What are lasagne gardens and what are their advantages?
thanx ever, serell

I have never done it but if you do a search here you'll find all kinds of info on it.

Lasagna Gardening is a form of no tilling, I think. You layer different types of organic matter in layers, with the bottom being either a thick layer of newpaper, or a thin layer of corrugated cardboard. Then you have grass clippings, sticks, dirt, kitchen scraps, and other debris that is layered on top of the cardboard. After this is all done, you just water it done, and keep building up. It is almost like a compost pile, in some ways. Then you just plant in teh layers. You would more likely want to do this in the fall, so the layers can break down, and give you nice fertile soil.

The advantages of such a garden are many. One is that if you "suffer" (don't know anyother word to use) from heavy clay, or pure sand, soil, then you can use this method to improve drainage, and fertility. Two, they are raised up from teh ground, so they have the advantages of raised beds: meaning they can heat up faster in the spring, and thus early plantings.

I hope that this helped.

Chris J.

Lasagna gardening is a book written by a bed and breakfast owner. Truth be told, this form of gardening has been around forever. Its basically mulch gardening. In the fall, layer organic material over the beds you will be planting in. Decay and earthworms decompose the material and the beds are ready for planting in the spring.

If you choose to do this, make sure that you include some nitrogen source (i.e. bloodmeal) over the carbon material you lay down to help with decomposition.

There is much misunderstanding about Lasagna Gardening but essentially it is one way to sheet compost, composting in place. Interbay mulching is another variation on sheet composting. Both have a major advantage in that your yard and garden waste would be composted in place rather than hauled to a central place to compost and then hauled back to the garden to be applied to the soil, since it is already there.

The other thing about lasagnia gardening, besides sheet composting, is that grass and weeds are smothered by the newspaper.

Lasagna (or permaculture) gardening is both no till and no weed gardening. By laying out multiple layers of newspaper (cardboard, old bluejeans, worn out woll undies, etc) where you want to garden, mulching on top to hold in moisture, and then planting in a small pile of dirt, you have just eliminated most of your weed problem (and most of your backaches from not having to dig up a garden plot). You siply watch the garden grow, add more mulch as needed, and pick off the occassional bug (also lessened by the method - for some reason).

I have successfully combine the "Lasagna" method (I first learned about it when it was called the permaculture method) and square foot gardening for some 20 years, in four different locations.

Try it, you'll like it!

Lasagna and permaculture are two different ways of maintaining the garden. While not that much different they also are not the same thing, although Pat Lanza'a Lasagna gardening could be close to what Mel Bartholomew advocates in his Square Foot Gardening.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I have read articles, in OG, about both, and I can see no difference. Except for perhaps the fact that you are supposed to use soil from underneath the papers, on top of the papers to grow in. I ahve been doing it for over 20 years. Ever since the first permaculture gardening article came out in OG (1983, I think).