little windy here this morn & the 1st row of newspaper went flying all over & I'm chasing it at 7:30 in the morn all over the yard) & drenching down the straw - believe when I say 8" of straw takes alot of watering to soak down as did the newspaper - that probably consumed most of the 1 - 1/2 hrs. it took to get it assembled to this point -still lacking about another 1" or so of compost to finish but will keep y'all up-to-date on it's progress & how well it works ( I got some (2)rogue tomatoes & crowded (4)pepper plants that are going in it & some of my extra(20) strawberry plants). Oh & if I don't the DH found out about my little hauling spree. Hope this helps & Happy Gardening Y'all
This message was edited Jun 27, 2008 12:11 PM
Mo' Gardens, Less Lawn
By Glynis Ward
This is one of today's articles.
The book this is out of is "Esther Dean's No-Dig Gardening & Leaves of Life " by Esther Dean. It is no longer avaliable but says there is a 2001 reprint through hapercollins.com.au or try Alibris.com (I'm getting 1 of these - like I said too old to be digging up plant beds all the time!)
This message was edited May 28, 2010 11:27 PM
This message was edited May 28, 2010 11:27 PM
Lily, Thank you for leading us to such an interesting website. I love the no dig article but that seems to be just the icing on the cake. After my morning round in the garden, think I will read a bit.
LouC
Lily, Another thanks from here too for the interesting article & site. It was enjoyable reading & can just invision my great granny doing the same thing.
This message was edited May 28, 2010 11:27 PM
Due to back issues for both me and DH, we're going to try doing this for our veggie garden next spring. Thanks for all the wonderful links!!
However, I don't think we'll be doing ANY gardening in the buff! LOL
LOL! I don't think I could afford the "Off" to cover all the exposed skin everytime I went outside! LOL! Plus Stephanie, you and I live a bit too close in town!
Hey I live out in Nowhere,TX & have privacy fence so unless the nieghbors get their jollies watching my 47 yr old body after 2 kids & starting to give into the forces of gravity I'd do it all day long if I wouldn't be eaten alive by chiggers - some places on the body just shouldn't be chigger bit! I'll bet my great-granny did it - little ornery German/French woman - had a baby in a covered wagon so I could see her doing the gardening in the buff ( shuddering at the thought of what that would've looked like ) but bet she would've had to have that hair wrapped up in that tight German bun she always wore. And my other granny would do it in just her bra & panties when it was hot in the summer in Ohio ( picture a 6' tall,275 lb woman that wore a 44 double F's bra at least gardening in her undies - would scare any 6 yr old to nightmares for years to come ) & we were picking & canning over an open fire outside so it was kinda a family thing - strip off what made you hot & work & work & work.
Just don't forget to put your sunscreen on!! Some places shouldn't get sunburned either! :)