I have a friend who lives in town w/ lots of trees. She had to pay to have leaves removed after she raked them. Now she brings them to me & we both benefit.
People who give thumbs down are jealous.... I love the knowledge that you offer us who want to produce our own food You are the best of the best in giving information... Thank you for sharing your talents Bob Cooney Salt Lake City Utah
The magazine that I subscribed to in 1978 was called organic gardening. I still have some copies from the family house that we just went through. invaluable information
Also as far as transporting leaves, back in the late sixties the early seventies we didn't have tarps with a family of five children. So we used an old bed sheet or an old blanket and that's how we carted them
I have rocky soil, and use this basic technique for my beds, too. Works great. I usually dig a trench 3 ft wide, 12" deep the length of the bed. I remove all the rocks for the dirt pile. Then I re-fill the trench in lasagna style, while also adding layers of soil as I go, until it's mounded up a bit above the surrounding surface. Couldn't be happier
@@johnna4487I know this is old but it only takes 3 months to fully break down during the spring or fall. Assuming you leave it alone without planting, but putting plants in makes it break down faster(depending on the plant)
Happy that you do this and my father had taught us this around 1970. He had a geology major concentration and a biology minor and a junior high teacher. He also was a radar man in a submarine. We were too young to question him about 10 till 12 years old. We each had an 8 by 10 plot and we removed 2/3 of the orange colored dirt. The Rocks went to build the base of a nature path around the side of the pond
This is a wonderful video. I just sent it to a friend, she is starting a garden and doesn't want to dig, I don't blame her. This is how I started out in my new house. Thank you
I have a big pile of half-composted horse manure that I think will be perfect as part of a lasagna bed if I build it now. By next spring I reckon it will be composted nicely and ready to plant in.
You are one of my favorite garden people. I've had her book since it first came out. I have been kinda aggravated by all the you tube people doing the same thing and calling it no-till and acting like it's something new. I now about 3 acres sucking up the grass with my Gaint-Vac. I always have compost piles around the woodline. I use about anything I get for the compost piles. But mostly I alternate green and brown grass layers. Adding a layer now and then of finished compost. Just before planting I always add a heavy layer of compost. Love what you are doing. Sure wish I had TH-cam 40 years ago. Thanks again for helping so many people. I believe there's a special place in heaven for people like you.
And my father the science and math teacher, was also a geologist briefly. But he had a family to raise and couldn't remain in canada. The amazing rocks. He inspired us and three of us in our 60s now are still finding rocks in a riverbed such as the Salmon River in connecticut. And incorporate them in the landscape. We're not robbing. Just taking a handful a couple times a year wherever we're taking a hike
I do this in my planter boxes. I put a planter box at the end of the row in my garden. Then I add about two inches of moss at the bottom. Then a layer of green compost scraps followed by a layer of brown compost scraps. I add earth worms to help with decomposition. Then I water it and add another green scrap layer. After that I put a layer of the clay heavy soil from the yard on top, just enough to cover the scraps. Then I repeat the layers; green, brown, earthworms, water, green, clay. Repeat until the planter box is full. I set up a second planter box next to it and repeat the process for that one. And so on. When planting time comes I mix the box and take out any scraps that haven’t broken down yet. Those go in my stacking composter in a lasagna pattern with layers of manure and a heavier amount of earth worms, to break down more slowly. The planter box that I previously composted in gets a layer of finished worm castings from the bottom layer of the stacking unit and then I add the seeds for the new crop. I also harvest worm tea from the stacking unit as a liquid fertilizer for my crops once a week on top of regular watering. Clay soil takes a long time and a lot of plant material to amend but it’s really good at holding on to nutrients. I add garden scraps to the lasagna whenever I can. Long term it would be nice to put the soil back in the ground and grow there, but my current method is growing tons of fruits/veggies/herbs/edible flowers just fine. The average household makes about 200 lbs of compostable waste every year. Thank you for teaching people how to use it in a variety of ways in their garden.
This is one of your best videos! No gimmicks, no fuss, no dig, no cost, no fuss. Lots of flexibility. I like the idea of building your bed as the season progresses and materials become available. Thanks for posting. Cheers.
The dairy farm next to us had plenty of manure dried out in the pasture across the road. We would just break that up maybe in a bucket of water sometimes but it was not fresh. Definitely dry. So each successive year is so much simpler than the first year. We had an acre and a half of lawn and leaves that we would pile along the perimeter of our property and then source that for the rich black dirt underneath.
