Lasagna Gardening is a timesaving organic gardening method developed by gardener and writer, Patricia Lanza, which requires no digging, no tilling and no sod removal.

It’s a “lazy raised bed” that drains well and warms up quickly in spring.

The name “Lasagna,” comes from the way garden beds are created from layers. It is exactly the same way you layer ingredients when making a pan of lasagna.

The lasagna layering method quickly builds soils that are rich in nutrients. Weeding and watering are reduced through the heavy layers of mulch and by planting crops close together.

What Makes It Different?

Thick layers of organic mulch are the main ingredients of every lasagna garden. Anything you’d put in a compost pile, you can put into lasagna garden. The materials you put into the garden will break down, providing nutrient-rich soil in which you plant. Individual materials will vary in each garden according to what is at hand.

The following materials are all perfect for lasagna gardens:

-grass clippings, leaves, weeds( if they haven’t gone to seed),
-fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds,tea leaves (tea bags),
-manure, compost, seaweed, shredded newspaper or junk mail
-pine needles, spent blooms, trimmings from the garden, peat moss,
-straw, hay, sawdust, wood ash.

How To Make a Lasagna Garden

Just as with edible lasagna, there is importance to the methods you use to build your lasagna garden. The first layer involves laying down something heavy over sod; like thick pads of newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes, to kill the existing grass. The second layer should consist of 2 -3 inches of water absorbent material like coir or peat moss.

I recommend coir because of the growing environmental damage caused by extracting peat moss from bogs. The next layer, a 4-8 inch layer of organic material, such as compost, that you need to spread over the coir layer.

You’ll want to alternate layers of “browns” such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings.

In general, you want your “brown” layers to be about twice as deep as your “green” layers, but there’s no need to get finicky about this. Just layer browns and greens, and a lasagna garden will result.

What you want at the end of your layering process is a two-foot tall layered bed. It is desirable to chop material (browns and greens) as small as possible.  So, they break down quicker.

If there are a lot of fall leaves in your lasagna garden, they should be shredded. Otherwise, they take a long time to break down.

Finally, the tops of the piles may be sprinkled lightly with bone meal and wood ash for added phosphorus and potassium. You’ll be amazed at how much this will shrink down in a few short weeks.

Planting a Lasagna Garden

When planting a lasagna garden, no digging is required. For transplants, simply pull back the layers of mulch, drop in the plant and pull some mulching materials back over the roots.

Sowing seeds is easy, too.

Sprinkle a little finished compost over the area you want to plant, sow the seed, and cover it with a little more of the finished compost. Press down on the bed to secure the seeds and water thoroughly. It’s that easy!

To maintain the garden, simply add mulch to the top of the bed in the form of straw, grass clippings, bark mulch, or chopped leaves. Once it’s established, you will care for a lasagna garden just as you would any other garden. Weed and water when necessary.  And, plant to your heart’s content.

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Yours truly for a great garden with outstanding veggies and flowers.

Polly-organic gardener