Tag Archive: organic


Green Gold – 7 reasons for using green manures

Filed under: Gardening techniques, Power of 7- tips, Soils and soil improvement — 4 Comments
17/06/2013
Phacelia tanacetifolia, a 'green manure' that's good to look at and attractive to beneficial insects.

Phacelia tanacetifolia, a ‘green manure’ that’s good to look at and attractive to beneficial insects.

I’ve just been reading about green manures, from a small prize I won at my induction training as a ‘Master Composter’. The prize is a slim booklet produced by Garden Organic and it focuses on the use of green or ‘living’ manure in the garden. So, what is a green manure?

‘a plant which is grown to benefit the soil, not, as some might suppose, under-ripe animal dung!’

I’ve had a couple of tries with green manure (mainly because I like the flowers of Phacelia), but have not been totally convinced of its value – it’s hard to check what benefits it brings unless you conduct some sort of rigourous trial, of course. Anyway, this booklet is giving me the confidence to do more and so I thought I’d share its contents with you in a short series of ‘bite sized’ articles over the next few weeks.

Apparently green manures have been used by farmers for centuries to improve their land and gardeners have begun to realise their value too. Seed companies have begun to stock green manure seeds in packets sized for the average garden. They are most often used in the vegetable plot, but can also be used in other areas. In later articles I’ll cover where and when to use them; some of the plants and their benefits; how to choose and grow the right plants and what to do when you’re ready to use them. Today I’m focusing on seven reasons why to use green manure.

1.To feed the soil – green manure crops ‘mop up’ and hold onto soil nutrients and some deep-rooted types can actually gather nutrients from depths that other plants cannot access. By absorbing nutrients the roots prevent it being washed down into sub soil. Once green manures are turned into the soil the nutrients are ready to be taken up by the next crop.

2. To protect and improve soil structure – green manures help to protect the soil surface from the effects of heavy rain (mainly soil compaction and surface ‘panning’). This is a benefit for both clay and sand – dominated soils where organic matter reduces compaction in the former and helps water and nutrient retention in the latter.

3. To stimulate soil micro organisms – when dug in green manures feed and stimulate microscopic creatures that in the process of decomposing this organic matter boost soil health, which in turn helps to develop strong plants.

4. To prevent weed invasion – nature abhors a vacuum/ bare soil – as soon as plants are removed new ones will try to move in and these can often be weeds. Green manures tend to germinate quickly so can be a quick way of covering bare soil and smothering young weed seedlings, also eliminating the need for constant hoeing to remove the weeds.

5. To control pests – some beneficial crittters (like frogs and beetles) love the shady, damp ground under a green manure. Some green manures can be planted to distract flying insects away from crops you want to protect; e.g. underplanting Brassicas with Trefoil disguises the outline of the crop and seems to deter cabbage root fly. Likewise a small patch of Phacelia tanacetifolia or Clover, if allowed to flower, will attract insects that prey on many garden pests.

6. To improve the look of the garden – a green manure or ‘cover crop’ will not ony help to prevent weeds but can look attractive of itself. Some also help to fix nitrogen in the soil which will help plant growth.

7. To ‘rest’ your soil – after a period of intensive cultivation, soil can benefit from lying fallow for a season. Most usual in the vegetable garden, it’s a technique that can be useful in the ornamental garden especially where a new border is to be planted up.

Crimson Clover - another green manure that looks good and helps to 'fix' ntrogen in the soil

Crimson Clover – another green manure that looks good and helps to ‘fix’ ntrogen in the soil

So, on paper the case for using green manures is a strong one. My kitchen garden is currently straining under the weight of the many different crops I have growing in every available patch of soil (and some containers too). But in a month or two, once some crops have been harvested, and where I haven’t planned for any new crops, I’m going to put in a green manure. In next week’s article I’ll cover just where and when to use these valuable plants.

Source: ‘Green Manures’- Garden Organic Guide. September 2010

Old School Gardener

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Style Counsel: Productive Gardens

Filed under: Design, Grow your own food, Style Counsel: snippets on garden styles — 11 Comments
28/05/2013
The Kitchen Garden in Old School Garden- my attempt to create something productive and also pleasant to look at.

The Kitchen Garden in Old School Garden- my attempt to create something productive and also pleasant to look at.

This week’s ‘snippet on style’ looks at Productive Gardens- those where the emphasis is on growing food.

