Lasagna Gardening on Scale (w/ Video)
I have hardly been as excited to receive a package in the mail as I was to get our 250 foot roll of Weed Guard Plus. This is not a sponsored post—no, the reason I was so excited about this particular product was the potential to finally do some lasagna beds on a production scale.
For the uninitiated, lasagna style gardening is simply making layers of carbon and nitrogen (like lasagna, only for the soil and that doesn’t require an oven, just don’t). One layer may be cardboard and the next compost or food scraps or lawn clippings, then cardboard (or mix it up and do a layer of leaves), then compost, then carbon, then nitrogen—you get the idea. The process, in turn, suffocates weeds and creates deep, rich soil.
However, carbon has been a tough find in our area, especially this time of year. We can find bits and pieces here and there, but rarely enough for any real amount of bed coverage, and certainly not enough to layer beds with carbon and compost in lasagna-style. And though we did come into some cardboard, it’s hard to make that efficient. The tape and staple removal alone takes longer than for the bed to breakdown (geologic time, at least it feels that way). However, the efficiency of a one time bed setup is debatable, but we’ll save hat or another day
Then, I came across this OMRI paper mulch and realized we could knock out one of these beds in minutes. You can see how we did it in this video, and although I don’t love the idea of relying on a product to form no-till beds, in theory, if given a month or so to allow for breakdown time, this could be a reliable never-till option that could flip a garden fast. And, also in theory, you may only ever have to apply it once. When the weeds are suffocated and buried, they should no longer ever be an issue (the weeds that float in on the wind, or your boots, or your toddler, etc. are another subject), and the beds should be ready to go.
Off course, lots of trialing should take place here, but perhaps in conjunction with that new drop spreader from BCS, this could be a fast garden prep. Roll it out, cover, roll, cover, roll, cover, sow cover crop (like we did, but you don’t have to) then plant.
Check out the video and also listen to the episode of the podcast with Jared Smith, who is doing lasagna gardening on 3 acres, and check out this paper mulch. I’m kinda, ahem, digging it.
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