For a number of years now I have used compost as my potting soil with no problems. A Lasagna bed is essentially a large compost pile and people plant in that with no problem.

oh thank goodness, thanks for the reassurance!

Will they die certainly not might take more water though and it will not be long before those roots are deep into dirt

Thanks for the heads up on the watering Jonas! I will mulch well and be sure to monitor their moisture carefully until they are established.
Nik

granburyflowergirl, I don't think the compost will be a problem, but I am a little bit worried about the newspaper/cardboard layer just 5 inches down. It seems to me that to really thrive, your plants' roots will need to get past that. I know that barrier eventually breaks down, but I'm thinking the roots ought to get past it rather soon to do well. (Others who lasagne garden may tell me my concern is misplaced - I haven't used a barrier bottom layer in my garden beds, so I don't have direct experience with it.)

Since your plants are already in the ground ... maybe you could use a spading fork to spear through the 5 inches of compost and make some holes in the newspaper/cardboard layer, to give the roots a place to get through?

lcpw, thanks for the input but my limited experience has been that the cardboard and newspaper literally dissolve once they get wet. After one good watering I can easily stick a finger right through, so I am assuming the plant roots will make it fine.

My theory is that "roots are stronger than shoots" so the grass and weeds underneath can't push up through it as easily as the roots coming down. If I punched holes, I am afraid the weeds would benefit more than the plants

GFG

The only problem would be if the compost were not yet seasoned, had not finished "cooking" and the heat killed whatever you planted. Even if that were the case, that it wasn't seasoned yet, 5 inches of "uncooked" compost is just not going to harm your plants -- for it to "cook", it needs a much deeper pile and amount of compost. So apparently that isn't a problem. I agree that a compost patch is great for planting things in, so go for it!

It's good you had help bending those cattle panels into arches.

Hah! I bent one into an arch last year and almost catapulted myself into a tree. I won't try that again. I'm lucky to have gotten out of it with my teeth intact.

Life Lesson 2349
Check.

annpat

LOL! I haven't bent mine into arches yet -- I'd be up in that tree with you! I've used them only as straight trellises, using the whole 16 feet of one, and the rest cut in half to fit my 8-foot raised beds.

Too funny annpat, I would probably have been in the tree if the guy hadn't taken pity on me! I am very impressed that you were able to do it yourself. I am generally an "I can do it myself" kind of person but those things are so heavy and unruly!

Worth it though, its going to be awesome. My mom said people are actually stopping and getting out of their cars to check it out!

So far so good, tomatoes and grapes look happy. Thanks for all the input/reassurances!

It's the most amazing thing---cattle panels. I paid $40 for each 16 foot panel, had to cut it in half at the Feed n' Grain with a tool they lent me, almost took out my Tacoma windshield getting the panels on the 2x10s I purchased and put on top of my kayak rack, feeding the holes in the panels over my kayak saddles. I grew the most amazing cucumbers last year on one of the panels I installed on a raised bed next to the road. I made 5 quarts of pickles every other day. A lot of people asked me about the cattle panels and bought their own.

I stood on one end of the eight foot panel grabbed the other end and tried to make a curve. The panel and I went across the yard together like a tightly wound spring unspringing until we caught up against the spruce at the end of my wood chip path. My teeth and face were unscathed, the cattle panel has a perfect curve. The sun slides around the curved panel and shines on one part or another of it all day.