The layout of productive gardens tends to be orderly, with geometric beds separated by paths for ease of maintenance and access. Beds are often a maximum of 1.5 metres wide along two parallel sides to prevent the need for walking on the soil. Materials can vary but are often utilitarian rather than ornamental (unless the garden is intended as an ornamental kitchen garden or French ‘potager’). Concrete slabs, brick paths or even compacted earth are common  surfaces. Planting varies seasonally and may rotate to reduce the risks of pests and diseases and to avoid sapping the soil by growing the same crops each year. Other features of productive gardens include:

  • raised beds

  • wide paths

  • rustic obelisks

  • planting in rows or blocks

  • simple if any decoration and with a practical angle- e.g. ornamental bird scarers

An attractive inter planting of different lettuce with chives along the edge of the bed
Raised beds enable a style of gardening which minimises the need for digging the plot, esepcially if large amounts of organic matter are added to the surface in the autumn and/or spring. They can be different heights too, so that for those with difficulty bending or in a wheelchair, the growing surface can be at a convenient level.
Vertical planting- such as fan or espalier trained fruit bushes – can be an efficient way of maximising growing space in productive gardens, and they add visual interest too.
Orderly food growing areas can be attractive in their own right
Productive gardens can also look good, if vegetables with different leaf shape and/or colour and companion plants are interplantedProductive gardens can also look good, if vegetables with different leaf shape and/or colour and companion plants are interplanted
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Here’s an example of a productive garden shared between two neighbours.Communal food growing also takes place at larger scales, for whole neighbourhoods in shared beds or in long established ‘allotments’ where each tenant gardens their own plot.

If you're a keen cook and you have the space, you may want to create a special herb garden like this- or if not just find a sunny spot for a few fragrant favourites!

If you’re a keen cook and you have the space, you may want to create a special herb garden like this – or if not just find a sunny spot for a few fragrant favourites!

Let me know what you think makes a Productive style garden, and if you have some pictures I’d love to see them!

Links/ further information:

Garden Organic

RHS Campaign for School Gardening

Food for Life- school gardening

Growing communities

Space for food growing- free guide

Vertical veg

RHS- grow your own food

Food growing case studies – pdf

Other posts in the series:

Japanese Gardens

Country Gardens

Modernist Gardens

Formal Gardens

Mediterranean Gardens

Cottage gardens

Old School Gardener

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GQT: What is a soil pan?

Filed under: Gardening techniques, GQT: your gardening queries answered, Soils and soil improvement — Leave a comment
23/05/2013
A profile of a typical 'podzol' showing the grey layer of leached out minerals below the dark top level of soil
A profile of a typical ‘podzol’ showing the grey layer of leached out minerals below the dark top level of soil

This week, ‘Gardener’s Question Time’ features soil. A Mr. T. Breck asks:

‘What is a soil pan? I think I may have one in my sandy soil here in south west Norfolk, as my plants don’t seem to be growing very well. Can I do anything to get rid of this?’

Well Mr. Breck, it does sound as though you may have a soil pan. This occurs when certain soil minerals are washed down through the soil by rain lodging some way below the surface. It does often happen in sandy soil containing a high proportion of iron. Over a period of time the minerals weld together to form a hard layer impervious to water. This layer restricts the downward spread of plant roots, so that poor growth results. In former heathland or coniferous forest areas (which is broadly speaking what much of south west Norfolk used to be) these soils may be termed ‘podzols’.

A similar situation can happen if a rotary cultivator is used regularly and its tines  are set at the same depth on each occasion – the action of the tiller blades causes soil compaction at that depth. You can avoid creating this pan by varying the depth of the rotivation.

To remove a pan it’s a case of digging deep and using a pick or fork to break up the welded layer of minerals and incorporating as much organic material (leaf mould, compost, manure) with the replaced topsoil.

More difficult hardpans may be further improved through the action of both adjusting the soil pH with lime if the soil is acidic, and with the addition of gypsum. This combination can help loosen clay particles bound into a hardpan by the actions of hard salts such as iron, calcium carbonate and sodium, by promoting their mobility. It is likely that mechanical removal of the soil pan and some changes to the soil structure as suggested above will be the most successful strategy, rather than relying on just one approach.

Adding home made compost or other organic matter to your soil will improve its structure and nutrient levels

Adding home made compost or other organic matter to your soil will improve its structure and nutrient levels

Whilst we are talking about soil it is perhaps worth just noting what soil actually is. It is made up of many different ingredients including varying proportions of clay, silt and sand. A soil containing a high proportion of clay is considered to be heavy and, whilst rich in nutrients, is often difficult to cultivate, especially when wet. Sandy soils, on the other hand, are light and easy to work, even after rain.

The soil here in the Old School Garden is a sandy loam and is a joy to cultivate, though I do have to add organic material to improve its moisture retention and nutrient levels. So, decomposing plant remains (or other organic material) is another important ingredient of soil as are air and water. Microbes by the million are also present and these and other organisms like earth worms are doing the job of breaking organic material down and  processing this into soil.

Links:

Improving soil by adding organic matter

The importance of organic matter

Compost – 10 things you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask…

Old School Gardener

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Compost – 10 things you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask…

Filed under: Climate change and gardening, Gardening techniques, Grow your own food, Soils and soil improvement — 4 Comments
06/05/2013

compostAs this week is ‘International Compost Awareness Week’ I thought I’d do a little piece about the basics of composting. Hope you enjoy it and look at your own composting efforts!

1. What is compost?

Compost  is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertiliser and/or soil improver (it’s not the same as the bags of stuff you buy from the garden centre).

2. How does the composting process work?

There are 3 stages to the composting process:

Degradation – microbes feed off the various chemicals in organic waste (mainly carbon and nitrogen) – the abundance of these chemicals mean the microbes multiply rapidly, generating heat and so rasing the temperature of the decomposing material;. a new set of microbes that operate at a higher temperature take over the process.

Conversion – as the temperature in the waste material starts to drop as microbial activity declines,  microorganisms that operate at lower temperatures take over and complete the decomposition process.

Maturation – microbial activity decreases and the material cools down, providing the ideal conditions for earthworms, insects and mites to complete the process. chemical reactions make the material more stable and suitable for use with plants in the garden.

Compost can be made in as little as six to eight weeks, or, more usually, it can take a year or more. In general, the more effort you put in, the quicker you will get compost.

worms at work in compost-making

worms at work in compost-making

3. What is needed to make compost?

Composting organisms require four equally important things to work effectively:

  • Carbon — for energy; the microbial oxidation of carbon produces the heat, if included at suggested levels
    • High carbon materials tend to be brown and dry.
  • Nitrogen — to grow and reproduce more organisms to oxidize the carbon.
    • High nitrogen materials tend to be green (or colorful, such as fruits and vegetables) and wet.
  • Oxygen — for oxidizing the carbon, the aerobic decomposition process.
  • Water — in the right amounts to maintain activity without causing anaerobic conditions (this is the other sort of decomposition that is slower and operates in leaf mould).

Certain ratios of these materials will provide beneficial bacteria with the nutrients to work at a rate that will heat up the pile. As a general rule you should have a 50/50 mix of ‘browns’ and ‘greens’. 

4. What is compost used for?

Compost can be rich in nutrients and is added to soil, supplying these as well as humus – a fine-textured material that improves soil strucure. It provides a rich growing medium, or a porous, absorbent material that holds moisture and soluble minerals, providing the support and nutrients in which plants can flourish, although it is rarely used alone, being primarily mixed with soil,sand, grit, bark chips and other materials to produce loam, the very best of growing mediums. Compost can be tilled directly into the soil or growing medium to boost the level of organic matter and the overall fertility of the soil. Compost that is ready to be used as an additive is dark brown or even black with an earthy smell.

Soil improving with compost

Soil improving with compost

5. How old is the practice of composting?

Composting as a recognized practice dates to at least the early Roman Empire, since Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79). Traditionally, composting involved piling organic materials until the next planting season, at which time the materials would have decayed enough to be ready for use in the soil. The advantage of this method is that little working time or effort is required from the composter and it fits in naturally with agricultural practices in temperate climates. Disadvantages (from the modern perspective) are that space is used for a whole year, some nutrients might be leached due to exposure to rainfall, and disease-producing organisms and insects may not be adequately controlled.

6. I’ve heard that human urine is beneficial to compost making – is this true?

Human urine can be put onto compost (and it can be added directly to the garden as a fertiliser!). Adding urine to compost usually will increase temperatures (it is an ‘activator’) and therefore increase its ability to destroy pathogens and unwanted seeds. You can also compost:

  • Anything that was once living, but some items are best avoided (see next question)
  • For best results, use a mixture of types of ingredient. Remember the rough guide is to use equal amounts by volume of ‘greens’ and ‘browns’.
  • Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as ‘activators’, getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess.
  • Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost – and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.
kitchen waste into the compost bin

kitchen waste into the compost bin

7. What can’t  I compost?

Basically, don’t compost things that will attract vermin, plus one or two other things that contain potentially harmful materials:

