[.ca] Lasagna Gardening: New Layer System For Bountiful Gardens (ISBN 0875969623)

Fabulous technique for productive, organic gardens:
I believe that when it comes to books presenting new ways of doing anything, the only testimony that counts is that which comes from firsthand experience. Well folks, I'm here to tell you after a year of gardening the lasagna way that my firsthand experience shows this book is one of the wisest investments any gardener can make. Let me tell you about my 2003 garden. First, a short outline of lasagna gardening technique: soak b & w newspapers in water, then overlap sections in a single layer directly on top of premarked sod area. This smothers the weeds/grass underneath. Then put a 4 inch layer of moistened peat moss over that, followed by a moist layer of organic shredded green material, followed by another layer of peat moss, followed by a layer of moist compost or yard waste, repeat the peat moss/organic matter pattern until your bed is built up to at least 18 inches high. Finish with compost on top, then either let it break down for a few months for certain crops or plant seeds and transplants directly into the matrix by pushing aside layers and inserting. As the layers break down, the earthworms will be eating the sod and breaking up the newspapers, mixing the layers together for you. The final result is an organic, self-tilled soil that's rich and free of disease and weed seeds. It's so simple. Note: the author did neglect to mention the importance of wetting down each layer as you build the beds. I only figured this out because I had made compost before and I knew you needed moist materials for it to work. In late fall of 2002 I built a 5 foot by 25 foot border bed for perennial flowers the lasagna way after reading Patricia Lanza's book. It sounded almost too good to be true - no digging, no tilling, no weeding? What was the catch, I asked myself. When I was done I planted perennials taken from four inch pots, watered them in, and left them for the winter rains to take care of (we can do that in So. Cal, hee hee). They settled in nicely and grew steadily, but it was cool weather so the roots were doing most of the growth at that time. A few months later as top growth appeared I was encouraged to build more lasagna beds in my vegetable garden - two 5 by 5 raised beds to go with my other two traditionally tilled raised beds (those were a lot of work, double digging, sifting rocks, mixing compost, etc. I wish now that I had known about the lasagna method a few years ago!). After about two hour's work I was done layering my new vegetable beds and watered them down to compost a little. In late May, I transplanted sweet peppers and basil starts to one lasagna bed and planted cantaloupes and flowers in the other. Those two lasagna beds outperformed the traditional beds in every way. That summer I harvested more sweet peppers than ever before. It was my first try growing cantaloupes, so I have no previous crops to compare, but they did well and I harvested quite a few delicious, sun-sweetened cantaloupes from that bed. Meanwhile the flowers seemed to love the soil in my perennial bed, and they grew to huge proportions, filling in the space nicely by season's end. As promised, there was little watering and even less weeding. As a bonus, I never fertilized because the soil was already so rich in composting organic matter. Best of all, no soil-borne diseases! This was an organic gardener's paradise. Author Patricia Lanza uses plenty of real-life examples from her own gardens to illustrate the effectiveness of this technique. She explains in detail how lasagna gardening differs from traditional tilling and double digging, what the benefits are and which crops need to wait while the layers compost down and which can be put in right away. There is an alphabetical listing of ways to plant annuals and seeds in lasagna beds, a plethora of tips on maximizing your space and innovating ways to grow vertically if need be. There are also garden plans for flower borders and perennial beds grouped according to watering and sunshine needs. Please don't be afraid to break with "tradition" - you could save not only your garden tool budget, but your back as well. And if the promise of all those fruits, veggies and flowers with less work and more pleasure isn't enough for you, then you must really love that rototiller! -Andrea, aka Merribelle

another new way to garden:
I picked this book up at the library almost by mistake until I read the book title. It piqued my curiosity and I took it home. This gardening book is a boon for the upcoming retiring baby boomers, older folks or the disabled. I am disability retired but love to grow things, and we depend on our vegetable gardens to supplement our meagre pensions. I read the book through with my wife as garden co-ordinator and we have made out a plan for our first gartden of this type. We shall have 6 5' x 3' plots using 4" x 4" planks to keep the gardens in place. We shall have one plot for onion sets, one for tomatoes, one for lettuce and leafy veggies, one for strawberries, and one for the cabbage family. We like the simplicity of planting the garden as the mulch etc. will not hinder vegetative growth with the ground becoming hard, not to mention the paucity of weeds. With back pain and arthur and ritis we find it easy to work these small plots as each is narrow and we can reach across to do the planting. This book also contains a great number of ideas for staking plants and different methods of keeping plants growing upward like cukes and beans etc. to save space and get more production. In short, this handy book we have discovered tells us how to set up this type of garden, what and how to plant it, tips on insect control, the various crops which might be grown from herbs to flowers to berries. Lastly it has many resources of information to draw on. For those gardeners who are looking for a more ecological way to garden using household waste etc, and those gardeners who like to experiment with different types of gardens, I highly recommend this book. It is as compleat in all areas for this method of gardening and profusely illustrated with maps of hardiness areas and an extensive bibliography and other resource information. I don't care who invented it; I just like the idea of enjoying my gardening with perhaps a little less pain of digging and bending. Now to see if it will work and let's face it; we ain't getting any younger... Read it and try it; you just might like it even if your gardening areas are small or large. Oh yes, and if your wife likes it, gardening together will add to the domestic harmony of working together and enoying the soil and its relationship to humankind.

Nothing new under the sun.:
Whatever you call it, lasagna gardening, sheet composting, plain old fashion mulching with organic material, it is all basically the same thing and has been around for a long time. I was surprised to see a whole BOOK on the subject since the concept can be explained in a few pages. And this book proves that to be true. Actual technique is covered in the space of a long magazine article. One can find more (and better) information on lasagna gardening on line, for free, just by doing a search. I enjoyed the section on herbs, but again, it was nothing that cannot be found on line. For inexperienced gardeners or people who do not have any other gardening reference books on hand it is a good book, but for an experienced gardener, it is just so much fluff.

Lanza did not develop this technique:
The so-called lasagna method has been used by gardeners for many years. She did not develop it as she has stated. You can find this information on the web. Check this book out from the library before spending your money.

It works!:
I am a gardener since the 1970s. I have two rototillers and all kinds of other garden junk (of course to help me with my chores in the garden). My wife got the book for me and I duely ignored it for over a year. Then, having promised my wife that I would at least read a part of the book, I became facinated with the basic idea. My garden is approximately 45 by 60 ft in size. I took approximately one third of the garden and covered it with a layer of old hay, grass clippings and leaves one fall. the results were good. Not only did I get good results from my planting, I did not have to rototill or cultivate. My wife loves it because she doesnt get her shoes muddy. After three years trial I am convinced. The tillers will be cleaned up and ready for sale this next spring. anyone for