Yes, Kyla, I think I've posted about it before, but it might have been on other forums. Like you, I don't want to hijack the thread. But, in the organic gardening forum, I don't think it's straying too far. The old organic maxim is feed the soil. Doesn't matter if it's a brand new bed with no plants in it yet.
Lasagna gardening works because it's basically a form of cold composting, right in the bed instead of in a pile. Your beds will be great if you just add newspaper, leaves, and peat or compost, and don't do another thing. Mother Nature will take over. But, just like with a "normal" compost pile, you can improve it even more, speed it up considerably, and give your plants a great start if you add more ingredients. It doesn't matter if the ingredients are layered in dry, or added wet. Personally, I just find it easier to mix them all up as a tea and apply it all at once, and it also avoids the rodent problem. But others may think it's easier to layer them in the bed dry.
And yes, I make my teas in 5-gallon buckets, just because they are easiest for me to handle. (Others use garbage cans.) When I first started doing teas, I bought a pump and air stones for aeration, and followed all of the proper directions. I'm afraid that now I'm a lot lazier. My air pump broke, and instead of buying another, I just bought lids for my buckets (to keep skeeters out). Now I just dump everything in and let it brew for 2-3 days. I do stir it 3-4 times a day. Otherwise, I can't tell any difference.
Let's see, what do I put in. Well, there's the alfalfa. I also add a good dose of my homemade oak leaf compost. These two things alone contain most of the ingredients in any market fertilizer. Then, from my gardening supplies, I add whatever I have, which might be epsom salts (magnesium, deficient in our alkaline soils), Texas greensand (iron, better than the generic greensand), liquid seaweed, soft colloidal phosphate, a few drops of tea tree oil, and a few drops of Superthrive. If I'm lucky enough to have manure around, I add that too. Then, from the kitchen, I add milk (anti-fungal), corn meal (also anti-fungal), molasses (sugar), fruit juice and soda pop (sugar), coffee and/or grounds (nitrogen, acid), and either beer or a package of yeast. (Here's a tip: I save ALL the leftover liquids in my kitchen. Yes, it spoils and stinks, and has to be kept covered and out of sight, and is disgusting--but boy, do my plants love it! Doesn't matter--the fermented alfalfa smells so bad, who cares about the spoiled milk. LOL!)
As for application, I should also mention that I heavily dilute it. I put the first third on my heavy feeders, like brugs and tomatoes. When the bucket is about 1/3 empty I top it off with water, and keep doing that until the water is pale instead of brown. Usually 2 buckets does my little postage-stamp lot. The leftover sludge goes in the compost pile.
That's really it. Brug lovers may recognize it as an organic version of "the recipe," without chemicals. But I apply it to everything, including empty beds. I have to do this once a month, because all the topsoil was stripped from my lot when my house was built, and I need a lot of lasagna beds and soil activity to rebuild it. It shouldn't be necessary to do it that often in normal topsoil.
I don't know why it works. But I do know that, since I started doing it, I have plants going crazy and lots of wildlife. That's good enough for me. :)
