Garden Lasagna

I got this idea from Organic Gardening, but now you can know about it, too.

Since the weather is warm and the sun in sunny, I have the gardening itch again. I'm so glad, too, since last year I was so pregnant I didn't really have a desire to do anything that required bending over, thus my garden didn't go over so well.

Back to gardening lasagna style... This is also called the no dig gardening. If it works, I'm not going back. Start with your gardening space. I have a 4x8 foot space I bordered with 2x6 foot non-treated wooden boards and rotate the crops between 3 patches every year. Every winter I don't clear them out, so early each spring they get filled with grass and clover and other inedibles. So take that space and cover it with lots of newspaper, about 7 sheets deep. Sprinkle bone meal and blood meal then water thoroughly. The bone and blood meal is suppose to aid in decomposition. The second layer is alfalfa hay, do the same thing with the meals, and water. Put straw on top, then meal and water, finish with compost. I got my alfalfa and hay at AGWAY, just make sure they aren't for feed, you don't want any seeds in them. One bale of each gave me more than enough for 2 garden patches.

I bought a lot of spring crops since my little seedlings weren't growing as fast as needed, although I still planted them. I have red cabbage, green and orange broccoli, and brussel sprouts. I also put my honeydew and tomatoes in the ground. I added carrot and spinach seeds to the soil, let's see how the carrots do in this lasagna!

I already had a patch of garlic and salad greens growing, that I didn't weed very well but wasn't in the mood to deal with a lot of tiny, tiny purple clovers (I'm sure I'll pay for it later), but in the spirit of science, I put one broccoli plant in the middle of that to see if there really is a difference between my regular method and the lasagna method. I'll keep you posted!