By now, we all know the phrase "shovel ready project" as it's connected with federal stimulus funding for states, cities and towns. Today we introduce another type of "shovel ready project" -- and it's right here in Concord: we are building our first "lasagna garden." Yes, we might grow tomatoes and herbs (but no pasta or ricotta cheese) in this garden, but lasagna gardening doesn't really refer to the ingredients for this well-known Italian dish as much as it captures the idea of layering that you find in a lasagna.
We are doing this in a large (21x48') greenhouse, but pay attention here because what we do in there now can be done outside in a very short while. In the meantime, we're waiting for our stimulus money to come in! (Just back the truck in; we'll put it in the compost pile and use the cash for mulch.)
We also want to share this method because this is the perfect time to be planning a garden. Since more and more Concordians are interested in sustainability -- and of course growing your own food is part and parcel -- we wanted others to know of this lower-effort method for enriching current or starting new beds. Others will want to know of this lower-effort method for enriching current or starting new beds that we have only just first heard of from Concord-born-and-raised Kathy McGrath (Kathy, you have agriculture in your blood -- thank you!)
Lasagna gardening is a no-till method often used to make a new garden bed that uses sheet composting as its basis. There is no removal of turf, or digging up or turning over of lawn! First, a layer of newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes to suppress the grass if its lawn or pasture that's being planted. Next, layer on brown and green organic matter including shredded leaves, fairly well-cooked manure, straw, lawn clippings, garden refuse, mulch, and lastly a nice finish of a bit of compost. Oddly enough, this bed can be planted with seedlings immediately.
We started with newspaper and then added a layer of partly-composted oak leaves, which we have in boatloads. We then layered on some partly-composted, shredded paper and kitchen garbage, some lime to counteract the acidity of the oak leaves, then some chicken manure mixed with bedding from the coop (mostly sawdust) from a friend's hen house which we cleaned, and then we'll add a layer of almost-cooked compost. We watered well. We will make some small pockets in this pile filled with finished compost and planted seedlings. It will be about 16" deep total.Some online lasagna gardening resources:
Building a no-till vegetable garden
Lasagna Gardening Knowhow
Lasagna (Layered) Gardening
Lasagna Gardening from Mother Earth News
Photo Credits: © Rich Stevenson, Local Color Images