  • Meat

  • Fish

  • Cooked food

  • Coal & coke ash

  • Cat litter

  • Dog faeces

  • Disposable nappies

Compost bin - wooden with slatted, removable front for easy access

Compost bin – wooden with slatted, removable front for easy access

8. What sorts of composting are there?

There are basically two types of composting – hot and cool. If you generate a lot of waste material and quite often you can actively manage (turn) your compost pile to replenish the oxygen within it and so achieve high temperatures and rapid decomposition – ‘hot’ composting. If you produce less waste , less frequently then you are more likely to have a ‘cool’ composting system that doesn;t require as much turning, generates less heat and will take longer to decompose.

There are different scales of composting from large centralised sites through community schemes where local people collect green waste and compost it centrally to home and school – based composting using a range of different types of bin – old pallets used to construct a slatted wooden box, plastic bins, wormeries and so on. There’s a bin and system to suit most situations, so if you live in a flat and only have a balcony you can even compost on a small scale here.

9. Why should I compost?

As landfill space declines (and the cost of dumping into landfill for hard – pressed councils and taxpayers increases), worldwide interest in recycling by means of composting is growing, since composting is a process for converting decomposable organic materials into useful stable products. Apart from reducing landfill and greenhouse gases, composting provides a wonderful material for improving your garden or other growing areas.

Plastic Dalek compost bin

Plastic Dalek compost bin

10. How can I start to compost?

You can make compost simply by adding compostable items to a compost heap when you feel like it. It will all rot eventually but may take a long time, may not produce a very pleasant end product, and could smell.

With a little extra attention – taking the ‘COOL HEAP’ route – you could improve things dramatically.

If you want to produce more compost in a short time, and are able to put more effort into it, follow the ‘HOT HEAP’ route.

So, why not create a compost heap, or if you want a neater solution make or buy a compost bin – there are various models on the market and in England you can get a discounted deal on some plastic bins. Think about the best site for your bin – and Get composting!

Sources and Links:

Wikipedia

Garden Organic

homecompsoting.org.uk

recycle now- composting

Royal Horticulural Sociaety- composting

Reducing wastelines and making earth – article about master composter training in Norfolk

Decorate your compost bin competition and other Compost Awareness Week events

Old School Gardener

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Reducing waste lines and making earth

Filed under: Community Gardening, Gardening techniques, Local Food, Wildlife and Nature — Leave a comment
22/04/2013
David Garrett from Garden Organic explaing how a 'Hot Bin' works

David Garrett from Garden Organic explaining how a ‘Hot Bin’ works

Since the beginning of the month local councils are having to pay around £100 per tonne of waste they dump in holes in the ground in Norfolk. Increases in the tax charged on ‘landfill’ (which makes up around 75% of the total charge) are becoming a significant cost to hard – pressed councils and by implication local Council Tax payers. So, in addition to the prime environmental reasons for diverting waste away for landfill, there is now an increasingly important economic driver. And this charge – which is planned to increase in years to come – could eventually help to make it economically viable to recycle a lot more of the stuff we stick in the ground – yoghurt pots and other hard plastics for example.

And the holes in the ground that readily lend themselves to landfill are also drying up, leading to controversial proposals for incineration plants which can generate useful heat at the same time. It is clear that reducing waste , re – using or recycling what we can, makes financial and environmental sense. This was the key message from a two day training course I attended last week, which now means that I can play my part in promoting sustainable approaches to waste – in my case and the 18 others who joined me on the training, as a ‘Master Composter’. In my case I don’t pretend to be an expert, as the title perhaps implies, more of an enthusiast expanding my knowledge and able to pass some of this on to others who can be convinced to recycle their green and food waste into ‘black gold’ – or compost for the garden if you like!

The local Master Composter scheme is run as a partnership between Garden Organic and Norfolk County Council and aims  to:

  • raise awareness of the benefits of composting to the public

  • encourage more people to compost at home

  • help those already composting to do so more effectively

  • encourage and support more community composting schemes

Those delivering the scheme are expected to give at least 30 hours of their time to preparing and delivering information and advice at events, to individuals, schools or to community composting schemes. There is a wealth of support and resources available to help in this including three sets of display materials, leaflets and rather natty digital microscopes so that you can see the mini creatures creating compost before your eyes – these are bound to be a hit with children and adults alike!

