5gardens
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Lasagna Gardening Materials

Hello! I am new to this forum and new to lasagna gardening. I live in Colorado and am very excited to start this method of gardening this year. I have heard that the ideal time to start a lasagna garden is in the fall, however, I hope that it being spring now, I can still do it with no harm to my plants. My question is this, I have a variety of materials available for free and am not sure which if any I should use, what order I should layer them in and if there is anything I am missing that I should add. My neighbor has horses and has a 3 year old pile of manure mixed with pine shavings that she would love for me to take off of her hands :wink: . I have tons of cardboard from moving boxes from our recent move. I have about 15 lawn bags of dried leaves that we raked up and an unlimited supply of old hay that my neighbor needs to get rid of that I was planning on using for mulch. I have 4- 1 cu ft bags of organic potting soil left over from last years miserable attempt to grow my own veggies and I have a bale of peat moss. Would love advice on how to stack these piles and what else to add if anything? Anything else I need will have to be purchased and I am hoping to really keep that to a minimum as funds are super low right now. Thanks so much for any help you all can give me!

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I meant to reply to this today, but I didn't get the chance and now it's after midnight.... So I'll come back to it in the morning. Basically, put things that are weedy or could have weed seeds in the lower layers under the cardboard and pile the good weed-free stuff on top. This way you won't have as much weed problems since the cardboard smothers them.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Here's how to do it.

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/s ... osting.pdf

You have a good start on a pile of browns, the manure is a green.

More greens, fresh leaves, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings etc.

Save the peat moss and organic potting soil for the top.

Usually you do start in the fall so the pile is ready in the spring. But you can plant if you add about 4 inches of peat moss and potting soil to the top.

Rairdog
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Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 4:46 pm
Location: Noblesville, IN Zone 5

I am considering making one this year over old asphalt. The walls will be straw bales. The bottom will be old logs. I have lots of cardboard saved. I will use grass clipping and compost that is not mature for greens. The browns will be straw and sawdust. I should of had it done in the fall. However, like all my projects, it's all about when free materials become available. I prefer to design with what I have to avoid spending money to complete the project. I may fork out some cash to get a yard of topsoil/compost mix/peat mix so it can be planted in mid May. This is going to be for peppers and maybe more strawberries so I want low ph. I want it 2-3 ft tall when finished to keep watering to a minimum. When the straw bales break down I will pile rocks around the perimeter.



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