Growing and Gardening Tip: Lasagna Garden
As I mentioned earlier, growing a Kitchen Garden teaches one to be patient and perseverant. When something doesn’t quite turn out as you hoped, you do not give up, but rather try to do things a bit differently. Not much of what I sowed, planted and nurtured grew this year, which was disappointing. I did harvest Green Onions, Salsify, Leeks and Mesclun, and heaps of Nasturtiums. But very little potatoes, no beetroot or fennel or garden peas...
This, I realised, may be because our soil is not particularly rich to start with (although I amend it with our compost), and that to grow, fruit and vegetables take everything they need from the soil, rendering it even poorer afterwards. Maybe, I did not put enough compost when I tilled and fed it last Winter. Maybe the fact that Winter lingered until early April with frosty days and snow, played a part in a less bountiful harvest, too.
Nevertheless, I took this challenge as an opportunity to try something I’ve read and heard much about, and started a Lasgana Garden!
Like the name suggest, the idea is to build up layers, “green” and “brown”, and allow them to decompose into a rich soil to grow fuit and vegetables into.
You may start at the ground level and build a “heaped” Lasagna Garden; but I decided to dig my patch about 16cm/6.30”, as I think it will be easier for me.
1. At the bottom, lay a layer of old newspapers or cardboard. This will help prevent weeds to take up all the room and soil energy in your Veg Patch.
2. Then, start with a “green” layer. This may include fruit and vegetable leftovers (or the rotten apples, plums and pears that fall from your trees at harvest time!), Coffee Grounds, lawn clippings, and wilted flowers...
Anything you’d put in your compost heap, really. These elements will bring nitrogen to your soil, enriching it immensely. The layer should be between 5-7cm/2″-2.75” high..
3. Then comes on the carbon-rich “brown” layer. It may include chopped wood. Lucky for me, our town organised an event when people came to the neighbourhoods with their industrial-sized wood chopper; all I had to do was gather branches I’d trimmed from the trees, and I didn’t risk losing a finger in the process!
You can also add fallen leaves, twigs, hay, peat moss, a bit of ashes (from wood, not coals) whatever you have handy. This layer should be 10-15cm/4″-6” high. The idea is to maintain a N/C (Nitrogen/Carbon) ratio of 1:2.
This, below are my first “green” and “brown” layers. I shall leave them, for a few days...
4. And then, repeat! This is a Lasagna Garden we’re building! I think, Autumn is the prime period to start it, as we have heaps of rotting fallen apples, dried leaves, shrub and flower trimmings, plus chopped wood! This will also allow the layers to decompose during the Winter, so that come Spring, I have a beautifully rich soil to sow and plant in!
I’ll keep you updated on the progress!