Topic: Lasagna Composting to make a raised bed

[duh]

So you want a new flower bed but you don't want to cut out the sod, mix the garden soil with amendments, fight the weeds that have dominance in that area and basically go to all the trouble of making a flower bed but you have lots of time.  Then here is a plan for you.

Mark out your area.
Lay out over lapping pieces of cardboard or 6 layers of newpaper over the entire area.  Plan on holding it down with rocks if it is windy and whenever I try and do this the wind always picks up.
Wet the paper well.
Lay down 2 inches of smelly ucky chicken droppings.  Chicken because it is very hot.  This does not need to be composted it can be fresh.  You want it to burn the grass and weeds that you have covered up and chicken droppings will do it.
Then alternate four inches of fallen leaves with two inches of grass clippings and keep moist.  Next spring you will have a really good start for your flower garden.  Add more fallen leaves to stop any smell that may come from the hot grass clippings and chicken droppings.  The leaves are what stops it from smelling.  You can add as much as 75% grass clippings to the bed but remember the grass clippings will also become brown as they decompose. 

The next year you will have a bed that is raised several inches higher than the surrounding ground and that is full of rich wonderful soil.  All you will need to add are any amendments that are specific to the plants you are planting.

[Dianna]

 

Thank you, Duh, for explaining this to me.

I guess I have been doing something similar out in the pond memorial, but not exactly the way it should be done. I just put cardboard down and piled hay on top of it. The weeds have really been easier to pull out there if they are really wet. I was using the cardboard as a weed barrier and the hay as mulch. Don't laugh at me for the hay! The first time, I used leftover bales from our wedding that had sat out under the deck for at least a year. Then, not thinking, I went to freshen up the hay and bought new bales to spread. I did learn my lesson the hard way...

I do have some questions for you, though. Would it be possible just to use newspaper and cardboard as my brown and grass clippings as my green to pull the lasagna effect off in a bigger manner? I don't have access to chicken poop and am not really sure if I would want it up next to the house because I can just visualize Angel rolling in it every time she goes out. Could I just use a layer of cardboard, then clippings, then paper, then clippings, and so on? Would it take longer because of not adding manure? Should I go ahead and place my mulch on top of it and let it start decomposing, too, to enrich the soil?

I have been saving large cardboard boxes and newspapers for at least a year. Would I need to put landscape fabric under it to make sure weeds don't poke through?

Thank you for starting this topic. I know I will have more questions before I finally get to working on the garden for my mother...

[duh]

I have one inch square pieces of newprint that I am still picking out of my garden because someone suggested that it would compost.  My experience is that it doesn't.  Possible if you shredded it to confettii it might compost but I'm not betting the farm on it from my experience.  If you decide to use it as your brown then make sure they are little bitty pieces and make sure you can keep the area moist.  Because if it dries it doesn't decompose.  Yes there is a difference between hay and straw.  I don't remember which one still contains seeds but I'm sure you can find that info around somewhere.  Since I live in the city I didn't retain that information.  Remember that once grass clippings or hay/straw goes brown it is the same as leaves and can be used in place of them to keep the smell down.    I don't think from my own experience that the green grass clippings would get hot enough at that size to kill the weed seeds or even the grass.  So I'm not sure how much good that would do.  But of course taking the light away will definitely do some good with killing the grass and weeds. 

Like I mentioned somewhere today where I have my compost pile is weed free although all around it I have the healthist weeds you've ever seen lol. 

[barleychown]

Hay has seed heads in it. Straw is the one you want, because it's the stalk without the seed head.

It has been my experience that you can do the layers with whatever you have on hand, and it will work. Strive for a balance of greens and browns.