Krista you can load a bunch of 40lb bags of humus and manure in a car, I do. You just have to make several trips! Lowes has them for $1 a bag.

I say do it!! It does take an effort to gather organic material... if you want it for free, but you don't have to go that route.. Like Jeff said just go to Lowes or Home Depot or wherever and buy all that you need in amounts you can handle. I can tell you that over time you will be surprised how fast and effective it really is. Give it a shot with one area and just see what you think! Good luck!!

Jenn

Thanks for the encouragement.....toting bags of peat, manure, and humus sounds better than trying to rent and lug a tiller around!

Hey, I have a horse when do you want me to bring it over??

Muddy -- sure! Would he like living in the suburbs for a while?? LOL

I'm also trying to compost without digging. I have tons of leaves in my yard and all kinds of small twigs mostly broken down already from being on the ground so long. I used to do major composting when I lived on a farm in the 60s. But then we had all kinds of manure and hay available. I also had a large family so all kinds of scraps. I'm doing what the others suggested--buying manure and soil additives from Lowe's, but I'm also saving all egg shells now and cotton lint--haha! Small veggie scraps decompose quite quickly. And of course I'm saving all my coffee grounds. I have a coffee can on the sink for things to put in the compost pile. I just started my compost but I'm excited about it--God knows I NEED dirt like a drunk needs a drink--haha! I have a freind in NH who says everyone she knows uses Pampers as compost fill. You take the plastyic off and chop up the insdes. She says its cheap. I haven;t tried it yet...Good luck with yours and keep us informed..

I have made my first lasagna bed along the street in front of my house. I used four pickup truckloads of leaves, some lime, some eggshells, one pickup truckload of manure, and turned the clay about a foot deep (this took weeks)and covered it all with a layer of cardboard and then mulch. The whole thing is about 2 feet tall! We are keeping the top watered, and have poked some holes in the cardboard to shove the hose through so we can keep the leaves wet, too. I will take a pic in the next few days, and measure the height. I am wondering how long it is going to take it to decompose so it's not so tall? The neighbors think I am strange. I should mention that there are a lot of oak leaves in the bed, though they are not the only leaves in there. I did not get the opportunity to run the leaves over with the lawn mower, so I understand it may take longer than if I had done that. Still, if I keep them really wet, won't that help?

I think that the Oak leaves are bad! Don't they contain some kind of toxin?

Krista, come to the plant swap on May 21st...SissyZ is going to be demonstrataing lasagna gardening...

Jan

Krista,
You would not believe the stuff you can use. Stuff you are probably throwing away...
SissyZ

Absolutely do a lasagna bed. You will be surprised how wonderful it is to plant things by hand - don't need tools to dig in the soil. I am still surprised by how healthy the plants are and how big. Everything in the bed flourishes. It was more expensive than I thought to buy all the peat moss and composed manure to build the bed. Fortunately I had a lot of chopped leaves and grass to add to the layers. But by the time I figured out the cost of working composed manure, soil conditioner, and other amendments into the soil and renting a tiller to work them in, it came out the same. And it is so nice to have a bed with no drainage problems and to be able to grow perennials in an area where the natural soil is too soggy. Lasagna beds can solve a lot of problems.

Definitely try a lasagna bed! I've had good luck with modified lasagna beds (i.e. I didn't wait for them to "cook" 100%). Starbuck's supposedly will give you coffee grounds for free; or if your workplace has a coffee maker, see if you can train your coworkers to keep the grounds. Mine have been easily "trained"! Also you'd be amazed how much kitchen waste even just one or 2 people generate. If you start composting now, you'll have some for this fall or next year :) And yeah, I haul bags of stuff in my car to supplement my heap. The workers at lowe's/home depot will typically even help load if they aren't swamped.

Muddy--Can I borrow your horse when Krista is done? I used to own horses, so I'm fairly well-versed in equine care--I'll even brush it & pick hooves! :)

Stop and ask about the wood chips when you see a tree service truck in the area. By spreading this material 6 or 8 inches thick over the future garden, weeds are stopped by the nitrogen absorbtion qualities of the chips while they keep the soil moist and the earthworms work to loosen it. In a years time, they will be decomposed enough to turn under with a liberal application of manure/compost. Or just add compost to the top and plant.(after a year)
There's nothing wrong with oak leaves. Their supposed acidic qualities are counteracted by the earthworms who secrete a soil neuturalizing substance when they eat. Also, additional organic material helps plants to tolerate a greater range of soil ph.

I'm sort of in the same situation no yard waste, live in a developement with few trees, and no pickup truck but I'm doing lasanga beds just fine. Whenever I drive through neighborhoods with lots of trees I keep an eye out for bagged leaves. I just got ten bags of leaves today. I had to make two trips but I got them and now I have a good carbon source. To get everything to break down faster I need a nitrigen source which I get from starbucks coffee grounds (they give them away, company policy, just ask). If you don't like taking other peoples leaves you can also use shredded newspaper or computer paper. For a bunch of other ideas visit the soil and compost forum.

Yes, I forgot to mention that besides my oak leaves, I put tons of Starbucks grounds on the bed before I covered it. Right now I would say I have about 300 lbs. of grounds waiting to go on my next bed. Every day I stop at the Starbucks across the street from my job. Sometimes twice! They are always more than happy to give me the whole garbage bag full of grounds (that way they don't have to bag them up in the 5 lb. bags like policy says they must if no one claims them right away.) They love me there because I'm the lady who gets rid of their extra work. We love how the grounds make the yard smell, too (added bonus!)