What is a Lasagna Garden?

This method of gardening gives you fluffy rich soil with very little work on your part.

Another name for lasagna garden is sheet composting. This method is environmentally friendly and best of all, requires that you do little to no digging. You just keep adding your kitchen and yard waste to the garden and compost in place to make the new garden.

To begin a lasagna garden, you do not have to dig. The existing weeds and soil can remain right where they are. You just start putting down layers over them. The first layer is either corrugated cardboard or newspaper. If using newspaper, you will need at least three layers. Use a garden hose to wet everything down and keep it in place. The weeds or grass that are underneath will just break down and become part of the compost pile. They will help to attract the friendly earthworms who will loosen your soil underneath the lasagna garden.

You can add anything to the lasagna garden that you would put into a compost pile. Those organic materials will break down and make a very rich soil that you can plant. Here are some ideas of ingredients for your lasagna: leaves, grass clipping, fruit or vegetable scraps, tea leaves or bags, coffee grounds, weeds that have not gone to seed, compost manure, seaweed, pine needles, shredded newspaper, garden trimmings and peat moss.

Add these in the ratio of two to one. This means that you need two times as much brown materials as green. Alternate the layers until you have a stack about two feet tall. The garden will shrink in only a few weeks.

It will be ready for planting in the spring.

To plant the garden, just dig down in the bed like any garden. Your shovel should cut right through the newspaper, but you may need to cut holes in the cardboard. Care for the garden like any other garden. Water and weed as necessary and keep planting until you fill the garden.

You can continue to add layers of clippings, straw and other materials while the garden is growing.

With the lasagna garden, there should be very few weeds. The garden should take less water than a normal garden as it is designed to retain water. You may not need any fertilizer since the garden is planted in almost pure compost. The soil should be easy for you to work.

You will find that lasagna gardening is an easy way to make a new garden. You should have a great garden full of fresh produce all during the growing season. This is one way to be sure that your family gets that healthy diet they need.