Just found the lasagna gardening book as I was packing to move. My father must have bought it years ago. Going to follow this when I start my new beds, have plenty of free brown and green material between the woods and grass, along with veggies in smart pots right now. Plan is to build beds in fall after renovations completed to let material start decomposing. I also bagged all my homemade compost and brought it’ll knew place to use. Did not want to just leave it, so rich and full of worms.
The first year of our 8 x 10 Gardens were the most difficult. Soil in New England is from glacial deposits. Mostly we have rock and sand and clay deposits. Because of the pond we had plenty of decaying matter at the outlet which was called black muck . And we also use kitchen scraps and turn them in every spring time. We actually saved over the winter in screwtop jars under the kitchen sink
Hahaha I love that shirt. Just thinned some seedlings today and I was brutal. I didn’t the last batch and now I have too many plants that I don’t know what to do with. They’re taking up a lot of space haha. Never making that mistake again.
Your presentation was wonderfully rich in information anyone could follow no matter what their experience level in gardening. Hat's off to you! Keep up the good work! Now I will need to watch your other videos. Thanks again!
I do this anyway adapting the dig concept, nice to see it outined in a video and given a name. The only thing is controlling for weeds as there are a lot of seeds in the bed.
Thanks for all your gardening info! I my gardening knowledge is expanding at a pace I get to control! I started my 1st lasagne compost because I have mountains of oak leaves to deal with every year, as well as a loot of cardboard! It was a struggle to keep up with the green layers but I finally met a neighbor who now supplies me with grass clippings every two weeks. I am in the forest, so I located my lasagne bed in a shadier spot, and use it as a slow compost bed, and oak leaf disposal system. I rotate spots where I bury garden and kitchen compost. I know it’s working well because this year I have 4 volunteer potato plants that moved into the bed. One was devoured by my regular deer visitors, so I dug itvup and discovered new potatoes -delicious! Now I’m using deer netting to protect the other 3 plants, and I hope to harvest potatoes in a few weeks. One question: Since my bed is so heavy on oak leaves, do I need to add any additional nutrients to get a better balanced soil? I am looking into shredding the leaves to help them avoid matting and compost more quickly.
Decomposed leaves have a lot of nutrients, but to get more I would suggest adding herbaceous ingredients like cut grass. The leaves are decomposed primarily by fungi and for a balanced soil you should have the green ingredients that are decomposed by bacteria.
It's what we did last yr. Plus another one this year. We can't physically turn our compost soo we make lasagna with our scraps/leaves/ manure ECT. This is a good way to make our clay dirt grow something. Lol
Super interesting. I think I’m going to do this just to keep the ground warm during our winter if you can call it that, (may get to 31•F for a couple days)for my citrus trees. Got to ❤️ Ca coast.
I really like the cardboard trick! I'm a new gardener and I saw it somewhere online, so when I got my raised beds ready in the spring, I put down cardboard first thing. I haven't had any problems with weeds (or in my case, mint that the previous home owner planted in the ground and let spread everywhere).
i was trying this in the yard, but just had too much loose shreded paper that worried me so i put a frame around to contain it...became a compost bin. plan is to move the bin once it breaks down and plant it in place! (can you tell i'm feelin quite clever!!!)
I got that lasagna book right after it was published. I have gardened this way for years. I was amazed to see your video because I got that book out just this morning to read again! Lol I do always put manure in my recipe. I get it free from the county fairgrounds after the fair, they have lots of it. Lol
I really look forward to your videos. I think I have seen them all. The way you present yourself and your knowledge , well it is enjoyable and refreshing. Can't wait for the next one. I have been gardening for about 50 years and I am still learning every day and I want to learn more. Take care and stay safe.
Thanks Scott. Well done step by step video on how to set this method of gardening up and explaining how you make it work for you. I am experimenting with this method in a small area of my garden to see how the cardboard breaks down and the time it takes to do so at the base of the pile.
I love the idea of using materials we & our neighbors already have on hand. Thanks for this great information. Question Gardener Scott...can I cover the pile with wet cardboard or will it rob the pile of oxygen? I was just thinking of ways to keep the squirrel off. Thanks!!
