Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
think?

Best,

- h

In article ,
"H" writes:
| Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
| think?

Shades of the spaghetti harvest!

Er, no.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
think?


I'll pasta on this one!
--
Drakanthus.


(Spam filter: Include the word VB anywhere in the subject line or emails
will never reach me.)

(Nick Maclaren) wrote:

Shades of the spaghetti harvest!

I'm relieved that I wasn't the only reader to have those images flash
before his eyes!

Seriously, I saw a talk by a woman who has a book out on the subject. I
haven't tried it, but if you have enough mulch material, the no-till method
should work well. I can see problems if you already have more moisture
than you really need. Most years I don't, but in the U.K.?
Of course, it was touted as the be-all and end-all of gardening.

I do, I confess, do something similar to garden on ground that has/had
turf: Mulch with several layers of newspaper and all the leaves/old
hay/whatever you can lay your hands on in the fall. By the spring, there's
usually a nice bed ready to till.

Right now, I'd have trouble backing the elderly Troy-Bilt (do they sell
them across the pond?) out of the shed, because the meter or so of snow
would be in the way... But the willows are turning yellow, so there's
hope, even in the colonies.

Cheers!


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

The message
from "H" contains these words:

Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
think?

I've recently read the book by the woman who calls it that; it's
written for America where summers may be much hotter, and decomposition
might be much faster; so I'll be charitable and suppose that in a
different climate she could genuinely make plants grow with their roots
planted straight into raw green layers of plant material, not soil or
compost. But I wouldn't count on it working in the cool damp summers of
the UK.

Although she doesn't acknowledge it, permaculturists have been using a
variant of the method for decades. I have used that and it works
brilliantly at instantly reclaiming rough unworked land for instant
planting.

On undug, weedy soil;

Beat or stamp flat all the weeds, bruising them as much as possible,
and cover the area with flattened cardboard cartons (available free from
shops).Overlap the card edges where they join, to exclude all light from
weeds. Water the card well then cover with a 6" layer of plant material
such as bracken, seaweed, lawncuttings, veg waste.If necessary use some
planks or bricks here and there to add extra weight to ensure the card
doesn't blow away. Using a knife, cut X's right through the card, one
for each seedling or potato, and plant them through the X into the soil
beneath. The card suppresses all weeds, the plant material keeps it
moist and looking neat, and the whole lot forms a perfect breeding site
for worms which will rapidly drag it down into the soil, making more
humus to feed plants.

Janet.

"Drakanthus" wrote in message
...
Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what
do you
think?


I'll pasta on this one!
--

In the early 70's I met a specialist in no-dig gardening. He owned
Arkley Manor near Barnet in Hertfordshire, which was very close to
where I lived at the time. He had written several books on the
subject and was an acknowledged expert. To my utter shame I just
cannot remember his name :-( He showed me all round the gardens.
They were never dug but compost, manure etc was spread regularly.
The gardens were wonderful and no-dig very obviously a successful
method.

Iris McCanna

On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 09:57:12 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"H" wrote in message
...
Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
think?

If you mean chucking all your green waste straight on the ground and not
bothering to use a compost heap first, then that is what I have allways
done, whether it is better than the other way I don't know since I would
have to change my lazy habits to find out!

There are two distinct strategies I've read/heard of:

1. Ruth Stout's no-dig gardening, where you cover the soil with a
*thick* mulch of straw or something similar.

2. "Sheet composting", where you put organic waste directly into
the soil under a thin sheet of soil.

Neither of these would work very well, afaict, for permanently
planteds beds, but for veggie gardens, both work just fine.

So which are we talking about when the term "lasagna gardening"
is used?


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

(Rodger Whitlock) wrote:

So which are we talking about when the term "lasagna gardening"
is used?

From the talk that I saw, a bit of each. Basically, heavy mulch layered
with compostable things that will release nutrients. The author of the
book was very keen on this, and had autographed copies available.
I wandered off and chatted with the garlic growers instead.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

In message , Charlie
Pridham writes
Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what do you
think?

Best,

- h

If you mean chucking all your green waste straight on the ground and
not bothering to use a compost heap first, then that is what I have
allways done, whether it is better than the other way I don't know
since I would have to change my lazy habits to find out!

Don't know about lazy ... isn't this how Nature herself operates?

Klara

--
On Surrey/Sussex/Kent border
remove nospam to e-mail

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 09:57:12 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"H" wrote in message
...
Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what
do you
think?

If you mean chucking all your green waste straight on the ground and not
bothering to use a compost heap first, then that is what I have allways
done, whether it is better than the other way I don't know since I would
have to change my lazy habits to find out!

There are two distinct strategies I've read/heard of:

1. Ruth Stout's no-dig gardening, where you cover the soil with a
*thick* mulch of straw or something similar.

2. "Sheet composting", where you put organic waste directly into
the soil under a thin sheet of soil.

Neither of these would work very well, afaict, for permanently
planteds beds, but for veggie gardens, both work just fine.

So which are we talking about when the term "lasagna gardening"
is used?

Neither :-) In the Lasagna gardening book, the author describes laying
wet newspaper on the soil, then piling on it layers of different
(undecomposed) compostable materials to a foot high..rather like making
a lasagna. Then she plants straight away direct into what's essentially
a raw new soil-less compost heap, not into the soil beneath, iow the
seeds or seedlings roots have no soil contact. She claims this is
successful; no mention made of the bed heating up and frying the
planting..or, of how whatever she plants could acquire water and
nutrients direct from other plant material. Hmmm.

Janet

On Sat, 15 Mar 2003 23:05:31 GMT, Janet Baraclough wrote:

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 09:57:12 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"H" wrote in message
...
Anyone tried the no-dig 'lasagna' gardening technique? If so, what
do you
think?

If you mean chucking all your green waste straight on the ground and not
bothering to use a compost heap first, then that is what I have allways
done, whether it is better than the other way I don't know since I would
have to change my lazy habits to find out!

There are two distinct strategies I've read/heard of:

1. Ruth Stout's no-dig gardening, where you cover the soil with a
*thick* mulch of straw or something similar.

2. "Sheet composting", where you put organic waste directly into
the soil under a thin sheet of soil.

Neither of these would work very well, afaict, for permanently
planteds beds, but for veggie gardens, both work just fine.

So which are we talking about when the term "lasagna gardening"
is used?

Neither :-) In the Lasagna gardening book, the author describes laying
wet newspaper on the soil, then piling on it layers of different
(undecomposed) compostable materials to a foot high..rather like making
a lasagna. Then she plants straight away direct into what's essentially
a raw new soil-less compost heap, not into the soil beneath, iow the
seeds or seedlings roots have no soil contact. She claims this is
successful; no mention made of the bed heating up and frying the
planting..or, of how whatever she plants could acquire water and
nutrients direct from other plant material. Hmmm.

Closer to the Ruth Stout method than to sheet composting, then,
but with these differences: RS uses no newspaper, and she has you
part the mulch and plant into the soil underneath.

Multiple layers of newspaper here and there in the stack to
emulate noodles?

One thing to note about all these methods is that they have you
put uncomposted organic materials directly on the beds. Another
example is Florence Bellis in "Gardening and Beyond", who
strongly urges the use of compost that is only partly decomposed.


The unifying principle is that you feed the organisms in the
soil, not just those in the compost heap. FB says, more or less,
that "finished compost" is essentially all used up and while it
may improve the soil mechanically, it won't help the micro-flora
& -fauna.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada