Sheet mulching / Lasagna gardening is Anti-Green Living
mdvaden_of_oregon
14 years ago
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George Three LLC
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoEmbothrium
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Sheet Composting / Lasagna Gardening...Kind of
Comments (1)Basically, can I do sheet composting on a garden that I am currently using? Yes you can. Sheet composting is discussed in great detail over on the Composting forum here - check it out - and is a common practice. While it isn't normally associated with a chip wood garden because of the lack of an active soil micro-herd in wood chips such as exists in soil, it can still work. It will just take longer to break down so might be more attractive to pests. I'd suggest burying it in an unplanted spot and burying it deeper than one would in dirt to limit the pest/varmint access. Dave...See MoreSheet Mulching/Lasagna Gardening - When to Plant?
Comments (2)You should be3 able to plant it with vegetable transplants and/or perennials/annuals. The only thing would be is the manure aged or fresh? Fresh would not be good as it could "burn" the plantings. I don't think I would plant a tree or shrub becoz that might not be real secure in the material becoz it's large. But littler plants should do fine, and as the roots get established, the stuff is breaking down into good humus/compost....See Moresheet mulching
Comments (21)I was tired last night. Lasagna is just deep sheet mulching. And deep mulches, if they are light impenetrable, will kill the sod beneath them no matter what order you layer them. The most impenetrable layers---your paper layers do not need to be on the bottom to kill the sod. The problem arises, not from your sod, but when your top layers are fertile and seeds in those materials start sprouting. I don't get a single weed when I use (unshredded) newspaper as an upper layer, weighed down and covered with something fairly inert---straw, seaweed, leaves. I only use a mulch over the newspaper to hide it and keep it in place. About too much of a good thing---it depends on the size of your beds, of course, and maybe your climate, but in Maine I have never been able to overapply soil amendments. I've deep mulched these most recent beds annually for 20 years. Last year I got pretty enthused gathering compostables and turned an area of lawn into a giant compost pile---not because I have any future plan for that space, but just because I had access to tons of rough compost materials from the Brewer dump. The pile consisted of stuffed leaf bags emptied shoulder to shoulder, over 40 pumpkins, about 7 contractor bags of seaweed, several bags of pine needles, three or four bales of straw. It was almost three feet deep in material. It shrank considerably over the winter and grew pumpkins. I intend to keep piling stuff up on this 15 x 20' area (or another) whether I ever use it or not. My topsoil was robbed from me during construction and replaced with gravel. I am opposed to buying topsoil since I now understand where topsoil comes from, so I am trying to undo the damage to this formerly untouched land by reclaiming it over time by creating large deeply mulched areas. I don't rob my compost bins for these reclaimed areas. Oh...I engaged in highjack, didn't I?...See MorePut black plastic over a sheet mulch or not?
Comments (25)I wouldn't use plastic in a lasagne bed. It's not necessary, it's not organic, and if it stays put for any length of time, it starts to fall apart and you end up with pieces of plastic to clean up (very tedious). It's liberating to make a lasagne bed and then forget about it. Or add more organic stuff on top as time goes on. You couldn't do that with plastic in the mix. What a silly idea, that sheet composting isn't green. I can't imagine the small amount of waste paper that is used for lasagne beds across America making much of an impact on the total amount of paper recycled. Then you have to consider - how green is using a rototiller or tractor? Or herbicide to kill weeds? How much energy do people use driving the paper to recycling centers? And I heard that most of the waste paper is shipped to China for recycling - how much energy is used to do that? I've been making lasagne beds and mulching with paper for several years now. It works great (although it's slow)! Guess I am a "lazy" gardener, but I use the time and energy saved to do something else - like eradicate invasive plants (which sux, I'd rather be digging a garden bed, lol.)...See Moregrrrnthumb
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