Newbie question - Lasagna Beds?

I've seen several people mention Lasagna Beds - but I don't quite "get it" ... is it a method for composting? Is it a particular way to arrange the soil in your SFG bed?

Please help me not feel like such a dummy! If it works, I want to know what to do and how to do it!

It's a gardening method and there's a book out about it. It's an interesting idea I've heard good things about, but it's easier to mix a few things in a wheelbarrow so I haven't tried it

Lasagna Gardening

Mother Earth News featured an article by the author of Lasagna Gardening I love Mother Earth News

I read the article, and now it makes sense, what people have been talking about. It's not SFG, but I may use this method in some areas of my yard. I think I'll look for the book at the library... thanks for the reference, and for the link to the Mother Earth article!

Hi,
Lasagna gardening is an in place composting system. Instead of making your compost in a bin, you make it straight in your garden bed. To get a garden bed which is about 6-8 inched deep you need to pile stuff 24-30 inches high. Then wait. If you do not want to wait you can plant in the bed by adding a little compost to your plant hole. By the end of the season your garden will be at a more reasonable height and you plants will have happily sunk to a lower level. This is a very simple explanation of a good book. I have tried it and it did work, however I had a lot more weeds the first year I used the bed, the second year I used the bed was better and the plants were very happy. Lasagna gardening is a good budget choice as most of your materials can be gathered for free, (although I found it difficult to get enough stuff from my .44 acre lot.) Hope this helps. Happy gardening.

Patty in Yorktown

I've thought about trying it and comparing, I'm just too lazy to do it at this point!

I've used lasagna gardening with SFG for years and it works wonderfully. I'm doing an experiment this year comparing it to Mel's mix. And to the person who said it is not SFG, that is not exactly true. SFG is using a permanent grid and planting in one foot squares. I do that with my lasagna beds, so I am SFGing.

I like it because it is virtually free. I make a 4x8 bed with one sheet of plywood ripped in thirds, which makes it 16" high. It reduces to about 8" after a year and I change out the sides so I can reuse the plywood. When I have time I cover the newly made bed to let it "cook" for a couple of months, but this spring I planted immediately using a 1-2" topping of Mel's mix for seeding and a couple of handfuls of Mels mix in a hole for transplanting. So far the new beds are doing about the same as the Mel's mix beds. The two older beds have completely reduced and when I harvest the fall and winter veggies from them, I'll probably mix in fresher compost and perhaps some vermiculite, but haven't completely decided.

At any rate the combination of using found materials with SFG makes for a good combination in my mind.

Belfry, have you any photos of your lasagna beds? I'm having trouble envisioning what you are describing. :suspect: It may be I need more coffee this morning

Sure I do -- the first was layered last October and you'll see that it has reduced by about half. I've never had Egyptian onions or garlic get so large. The second I layered in about a month old -- started out about 2" higher than the boards but has reduced already. As you can see the plants love the stuff. But also remember I used Mel's mix in the planting holes to give them a good start. These are SFG beds but when I plant an entire bed like these, I move the grid to another one.





I used alternating layers of spoiled hay, shredded leaves, green grass clippings, sawdust, poultry litter, (3 layers of each) and topped it off with 2-3" of peat moss/sawdust/compost mix. After I found out about Mel's mix, I used that to plant in. After I harvest these two beds I will remove the chip board/plywood and either put 2x8s around them or brick them for permanent beds. Some I have dismantled and used the resulting compost elsewhere.

Belfry, I love this thought concept too, Lasagna gardening. I like how we can use all resources to get the desired result "produce" from our garden Love the pics of your garden as well, I saw them in another thread. Its a nice place to watch things grow
Ha-v-v

Your plants surely like the soil! Today we made a couple of batches of Mel's Mix and filled some small wooden boxes I'm planning to grow salad mix in. I'm hoping for baby salad year round! The thought of baby salad mix with some of the cherry tomatoes I have planted (6 different kinds!) makes my mouth water