Lasagna Gardening Builds Soil
I was heavily influenced by Ruth Stout in my early years as a gardener back in the 70s. She advocated a style of gardening that was no-dig and heavy on mulch so that weeding was eliminated. As the mulch decays, it builds soil, and more mulch is added.
In those early years, I continued to hand dig my garden, but I did take Ruth’s advice and mulched heavily. Our gardens were productive.
But for the past 14 years we’ve taken our garden from good to great with a style of gardening that improves on Ruth Stout’s work. That style has been labeled lasagna gardening. Also known as sheet composting, a lasagna garden is built by layering organic materials which eventually will decompose into wonderful garden soil.
When to Build a Lasagna Garden
While it is preferable to build the garden several months in advance – fall is the perfect time – it really is not necessary to wait until that decomposition is complete to begin planting in your new garden. As a matter of fact, you always want SOME decomposition to be going on, since that attracts beneficial soil life.
The only drawback I’ve found to starting a lasagna garden in the spring is that it requires more watering since it is still so porous and the water runs through it more quickly than in material that is already decomposed.
What Comes to Mind When You Think of Gardening?
I always ask people what comes to mind when they think of gardening. And the end result – the vegetables, or the flowers – are usually what they mention. And that’s not wrong . . . why bother to garden if we can’t look forward to a bountiful harvest? But I always encourage people to first think “soil.”
Soil is the foundation of your garden, and your vegetables and your garden will only be as healthy as your soil. My passion is building soil, and although I’m mainly a vegetable gardener, the same principles hold true for flower gardening.
A garden with poor soil may produce fruit, but that fruit can’t possibly contain the nutrients, or taste as good, as fruit grown in soil that has provided all that is needed for its health. And plants grown in healthy soil have less problems with disease and pests.
My eBook, The Art of Gardening: Building Your Soil teaches a way to garden that combines the lasagna garden method with wood chip gardening for a super productive, healthy garden.or
No Digging: Fewer Weeds
Most people would consider digging and weeding to be the two most difficult aspects of gardening. Do you agree? Well, if you implement sheet composting, or layer gardening, you will never again have to dig a garden. And you will drastically reduce the amount of weeding that will need to be done.
It’s true that lasagna gardening takes work, but it’s work that is, to me, much easier than tilling a garden. And once your garden is prepared, yearly maintenance is simple.
How Do You Start a Garden Lasagna Style?
Start with Lasagna Gardening Layers
A lasagna garden is built right on the top of the ground. There is no need to dig first. You can build lasagna garden layers right on top of grass, and the grass itself will decompose and add nutrients to your garden.
Once you’ve decided where you want to build your garden (it can be on top of an existing garden), the first thing you will do is lay down a layer of cardboard or about a 1/4” layer of newspaper on the ground to choke out the grass and weeds. Make sure you don’t use any glossy newspaper or cardboard.
Next, wet the newspaper, because this will help it to begin to decompose and keep it in place while you are building. Now, start layering whatever organic matter you can get your hands on.
Materials Used in Lasagna Garden Layers
You may use whatever materials you have available as long as you use both “greens” and “browns”. “Greens” include materials like grass clippings and manure and provide nitrogen. “Browns” include hay and leaves and provide carbon.
- Partially decomposed tree limbs or twigs – best used as a bottom layer
- Leaves – chopped are best
- Manure – fresh is ok if you are building the garden in the fall, but otherwise use well-rotted manure, since fresh manure will burn the roots of your plants
- Weed-free hay or straw (find out which I prefer here)
- Alfalfa hay which contains a growth hormone that plants love
- Coffee grounds – just don’t overdo it – coffee filters are ok, too
- Grass clippings – either fresh or decomposed
- Shredded newspaper
Once you’ve collected your materials, you can begin to layer. The order isn’t particularly important, although bulkier items will decompose more quickly if they are on the bottom.
Keep layering until your lasagna garden is about 18” high. This will dramatically decrease as everything decomposes. I don’t know about you, but when I’m making dinner I rarely follow a recipe. Building a garden is similar. Exact proportions are just not necessary.
The only other thing I do is to add a thin layer of bone meal and blood meal every few layers. The bone meal adds phosphorous, and the blood meal add nitrogen and helps the garden to decompose more quickly. I use a lot of hay in my lasagna garden, which is high in potassium, so I’ve got the NPK covered (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium).
Once you’ve reached the desired height, add a 2″ layer of finished compost. This can be compost you have made yourself or purchased. The compost is where you will plant your seeds or seedlings. Then add a layer of mulch to preserve soil moisture and keep weeds from sprouting.
When you are ready to plant, push the mulch aside, and plant your seeds or seedlings. Wait for seeds to sprout and grow several inches before replacing the mulch. For seedlings, the mulch can be gently put back in place immediately.
Can You Plant Immediately in a Lasagna Garden?
Yes! Because decomposition has not yet begun, the layers of organic material will still be light and porous, causing water to run out more quickly. Therefore, your garden may need to be watered more often for a while.