Thanks for another great video. I'm learning so much on your channel. How concerned should I be about herbicides if I'm collecting grass from curbside collection piles? I understand some of them can take a long time to break down. I live in a neighborhood where most people have landscapers take care of their lawns and don't know what's being sprayed on them.
If you aren't sure of the source, you can still collect the grass but put it in a pile or compost bin for many months. Some herbicides can take months to dissipate.
Thanks Gardener Scott. I started mine last Fall & it's looking good for Spring planting! Question: can I use a NE corner under trees in my UK garden to make more soil this way? I would love to possibly make better use of that dead spot to make more "gold"!
Sure. I've made mounds of leaves, wood chips, grass, manure, and other organic materials I had and put them in back corners of the garden. It's a good use of space.
I'm wondering about millipedes in my compost but not many earthworms, is that a good thing? There are so many, it is a little off putting when I put compost in a pot and dozens of them are moving around. Could it be that the pile too wet? Thank you for all of your very informative well organized videos. They are a wonderful resource for any gardener!
Millipededes can be good because they digest decaying organic matter. They like wet conditions so drying things out may reduce their numbers or cause them to move.
Gardener Scott, thx for another wonderful video. Would the weed seed heads be inoculated with the heat from the pile or would these become viable later in the planting process? Just wondering. Thx again and keep it up! Name is Brian 🤙🏽
I'd thought this up some years ago as a project for my future garden even before I'd heard of lasagna gardening. That brought confirmation it actually works. I had thought of adding some horse manure too. Would you recommend it?
Horse manure is not super-rich in nutrients but it sure has organic matter and holds water. Beneficial crawlies seem to like it as well. Just be sure it's not contaminated with persistent herbicides, that can be a bit of a nightmare.
The dirt here is hard red clay. Breaking the ground is a nightmare. I’ve decided to try Lazzagna. Some of the steps I’ve taken in prep might help someone. Ive been collecting boxes from a food market. I’ve got a decent chicken poo, leaves and coffee ground compost pile cooking. Turning it once a week. It’s been 6 weeks and the leaves are broke down enough they are almost gone. Starbucks gives me big bags of grounds nightly. I’ve collected hundreds of pounds of spent coffee grounds. Getting free woodchips via piles the state has on a road project nearby. Workers told me I could take as much as I wanted. Some of it is halfway composted. The city gives away free leave compost for my dirt rows. If your area takes leaves then you can likely get compost there too. I’m sprouting my own plants. Do I need to worry about leaching from the woodchips affecting the soil/plants? I do have to feed my chickens but I spent zero getting the stuff for my garden. Just a lot of labor getting going.
I use pruned foliage as mulch, too. I've been layering my garden for a few weeks now with different stuff and my plants are growing amazingly well! You don't always need to buy fertiliser either, you just dig a nice big hole and throw some rotten meat in there but not too close to the roots of the plants of course, and then you fill that hole again and just leave it. This will eventually decompose and make the ground fertile by itself. This may not work if you guys get a lot of animals digging up the garden though. I'm pretty lucky in that sense, and I don't put any leftover meat and other rotten stuff in my garden all of the time, only once in awhile like every three or four months or something.
I was wondering about critters and how to do this using some of my kitchen compost. I want to do this so much but we have skunks and racoons around here.
Thanks for the great video! I am looking to build raised beds in my backyard this year, but I also want to incorporate the lasagna gardening method and plan to use peat and compost. I have a bad back so the beds might be 2-3 feet high and they will be build onto of established garden soil. Would you say this is possible and would I just incorporate the peat as a brown layer and compost in between green/brown? Thanks again!
It's a good concept. Legumes like peas can add nitrogen to soil if they aren't allowed to flower and set pods. Even then it's usually not enough to fully support the growth of other plants.
It certainly can't hurt. As Scott said nitrogen fixing cover crops won't provide all the N you'll need, but it's a start. Always having roots in the ground helps get the beneficial microbes going, too... and creates all sorts of pathways in the soil for water and air. I don't tear the cover crop roots out, just cut them down tight and plant right into it. The old roots will just break down and become part of the soil again.
That can be effective. Hugelkutur uses fungi to break down the material primarily and lasagna uses bacteria, so the blend can make a very healthy soil.