In the classroom- some of the trainee Master Composters

In the classroom- some of the trainee Master Composters

The two day training was inspiring , informative and lot of fun. After some introductory remarks about the scheme we were invited (‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ style), to take part in a quiz to focus on the sorts of mind boggling amounts of waste, money and other resources involved in the disposal and processing of household waste. We were then introduced to the different types of larger scale composting:

  • Centralised large scale purpose run, mainly open air facilities where large amounts of green and other organic waste are regularly turned and high temperatures achieved to produce a crumbly black material great as a soil improver
  • ‘In vessel’ or indoor facilities where material is once again handled on a large scale and the ‘cooking’ process begins inside before the material is transferred outside for ‘maturation’
  • On farm composting where farmers will create their own compost heaps from agricultural and animal waste
  • Community composting schemes where local groups offer to collect green waste from households, create compost at a central site and then give the resulting product back to eager gardeners

After a wholesome lunch we were whisked off to see two sites that rammed home the importance of composting, one landfill site the other an ‘in vessel’ composting unit.

Edgefield Land fill site- coming to the end of its life

Edgefield Land fill site- coming to the end of its life

 Edgefield Landfill site in north Norfolk, has been operating a good few years and is focused on filling in holes in the ground left by quarrying. Now into its last few months of life, this site shows how landfill practices have developed over the years. Once these holes were unlined and the ‘leachate‘ (nasty liquid) running away from the rubbish was allowed to do so without any monitoring or control, so the area’s water courses were expected to somehow deal with the poison seeping into them. Now plastic sheeting is laid in the holes and careful measures taken to both monitor the release of leachate and methane gas as well as drawing both of these substances off, the leachate going for reprocessing at a sewage treatment works, the gas used on site to power  an electricity generator which is contributing power to the national grid. As we stood atop the windy mound of rubbish already topped off with soil we could see the open scar of the remaining tip which is due to be finished off in the next couple of months at which point the site will be closed, grassed over, trees planted and monitoring continued.

Our first fluorescent-jacketed guide
Landfill that has been covered over
Extracting methane gas
Extracting and monitoring leachate
The Group ascend the ‘waste mountain’

Our second visit was to the Marsham Composting Facility of Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (‘NEWS’ – a wholly owned company of the County Council). This impressive complex (not far from Old School Garden in fact) has been open about a year and takes in green and food waste collected by local District Councils  and others (who are charged for the amount they dump). I turns it into soil improver which is virtually all sold to a local farmer for use on his fields – and he is impressed with the results, it seems.

Waste material is dumped inside the main building where it is heaped against wooden barriers and the process of activation is started. Temperatures of 60C are achieved and once this process is well underway the material is moved outside into various bays where air is drawn through it by fan- assisted pipes and the cooking process continues until eventually temperatures die down to achieve the final product, which is collected in tractor – towed trailers and deposited on fields or in farmyard dumps awaiting the right time to apply it. The first facility of its kind locally, there seems to be scope for more as green and food waste collection increases. It would be great if the public could roll up and fill their own trailers with this ‘black gold’ – I’ve used something similar on my garden and it not only does great things to the soil, it also is dark enough to act as an attractive foil for the greens and other colours of the garden.

Our second fluorescent-jacketed guide plus David Hawkyard, norfolk Master Composter co-ordinator
The composting facility at Marsham has been operating about 1 year
The main builduing where organic waste is received and the ‘cooking’ process begins
Outside bays where the com,post in making continues to develop and ‘mature’
Pipes at the back of the outside bays draw air through the material to aid the cooking process
The final product being loaded onto a farm trailer
The final product- ‘Black Gold’

 

The second day of the training began with an overview of the composting process. A jigsaw of location, organic raw material, heat, water and air combine to produce a chemical reaction which decays and decomposes the green material and encourages a host of micro organisms plus other ‘critters’ who contribute most to this process. We also had a fun exercise exploring how to ‘sell’ the benefits of composting to a range of different ‘characters’ (I pretended to be a female student who was keen to do her bit to manage her own waste!). We distinguished between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ composting, the former where relatively large amounts of material are brought togetehr at once to generate high temperatures and the composting process is relatively fast, the latter more suited to smaller scale, occasional additions of organic waste and which takes longer. Ideally, you need to ‘turn’ your organic material in ‘hot’ composting and don’t in the ‘cold’ system.

After lunch two experienced Master Composters, Russell and Mary Baylin, described their experiences, which included representing the Master Composters at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Tea Party last year! Becoming Master Composters in 2007, this couple are clearly dedicated to the whole composting cause, having been involved in many events around the county and working with schools and individuals to help them make the most of their green waste.

