The Lasagna Garden Brigade

Robin you and I seem to always show up on the same threads!!! I have the :before" picture, I'll try to get the "after" tomorrow if its NOT pouring out. we're having a heck of a storm starting now.
Birdie

seray53
I'm trying to talk DH to take me up there to get it. I'm wanting to go Friday.
You know what he said to me when I told him I wanted to go?
Well that is the last place you need to go... I don't know why he would say that. LOL

In addition to starting my lasagna bed this weekend, I'm going to clean my fish tank. Can I use the fish poo water to moisten the layers of the bed or would that just be considered a brown layer?

You can use fish poo in your lasagna bed, Lolly. I am thinking it would be a brown layer, but could also be green I guess if there is algae in it. Either way, it works.. At the top of this thread, Cue posted a list of Do's and Don'ts as well as helpful links for more info on lasaga beds.

Make him stay in the car when you go Friday Holly. Just take his checkbook. LOL

Yep I will have to. I can never seem to buy just 1 thing. LOL

Hi Birdie.. It is good to see you. How are you? Almost September Birdie..

OK, what is happening in september? What did I miss out on?

Probably when it will be cool enough for plants to ship maybe?
Hi Mekos the Moses baby I kept is growing new leaves now

WOW, so glad it did well. I rooted 2 for a shipment that went out monday, they had roots after a week in water, growing great and blooming too. Got another going out today for another lady. The verigated purple is going fast. They root really easy so keep a few ready for those special trades.LOL

New Auction

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1031566/

yup, Robin is sending me a peony in Sept. I always have a swap going on with my "Garden Planners" ^_^

I started lasagna gardening about 2 years ago - i now have 5 beds in the garden area on my 9 acres that we have been using for about 30 years. the soil was totally depleted, clay and cracking. the veggies i have grown in the 'zagne" gardens have been phenominal. i did one planting of bush beans in the first one - i didnt have to replant any and they produced all year long. this time around, i built 4 more and rotated crops. wow the production has been phenominal

couple of things tho for newbies doing zagne gardens*******
*****you can also add dryer lint to your layers as long as the clothes werent saturated in oil (us motor heads sometimes get it on our clothes - exclude dryer sheets tho***** (the lint helps retain moisture & is biodegradable - think about it most of it is cotton or hair
***** You can also add hair, both human and dog n cat - it provides keratin and protein to the plants - they love it****
also in between garden beds (make them only about 4 ft wide and 6 ft long - it is easier to maintain) place wet layers of newspaper and mulch to keep down the "weeds - misplaced plants"

just a couple of friendly tips for you.
longtimescout

Thanks for the tips! Too late for me for the length. LOL I'll put a stepping stone to break it up. It's not very wide so I'll probably be ok. I do have dryer lint. :)

at the top of the thread, i posted 'Dryer Lint'as one of the ingredients you can add, just be sure its a natural fiber you are adding, such as wool or cotton. and as Longtimescout has pointed out, make sure there are no oils or chemicals. And do not add dryer sheets to your bed.

I use my puppy's hair and brush hair in my compost. Thanks for the reminder longtimescout and for sharing your experience.

I read about the dryer lint but didn't know about the hair thing. I'll have to add that as I get some. What layer does the hair go in?

Hey Gals, I don't know if any of you all know this or not but if you want to put a little money in for your beds you can go to a feed store and buy alfalfa pellets that you would use for horse feed and use it too . They say that is really a great thing to use in gardens so I wouldn't know why you couldn't use it to help with your green layer.

Thanks Flower Didn't know there was such a thing. I'll check it out.

I didn't know about the alfalfa either but I read it somewhere here on a thread and I didn't know what they were talking about and so I was searching and all I could come up with was a wormer for horses so I went back on there and ask about it and they told me then. I have seen it in the feed part of the farm stores around here but then it wasn't but just a couple that had it. It maybe something that not a lot of people use for their horses but it is out there fi you can find it.

Mornin' e1, Alfalfa pellets are just concentrated and compacted well, alfalfa. They also sell Alfalfa chunks that are like the size of ice cube from an ice cube tray. When you add water to it, it swells. A lot of people use the pellets and chunks to feed their horses instead of regular hay or as a supplement to it. It makes sense to me that it would work good as a green layer. I'll share how I have done my beds so far. First, I laid down cardboard to smother the grass. Then I laid down a layer of brown leaves and soaked it with water. Then a light layer of horse manure just to get it going, and watered again. Then a thick layer of grass clippings topped with a thick layer of horse manure. (old and composted of course) Then a layer of green leaves topped with pine needles, watering each layer as you go to aid in decomposition. In between I have thrown in old lettuce, straw, shredded paper, newspaper on top of any grass sprouts that have come through, leaves from plants I have cut back, weeds, (with no seeds). I am going to go around the outer edges and spray Round Up to try and keep the grass from popping through so I will have less weeding, being careful not to spray anywhere in the bed I intend to plant. I plan to keep going at least 2 more layers of green & brown and then wait about a week and see how deep it is. My goal is to have between 6-12 inches of healthy, nutritious soil to plant in.

