Last August, while doing a little re-design of my back garden, I decided to put into action the principals of lasagne gardening, first mentioned here.
So, underneath this swathe of bark, is a specific large semi-circle of lasagne'd grass.
The idea is that if you don't want to dig up tons of lawn area, but want some new planting areas, you can layer up cardboard, newspaper, topsoil, mulch, etc directly on top of the grass - and over the course of a few months, this will all rot down and bingo - one new flowerbed.
So, underneath this swathe of bark, is a specific large semi-circle of lasagne'd grass.The waiting has been killing me. I cannot help but sneak a peek.
Push back the bark and soil .....
Little prayer to the rotting garden gods ... newspaper and cardboard - please be gone, please have rotted away .....
Bugger - there it is, covered with a nice layer of frozen soil.
Scrape back a little more..... D'oh! Grass. Damn!
The proviso is that all this will occur in "normal" climate.
Alberta - hmmmm - mistake number one? A couple of sunny Spring-like days is not quite sufficient to set the composting fairies to work.
OK - so this lasagne needs to cook a bit longer methinks. Will check back again in May.
Oh I'm sure it will work, just needs to cook a bit more!
ReplyDeleteI have done this for years and it does work. I have found that after the first couple of rains in spring, and the paper is gone...it really does decompose and the crawlers and worms work it too. So, patience and it will cook., as Rob says.
ReplyDeleteBlessya
Thanks guys - I know, I know, patience! I was just so excited. Not that I could plant anything yet anyway, even if it was all perfect under there.
ReplyDeleteI think I honestly may be looking at June before I can go shopping at the garden centre!
The turf and paper/cardboard will rot, but it's slow in a dry climate with long winters. Keep it wet through the summer and it'll be compost by fall. Maybe.
ReplyDelete