Lasanga Gardening

[Teenytoona]

I could have sworn there was a "tribe" sort of thread on this, but no matter.

We don't currently lasagna garden, but I think, for next year and beyond, it would work well for us. This year we dug trenches and piled up high the rows for planting. Our garden area is in a low spot that frequently floods and we thought the trenches would keep the veggies from flooding. Well, it's working ok, trenches are holding the water, but not draining as well as we'd hoped. (well DH says it's because I messed up his trenches but I'm not sure if that's perfectly true).

Anyways... I thought we could knock it all down at the end of the year and then start a lasagna garden atop it - hopefully in a means to reroute the water, pile the lasagna gardenings high and let the water flow around that. It would make the ground we're planting on higher and hopefully drain a little better.

I have no idea if it will work - or if we will have to do a deeper Lsg Garden than most, but I think it could be worth the effort. So I figured I'd ask here. Can this be a method of water control as well?

Also when reading this article on it, she mentions peat moss as being "the cheese" in her lasagna, do you reckon peat moss is needed?

[kcstar]

I didn't use peat moss in my lasagna garden. The only reason mine failed is that I didn't realize bermuda grass was the exception to "you can lasagna garden right over sod."

[cschick]

Originally Posted by Teenytoona

Also when reading this article on it, she mentions peat moss as being "the cheese" in her lasagna, do you reckon peat moss is needed?

Reading that article, it appears that she uses peat as her primary organic, basically to "jumpstart" the composting process. I suspect that if you're going to do it over the winter, the best way to do it without having to purchase peat would be to start a compost heap now with whatever yard/kitchen waste you gather this summer, then spread that heap over the newspaper on the area you to turn into a garden this fall.

http://organicgardening.about.com/od...agnagarden.htm

[jtsmom]

We built three raised beds last spring and two last fall that are lasagna method beds. All are framed with untreated 2x12's. I had more success with these gardens last year than I expected. I did learn some lessons along the way.

~don't put peat moss as the top layer
~the best top layer that I've found so far is rotted woodchips. I got them from a dear friend who had them for his commercial blueberry patch, he'd used what he wanted and let me clean up the remains. I'd actually like to have my own rotting woodchip pile, I liked it so much as a mulch.
~you can keep adding layers of organic material to the beds as long as you like, but leaving a layer of dried fall leaves is not good either, they don't break down on the top so well like that.
~for after the harvest/until early spring any compostables went directly into the bed. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, but so far nothing awful has happened to the beds. We were in the middle of moving the compost pile out of one place into another and so it was either put it in the beds or throw it in the trash.
~we dumped our ashes from our woodstove into the beds all winter and though I read someplace you should not do that, it's been fine.
~when you get the free compost from your dump, sift it out before putting it in the bed. Better yet, go get it yourself rather than send your husband.
~keeping it 4 feet wide and in lengths divisible by 4 is a good idea. I have two beds that are 4x12 and 3 beds that are 4x8 and those sizes are perfect!