I don't think I've posted on this forum for about 2 years but glad to be back! I did a big lasagna bed on top of my native clay 2.5 years ago. I was so careful about it I was funny. It was about 2 feet high to start, the following spring it was about 8" high and through that summer - 2 summers ago it sank a bit more. Today it is even with the sidewalk and now I'm adding compost back on top and mulching a bit to add organics back in and bulk. The thing I love the very most about it is I don't even need a tool to dig in there, I can stick my hands straight in and move soil around, but it still holds moisture. Great great stuff. I used giant bagas of shredded paper from the office as a big part of my bulk plus followed somebody's online recipe. The only thing I would not do again is put 4" of peat all in 1 layer. It caked up and was clumpy for the first 2 years. I might use peat again but I would spread it thinly between layers. Now I've started redoing every bed in my yard the same way, one or 2 a year. Gonna take a few to get thru this but the result is nice to work in. I built a straw bale garden last year and had a totally amazing experience. Just awesome. I will never plant tomatoes in soil again - no need. No weeding, no bending, no bugs or diseases. It was great. Currently I do what I believe is called in genteel circles 'sheet composting'. I bury my kitchen scraps directly in the garden here and there and just rotate which garden I'm using. During winter when its no fun to make the walk across the yard to get to the compost bin, I dump non-rodent attracting kitchen scraps directly on my gardens and let them freeze, thaw and decompose. Great source of nitrogen added right back on top of the soil. There is nothing left by spring but the plants have all gotten a percolated boost of newly decomposed food. You can tell the tops of the beds are all black and crumbly from the compost too. Coffee and filters are good for this. Part of my spring clean up is raking away the uncomposted filters and hauling them over to the compost pile. I haven't fertilized anything but bulbs in a couple years. I have never been scientific about my compost bins, sometimes they are all browns like in fall, sometimes they are all greens - like garden clean up or food scraps. It all breaks down in the end. I do make a point of throwing some sticks and branches in there which aerates for you. I pick out whats left and toss them back in the bin when I use the compost. I also got a stick compost pile going in one part of my yard. A tree had blown over and left a big hole in the ground. I started throwing my sticks in there and leaves in the fall got blown in. It began to sink as it slowly decomposed. I threw in about 40 lbs of horse manure on top to speed it up. Aha! Dirt is on the way. Someday a few years from now I will have the most amazing planting area for some special shrub or tree. I don't rake or blow leaves anymore, I set my mulching lawnmower at a high setting and mow the lawn about every 4 -5 days in the fall and spread a bit of lime on top. The leaves are gone so fast its amazing. The quality of our grass has gone from total thin sparse junk to thick green and healthy with no added chemical fertilizer - well I do have deep core aeration done a minimum of once a year and sometimes spring and fall. This year for the first time I had a few yards of Sweet Peet delivered and hand broadcast it over the aerated lawn. gone in about 2 weeks completely and the lawn looks good even in our drought. I have a few gripes and chief among them is the new (to me) practice of selling shredded, dyed pallets as hardwood mulch. I have gotten taken 2 times with this garbage and the next time I buy mulch I'm going to have to see a sample before I buy it, or they are going to get my credit card reversed. Our local garden center had nice 'hardwood' mulch in the sample bins indoors, then they delivered this c _ _ p to my house. Its fluffy at first, but it packs hard and crusty and sheds water. Lord knows what kinds of chemicals are in it. Nobody at the garden center can tell me if this is pine, or if it was treated wood. All I know is..... I used to not shop at the Home Despot, but they are selling bags of guaranteed shredded hardwood BARK for $2.99 and it will be worth my while to go get that instead of shredded pallets. If it is pine wood - whats that doing to my already acid soil pH ? ARRRHGG Ah well, back to feeding the worms

De-lurking to share my lasagna gardening experience, hi everyone! I have done lasagna gardening for 2 years now with great results, each time creating the bed and then planting within a week (moved the winter after I started the first lasagna beds). I have had good luck with this method and plant right away, but I add compost and worm castings along with coir so there is a soil like consistency. I cover with a layer of mulch and just pull back the mulch to plant in the top layer of castings/coir. Next time, I'm going to leave my things like lettuce uncovered by mulch until they germinate for a little easier germination. Didn't think of that until after mulching this year. I put down cardboard or newspaper first and then thin layers of coir, straw, soaked alfalfa pellets, compost and castings. I've had bad luck with grass clippings so I no longer add them - my first year there was a lot of grass happily growing among my veggies. My beds that I created in late April/early May are very nicely broken down and look like really rich soil, still very fluffy and loose. The plants roots stay mainly above the bed but mine are mounded up at least 12 inches to start so it's much like a raised bed. I just 2 days ago added another bed to my yard - being organized enough to do this in fall instead of spring for the first time ever! I used composted horse manure, leaves, straw, soaked alfalfa pellets, worm castings, coir and my own compost pile from the last 10 months. I also topped off the existing bed. The new bed is about 18 inches. I'm planning on adding worm castings and compost again in the spring before planting, but I'm excited about everything getting a little broken down in advance this time. This is also the first time I've had leaves available to put in the beds because before I was always doing this in spring. Almost forgot, I supplement my beds with Epsoma products - Garden Tone and Tomato Tone. To the original poster, I would suggest adding some compost or castings to your layers of UCG and leaves. I think you'll be fine with what you've got but I find the straw also helps break up the mass of leaves so they don't clump so much. Good luck!