What is lasagna gardening?
Also known as sheet composting, a lasagna garden is built by layering organic materials which eventually will decompose into wonderful garden soil.
When is the best time to build a lasagna garden?
Fall is the ideal time to build a lasagna garden because it allows time for the layered materials to begin the process of decomposition.
How do you make a lasagna garden?
Begin by placing newspaper or cardboard down to cover grass or weeds, and then alternate layers of nitrogen-rich materials like grass-clippings and coffee grounds, with carbon-rich materials like hay or leaves.
Lasagna Garden Maintenance
Yearly maintenance for lasagna gardening involves adding a new layer of material to the top of your garden each fall. Remove the dead plants from your garden and add 1″ of rotted manure or compost. Then add a layer of chopped leaves or weed-free hay or straw.
Your garden is now protected from winter storms. Come spring, if you have not been walking on your garden, your bed will be free of weeds and ready to plant without any digging.
Does Lasagna Gardening Work?
Yes! The process of layering organic materials in your garden will decompose into wonderful garden soil that provides all the nutrients your plants need to keep them disease-free.
More Organic Gardening Posts You’ll Love
10 Common Mistakes When Using Wood Chips in Your Vegetable Garden
Plastic Mulch in the Garden: Friend or Foe?
Using Wood Chip Mulch in the Vegetable Garden
Hay vs. Straw in the Garden: Which is Better?
30 of the Fastest Vegetables to Grow from My Homestead Life
Growing Potatoes: Everything You Need to Know from Hidden Springs Homestead
To learn how to build a garden that builds healthy soil, be sure to check out my eBook The Art of Gardening: Building Your Soil.
You really can become a better gardener, and you really can grow healthy, nourishing produce. It’s all about the soil! Click here to learn more.
 | The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook by Susan Mulvihil |
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Dana says
Lasagne gardening and thick mulch are my favorite ways to garden! So productive.
Mike Duke says
Hello dear. My wife and I live in a small rented house with very limited space. I can only use, at most, containers to grow vegetables. Flowers aren’t needed because of a proliferation of wisteria and honey suckle. I am very familiar with organic and French gardening techniques with planting in mass, but that was 35+ years ago. My problem is that after I get everything set up and growing, I’m usually so exhausted after getting home from work that I forget to water the potted plants. I’ m going to try a drip or timed watering system this time.
Would you have any suggestions for me. I’ m 65 and in good health but my wife has no interest in gardening.
Susan Vinskofski says
I dislike growing in pots for the same reason. They are just not as easy to take care of as plants in the ground. There are some nice self-watering systems out there such as the Earth Box. If you google it, you can even find instructions to make your own. Drip irrigation is another good idea.
Natalia says
I love the stuff that is in baby diapers they make a version that you can put in potted plants. It holds water and let’s it out slowly in your pot and then swells back up when you water.
Natalia says
Note the diaper stuff doesn’t biodegrade I use it over and over.
ginger says
Hi, what an awesome blog you have here!
I am doing my first sheet mulch now (sping time, I know it’s not the best, but what can we do). If I use horse manure can I start adding seedling after just one month? I am planning to mix it with hay to avoid the nitrogen ‘burnout’ problem.
Trying to boost the soil more than smothering the weeds
Susan Vinskofski says
If the horse manure was fresh when you put it on your garden, I’d be very hesitant to plant in it even if you use hay.
Galen Gallimore says
Susan,
Are you familiar with the work of Emilia Hazelip known as Synergistic Agriculture? Her advice is to leave the parts of the plants we don’t use in or on the soil (use the roots, leave the tops, and vice versa). This adds back what the plants have synthesized from the atmosphere, water and sunlight.
Thank you for your well-done blog promoting mulching! Best wishes for the 2017 gardening season.
Galen
Susan Vinskofski says
I haven’t heard of her, Galen but I do practice some of what you are saying. In the fall, when I’m cleaning up my garden, I cut the plant at ground level so that the roots can decompose in the soil. The rest of the plant is composted. We don’t get a lot of weeds, but those I do have get pulled out and laid on top of the soil as mulch as long as they are not gone to seed. I look at the plants as the minerals in the soil.
John W says
I am looking for advise and last Fall I put 6 bales of straw on my garden along with 1 1/2 pick-ups of Black wood much and on top of that I put another 6 bales of straw on top of that my garden is 17’ X 19’. You may ask why I did not use any hay on the last layer because I could not find any.
With this said what would you do this Spring to put some green in it?
Yes I will be planting my garden in this in the Spring at the end of May 2018.
Susan Vinskofski says
I would add some high nitrogen to get what you put down decomposing – I like to use blood meal. I also recommend a layer of compost on top so that you have somewhere to plant your seeds and seedlings. I’m a little concerned about that layer of wood chips in the middle – it may rob your garden of nitrogen as it decomposes.