Here is the first bed along the south side of the house. Going to flowers that are low to the ground. My DH keeps saying he doesn't want anything touching the side of the house.. Plus in the next couple years we are going to continue the porch around the side of the house. I plan to cut those weeds I guess they are and finish that section, There was a tiny Canna there and I didn't have the heart to take it out. lol.. and I also saw on a thread here that ashes are good to put in the beds to keep the cats out..

Ok, this was just for fun.. they love it when you start tossing leaves about.. It was too darn cute, I couldn't resist!

This one is going to be my veggie garden next spring. My son and I used some plywood my DH had in the shop and made boxes. I mainly did it because of the wire fence behind the bed. It's 24" wide and goes around the yard probably 80 feet. Hope I don't regret making it that big! Those cedar logs are probably going to be replaced by plywood in the near future.

This one is my baby.. It's going to have nothing but daylilies of every different cultivar I can get my hands on! (any traders??? Please dmail me!) I thought it would be good as they are low maintenance and won't hang out in the street.

Just a little rusted out container lasagna bed.. I'm thinking I will do a little cactus, other succulents, coleus, some color in here.

These beds go all the way around this little pergola I guess you'd call it. I am thinking of putting either cannas, little pine trees, or a bamboo tree on the two front corners and then have nothing but Bearded Iris all the way around. I have hundreds of rhizomes that need to be transplanted. I think that will be pretty. My hammock I plan to put over where the veggie garden is, in the shade, near the horses and the little pond we are doing ;-) How's that for "My Space"? lol

This one, I don't know what I am going to plant here.. There is a big tree stump that needs to come out and the lawn tractor doesn't fit in between. Honestly I was just happy to be killing off the weeds, lol.

Another spot that needed the grass & weed smothered.. lol.. gonna zap those little weeds that keep growing into the lattics with Round Up >:-)

mechelle, it sounds amazing!

lol posted that before you were murdering weeds with round up and dragging out stumps...it was about your Ideas for you gardens...lol...

My son & I started this one yesterday. I stopped at a yard sale with my daughter last weekend and the yard had a HUGE flower bed like this that had variegated Monkey grass with little purple flowers all the way around the circle. It inspired me and here we are! Don't know what I'll plant there yet, but will border it with pretty bricks or something.

And last but not least, LOL, more daylilies will go here. It's the other side of my driveway across from the daylily beds. Any ideas, comments, or suggestions will be greatly appreciated from all of my new expert DG friends ! All of these have taken me less than 2 weeks to complete.. a justified sacrifice of time I think with the end result in mind :-)

I have two comments in the middle of all this...lol...I kept thinking you were done! You've done so much...all I can do is say WoW! I leave the rest to the experts...Your ideas sound wounderful, well thought out and very doible...allot of work but, will be impressive and worth it when you're done...WoW

Thanks Jamie, I hope that's the reaction I get by next spring/summer when everything starts to bloom. Can't you just picture it?

Honey,

It will be amazing! I'm really good at picturing things in my mind and I just think it's going to be great...You're very tallented at "seeing" the picture. I can tell. Come spring you're going to be posting pic after pic!

MECHELLE!!!!!!! So pretty and so industrious and so many. LOL I see I have a fellow 'can't stop with just one' friend. LOL The woman who came up with the concept and wrote the book did 30 around her home. You'll have her beat.

Your place will be gorgeous with all those beds. You'll have lots of time this winter to sprout all kinds of beauties for them.

Now we have to fill you up. I usually divide my daylilies in the spring and will have some then. They'll spread fast and fill up your beds in no time. I'll save you fans when I do. I had a large decorative container of Jungle Queen and when I broke it up there were 28 fans after 3 years. How late in the season can you plant lilies where you live?

Hehe thanks Seray.. I am definitely one of those can't stop with just one kinda people! I have so much room here and loads of potential to work with. So you're probably right, lol I will have more than 30 in the end I bet.. Look at my pond, when these are done, I'm starting there, lol .. I could just see Rose of Sharon out there, can't you? lol

Oh, Seray- I think I am okay to plant through fall/mid fall. It doesn't really get too hot here and takes a while for winter to arrive.. I have only lived in TN for a year in Oct, came from CA. So still adjusting to our seasons here. Yes, please do send me any extra daylilies you want. I want to have no two colors the same along the road. I think that will be awesome! I will happily reciprocate!

Thank you Jame, ur a sweetheart