Lasagna gardening is a time saving, labor reducing, easy composting method that improves soil structure, reduces water consumption, soil erosion and is an organically fertile method of gardening. Tree trimmer in your neighborhood? Ask for a trash can (or space allowing, a whole truck) full of chipped material. Most of these materials are free for the asking and can add nutrients to your soil with little or no work. These materials, when mulched or composted will add significantly to the health of your soil.
The same recycle, reuse, renew holds true in our gardens at home. At the end of harvest, the beds are recycled by adding mulch, composting left-over material or adding other amendments to prepare them for reuse. Some beds are immediately reused for winter crops; other beds are left to ‘renew' until the beginning of Spring, when new crops will be planted to await their turn at harvest in the Fall. During the growing season, trimmings are kept and recycled. Nothing from the garden ends up in a landfill. Everything is recycled, renewed, and reused.
Master Gardener members use this same cycle in many of our adventures. We join Master Gardener to renew our knowledge of horticulture, and reuse our new found knowledge, sharing it with others through our teaching. We continually recycle the information (keeping it current) to ensure our clients receive the best information available. Recycle, reuse, and renew concepts will hopefully interest more people in gardening and the Master Gardener Program.
If you find yourself in need of recycling, renewing, or reusing your skills, join us as a Master Gardener. After your training, (and when the pandemic ends) there will be plenty of activities and events to peak your interest. Master Gardeners can create new venues to reuse their knowledge and skills. Use your creativity and start a local community garden, school garden, or a booth at the county fair. Check with your local school to guest speak to children about gardening. The list is endless and only as confined as your imagination. Even if you choose to wait to join Master Gardener, dream big and start you own plan to recycle, renew and reuse. Ready to grab a pitchfork and shovel and enjoy some Lasagna?
- Author: Cheryl Cozad
In the wild areas on our planet, trees, bushes, and grasses grow on ground that has continual additions of new layers of dead and dying plant matter. Leaves fall from trees and shrubs, grasses dry in the summer: these materials cover the soil and gradually decompose. No Till gardening takes its cue from this natural process. There's no double-digging. No bi-annual rototilling. No weed pulling.
Soil is inhabited by billions of microscopic organisms. It is this abundant life, attracted to the sugars put out by plant roots, that creates a mutually beneficial feeding relationship with plants. Breaking up the soil by tilling, digging, or weeding disrupts these vital organisms.
No Till aids the soil's ability to retain water. The roots of previous weeds and other pre-existing plants create pathways for water to penetrate and be stored in the soil.
When you avoid tilling you'll have fewer weeds in your garden, since tilling brings weed seeds to the surface where light signals them to grow.
A No Till garden requires less work on the part of the gardener. Ultimately, a No Till bed will need less weeding, less watering, and less digging.
There is no need to wait before planting in a No Till garden – you just plant on top of the decomposing plant life.
There are several different approaches to creating a No Till garden. The simplest method is described here.
Materials you will need:
- Cardboard (with tape & labels removed) or newspapers (newsprint only – no colored ads or glossy pages).
- Compost, well-aged manure, worm compost, or organic soil mix. Organic blends are a little more expensive but they will do a better job of supporting the growth of your subterranean microbes, which help your plants get the nutrients they need for optimal growth and resistance to pests and diseases.
- Plants and seeds.
- Mulch (wood chips, straw, grass clippings, or pine needles).
- Select a sunny site. Think small. Two 5 x 10 - foot beds can grow a lot of produce. Even No Till gardening can get overwhelming if you take on too much.
- Cut existing vegetation to the ground and water the area well. Avoid burying large clumps or a thick layer of fresh green vegetation under a compost layer. Anaerobic decomposition can be detrimental to root growth.
- Apply a 4-to-6- inch layer of a well-composted mix. Well-aged horse manure (often available free from stables), plus worm compost makes a terrific mix. The City of Chico Compost Facility on Cohasset highway (currently closed due to COVID-19) sells finished compost that can be mixed with an organic soil mix or worm castings as another option.
- Cover the compost layer with overlapping pieces of cardboard, or 5 to 10 thicknesses of newspaper (overlapping them by one-third). Dousing the sheets of newspaper in a bucket of water will help stabilize them.
- For large deep-rooted plants (like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants) cut a circle in the cardboard or newspaper. Scoop out soil, add 2 to 3 shovelfuls of compost mix, and plant. For shallow-rooted vegetables or flowers, cut an X to open the cardboard or newspaper and plant smaller plants.
- Water well.
- Cover the bed with 4 to 6 inches of mulch. This will weigh down the cardboard or newspaper, prevent soil from drying out, and keep light from activating weed seeds. It also looks attractive.
- Install a drip or micro-sprinkler system or make a hand-watering schedule. Plan to water your No Till bed daily for the first week. Gradually taper off to every 3 to 5 days.
- Repeat! When a crop is finished, cut it to the ground, add compost, tuck in new plants, and mulch heavily.