Russell and Mary Baylin, experienced Master Composters

Russell and Mary Baylin, experienced Master Composters

We went on to examine the range of opportunities for ‘getting the message across’ as Master Composters as well as rehearsing the sorts of answers we might give to frequently asked questions. So, for example, we know that compost is ready when its is dark in colour has little or no smell, is crumbly and relatively fine in texture, and we can use it to mulch important, hungry plants as well as a more general soil improver, maybe as a top-dressing to lawns  and in potting mixes.

Discussing the merits of different types of compost bin
A ‘Dalek’ bin
A ‘Komp’ bin
A Wormery

 

The afternoon concluded with an examination of different types of composting boxes/ equipment – including a wormery (from which you get not only lovely fine worm – cast compost, but also a liquid fertiliser) a japanese style composter called a Bokashi (involving the intermingling of a special bran meal with green waste) and the latest ‘hot box’ being developed to fast process whole bin loads of material in a few weeks. We examined the pros and cons of each kind and who they might suit. I’m hopeful that my local school, can get a Wormery as way of using up the fruit, salad and other food waste from school lunches for example.

Gressenhall’s compost area- reorganise dlast year to make it more ‘gardener friendly’
Jane Griffiths explains about Leaf mould to the group

 

Following a quick tour of the gardens at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum (our base for the two days) and a look at their larger scale composting facility, including leaf mould and loam making, we gathered up our folders, tee shirts and other resources and began to ponder how we can make the biggest impact on composting in Norfolk. I’m expecting to help my local primary school with its composting activities and we begin this on Thursday with a session with older children to look at composting and what the school already does, including engaging the School Cook to see if we can compost more kitchen waste to use in the School gardens! I’ll let you know how I get on!

Thanks to Garden Organic and Norfolk County Council Staff who made for such an enjoyable and useful event: Jane, the 2 Davids, Amanda and Alex

Old School Gardener

P.S. It’s International Composting Awareness Week on 6th – 12th May – decorate your own compost bin and win a prize! 

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Lasagne anyone?

Filed under: Gardening techniques, Grow your own food — Leave a comment
12/04/2013

Grow food not lawns

‘Lasagna/e gardening is a no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that results in rich, fluffy soil with very little work from the gardener. The name “lasagna gardening” has nothing to do with what you’ll be growing in this garden. It refers to the method of building the garden, which is, essentially, adding layers of organic materials that will “cook down” over time, resulting in rich, fluffy soil that will help your plants thrive. Also known as “sheet composting,” lasagna gardening is great for the environment, because you’re using your yard and kitchen waste and essentially composting it in place to make a new garden.

Lasagna GardenNo Digging Required

One of the best things about lasagna gardening is how easy it is. You don’t have to remove existing sod and weeds. You don’t have to double dig. In fact, you don’t have to work the soil at all. The first layer of your lasagna garden consists of either brown corrugated cardboard or three layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the grass or weeds in the area you’ve selected for your garden. Wet this layer down to keep everything in place and start the decomposition process. The grass or weeds will break down fairly quickly because they will be smothered by the newspaper or cardboard, as well as by the materials you’re going to layer on top of them. This layer also provides a dark, moist area to attract earthworms that will loosen up the soil as they tunnel through it….’

Sources and further information:

How to make a lasagna garden

Lasagna gardening- the basics

Lasagna gardening.com – book and blog

Lasagna gardening- step by step guide

No dig vegetable garden

Lasagna gardening made simple

Vegetable Gardening

Old School Gardener

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Cool Composting

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Filed under: Gardening techniques, Soils and soil improvement — Leave a comment
18/03/2013

Cool Composting

Source: ‘The Organic Way’, magazine of Garden Organic, Spring 2013

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07/03/2013

Mulch Madness

mulching

A guide to mulching from Organic Gardening Magazine

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Filed under: Gardening techniques, Soils and soil improvement — Leave a comment
06/03/2013

Make your own compost

A guide from Garden Organic

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RANDOM BITS & MORE TIDBITS

Rambling in the Garden

.....and nurturing my soul

The Interpretation Game

Cultural Heritage and the Digital Economy

pbmGarden

Sense of place, purpose, rejuvenation and joy

SISSINGHURST GARDEN

Notes from the Gardeners...

Deep Green Permaculture

Connecting People to Nature, Empowering People to Live Sustainably

BloominBootiful

A girl and her garden :)

Winterbourne House and Garden

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