Scott I have piles of grass, pine needles, leaves etc on my property but I find the ants love to live in them. I don’t want the ants in my raised beds so I don’t know what to do with the ants😢
Maybe not, but it depends on your climate. It can take months for the material to decompose so if you have warm conditions and can keep the bed moist it might be usable for planting this year.
Hey Gardener Scott, I tried this method and was good except, I have Bermuda grass, it grew up through the cardboard and was a total bear to pull up and I was never able to get really rid of it. How can I do this type of gardening when I have this type of grass? Thanks love your videos.
I would avoid herbicides and just layer your cardboard twice to three times as much. Overlapping pieces so there’s no cracks for it to grow through. Past that, just staying on top of weeding (I know, I hate it too)
Ooh Garfield is gonna like this one.
Is this shirt for sale? I love it!
I love the simplicity of building this type of garden bed. I love the idea of recycling, reusing, using what you have. Mother nature is amazing.
I have a friend who lives in town w/ lots of trees. She had to pay to have leaves removed after she raked them. Now she brings them to me & we both benefit.
Free is my favourite price gardener Scott 😁
a tip : watch series on Flixzone. I've been using them for watching all kinds of movies lately.
@Avi Layne Yup, I've been watching on flixzone for since november myself :)
People who give thumbs down are jealous....
I love the knowledge that you offer us who want to produce our own food
You are the best of the best in giving information... Thank you for sharing your talents
Bob Cooney
Salt Lake City Utah
Bob Cooney Scott is ONE of the better gardeners in giving advice and knowledge
Bob Cooney I did not see any thumbs down
@@judithmiller6289 there's 6thumbs down right now
The magazine that I subscribed to in 1978 was called organic gardening. I still have some copies from the family house that we just went through. invaluable information
Also as far as transporting leaves, back in the late sixties the early seventies we didn't have tarps with a family of five children. So we used an old bed sheet or an old blanket and that's how we carted them
I have rocky soil, and use this basic technique for my beds, too. Works great. I usually dig a trench 3 ft wide, 12" deep the length of the bed. I remove all the rocks for the dirt pile. Then I re-fill the trench in lasagna style, while also adding layers of soil as I go, until it's mounded up a bit above the surrounding surface. Couldn't be happier
@oak knobs farm how long does it take to break down?
@@johnna4487I know this is old but it only takes 3 months to fully break down during the spring or fall. Assuming you leave it alone without planting, but putting plants in makes it break down faster(depending on the plant)
Happy that you do this and my father had taught us this around 1970. He had a geology major concentration and a biology minor and a junior high teacher. He also was a radar man in a submarine. We were too young to question him about 10 till 12 years old. We each had an 8 by 10 plot and we removed 2/3 of the orange colored dirt. The Rocks went to build the base of a nature path around the side of the pond
Awesome@@MrThatguy333
I love free! And the idea I can do this in my raised bed over many months. More money to spend on plants and seeds!
This is a wonderful video. I just sent it to a friend, she is starting a garden and doesn't want to dig, I don't blame her. This is how I started out in my new house. Thank you
I have a big pile of half-composted horse manure that I think will be perfect as part of a lasagna bed if I build it now. By next spring I reckon it will be composted nicely and ready to plant in.
You are one of my favorite garden people. I've had her book since it first came out. I have been kinda aggravated by all the you tube people doing the same thing and calling it no-till and acting like it's something new. I now about 3 acres sucking up the grass with my Gaint-Vac. I always have compost piles around the woodline. I use about anything I get for the compost piles. But mostly I alternate green and brown grass layers. Adding a layer now and then of finished compost. Just before planting I always add a heavy layer of compost. Love what you are doing. Sure wish I had TH-cam 40 years ago. Thanks again for helping so many people. I believe there's a special place in heaven for people like you.
