How to Make a Lasagna Garden

Preparing a garden the traditional way – with herbicides, a shovel, and a rototiller – is hard work. Starting your beds with a lasagna garden is much easier and doesn’t require any power tools. Master Gardener Ginny Fletcher demonstrates how to build a lasagna garden. Essentially, a lasagna garden is a large compost pile built on top the ground. Ginny recommends starting by laying down several layers of cardboard or thick newspaper and watering to keep them in place. The cardboard or newspaper will smother all the existing grass and weeds without herbicide. Then she layers organic material on top as follows:

•    Layer 1:  Sheets of Cardboard or Newspaper
•    Layer 2:  Peat Moss, animal manure, lawn clippings or kitchen veggie scraps
•    Layer 3:  Shredded leaves or straw
•    Layer 4:  Peat moss, animal manure, kitchen veggie scraps or lawn clippings
•    Layer 5:  Shredded newspaper, garden soil, straw or shredded leaves
•    Layer 6:  Peat moss, manure, lawn clippings or kitchen veggie scraps
•    Layer 7:  Compost

Repeat layers 2 through 7 until you obtain the height you want which is usually 18-24 inches.
You can sprinkle bone meal, wood ash, or other amendments on the pile to contribute other nutrients. The best time to do a lasagna garden is in the fall when the layers will have time to compost over the winter so in the spring you can plant directly into the lasagna. If you build the lasagna garden in the spring, cover the layers with garden soil so your plants will have something to grow in while the rest breaks down.

Related Videos:
Tilling and Amending a New Garden
Composting

Related Resources:
Sheet mulching — aka lasagna composting — builds soil, saves time
Multiple benefits of a lasagna-style heritage garden