I have gutters in the front and not in the back, honestly, I think gutters work much better elsewhere in the country, Here it's really dry and then really rainy. Kinda flash flood type weather. So it will be so dry that these huge cracks open in the clay, and then when it rains the ground can't soak up the water fast enough. So with gutters that channel all the water to one area you end up with a huge flood (and whoever designed my house stuck the gutter outlet so that it floods the front porch), but if it runs off the roof line it's more spread out and the soil seems to handle it better..except for the roof line problem. I particularly like texas cedar mulch comes in a white,turquise,orange bag but I haven't seen it at lowes lately. Sorry for the hijack. About seeds, I wouldn't worry about the paper. In my lasagna beds I planted whole plants, I think that if the bed isn't well broken down you would just loose the seeds into the mulch void. But I think you could throw a thin layer of bagged topsoil (it's real cheep) on the area say 1" or less, and seed on that, cover the seeds with a bit more dirt and burlap (works really well in this situation) and it would work real good. I actually put bagged top soil on top of my lasagna bed because I was worried it wasn't high enough and I needed good drainage for herbs, I now wish I hadn't added quite as thick a soil layer because these herbs might do better with mulch instead of soil that holds a good deal of water but it is working fine.

As I recall way back when Jon Rowley wrote about the Interbay composting method here, it was another way to compost and make a material that could be used as a mulch rather then a mulching method itself. The purpose of the burlap is to aid in moisture retention which seemed to aid in speeding up the digestion of the material to compost. As I recall the finished compost was moved from where it was digested to were the community gardeners had their plots.

I saw burlap at JoAnn's the other day. There was also a coupon for 1/2 off for a few days, starting today I think?? I just filled a new raised bed with a mix involving quite a bit of horse manure. To try to make it less offensive to my neighbors (that load was a little too fresh for neighborhood living), I covered it with straw, then stapled a piece of landscape fabric over the top (I had some left from a project a few years ago). Then I ran chicken wire (had a bunch of that laying around too) over the top of that to keep it from blowing away. Of course, in a couple days, the pile had shrunk down so my fabric & wire were loose, but it still looked "neater" that way, and my straw didn't blow away. Of course, the landscape fabric won't decompose like the burlap, but in my case, it keeps it cleaner looking, and I already had it. I'm still new to the neighborhood, and so far my next door neighbors have been supportive of my gardening projects. I try to keep things looking neat. Now, when I do this to my front yard/lawn, I guess we'll find out about some of the other neighbors...

1. Layering can help you get the proportions closer to optimal, but mixing everything together gets the process started sooner. There is no "right" way to pile up material for composting. 2. How much coffee grounds to add to how much shredded leaves/grass mixture is what will get that mixture composting. The only reason you would need a specific amount of either would be if you were doing a scientific study with the need to write a report. Throw your material together, but do not pack anything tightly since that reduces the amount of air available to the bacteria that will digest your material. 3. Whether you need to break up that clay soil underneath this pile first is subject to a great deal of debate. I have seen some, few, clay soils (there are many types of clay soils not just one) that need to have some OM worked in first, but most, that I have seen, do not. Most of the clay soils I have seen that do need OM worked in first have been black in color. 4. The only reason to put cardboard, or newspaper, or any other ground covering material, down is to suppress unwanted growth. If your pile of material is a foot or more thick there would be no need for anything on this unwanted growth since the pile of material would do that. Cardboard, newspaper, etc. are an aid to help extend the available mulch material and nothing else. 5. If that soil did have drainage issues you may want to consider correcting those before piling a lot of organic matter on top which may aggravate that problem before it starts to cure it. The Soil Food Web that is going to make your soil better, eventually, needs air to function and if there is insufficient air in the soil they won't.