1, 2, 3 - Sheet composting, which you are alluding to, means that the material is dug shallowly into the soil. There is more oxygen in the upper portion of the soil and the material can actually compost there. Sheet composting is not the same as mulching or the lasagna foolishness.

4, 5 - Mulching will keep the soil just underneath the mulch moist. I don't know what you plan to grow but most moisture from the soil is lost through plant transpiration. So if plant material covers the whole of your bed, you will still need to water. Mulch also brings its own problems with critters that like to live in that moist layer under the mulch.

6 - You would be much better off stating a compost pile and mulch the beds with the finished compost. Although the no-no about meat in the compost is parroted be Everyone, a well managed compost bin can easily take meat and fat scraps from the dinner plate.

I sheet compost when I build a lasagna bed and I do not till anything into the soil...the microherd does it for me. I put down cardboard or several thickness of newspaper and then add whatever happens to be on hand at the time and cover it with wood mulch or grass clippings.

Peggy

I think that there has been a definition creep during the 30 years or so that I have been digging the soil. Originally, sheet composting implied turning over the oganic material. Looking around, it seems that this work is no longer part of the process. Well, whatever.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sheet Composting

If you wish to compost the "no-nos" get yourself a compost thermomiter and compost in a pile. You want to make sure the pile gets hot to deal with stuff like meat. Don't go laying that sort of thing around in your garden unless you want critters romping around on your plants at night.

Most people who put their kitchen scraps directly into the garden will bury it at least under the mulch if not into the soil a bit. It would probably be wise to do the same with the garden wastes just to keep things tidy. Compost piles are still great things.

Most people seem to be looking at sheet composting as being similar to lasagna gardening lately. Perhaps it is more of a difference of degrees.

I don't like digging. I am only willing to do a little hoeing to keep weeds at bay. Most of my current garden beds are made of organic material mounded up on top of cardboard.
Here is what I have learned about this.
1-it requires very large amounts of organic material.
2-Weeds can still be a problem. Extend your weed barrier beyond the planting area and cover with some heavy mulch. This gives you a nice pathway around your planting bed making mowing around it easier.
3-some types of grass are going to be too aggressive for this method.
4-planting imediately in too shallow of such beds might keep your plant's roots from going down the same as the weed barrier is keeping the weeds from comming up. (this resulted in my corn kinda tipping over.)
5-some types of plants or planting methods are better suited to deep raised bed gardens than others. (I haven't had much luck planting carrots this way yet but the pumpkins are doing great!)

Good luck, HAVE FUN, learn lots.

Thank you for your responses and insights. Except that I certainly wouldn't call it "foolishness". One thing I know for sure about gardening is that if you ask opinions from 10 different people, you are likely to get 10 completely different opinions, all claiming to be the gospel. ;)

I don't have any interest in using meat scraps and such - we have bears in the neighborhood and I have no desire to give them any reason to wander into our yard. At least not until I plant some blueberry bushes...... :)

I'd love to hear any other answers to the many questions I outlined above.

Oh, and I'm not using hay - wrong word - straw only.

Hi lindrusso,

I have used kitchen scraps in the past in my lasagna beds. I put them down as the first layer on top of the cardboard, and I've never had a problem with them being dug up. But I only use them as the first, bottom layer.

Usually for my second layer, I use shredded paper. And boy do I have a supply of it! I also have tried ripped up paperboard boxes (cracker boxes, macaroni boxes, etc.) but find that they take longer to break down, so now I usually use those in the compost and the shredded paper for the lasagna. I save and rip every box and every sheet of paper that comes into my house, so I have a ready supply... my DH would say too ready of a supply, lol!

My very top layer is usually shredded leaves. These really don't blow around much at all, especially if you wet them down (which you should do to all your layers anyway.) In the spring, my choice of mulch depends on what the bed is. For veggies and cutting gardens, I use shredded paper or shredded paper bags, shredded leaves if I have any left, or grass clippings on top of newspaper. For my perennial beds, which are more decorative, this year I dropped the dime and got some cocoa hull mulch.

I don't use grass clippings as a first choice, either as mulch or in lasagna, because I always seem to end up with grass growing in my beds. It's much nicer grass than grows in my actual lawn (or what passes for a lawn) but it's a pain in the neck in the beds nonetheless.

Are you planning on making your beds and then leaving them be, or are you going to be adding to them over the winter? It sounds like you plan on adding things to it as you go along, but not layers - like you are going to say, throw some weeds on top of it as you walk by or something. I'm just trying to understand clearly, because by your post it seems to me that you are switching between a "pile" and a lasagna bed, so I'm not sure if I am answering your question correctly for what you are asking.