And my father the science and math teacher, was also a geologist briefly. But he had a family to raise and couldn't remain in canada. The amazing rocks. He inspired us and three of us in our 60s now are still finding rocks in a riverbed such as the Salmon River in connecticut. And incorporate them in the landscape. We're not robbing. Just taking a handful a couple times a year wherever we're taking a hike
I do this in my planter boxes. I put a planter box at the end of the row in my garden. Then I add about two inches of moss at the bottom. Then a layer of green compost scraps followed by a layer of brown compost scraps. I add earth worms to help with decomposition. Then I water it and add another green scrap layer. After that I put a layer of the clay heavy soil from the yard on top, just enough to cover the scraps. Then I repeat the layers; green, brown, earthworms, water, green, clay. Repeat until the planter box is full. I set up a second planter box next to it and repeat the process for that one. And so on. When planting time comes I mix the box and take out any scraps that haven’t broken down yet. Those go in my stacking composter in a lasagna pattern with layers of manure and a heavier amount of earth worms, to break down more slowly. The planter box that I previously composted in gets a layer of finished worm castings from the bottom layer of the stacking unit and then I add the seeds for the new crop. I also harvest worm tea from the stacking unit as a liquid fertilizer for my crops once a week on top of regular watering. Clay soil takes a long time and a lot of plant material to amend but it’s really good at holding on to nutrients. I add garden scraps to the lasagna whenever I can. Long term it would be nice to put the soil back in the ground and grow there, but my current method is growing tons of fruits/veggies/herbs/edible flowers just fine. The average household makes about 200 lbs of compostable waste every year. Thank you for teaching people how to use it in a variety of ways in their garden.
Sounds excellent
Show the green moss growing on one side of my lawn is going to be incorporated. I was just considering that before I reconstruct the surface
This is one of your best videos! No gimmicks, no fuss, no dig, no cost, no fuss. Lots of flexibility. I like the idea of building your bed as the season progresses and materials become available. Thanks for posting. Cheers.
The dairy farm next to us had plenty of manure dried out in the pasture across the road. We would just break that up maybe in a bucket of water sometimes but it was not fresh. Definitely dry. So each successive year is so much simpler than the first year. We had an acre and a half of lawn and leaves that we would pile along the perimeter of our property and then source that for the rich black dirt underneath.
Just found the lasagna gardening book as I was packing to move. My father must have bought it years ago. Going to follow this when I start my new beds, have plenty of free brown and green material between the woods and grass, along with veggies in smart pots right now. Plan is to build beds in fall after renovations completed to let material start decomposing. I also bagged all my homemade compost and brought it’ll knew place to use. Did not want to just leave it, so rich and full of worms.
The first year of our 8 x 10 Gardens were the most difficult. Soil in New England is from glacial deposits. Mostly we have rock and sand and clay deposits. Because of the pond we had plenty of decaying matter at the outlet which was called black muck . And we also use kitchen scraps and turn them in every spring time. We actually saved over the winter in screwtop jars under the kitchen sink
Great video. Oh yeah, I'm totally going to build one of these myself. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lasagna to get out of the oven
Hahaha I love that shirt. Just thinned some seedlings today and I was brutal. I didn’t the last batch and now I have too many plants that I don’t know what to do with. They’re taking up a lot of space haha. Never making that mistake again.
Your presentation was wonderfully rich in information anyone could follow no matter what their experience level in gardening. Hat's off to you! Keep up the good work! Now I will need to watch your other videos. Thanks again!
I do this anyway adapting the dig concept, nice to see it outined in a video and given a name. The only thing is controlling for weeds as there are a lot of seeds in the bed.
I agree. It is a plus to add scoops of soil or compost into the mix.
Love your " I kill " T-shirt !!! 💕
Thanks for all your gardening info! I my gardening knowledge is expanding at a pace I get to control!
I started my 1st lasagne compost because I have mountains of oak leaves to deal with every year, as well as a loot of cardboard! It was a struggle to keep up with the green layers but I finally met a neighbor who now supplies me with grass clippings every two weeks. I am in the forest, so I located my lasagne bed in a shadier spot, and use it as a slow compost bed, and oak leaf disposal system. I rotate spots where I bury garden and kitchen compost. I know it’s working well because this year I have 4 volunteer potato plants that moved into the bed. One was devoured by my regular deer visitors, so I dug itvup and discovered new potatoes -delicious! Now I’m using deer netting to protect the other 3 plants, and I hope to harvest potatoes in a few weeks. One question: Since my bed is so heavy on oak leaves, do I need to add any additional nutrients to get a better balanced soil? I am looking into shredding the leaves to help them avoid matting and compost more quickly.
Decomposed leaves have a lot of nutrients, but to get more I would suggest adding herbaceous ingredients like cut grass. The leaves are decomposed primarily by fungi and for a balanced soil you should have the green ingredients that are decomposed by bacteria.
