Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

We have been "Lasagna Gardening" for a couple years

Works Great!


Anyway, some of the Beds had settled and i wanted to add soil before planting. So I Lifted up a couple of the "Containers" I made from some Ducts I "salvaged" from my work
Attachment 88793

And I was amazed!
All the cardboard and paper we had layered in with the horse and chicken poop and hay and leaves,and other stuff had turned into some awesome looking soil!
Attachment 88794
(BTW Dryer sheets don't break down)

And it was chock full of worms!
Attachment 88795
Attachment 88796

I guess the worms made all that Cardboard into soil
Im a city boy and I guess i am just surprised.
I thought it would take 10 years for that cardboard and paper to turn into soil.

So I added that soil to the a couple of the raised beds
Attachment 88797
and planted Potatoes, garlic and onions so far
Next weekend is lots Lettuce and Carrots seeds

And we will Lasagna layer again in the Duct container Planters :applause_

Oh and my wife said "I told you"

and She Wrote an article about it here

http://www.associatedcontent.com/ima...ex.html?cat=44


Last weekend I Built and started another Raised bed.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...n/planter1.jpg



More pictures of me filling (layering) it here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48358246@N05/

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I had a fun experience with "raised beds". Last year I planted some stuff and was pleased to see sprouts, just as if I knew what I was doing. Some sprouts. No sign of a lot of it. Then the sprouts began to look like something was eating them. I assumed I had lousy soil in places and bugs in other places.

So this year I bought soil in bags and used cinder blocks for planters. Last week I figured out what my problem was. The neighbor's chickens come over and scratch up the garden and eat the sprouts. But they can't get into the cinder blocks. They just scratch around them.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

yeah Saul. We have some chickens that fly their fence and a goat and lots of other natural critters too. Rabbits Squirrel Deer etc

So we have to fence around the beds. Thats what the corner posts are for.

And Wire underneath to keep the gophers out too.



I don't wanna spend a lot of money on soil. No need to really.

and I don't wanna spend money on the materials for the raised beds.
So this time I used some steel studs I got from work.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

i had fun with raised beds last year too!

Attachment 89301

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Attachment 89307

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Very nice Ima!



what's the pink stuff?

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Its red grape juice........ Kind of pretty isn't it?

I use one of those steam juicers for all my juice. Works like a charm!

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

http://www.canningpantry.com/victori...am-juicer.html

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/canning-pantry_2090_18293890

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Beautiful...

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Now that is just downrite beautiful.

Want to make some money??? Come on down and build one of those for us. Only problem--we only pay in Au or Ag.

CC

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Raised bed components!



4 - 4”x6” x 10’ timbers -12.50 each

2 - 4”x6” x 8’ timbers - 10.00 Each

2 – �” x 8’ rebar 4.50 each

16 - 8” nails .30 cents each

Several roofing nails with the plastic thing on them 5.00


To make beds………

Cut timbers to exactly 10ft

Cut short timbers to 44”

Need to make sure the ends are squared up. They don’t come that way from the store.



Level up the ground…. This is the hard part. If your timber is the slightest bit tweaked

It will make it hard to do .

Stack your timbers. We drilled �” wide holes in the timbers , using a 1 foot bit– 4 on the long side and 2 on The short side. We cut the rebar in to 24” sections. I sat on the timbers to hold them steady and my loving man used a small sledge hammer and hammered them in . We put them in the ground about 12” so the would not move. When you drill the hole you need to ream the hole with the bit so it’s a little bigger.

We used a 12” bit that was �”. By putting in the rebar, it also helps the wood from tweaking. We worked around the bed, to make sure each corner was lined up.

After the rebar, we nailed 2 of the 8 inch nails on each timber in the corners.

We leveled the wood both ways. And all the way around while sledge hammering.

Fill with composted poop! The good thing aobut these beds are, things grow better in the poop……. If its not too hot (new)… 1 year old poop from a farm works well….. and usually its free! My beds have sheep poop, dirt, mint trash ( left over mint plants from the mint harvest) coco husk, peat moss and vermiculite.

Attachment 89313

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

What kind of wood is that?

Is it treated?

Also, I noticed you lined them, what did you use to line them?

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I used shower pan material... You can get it from home depot. I had it going under the center of the beds too, but my soil got too wet and did not dry down there. So I cut the bottom out and kept in on the side walls. The wood is just regular pine . In the west, you can get away with using untreated wood. When I lived in Mizzery, you could not do that. I had cinder block beds that were lined with shower pan material and it worked good, until we would get one of those torrential down pours. I got the idea from Country side Mag, some guy made raised beds and had a liner in them, then used an underground watering system that was controlled with a float.
On these beds, I did paint some sealer on a few of them, but they turned all white and flakey and looked worse than the natural wood.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I don't even think I could find untreated 4x6 timbers here around houston. They wouldn't last a season before being turned into the worlds largest termite farm.

But if we lined them like that, my guess is that treated would be ok.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

IMA, can you tell me what the advantage is of raised beds compared to prepping the whole plot for in ground gardening?
Quite impressive, by the way! Beautiful!

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I liked them because you don't have to bend down so much to tend to your plants...

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

My biggest advantage is: it cost us 100.00 per week to go to the chiropractor from bending over weeding the ground. My raised beds are higher up and get very few weeds. I don't use any weed killer, so its all manual - which can be 1 to 2 hour a day in the ground - which time can be better spent Cannin'!
I can control my soil better as in i know what I have put in it and what I need to add. I don't have to roto-till every year. My soil stays nice and fluffy, I can go out to my beds right now and plunge my hand deep in it. The beds don't get walked on so the soil does not compact. I don't have to make rows every year with a shovel. My dogs dont run over my plants. I don't have to worry about hauling off sheep poop, because I use all they give me. ( Goat poop is the best poop to use)

My beds cost about 75.00 without the liner and about 1 hour worth of labor building each one. They have already paid for themselves in chiropractor fees.

