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If you are new to gardening, you may not be familiar with techniques like tilling the ground and digging for certain types of drainage. In this case, a good method to use is called lasagna gardening.
If you are used to the concept of a salsa garden, where everything you grow is used to make salsa, this kind of style might seem confusing. It has nothing to do with what you will make from the items planted.
All About Lasagna Gardening
This is a great way to help eliminate weeds, and reuse a lot of your yard scrap pile, as long as you don't use grass.
Lasagna Gardening Definition
It is a no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that kind of composts as you go so the gardener has little work to do to get that rich and fluffy soil.
This type of gardening is often referred to as layer gardening. Here are some things to know about this method of planting.
Lasagna Gardening Basics
When you want to know what a lasagna style garden is, all you need to do is think about an actual lasagna. The point is that it is a type of casserole where there are layers of ingredients. You have a layer of sauce, a layer of noodles, a layer of meat, and a layer of cheese.
You keep repeating the layers until you reach the top of the dish. Lasagna gardening is the same way. You are layering the different ‘ingredients’ for planting in the ground. It is an easy way for beginners to learn to grow their own food. Basically, you are working on two colors: brown and green.
Brown is the older and more dried out material like dried leaves that you raked up. Green would be pretty much anything you put into your compost bin.
Benefits of Using This Method
There are quite a few reasons to use this method. First of all, the lasagna style garden can be started any time of year. So if you are having a mild winter without frost, but you aren’t planting until spring, go ahead and start creating the basis of the garden. By the time spring comes, you have the area prepared for planting. It really does make it a lot easier.
Another benefit is that you are using up a lot of yard waste and food waste that would otherwise have gone to the garbage, as well as other materials that frequently end up in the trash can or dumpster. It is like an automatic recycling system that also helps with your gardening efforts. This Lasagna Gardening to kill weeds concept is amazing!
Lasagna Gardening Cardboard
Now you’re probably wondering what materials go in these layers. This can be just whatever you have on hand. You might have cardboard at home, so you can start with that, then add a layer of old leaves, followed by a layer of straw or newspaper, and a layer or grass clippings.
There are many ways to do this with whatever you have on hand. You can also add layers of coffee grounds, seaweed, wood chips, veggie or fruit peels, prunings, and just about anything you would normally add to compost. Instead of mixing them together, you are layering them one by one.
Easy Lasagna Gardening Technique
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how would a video be? I am a great learner of visual information. As you watch this, you will soon see yourself thinking about all of the pizza boxes and Girl Scout Cookie cases that you have thrown out in a different way!
Lasagna Gardening in a Raised Bed
This isn't much different than Lasagna Gardening on a flat surface. For best results, start layering your items in the fall - so they have time to do their work over the winter. By spring? You should be ready to plant and rock out your low-maintenance garden.
If you didn't start your raised be with this method - have no fear! You can switch over to it at any time and have wonderful results.