It's what we did last yr. Plus another one this year. We can't physically turn our compost soo we make lasagna with our scraps/leaves/ manure ECT. This is a good way to make our clay dirt grow something. Lol
Steve is a great guy
I love this idea of using stuff throughtout the year in next years lasagna garden, keep expanding every year!
Very helpful for finally getting this started!👍
O yeah...!! I like your conversation style sir. You are legend agri field mentore..!! Best wishes for you always..
Fantastic!
Super interesting. I think I’m going to do this just to keep the ground warm during our winter if you can call it that, (may get to 31•F for a couple days)for my citrus trees. Got to ❤️ Ca coast.
I really like the cardboard trick! I'm a new gardener and I saw it somewhere online, so when I got my raised beds ready in the spring, I put down cardboard first thing. I haven't had any problems with weeds (or in my case, mint that the previous home owner planted in the ground and let spread everywhere).
Thanks for the video Scott. Love the tshirts!
this is the video i've been needing to see. thanks so much.
Love the shirt 😂
Thank you so much for your videos. I learned so much from you. Keep them coming? Much appreciation from Bulgaria.
Every one needs a buddy Steve.
i was trying this in the yard, but just had too much loose shreded paper that worried me so i put a frame around to contain it...became a compost bin. plan is to move the bin once it breaks down and plant it in place! (can you tell i'm feelin quite clever!!!)
Commenting on this video less than a min after it was posted. Theres already a down thumb?! Wth, people?
Is there such thing as dislike bots?
Probably just a missclick by someone who was too eager to start the learning experience
Think the thumbs down is going on a lot. We all keep getting it
It may be because of the type of composting... I can think of some issues.
Alyssa McK some people are just plain mean!
Georgeus 🌱🌱🌱🌱🤗⛄🌨
I got that lasagna book right after it was published. I have gardened this way for years. I was amazed to see your video because I got that book out just this morning to read again! Lol I do always put manure in my recipe. I get it free from the county fairgrounds after the fair, they have lots of it. Lol
One of the better videos/explanations of lasagna gardening. I'm hoping we'll be able to move to another place where I can try it out. Thanks, Scott.
Definitely will do this! I have horrible clay soil and i want to plant squash . Time to collect the material!
I love your shirt 😂
Great video.. easy to follow and very informative ❤😊
I really look forward to your videos. I think I have seen them all. The way you present yourself and your knowledge , well it is enjoyable and refreshing. Can't wait for the next one. I have been gardening for about 50 years and I am still learning every day and I want to learn more. Take care and stay safe.
Wow, thank you!
Starting this this evening as soon as it cools off. Thanks Scott!
Trying it this fall! Turning a rocky hill into a garden wish me luck.
Good luck!
I like cooking too.
Really excellent video!
Just got done reading the book "Lasagna Gardening" and loved it. Thanks for the video 😀
Thanks Scott. Well done step by step video on how to set this method of gardening up and explaining how you make it work for you. I am experimenting with this method in a small area of my garden to see how the cardboard breaks down and the time it takes to do so at the base of the pile.
Sounds like a very good way to compost. I have heard of this but never tried it.I wish I had the room to try it.
Great video Mr. Lebowski.
great video and info. Thxs. Greetings from Argentina
thank you
Good stuff. Compost piles are over-rated. Just toss it into the garden.
I absolutely love your videos! I learned so much! Thank you for sharing so many details
Totally brilliant!!! Absolutely loved and learned much
I like your shirt :)
minus the sweat LOL
Love the shirt.
Very nice in depth information 👍
Love that shirt!
Thanks! It's available in my merchandise store that you can access under my videos.
If I already have a garden with plants in it, but with very hard clay soil, do I do this method between, around the plants?
Don’t forget to add urine. Yes regular ole pee will help it decomposes fast with lots of nitrogen. Plus it us free liquid gold and better than water.
Getting the materials is the hard part , are you just making compost with this lasagna style gardening ?Good video Scott.
When you trim your tomatoes what do you do with the trimmings? Compost it??
Most is composted, but I let small trimmings stay on the ground as extra mulch.
@@GardenerScott can you do this with tomatoes trimmings with powdery mildew? Or do you toss that?
I love the idea of using materials we & our neighbors already have on hand. Thanks for this great information. Question Gardener Scott...can I cover the pile with wet cardboard or will it rob the pile of oxygen? I was just thinking of ways to keep the squirrel off. Thanks!!
