Lazy gardening idea? Need input.....

I have plans to turn a treed area in our back yard into a native woodland flower garden, with a sunny patch of grass in the middle, and a path meandering through.

It's a rocky area (we are plagued by limestone boulders a few inches under the surface around here), so I really don't want to rototill, especially around the trees.

Here's my basic plan:
This fall, as the leaves start coming down, I'll put down a thick (18-20 sheets) layer of newspaper in the areas I want beds, then put down several inches of leaves, some dirt/compost, some cow manure, and more leaves.

And.....that's pretty much it, I figure by next spring, it'll be fairly workable and ready to start planting.

Here are some questions that came to mind:

1. Will this be too fertile for most native woodland plants?

2. How high can I go with the "leaf lasagne" without harming the cedar and wild plum trees that I'll be putting beds around? How close to the trunk do I get the leaes?

3. Anything else I should consider?

I'm pretty excited - we have almost unlimited access to leaves and cow poo, and my leaves from last year have all composted nicely, so I figure the beds should be ready by spring.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Sounds like a Winner to me,little or no effort,
my kind of gardening,Lol'''

Sounds like a great idea since I did this last year -- I made a big lasagne bed in September 2000. It was perfect when I started planting in it this April. I'm going to do it again this year between a couple redbud trees.

I had to buy bagged cow poo, though. You're lucky if you have "unlimited access."

My rototiller is covered with cobwebs. (*~*)

Exactly what I do...I use cardboard when I can get enough if I want it to smother harder...like lawn. I do think that I would go easy on the manure for the woodland plants. I am very careful around my trees...I do not raise the soil around the trunk at all and increase the mulch thickness gradually as I move away from the tree...then in the spring I'll rake the bed to even it out a little if I want that. My thinking is that if I raise the level of the bed gradually, the trees finer roots will have time to keeping moving up through the mulch and stay at the level they need to be. Maybe a note in the trees forum would get some expert advice. I cry when I lose a tree! Dee

I use the same method too Dee and go light on the
manure. Most trees feeder roots are only a few
inches under the surface' Sis'

Vols here's a wonderful article about planting under trees... it has five parts - http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/shade_gardening/8576

GoVols
That's how I make most of my beds. I put down newspaper, pile on rotting straw from the fall decorations, used potting soil, manure and leaves. The pile is about two feet thick to start with, but is much thinner by spring. This seems to draw in the earthworms that help to break up our clay soil.
Cala

Oh good! I had read some articles that said you could do this, but it is sooo reassuring to hear from fellow gardeners that it actually works; Sue thanks for the link to the articles, they were very helpful, too.

The cedar trees in this area are pretty tall and thin, so the shade is more dappled than it might be with lower-branching deciduous trees. I think that'll give me more choices in plants that will work in this area.

Now to wait for those leaves to start falling.........

For those into trees, I found an interesting article on Beech trees, DON'T rake the leaves away from these trees.
There is a VAM fungi that is grown by the leaves that the tree needs to survive, Raking the leaves away, the tree will die in 3 to 6 years.

Where was that article, Byron? That's interesting and I'd like to look up more info about it. Thanks!

GV - is the newspaper to kill off the underlying foliage (like grass) ? If so, a more dramatic solution might be to use black (non light admitting) plastic. We used to have a lawn out the front (well a weed nursery really) which my wife refused to try to cultivate. We covered it plastic to kill of EVERYTING under it (grass, docs, dandelions etc..) and it worked. We subsequently decided not to plant flowers but left the plastic on, covered it in gravel and planted trees (mostly miniature conifers) though the plastic. Best bit of labour free gardening I ever saw !

El Tel

Eltel, the newspaper is to initially smother the grass but also to then decompose.....I'd like to eventually have these beds be a close approximation of the soil you'd find in open woodlands - a nice, light loam amended each year by fallen, decomposing leaves.

Go vols,
I did the newspaper lasagne trick in the spring and planted my woods bed starting in August. I think the bed sat there all of 3 months. When I planted the newspaper was still there, but I dug holes right through it. All the transplants have been growing like crazy. It looks like a great method. I don't think you have to wait over a season at all.
Happy woods garden.
Runew

Thanks, Runew. I figure if I let it sit all fall and winter, it'll be ready by spring, even though it'll be decomposing more slowly than it would in warmer months.

You know, I guess I asked my questions because it almost seems *too* easy - I feel guilty not "working" the beds, but everything I've been reading says this is the method that is most natural, and plants will respond well. Thanks for the advice and support, everyone!