Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: antipodes on April 24, 2008, 13:53:18
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windy sent me this yesterday:
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm (http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm)
and I admit to being fascinated by the idea! It sounds like a good method for someone like me who has lots of problems with weeds!!
Does anyone here practice this?
What material do you use and more importantly where do you get it all from?? I guess I could get my hands on lots of manure, straw, stable floor waste, maybe grass clippings from friendly workmates, cardboard and paper... what else would I need?
And what is the top layer you put on?
I was wondering if I wouuldn't make an experimental bed, it sounds ideal for greedy things like squash and courgettes. It will give my traditional-method neighbours something to talk about too!
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I do exactly this but in raised beds and grow melons ;D
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that's how we made all our raised beds but with cardboard to kill the bindweed and marestail, and 6 to 8" of well rotted horse manure ;D
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I was very keen on this idea, and made a bed 7m X 1.5m on my allotment (a rough meadow full of the usual perennial weeds and not dug for years), and I have to admit I half killed myself dragging sacks of stuff from the car park to allotment, and heaving them in and out of the car. Spent a lot of money as well.
I came to the conclusion that very strong fit people, or those with tractors and unlimited access to stables, cowsheds and all sorts of layering materials, could make lasagna gardens very easily - but I have reverted to digging as being less exhausting. My one bed proved very fertile, and the weeds were successfully stifled, but I just haven't enough stuff to keep piling on top of it.
I am compromising at the moment by scraping layers of grass and weeds off my newest bed while digging it out, and stacking bags of them over cardboard/tarpaulin on a second 7m "lasagna" bed. When the bags are rotted down, I will remove the tarpaulin, put down more cardboard if necessary, and tip out all the bags on top to make a second "instant" bed.
Last year I bought 4 tomato bags, laid them out on cardboard/newspaper, attempted to grow tomatoes in them (blight struck) then tipped out the contents to make a rather shallow instant small bed. I'll do that again shortly, as it is a good way of smothering the weeds and getting something growing at the same time.
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Well I admit I am wondering where I could get material. Cardboard is OK, but the leaves and that are a problem as I live in a flat.
Still I think I will try - I have got a bag of bloody peat moss that I can't get rid of!! so that will go on bottom I think, horse manure, and a friend is giving me her mower bag of grass clippings. I was thinking that for the top layer I would mix a bucket of sand and a bucket of compost and put soil in the actual planting holes so the roots aren't directly in all "the muck".
The weeds get me down so much and waste so much of my time, I really want to find a better system than digging every blooming week. I really think I will try a small bed (there is a patch of about 1m by 2.5 m that will be perfect I think) and try a few tomatoes and courgettes in it and see what happens.
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don't forget your chopped up bills ;D