The cardboard will reduce oxygen levels until it begins to break down but it is better than plastic.
@@GardenerScott will remove soon as i can then when food scraps start to degrade. Thanks Scott.
Thanks for another great video. I'm learning so much on your channel. How concerned should I be about herbicides if I'm collecting grass from curbside collection piles? I understand some of them can take a long time to break down. I live in a neighborhood where most people have landscapers take care of their lawns and don't know what's being sprayed on them.
If you aren't sure of the source, you can still collect the grass but put it in a pile or compost bin for many months. Some herbicides can take months to dissipate.
Thanks Gardener Scott. I started mine last Fall & it's looking good for Spring planting! Question: can I use a NE corner under trees in my UK garden to make more soil this way? I would love to possibly make better use of that dead spot to make more "gold"!
Sure. I've made mounds of leaves, wood chips, grass, manure, and other organic materials I had and put them in back corners of the garden. It's a good use of space.
Thats perfect. I appreciate your reply. All best to you Gardener Scott.
I'm wondering about millipedes in my compost but not many earthworms, is that a good thing? There are so many, it is a little off putting when I put compost in a pot and dozens of them are moving around. Could it be that the pile too wet? Thank you for all of your very informative well organized videos. They are a wonderful resource for any gardener!
Millipededes can be good because they digest decaying organic matter. They like wet conditions so drying things out may reduce their numbers or cause them to move.
Gardener Scott, thx for another wonderful video. Would the weed seed heads be inoculated with the heat from the pile or would these become viable later in the planting process? Just wondering. Thx again and keep it up! Name is Brian 🤙🏽
This won't heat up like a compost pile so the seeds will stay viable. I use weeds with flower heads but before they set seed.
I'd thought this up some years ago as a project for my future garden even before I'd heard of lasagna gardening. That brought confirmation it actually works. I had thought of adding some horse manure too. Would you recommend it?
Horse manure is not super-rich in nutrients but it sure has organic matter and holds water. Beneficial crawlies seem to like it as well. Just be sure it's not contaminated with persistent herbicides, that can be a bit of a nightmare.
Yes, horse manure can be good. However, if the horses use salt licks I don't recommend it.
@@GardenerScott Thank you!
How long would it take to break down to usable soil, on average? Thank you for this great idea!
Much depends on temperatures and moisture levels. Warm, moist conditions can break it down in a few months. It will take longer when drier and cooler.
Should you add worms or will that take care of itself?
My local worms always find it. I've never had to add any.
Especially with leaves you won’t be able to count how many will live there
The dirt here is hard red clay. Breaking the ground is a nightmare. I’ve decided to try Lazzagna. Some of the steps I’ve taken in prep might help someone. Ive been collecting boxes from a food market. I’ve got a decent chicken poo, leaves and coffee ground compost pile cooking. Turning it once a week. It’s been 6 weeks and the leaves are broke down enough they are almost gone. Starbucks gives me big bags of grounds nightly. I’ve collected hundreds of pounds of spent coffee grounds. Getting free woodchips via piles the state has on a road project nearby. Workers told me I could take as much as I wanted. Some of it is halfway composted. The city gives away free leave compost for my dirt rows. If your area takes leaves then you can likely get compost there too. I’m sprouting my own plants. Do I need to worry about leaching from the woodchips affecting the soil/plants? I do have to feed my chickens but I spent zero getting the stuff for my garden. Just a lot of labor getting going.
I use pruned foliage as mulch, too. I've been layering my garden for a few weeks now with different stuff and my plants are growing amazingly well! You don't always need to buy fertiliser either, you just dig a nice big hole and throw some rotten meat in there but not too close to the roots of the plants of course, and then you fill that hole again and just leave it. This will eventually decompose and make the ground fertile by itself. This may not work if you guys get a lot of animals digging up the garden though. I'm pretty lucky in that sense, and I don't put any leftover meat and other rotten stuff in my garden all of the time, only once in awhile like every three or four months or something.
I was wondering about critters and how to do this using some of my kitchen compost. I want to do this so much but we have skunks and racoons around here.
Thanks for the great video! I am looking to build raised beds in my backyard this year, but I also want to incorporate the lasagna gardening method and plan to use peat and compost. I have a bad back so the beds might be 2-3 feet high and they will be build onto of established garden soil. Would you say this is possible and would I just incorporate the peat as a brown layer and compost in between green/brown? Thanks again!
