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| I have a question about lasagna gardening. I have searched the forum and read the 101 site, but one thing that isn't real clear to me is if I have to gather all my materials to lay them down at once or if I can do it over time? Can I put down the newspapers, and a layer of grass. Then wait a week and put down some shredded paper and some kitchen compost items? Or do I have to gather all my materials and then do it all at once? |
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| That depends. Do you have all the material you need now? Build that bed now. Don't have all the materials needed? Build that bed as you go. Keep in mind that you will be building that bed forever, as the Soil Food Web digests the material that is there and as that material then needs to be replaced. |
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| I've been making sheet compost gardens for several years now (thanks to this forum). But never once did I build one according to instructions. Like kimmsr said, it's an ongoing process. I place my paper/cardboard layer, add some finished compost if I have it but more usually just fling in any compostables at hand, then rake leaves over it all. Often there are great expanses of nothing between leaves and paper! Whenever I have a full kitchen bucket, I peel back the leaves and toss it in, stirring it a bit so it breaks up. Then cover it with the leaves again. If planting, I just put more finished compost where the plants go, set the plants, and rake leaves over to help keep moisture in. When I'm feeling too lazy to deal with the heaps in the compost yards I put the compostables in the sheet compost. It works no matter. The plants in the sheet compost beds are strong and gorgeous. I am always reading how raw compostables will burn plants but it just ain't so with kitchen compost. the soil under the sheet compost has gone from heavy clay in most areas to a mildly clay-heavy soil, in the 7 or 8 years since I started it. I expect it to be even more balanced in a few more years. This whole story started out as a means of saying that you can toss most of the rules and do your beds over time. I don't use manure anymore since no horses next door, but I had to hot compost the poops to keep from sprouting weeds all over the place. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Mon, Jun 11, 12 at 13:50
| I too can attest to the slow method. First one I built was on a lawn growing in heavy clay. I had other clay to move from elsewhere. In fall and spring I put down grass clippings/leaves mix several inches thick with some layers of clay in between, one wheelbarrow at a time. In spring I added charcoal from a firepit. Over a couple of months I layered more soil and compostables. I had not planned to plant in it that year but it did get planted and stuff grew wonderfully. The only thing you really can't do is build it up after you've planted. That would be a problem. :-p |
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