Violet, Most of what you post about sounds like stuff I would LOVE to participate and get into... but of course I live very far away. I'm SURE there's stuff going around in my neck of the woods, but am unsure of how find out information on it. Got any advice for me? I've searched on the web but am having trouble finding anything! Thanks for your help! Beth

Sneakyplant- First and most crucial thing- this time I REALLY wanted to lose it. I was sick of myself. I was sick of buying frumpy plus clothes, I was sick of wondering what new people who met me thought of my weight, I was sick of other people descibing me as the 'fat one', I was sick of people asking me "have you lost weight?" when I hadn't lost a thing and I knew they were 'hinting'. I was sick of not having any photos of me with my children because I was too embarrassed to be photographed. (If this is you, no matter what your size, be in the photo- you can't wind back the clock and have a photo with your chn.) Second thing was breaking it down into achievable goals. The whole amount to lose was too high and freaked me out, so I would set a shorter goal and treat myself when I got there- treats like new item of clothes, a magazine etc (not food!). Even now (with not much to go) I have a short term goal between now and my big goal (which is to be in the healthy weight range). I initially tracked my weight loss progress on a simple hand drawn chart- that was motivating- I could see how far I was going in a visual way. I weigh myself once a day- I know they say weigh weekly, but I needed the reminder that I was losing. Third- which was a BIG help, I built weekly menus that had less fat, less sugar. I buy only the food for the menu (and yes my children eat this too- but they have more carbs and dairy). Variety is a key for me to stay interested in the menu. Here is a sample: Breakfast small bowl of 97% fat free cereal with skim milk OR 2 slices raisin toast- usually no butter (but if desperately wanting it a smear of diet marg). Totally cut out all juice. Mid morning a piece of fruit- usually an apple as I like apples. Lunch- virtually always the same thing- a wholemeal/multigrain roll with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and a 97% fat free meat (eg turkey, ham, beef. In winter I sometimes had one of those 99% fat free instant soups as well. Afternoon- this was the hardest as I kept wanting to eat- but I have nothing. One days when I am starving I 'borrow' something from dessert early. Dinner- lots and lots of vegies, lots of flavour from herbs, spices, chilli, approx 200g meat- chicken 1-2 per week, fish twice, red meat 3-4. Made into stirfry, roasts, casseroles. No carbs with dinner- no rice, pasta, potatoes etc. But I will have pumpkin with roast as my potato substitute. (Fish took a while to get used to as I rarely ate it before.) A low fat frozen dinner is always in the freezer in case I can't cook- in the old days I would order pizza! Dessert- always a low fat dairy- custard, yoghurt, sometimes (not much) icecream, fruche plus a serve of fruit- stewed, fresh piece, fruit salad. I mix up the combinations so I don't get bored. My personal favourite (have it about 1 per month) is: simmer a pear in redwine and spices serve with a SMALL piece of cheese- eg brie, blue. Tastes so indulgant, but is not that bad either. The trick with the menu is to stick to exactly what is on for that day. Every now and then I 'break'(usually if I am stressed) but make sure it is something not too bad- such as low fat rice crackers and salsa, and always do my walk first. If you are going out or want say rice with dinner skip the roll at lunch and have a huge salad instead. Forth- Making a regular daily effort to walk for 45 minutes. Even when I am dog tired, sick, raining, too hot (you know the excuses I mean!) When I very first started I walked for 15 minutes a day for a few months, then gradually walked a little further- adding 5 minutes at a time. I have walked 45 for last 18 months. Now I have just started adding a small amount of jogging but that has taken 2 years to get to that point. A exercise partner is a big help as you can 'talk and walk'. When I walk I visualise that each step is slowly winding back the eating junk clock. Each step is one step closer to my goal. After a while you do actually get to like the walks, and miss it if you can't go (eg unexpected company drops in and it's too late when they leave). I did hire a treadmill for 3 months- but it was too expensive to keep hiring - I figured walking outside was free. I also help keep myself on track with reminders- eg a poster I made for myself which says "Every day my body is getting stronger, slimmer and healthier" (sounds dumb but it reminds me of my goal and I keep it near my makeup so when I am getting ready for the day I see it.) I have the WW newsletter emailed to me- it has good ideas and keeps my brain on track. In the fridge I have a small post-it note- on it I wrote 35. No other people see it as it is barely noticable- but to me it reminds me to get out of the fridge because I want to reach my goal before I am 35. (I think I might just make it..!) If 'desperate' diet soda tastes like a treat, and low-fat hot chocolate help those chocolate cravings. I know the site is not about adverstising but one place I used to develop my menu was an Aussie firm called Lite n Easy- they have a free online DIY menu. It gave me an idea of quantities and types of foods to eat. I never bothered with fancy lunches, I always had my salad and deli meat roll. It would be easy to follow their menu and use a frozen dinner instead of their dinner. Anyway- I see this is LONG!!!! Hope it helps, and if you want more info ask. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!! Step by step! Koala_Em Here is a link that might be useful: DIY menu that can be adapted