In last week’s column was a discussion of the nifty theme garden, the pizza garden. This week is another Italian-themed garden, the Lasagna Garden. But the lasagna garden is nowhere close to the structured design of a pizza garden.
Lasagna gardening is a method of gardening that uses an organic strategy with the goal of improving the soil. It is a no-till approach.
Start with the end picture in mind—imagine a square of lasagna. It has layers of noodles topped with choices of cheese and sauce. The image to capture is that of layers. Lasagna gardening is gardening in layers. As each layer decomposes, fertility of the soil increases.
A lasagna garden is the great recycler, “doing what you can, with what you have” (permaculturewomen.com).
Bottom. The bottommost layer creates a semi-permeable base. A semi-permeable base is important as water can diffuse through the layer into the soil, otherwise water becomes stagnant, and roots will rot.
Use a paper-based product like cardboard or newspaper for the bottom layer. (A caveat here—the only time I had a black widow spider in my garden is the summer I used newspaper as a mulch to eliminate weeds.) In addition to allowing water to diffuse through the bottom layer, paper-based products will eventually decompose, amending the soil with organic matter. Place strips of the paperbased products on the soil, overlapping strips to form a sort of lattice—much like the culinary dish, lasagna.
Middle. The middle layer is composed of organic matter. Recycle previous season’s leaves or kitchen waste. Into this layer can be added composting worms like red wigglers (Elsenia fetida). Red wigglers are not the same as earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris). Red wigglers are usually found in organic matter and decomposing vegetation, while earthworms, like their species name indicates, inhabit the soil.
Top. Finish off with a topping of garden soil. In soil are microorganisms that use organic matter as an energy source, resulting in the decomposition of the organic matter. The top layer is critical to the entire lasagna process and can be amended with organic products like bone meal. Covering the garden with several inches of straw or wood chip mulch increases the heat, speeding up the decomposition process; straw decomposes much more rapidly.
When organic matter is sufficiently decomposed, the garden is ready for transplants.
Some information from ubanwormcompany.com
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.