Anyway, good luck. I think you will really like your lasagna beds. It's the only way I make beds now.

Dee

Lindrusso, I agree, lasagna gardening is not foolishness. I started a herb bed two years ago using the lasagna method, and enlarged it this past winter, using nothing but cardboard, leaves, used coffee grounds (UCGs are a great green, BTW!) and soil. (I know, most lasagna gardening gurus say you don't need soil, but it worked for me). I let the leaves and UCGs sit and decompose over the winter, covered with burlap, stapled into the ground with those big garden staples to keep it all from blowing away.

Then in the spring I topped it all off with garden soil, and planted tomatoes. I dug down through the decomposed cardboard to plant the tomatoes, and they grew like crazy! A real jungle, it was awesome. I am never going to till another garden bed.

I've never used peat in a lasagna bed, and I only put kitchen wastes into my compost bin. You should definitely dig and bury the kitchen scraps to keep the critters at bay.

I believe that burying kitchen scraps in existing beds is called trench composting. You mighty try googling that phrase.

So, to sum up my responses to your questions.......

1. I am very interested in being able to use scraps from the kitchen. I have read that many folks compost right in the beds rather than (or in addition to) having a compost heap. If I do this, can I just scatter the kitchen scraps right on top of the bed or do I need to cover the scraps each time to prevent pests, flies, etc.?

Don't scatter, bury.

2. If I do need to cover kitchen scraps, I would use brown material, right? Do you all keep a supply of brown material at hand for tossing on the pile when you need to cover things like kitchen scraps? Like maybe a large trash can filled with leaves or something?

When I bury the kitchen wastes in my compost pile, I almost always top them with a layer of browns, usually shredded paper, of which I have many, many bags.

3. After I add a layer of something like hay or straw, do I need to top off with something with a little weight to hold it in place? Seems to me stuff like that would blow away!

Burlap and staples works well to keep stuff from getting blown away.

4. What sorts of things do you all use as the very top layer when planting in the spring? I've read that grass clippings can be used - this appeals to me as this is the most readily available item because we have a large lawn and it's free - best of all.

I use soil. And I don't mulch with anything right now, but I plan to start mulching next year with shredded leaves. When I used grass clippings, I too ended up with grass growing in the bed.

5. If I use things like corn husks or plant refuse (non-diseased, not weeds) - can I just throw them in and leave them on top or do I need to cover or do anything else to them?

I would bury plant refuse just like I do the kitchen scraps.

6. Is there anything in the kitchen that is particularly bad for attracting pests (besides the obvious no-nos like meats, etc.)?

By the time I get around to composting my kitchen scraps, they are usually pretty slimy anyway, and the only critters interested in them at that stage are earthworms and the rest of what you'll hear referred to around here as "the microherd."

I hope you find my comments helpful.

Alison

Dee and Alison - Thank you so much, your responses are very helpful.

Dee - I am still planning to layer the lasagna bed until it reaches 18-24 inches and then I'll let it rest over the winter, but I was confused as to how people used kitchen scraps in their beds because as you said, it didn't seem like a layering process to me. You'd never have enough of anything at any one time to really layer, so I was confused.

I've decided to start a compost heap and I'll throw my kitchen scraps in there and hopefully have some decent compost by spring.

I love the idea of using shredded paper! I'm really liking the idea of being able to recycle so many things we use in the house. I've tended to some small garden plots before, but never used any of these methods.

One thing is becoming obvious to me - I need a lot more of all of these items than I thought! We saved newspaper all summer long and used almost every bit of it just for the two small plots. Grass I have plenty of, but leaves will be a problem - we're in one of those developments that unfortunately doesn't have many trees on the properties, but I can scavenge along the edges of the woods.

Thanks again - I think I'm getting a much clearer picture of what I need to be doing.

I agree with Allison, it sounds like you are confusing a compost heap with a lasagna bed. If you keep adding to lasagna, it will never be finished. It would be best to collect materials for a week or 2, build the bed within a week or 2 of continually adding stuff, then just let it sit undisburbed.

In Pa much of your bed will freeze during winter, probably for months. Just let it sit there under the snow and ice.

If I had bears I would be very reluctant to use food in there, except maybe a little vegetable waste as a first layer over the cardboard. Pile stuff deep on top of it.

This year we were overrun with small rodents like field mice (voles) and chipmunks, who found my lasagna beds very appealing. And my beds contained no actual food, mostly grass clippings and leaves.