You can definitely do this in a raised bed. The peat is a brown. I like the idea of compost as extra layers too.
@@GardenerScott Thanks a lot!
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That would take some serious patience to hold off for a year.
Thinking out loud... I wonder if you initially plant nitrogen fixating plants like peas, then you can start growing without adding fertilizer.
It's a good concept. Legumes like peas can add nitrogen to soil if they aren't allowed to flower and set pods. Even then it's usually not enough to fully support the growth of other plants.
It certainly can't hurt. As Scott said nitrogen fixing cover crops won't provide all the N you'll need, but it's a start. Always having roots in the ground helps get the beneficial microbes going, too... and creates all sorts of pathways in the soil for water and air. I don't tear the cover crop roots out, just cut them down tight and plant right into it. The old roots will just break down and become part of the soil again.
would be more effective mixing hugelkultur and lasagna system to create a top soil?
That can be effective. Hugelkutur uses fungi to break down the material primarily and lasagna uses bacteria, so the blend can make a very healthy soil.
What keeps the weeds and cut grasses from sowing their own seeds into the bed?
If you cut the grass before it sets seed it will keep new plants from growing.
Everything needs to be untreated correct?? I haven't got access to ingredients that haven't been treated. Help
Untreated is best, but most herbicides and pesticides will break down over time during the decomposition process.
I wonder how a straw and manure "lasagna" would work for growing tomatoes. Hmmmm.
I've used that mix for potatoes with success.
I think it would be excellent especially if you let it break down for a while. After all, some people plant right in bales or piles of straw...
Works very well. I owned horses for many years and composted many tons of manure this way.
Did the same but added grass as green material.a little afraid now that u said grass is considered brown material.Will I face any problems?
It depends on the grass, but you shouldn't have problems. I use dried grass so it is a brown. Fresh cut grass is a green.
I live in an extremely windy area- what can I do to keep my layers from blowing away?
Here's one of the things I do: th-cam.com/video/4L-SYnwJ3ME/w-d-xo.html
I can never find enough green compost.
Scott I have piles of grass, pine needles, leaves etc on my property but I find the ants love to live in them. I don’t want the ants in my raised beds so I don’t know what to do with the ants😢
Ants can be good to improve soil drainage and add organic material into soil. Unless they are fire ants I let them do their job in the garden.
Does the grass clippings have to be fresh or can they be dried out?
Either way. Green grass can clump together so I usually mix it with other material.
I noticed that you didn't set up the lasagna in a "pan" or other type of established bed. Was that intentional?
Yes. The original point of lasagna beds is to quickly and cheaply make a bed where there wasn't one before, like right on top of a lawn.
Yes. It's intended to be as easy a way to build a bed as possible. I do use similar methods in established beds. Thanks for the comment, Matt.
Can I use the grocery store brown paper bags instead of cardboard?
Sure.
What about the crabgrass can I layer over that?
The cardboard and depth of organic matter should be enough to smother the crabgrass.
It being January, is it too late to do a lasagna garden for this upcoming spring?
Maybe not, but it depends on your climate. It can take months for the material to decompose so if you have warm conditions and can keep the bed moist it might be usable for planting this year.
@@GardenerScott I guess it won't hurt to start small and try.
Thanks for the response and for sharing your knowledge!
Just be sure the grass doesn't have herbicides/pesticides on it!
Gardener Scott - Why are trees behind you bare? Just curious.
We had temperatures that dropped into single digit lows during April. It killed the leaf buds of many trees in my area.
@@GardenerScott my heart goes out to a gardener. it's hard work but rewarding. i saw the hail damage. stay strong. i watch everyone of your videos.
Nice Shirt 😛
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Hey Gardener Scott, I tried this method and was good except, I have Bermuda grass, it grew up through the cardboard and was a total bear to pull up and I was never able to get really rid of it. How can I do this type of gardening when I have this type of grass? Thanks love your videos.
Bermuda grass is a difficult problem. An herbicide to kill the Bermuda grass and then cardboard on top of that may work.
@@GardenerScott Thank you for answering.
I would avoid herbicides and just layer your cardboard twice to three times as much. Overlapping pieces so there’s no cracks for it to grow through. Past that, just staying on top of weeding (I know, I hate it too)