Plants love the even moisture and lower soil temperatures created by No Till and mulch. Give it a try. Your microbes and your back will thank you.
For inspiration, browse the California State University, Chico Regenerative Agriculture website. For specific vegetable planting times, see our Planting Guides for the Chico Valley Area and for the Foothills.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Lois Vanderville
- Contributor: Growing Vegetables Subject Group
- Editor: Kamille Hammerstrom
Attention gardeners! Do you want loose, fluffy, easily worked soil? Increased nutrients and nutrient availability? Improved drainage? Reduced dependence on fertilizers and pesticides AND superior weed suppression? All this is yours for a minimal investment, but you must act now!
It may sound too good to be true, but whether you're looking to improve an existing vegetable garden bed or to start up a new bed for the first time, the good news is that there are a variety of things you can do now to get Mother Nature working for you and have a fertile garden plot ready and waiting for you next spring.
Sow a cover crop
For a previously unworked patch of soil, you'll need to start by removing any weeds, then scratching up the soil a little and spreading your seeds around as evenly as possible. Cover lightly with soil and water regularly to keep the surface damp until the rains start. If we should have another dry winter, you'll need to continue watering to ensure the survival of your crop.
Here in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, the best time to start a cover crop is late fall, but if your garden is “sun-challenged” like mine you'll need start a little sooner while there is still enough sunlight to get the seedlings started. I sow cover crop seed between my veggie plants in late September. The plants germinate, grow for a couple of months, then stop, wait for the sun to get back above the treetops and start again.
In the spring, before your crop goes to seed, and three to four weeks before your first spring plantings, cut it down and turn it gently into the soil. To aid in decomposition, water if necessary to keep everything damp.
A few winter cover crops for Santa Cruz/Monterey Areas – plant in Oct/Nov
- Fava or bell beans
- Vetch
- Clover
Grasses that break up hard soil and suppress weeds
- Annual rye grass
- Winter Oats
- Barley
Check your local garden supply or feed store or search online for cover crop seeds, some offer a mix of legume and grasses.
Bury your vegetable waste
Another easy way to condition your soil for next spring is trench composting. You can make this as simple or sophisticated as you wish, but if you can dig a hole, you can trench compost. The basic idea is to bury compostable materials such as kitchen scraps and yard trimmings directly into your chosen garden plot, in holes or trenches about a foot deep. If you have an existing garden, you can bury them in holes between still-growing plants, or, once the plants are done, you can create a rotating trench system. By next spring, the materials will have decomposed into compost, ready to nourish your seedlings.
Sheet compost
If you're a little more ambitious, you can try sheet composting, aka lasagna gardening. This involves putting down a layer of cardboard or newspapers to smother existing weeds, and then topping it with one or two feet of layered green and brown organic matter—leaves, pulled weeds, kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, shredded paper, compost, anything you can get your hands on--and top it with a layer of mulch. By spring this will have broken down into a rich growth medium, and as a bonus, it will help to loosen soil under the cardboard by attracting earthworms (apparently, “tastes like cardboard” is a compliment coming from an earthworm).
Keep it covered
If all of this still sounds like too much work, at the very least cover your future veggie plot with a thick layer of mulch—rice straw is easy and relatively cheap, but leaves or any other brown matter that won't fly away in the wind will do. Layer it at least six inches deep.
New to gardening? Start small.
Whichever of these methods you choose to try, the advantages of fall garden soil preparation are numerous:
- Take advantage of the winter rains to provide the moisture required.
- Give nature the time it needs to do all the work for you! All those earthworms and microorganisms in the soil are just waiting to get started.
- Recycle organic materials that may otherwise end up emitting greenhouse gases in a landfill.
- Suppress weeds, increase fertility, lighten heavy soils, and make sandy soils retain water!
Feed your soil and it will feed you!
For tips to troubleshoot your composting problems, click here. If you have questions about winter soil prep, ask the Master Gardener Hotline!
- Author: Marime Burton
Lasagna gardening? ‘Sounds crazy even when you know what that means. Crazier still, it’s a gardening technique that really works.
A little like diets that promise you’ll lose 20 pounds a month and never feel hungry, lasagna gardening sounds improbable, exaggerated and a waste of time. Better to stick with tried and true methods that reward hard work, sacrifice and the results of long-term commitment.
So I thought, but much like those diets I can’t resist, it sounded so simple I was willing give it a try.
First of all the old garden bed does not require tilling. Just cover weeds and all with a layer of cardboard or 3-5 layers of newspaper. Be sure to cover everything well to eliminate little peeks of sun nourishing future weeds. Soak the layers to keep them in place.
Voilà! Decomposition begins in the dark under those layers, earthworms begin to happily tunnel through the dark moist area and the soil begins to loosen up. The grass or weeds break down fairly quickly because they are in the dark under the paper.
Top off the lasagna with alternating layers of “browns” such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings, just as in a compost pile. Sprinkle it now and then.
Fall is the perfect time to start the process. Just leave it alone until spring, then start planting!