Last weekend I worked around these brassicas to lasagna garden the rest of the patch. My first try at this low-labour, organic and failsafe way to fertilize the garden over the winter, and keep weeds down at the same time. The part that isn't easy is getting enough stuff for the layers. The idea is that you layer browns (newpaper, leaves, etc) with greens (unfinished compost, grass clippings) to make a 2-foot high lasagne of good stuff to compost. Over the winter the stuff will "cook" and sink down, much like your backyard compost bin does. You can plant directly into it in the spring and don't need to dig or turn the soil first.
I've been saving leaves, newspaper, and bought a bale of hay for the undertaking. Still I was hard pressed to get four layers at 6 inches to a foot thick. Here are the different stages, working around those brassicas I'm not giving up on, and a few beets and carrots still in the ground.
Garden bed ready with old plants pulled out and set aside to be thrown back on in layer 2
3 comments:
huh, i like this lasagne concept! is the straw on top essential or do you think i could just do it with leaves and unfinished compost?
I'm sure it would work without the straw. Leaves and unfinished compost would work, although I really don't know how much quantity you need. I think for an established garden you can get away with less (I'm hoping that my 6 inch thickness is ok) but when the lasagna garden is used to create a new garden over lawn, or terribly compact soil or something like that, maybe that's when the 2-foot thickness is important.
I've also read that you can put black plastic down on top which will make things "cook" faster and better. And apparently newspaper is a really good first layer to keep the weeds down and actually does some good stuff for the soil too.
This would be a great use for all the newspapers we're getting--maybe we should do it in our community garden plot!
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