Gloria says
Hi, Susan, thanks, so much for your most valuable & “blest” knowledge . . . and, sorry to post right here, if it’s the wrong place, but I’m still learning this “blog world” . . . my concern has always been around using newspapers as part of the layering for healthy organic soil… maybe it’s just me, but I feel somewhat unsure about the inks used in newspaper (I understand not to use the glossy pages) . . . I can’t help but think that, somehow, possibly even, indirectly (?) the ink would enter into our soil and counteract all our hard work to get good, healthy soil?
Susan Vinskofski says
That’s a great question, Gloria. Virtually all newspaper ink is now made primarily from soybean oil (at one time it was petroleum oil), so there should be no problem in using it in your garden. 🙂
Carol L says
EXCEPT THAT SOYBEANS ARE HORMONE MIMICS AND CAN REALLY MESS YOUR HORMONES UP.
(sorry, my caps were on!)
Susan Vinskofski says
Yes, soybeans are weakly estrogenic and I personally do not eat soybeans. But these compounds are water-soluble and therefore any concentration is greatly reduced in the process of making the ink, and if any are left, by the moisture in your soil. If you have a study that shows otherwise, I would sincerely love to see it since I am always seeking to learn.
sarah says
This is not factual. There are people around the world who eat soy products with every single meal and suffer no negative health results. To the contrary, they are among the longest lived people in the world.
CH says
Unfortunately our US soybeans are HIGHLY modified with chemicals and genetics so they are not good for us in excess any more. Other countries do not have the HUGE agra business we have (#billgates)
David jhon says
Wow. Excellent article about The Best Way to Garden. This article provides right info that’s why I think every gardener should read this article.
THANKS
Tessa Zundel says
Great article, Susan! I finally live in an area where we can get those huge, round bales easily. When we lived in the city we used wheat straw bales because they were readily available. When we lived in NC, pine straw was what was available – of the gorgeous blueberries! The benefit of the wheat bales is that some leftover wheat sprouts and you can pull it out easily for green mulch once it does.
Susan Vinskofski says
The round bales can be difficult to deal with, though, if you don’t have machinery! I love that you’ve been able to use all kinds of materials with success. That’s one of the great things about lasagna gardening!
Robert Myers says
Really Amazing Info. Thank you Susan Vinskofski, for Provide this great article, Always I am inspired to read your awesome article. Now I am clear about on Lasagna Gardening. Again Thank you, man 🙂 .
Robert Smith says
Really Amazing Job You did, A complete for Gardening, It Will Help Me. I think every gardener should read this article.
Again Thanks Man For Your Awesome Job.
Bestiee says
That’s great information. I did a search and found your blog. It’s been a big help! Thanks for sharing this blog.
Susan Vinskofski says
Thanks for stopping by!
Dara Merin says
How do you incorporate using cover crops with building a lasagna sictuation? We currently have planted a bed that had poor clay soil that we mixed with lots of composted manure and other soil, but we realize that wasn’t the best and the soil is not very fertile or rich! Oops, beginner’s mistake! We will probably continue growing in it anyways to see what happens, but come autumn, we’d like to take a different direction, but how? Do a cover crop, then dig it in and build the lasagne? Thanks for any answers! (PS We are in Northern California, so it’s warm enough to grow all year except Dec/Jan)
Susan Vinskofski says
Dara, I don’t have a lot of experience with cover crops but I would be inclined to build lasagna style over your present garden. Then, if you want a cover crop I recommend growing it between your garden vegetables like this: https://www.attainable-sustainable.net/buckwheat/.
Cyril says
What do you do with the wood mulch in the fall? Do you put compost over that?
Susan Vinskofski says
In the fall, I add a layer of compost or manure, and then mulch (wood chips or hay, for example) over that. By the following fall, that is decomposed and I again add a layer of compost or manure, and then mulch. Hope that helps!
Mike Arthur says
I was very amazed how easy this Lasagna Gardening is!
Jacki says
the first thing you will do is lay down a layer of cardboard or about a 1/4” layer of newspaper on the ground to choke out the grass and weeds. Make sure you don’t use any glossy newspaper or cardboard.
There is a contradiction in the above statement. Is cardboard ok or not ?
Susan Vinskofski says
Plain cardboard is perfect; glossy newspaper, or glossy cardboard is not. 🙂
Vladka Mervova says
I am glad I came across your article, I was looking for some ideas on fall gardening and this just popped up at me. I could use my old newspapers as well as coffee grounds! Thank you so much
Susan Vinskofski says
Happy to help; let me know if you need any more information!
sarah says
I have been utilizing Ruth Stout’s methods since the 80s and lasagna methods for many years. I am now learning that most paper products including recycled newsprint, cardboard and paper bags contain pfas chemicals which are known to be carcinogenic. What are your thoughts on this issue?
Susan Vinskofski says
Hi Sarah, this is new info for me as far as newsprint. I would like to be able to find out if plants update those chemicals and pass them on in the food we eat. Have you heard of any good alternatives for use when starting a new garden bed to keep the weeds down or kill grass?