Here you can see where the critters dug. They often dug up seedlings and just threw them aside, they didn't want the seedling.
{{gwi:306940}}

They were just interested in the rotting yard waste. So I wouldn't want to find out what they would do with actual foodstuffs.

Again, use a hot compost bin or heap to compost your food waste. Build your lasagna, let it sit undisturbed all winter, and in spring you will have a lovely new garden bed.

Karen

Lasagna gardening is one form of sheet composting.
Peat moss is never a necesary ingrediant in any garden unless you live where ample quantities of organic matter are not readily available. In Pennsylvania there are lots of deciduous trees that each year produce very large quanities of a renewable source of organic matter that most people simply throw away.
For good answers to your questions check out this web site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening 101

Karen - Thanks for the input. My confusion started because when I was reading up on Lasagna Gardening, several gardeners commented on how they would throw kitchen scraps straight into their garden. I wasn't sure how that would work and have now decided against doing that.

Kimmsr - Thanks for that link. I did find and visit that link the other day and have looked over Pat's book, but there were just a few things I wanted to clarify. :)

lindrusso, a few things I wanted to add:

One, if you don't have a lot of materials to start off with, you can do it the way I do. I lay out newspaper, sometimes as small as one open, two-page sheet and then I just build up this small area. Then in a few days or a week or so, I add another open sheet next to it, and build this up. Here is a photo of a very large bed I did, half-way done. No way would I have everything needed to build this at once, so I did it a bit at a time. What you are seeing (sorry for the poor quality) is different sections, some with manure on top, others with coffee grounds, and some with just the newspaper.

{{gwi:306942}}

When I planned this big bed, I bought a large (35 gallon) plastic trash can and put in just my kitchen scraps. I let these build up till I had enough to use for at least one sheet of newspaper. They actually started composting very quickly. And as I said, I have a ready supply of shredded paper, and keep bags of cow manure on hand.

I also use half-finished compost as a bottom layer.

If I don't have kitchen scraps or half-finished compost, I just use composted bagged cow manure.

Also, I have a vole problem. Surprisingly, I haven't had a problem with them in my lasagna beds, which really doesn't make sense! However, starting last year, every time I make a lasagna bed, I add a layer (or two) of crushed oyster shells. Supposedly the voles don't like the sharp edges and won't dig.

Good luck! Lasagna beds are the way to go! (IMO!)

:)
Dee

I have a lot of flower beds that I use lasagna gardening on. I have horses in the back yard, so I have horse manure, hay, old horse feed, to also add in the mix. If you are going to make a bed now for planting in the spring, in my experience you can hardly build it too high. It will settle down quite a bit by spring. You might want to see if there are any horse farms around you; you can get quite a bit of material for you beds there, and most farms are happy to have you haul away whatever you need.

1,2) I agree that you should make your layers, then leave them alone. Burying kitchen scraps is best done in regular soil that needs a boost. Lasagna beds by definition are very rich and don't need any new organic stuff in them during a particular season. After one or sometimes two growing seasons I will add to them as they compost down and get smaller.

Too bad you bought peat moss, just don't do it again. I have lots of large lasagna beds and never buy anything for them. I use cardboard, old produce, leaves, horse manure, more old produce, a touch of wood ashes, whatever I come by. I have brought home bags of corn husks from stores, and I get old produce on a large scale from a local stand. Take leaves from whatever neighborhood near you puts out bags of leaves. I can get a lot about 4-5 miles from my house. I get the horse manure from closer still, and I get wood chips from another free source. Those make a good bottom layer over the cardbaord, and many municipalities give them away.

3,4) I sometimes put straw on the top, haven't had a problem with it blowing away since the individual straws sort of get stuck in each other. I have had whole leaves blow away, shredded leaves don't do that as much. I like to put horse manure on top of whole leaves so they don't blow away. I put a little soil or compost on as a top layer usually, but in my latest 4.5 ft by 25 ft bed I just didn't have the time or toppings and went with it as is. Worked great, have a fabulous tomato and eggplant crop there this summer.

5,6) corn husks and similar dense plant material will compost faster if it is under something more green/fine like manure or coffee grounds.

By the way, I have a lot of compost piles as well, I put that on top of new and old lasagna beds and actual garden soil. I LOVE lasagna gardens, digging sucks. As for not having sides, though, that wouldn't work for me. Quack grass is a serious weed here and it even grows under the wooden sides of my lasagna beds, I have to mulch with cardboard for some inches on each side as well to put a dent in that.

Marcia