You can control the weeds in the ground plantings too, by putting plastic down or newspaper with straw on it, however when the wind blows so does the straw. We get lots of wind here.

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Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Why dont you use cinder blocks. Here are some pictures of mine. They look like crap, because we were suppose to put another layer on them. But you can get the general idea.

Attachment 89319
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Less time spent weeding means more time doing the things you like!

Attachment 89321

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

ImaCannin,

Very nice looking. Can you tell me how you control weeds/grass on your walking paths between the beds? Thanks.....

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I HATE YOU GUYS...

Not really.

Attachment 89344

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That was MY garden LAST JUNE 15th. We had SEVEN hail storms between the 1st of May through the 15th of June.

The UP SIDE to this is that we got a new roof AND will get a new shed soon, both of which were at least twenty years old.

So, while our garden took a beating last year, our house has a new roof and we will have a new shed delivered in the coming weeks - gotta warm up a little so I can prep a new space for it. My shed is to the left of my garden. I'm going to place the new one in my back yard instead of my side yard where my garden is and then extend my garden by about another 10 feet. And we've been discussing raised beds. I really like the hoops over some of the raised bed pix. That suggests you used some form of 'green house' type set up to plant early.

I'm not sure how much that will help here. In Denver we can get our heaviest snow in March/April. So no planting before May 1st, unless you have a green house that can handle a snow load. Hint, most removable greenhouses don't hold up.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Usually with a hulla ho. Or by hand.
I think this year, I am going to put wood chips down.

If you go to the lumber store, get some of the big tarps that they use to cover lumber with. They usually throw them a way.
Cut them to fit between the beds and put wood chips on top. Get some of those fabric cloth stakes and put them in where the seams meet or at the edge.

The lumber tarps are stronger than the tarps that you have to pay money for. They are longer - so you have less seams. SOmetimes one side is black and the other side is light, which also works good for blocking sunlight on your walkway.

I used them in my grape rows and berry rows. I tried some of the weed cloth and it grows weeds. the tarps don't!

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Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Ima:
Are you going to "rotate your crops"?
I figure it can't hurt. I wonder if there is a place on the web that would give me a good idea what would grow best where I grew something else last year.( a little late for me this year though)
We are growing the taters where we grew the Okra and I planted lettuce and spinach where we grew the taters.
Last year my wife read somewhere the Beans were good for the soil (replaced something?) We grew beans in several of our raised beds.

Anyway, we are changing up all the stuff we grow in the raised beds.

Just wondering if anyone else does this.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I mostly always rotate. This book will tell you where to plant what and what can be planted next year in that spot!

Great book.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

you and your husband have done a great job every thing look great :applause_

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

I agree that Ima's Raised beds do look very nice.

I kinda wish ours looked that nice

None of our raised beds "Match"
They are all made from free or left over or recycled materials...lol
Kinda Hillbilly Redneck style. But it works.
and we don't get a whole lot of visitors up here anyway.
They will do.

Garlic coming up in this one that we had Giant tomato plants in last year
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5.../planter18.jpg


Volunteer (from last year) onions already big in this one
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5.../planter19.jpg

Grew lots of Cucumbers in these last year
in the background is our cross fence for the horse and goat
and is where our "someday" lake/pond will be.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...planters17.jpg

Lemon and lime trees
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...monAndLime.jpg

Yeah I need to weed eat soon

and our Peach tree is Blooming!
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...rken/peach.jpg

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Always love seeing your garden Imacannin!

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Wood chips suck nitrogen from the soil when they decompose, they will mess up your ground 'cannin' if you dont add extra N.

Damn californians and their early blooming peaches........;)........what a pretty tree Ken, if it were my tree id have to grab a chair and smoke a joint by it.

Good stuff Ken!:23_28_100s:

:emotions16:

I apologize for my flower envy, but im a 'stone crop' head, im esp fond of tree ripened apricots and plums. I live where late frosts are the norm to boot, so im rarely getting my fruit nut.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Hey Ken, how long did it take for your lasagna garden to decompost?
That tree is a beauty. Never have tried the raised beds...too lazy I
just throw stuff in the ground. Maybe next year I'll give it a go.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

thanks Charlie
It only took one year for all that paper to break down into soil and worms!!
and if you top the bed off with store bought soil or plain dirt you can plant in it right away.

My wife wrote about it here
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ng.html?cat=44

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

SK, do you by chance have a varmint problem?

Your area looks beautiful! Is all that yours?

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

lol... yeah We have some chickens that fly their fence and a goat that gets out and lots of other natural critters too. Rabbits, Squirrels, Raccoons, Deer. Gophers, etc, etc.

Thanks :smile:
It's mine, My wife's and the Banks
We have 5 acres. I cross fenced it in half for the horse and goat.
So what you can see in those pics is Our land. The horse and goat keep their side "mowed" nicely

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

If it hasn't been said yet

Ima is a Gardening Goddess!!!!

:36_1_32v: :36_1_32v:

I'd bet your chiropractor would take produce in trade...

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Thanks for the article! I believe I'm gonna give it a shot for next year.

Re: Make your own soil "Lasagna Gardening"
 

Ima is no gardening goddess.... Ima gives all esteem to Yahua . Ima just plants and prays and He takes care of the rest.