Lasagna Gardening - And Why I’m Skipping it This Year - And Why You Shouldn’t Skip it
If you don’t know what Lasagna Gardening is, here’s a good brief overview:
Basically, you’re taking your garden, putting down layers of cardboard or wet newspaper. Then peat moss, coconut coir, leaves, grass shreddings, and whatever else. For good measure I put on another layer of cardboard, wet it really well, then cedar mulch on top of it and some dirt and stuff. No tilling, no digging, etc…
Here’s longer instructions on it, if you’re interested:
Lasagna Gardening 101
The real beauty of it, is how versatile it is. What I did, last year was different than how you are “supposed” to do it. I dug up the garden, not very deep but enough to loosen the soil. Put down cardboard, paper, and others, dirt on top of it. I used coconut coir and peat moss(which I won’t be using again). Lots of stuff like that, and compost, finished and unfinished.
It worked really well. This year the soil is quite fluffy, even with the ground essentially frozen it’s fluffy and movable. However, I want to grow carrots and radishes. So I’m going to till, to help remove any harder stuff, to get it deeper. And so I’m spending a little less work on it, and so I can mix in all my winter compost into the ground, and I mean mix it in really well.
I’m still going to use some of the concepts. For example, I’ll be putting a layer of cardboard far underneath, to stop weeds, and keep the ground a little warmer. I’m also going to put the drip hose there, make sure it’s relatively deep, and put the soil back on. Then another layer of cardboard and mulch to keep it down. To stop weeds, keep it warm, and help the veggies.
No-dig no-till garden is great, but I want to mix in all the worm compost, which I’ve got a lot of after the long winter.
