Great question and perfect timing. I'm getting ready to take the plunge myself due to winter sowing success beyond my wildest dreams. I've actually mowed out a bed from a vinca and mint bed (yes I know this will be a rough go). I'm also going to extend a bed a few feet along my side street. There, I'm dealing with grass.

I'm planning newspaper, compost and good garden soil as well. The folks on the compost forum could probably do it in their sleep. I might take a holler on winter sowing too as everyone is busy carving out beds for their new stuff.

What's the poop people?

Lasagna gardening!? I am clueless.I didn't know you could grow your own but it's probably better than Stouffer's,right?

I have the book, Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza. It's a layering system of creating a raised bed..no digging, no tilling, no kidding!

One does layering of organic materials to creat a raised bed using things such as: newspaper (on the bottom over sod) peat moss, compost, composted barn litter, leaves, grass clippings, etc. Some people let it sit and "cook"...other plant in it right away.

I created a lasagna garden - raised bed for one of my tomatoe gardens. It has the nicest soil of any of my gardens.

Here's a link/search in the soil forum for more info.

Have fun...Beverly

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna search....soil forum

I have absolutely horrible soil! Thick..ick...clay. I read about this and last fall I laid out 3 big beds this way. I used cardboard on some - newspaper on others. My neighbors love me because I help clean out their barns to get free "stuff". When spring sprang I did take my little tiller to them -didn't remember the part that said no tilling :( and I have to tell you it was like velvet. The plants I have planted are thriving. Wonderful concept.

Gina...if you like, I'll bring the Lasagna Gardening Book to the swap for you to look at.

..Beverly

Fascinating.Thanks for the info.

Beverly--I've actually checked it out from the library and pored over it, thinking it looked faaaaar to easy. But everyone who's tried it swears by it, so I figure I'll give it a go.

I know the author talks about planting right away, but I think she still mentions that she pulls up the sod. I just wanted to know how lazy I could get about that....

Here's my expirence with the sod killing. Since my land had pretty nice soil to begin with, I didn't really need to fix that much, but the fescue grass and weeds were a bear to try and clear completely from my beds, I decided to try laying down the newspaper with just a light layer of compost and a 3" layer of mulch on top. The first bed I did, I only used about 5 sheets of paper and didn't let it sit much at all, just dug through the paper and planted. For the most part it did pretty well, but it was still a little more weedy then I liked. The second bed, I actually mowed down the area as low as I could (Close to scalping the dirt pretty much), then planted the flowers and shrubs and THEN laid the layers of paper (about 8 pages thick) around the plants and placed mulch on top. Absolutely no weeds last year and very few this year and pretty easiy to pull out. Now the paper has pretty much weakened to the point that the plants have been able to poke through it to basically double in size.

Though if you're looking to amend your soil as well and plan on piling the amendments, I guess I'd have to ask how high you were thinking of going. The paper is going to prevent the roots from traveling down as well as it's going to keep the grass from traveling up, so unless you were planning on a good 8-12 inches deep, I might consider cutting the sod out first then making a hole in the paper where ever you plan on putting a plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden