Experiences and ideas on: Lasagna Gardening Techniques

[TaraBellaBirds]

This is a good idea. I have considered doing some small cold frames for greens, like lettuce and spinach, and will eventually have a greenhouse for larger fruit trees that won't survive in my area.

 

[3forfree]

I did lasagna composting this year for a new garden spot. No cardboard. Just piles of horse manure and grass clippings. When the time passed to let the piles sit and spread it out there was nothing but dirt under the piles. This worked great. I had two trailer loads of horse manure that covered a 30x40 new garden spot. It's time consuming but it works.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I did lasagna composting this year for a new garden spot. No cardboard. Just piles of horse manure and grass clippings. When the time passed to let the piles sit and spread it out there was nothing but dirt under the piles. This worked great. I had two trailer loads of horse manure that covered a 30x40 new garden spot. It's time consuming but it works.

Yes I am realizing how time consuming it is. I have started one area and still have not been able to do the regular garden or the new shade space yet. I am just doing a bit at a time over the fall. By spring hopefully the spaces will be ready to go!

 

[3forfree]

I had to do mine before winter set in, we don't get much heat in michigan over the winter. I put a thermometer in one of my piles as they were working and it hit 140 and that was just at the top. lots of mushroom sprouted during the 2 weeks I had the piles covered.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I had to do mine before winter set in, we don't get much heat in michigan over the winter. I put a thermometer in one of my piles as they were working and it hit 140 and that was just at the top. lots of mushroom sprouted during the 2 weeks I had the piles covered.

We have incredibly erratic weather here. We are hoping for a wet winter but we always do LOL! We have been known to have 80+ days in Jan! I am hoping to get my layers around 6to8 inches at least

 

[lazy gardener]

I started my first new area. I will have to wait a bit longer for my main garden area, because it is still producing. I just hope that the cardboard helps to nullifying the chicken compost, I am concerned because the hay pile/chicken manure is not a year old yet. I know that chicken poo is extremely potent and needs to break down for awhile. I will just have to cross my fingers that it won't be too much for my plants next year

It'll be fine. Your veggies will explode out of the ground. However, the next time you do it, I'd recommend putting the stuff right on the bare ground, unless you're covering an area with invasive root spreaders. That'll hasten the microbial action and start it breaking down and incorporating into the soil. If it's spread heavy enough, the weeds won't come through. If you're concerned about the weeds, you could put a 6" swath of cardboard around the edges. One year, I emptied my coop out and put the used shavings and poo on an area beside my garden. The substrate was pretty much gravel. Not any thing that you'd consider worthy enough to sow seeds in. The next spring, I did grow some veggies there, and had a bountiful crop from that area!

 

[lazy gardener]

I had to do mine before winter set in, we don't get much heat in michigan over the winter. I put a thermometer in one of my piles as they were working and it hit 140 and that was just at the top. lots of mushroom sprouted during the 2 weeks I had the piles covered.

You might benefit from putting some plastic over the pile for the winter. I'm in zone 4, and covered a leaf pile (that was laced with urea) partially to keep the leaves from blowing away, and partially to keep the heat in. They broke down quite well by spring. Not bad, considering that I didn't do the pile until late October. I get so jealous when I hear folks in warmer climates talking about starting their winter gardens! But I do ok with a cold frame. Can harvest lettuce through mid Nov, and start again in late Feb.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

It'll be fine. Your veggies will explode out of the ground. However, the next time you do it, I'd recommend putting the stuff right on the bare ground, unless you're covering an area with invasive root spreaders. That'll hasten the microbial action and start it breaking down and incorporating into the soil. If it's spread heavy enough, the weeds won't come through. If you're concerned about the weeds, you could put a 6" swath of cardboard around the edges. One year, I emptied my coop out and put the used shavings and poo on an area beside my garden. The substrate was pretty much gravel. Not any thing that you'd consider worthy enough to sow seeds in. The next spring, I did grow some veggies there, and had a bountiful crop from that area!

I am layering cardboard and straw. I hope to do 3 maybe 4 layers of each, one layer of both is about 3 inches. In my main garden area I am rebooting it with some fresh compost as well as the hay and cardboard. I will post pics when the areas are fully layered!

Thanks so much for all of the tips

 

[donrae]

I did the classic lasagna method a few years ago and had pretty good results. My only issue is I need more space now, bigger garden. For little things it worked okay, but for larger plants like squashes I felt I was wasting a lot of ground space around the plant. I now have a large area I just dump all the horse/chicken poop on. I've always hated black plastic, but I've embraced it after literally losing my garden to weeds one year! Horse poo is great, but I can't really get it hot enough to kill seeds so I have weeds. I now till in the manure, cover with black plastic, cut holes and plant seedlings, and use a drip irrigation. My garden is the envy of my little circle!

 

[lazy gardener]

Some friends in my area use black plastic successfully to grow melons. I've not had any success due to ants of every color and size finding it to be a welcome mat. I'm hoping that getting chickens this year will change that. For some reason, my property has more than it's share of ants. I weighed my squash yesterday. I harvested 185# of 2 different varieties from a single lasagna hill about 4' x 3'. The biggest one was a 22.5# buttercup.