Hi Natalie

I am also in Calgary and I do compost in piles. I find that there is absolutely no composting going on in the winter - but I also stop watering my piles. In the spring it takes about 2 weeks for the piles to go down in size after I water them. During the summer, she's all systems go and I can top-dress the beds in the fall.

I haven't done a lasagna bed, but I have the Rodale book as well. When we got rid of our front lawn, we used a sod-cutter (rented from Rogers Rent All) where we could, shovels and edgers everywhere else and just turned the sod over, topdressed with compost and leaves, watered it like crazy and left it over the winter. I was happy that it was one of those winters where we had fairly good snow cover (like this year) because I was kind of concerned about the leaves blowing all over the neighbourhood. In the spring, after it had thawed, I watered as soon as I could and kept watering until the end of May when the danger of frost was over, and I planted.

I found that I had very little issue with grass coming up, just a few clumps here and there that we missed with the cutter, and the occasional sprout. Two years on, I don't get any grass now. I keep topdressing in the fall with compost.

This is what works for me; I think you're right in considering that the climate is so dry that that will be your limiting factor in the composting process.

Let us know how it works for you.

That's good to know. I never consider renting a sod-cutter. Do you found it fairly easy to operate? When you planted in May, did you dig through the up-side-down sod (I assume it didn't decomposed completely over the winter)?

I am still debating whether to dig up the lawn or do lasagna gardening. The bed I planed is about 10'x10', and maybe another small one 2'x10' along the fence.

On the composting side, I started composting again last summer and the stuff on top looks intact. We quit two years ago and never got to the stage of finished compost. The pile was probably too dry. How often do you water the bin?

Thanks for the info!

I compost here in Calgary, and I find that it takes between 1 and 2 years to finish a container of compost. I have 2 compost bins that are in a shady part of my yard. The plan is to fill one bin and then let than one work while I start on the other, but sometimes I have too much stuff and I have both bins going at the same time.

The first year I had the bins I filled the one completely by the fall. Over winter nothing happens to my compost since it is frozen solid. In spring I started wetting and stirring it often, so I did manage to spread that bin into my flower bed the following fall (so one year from start to finish). The time it takes really depends on how wet you keep it, what is in it and how often you turn it. The smaller the pieces are that you put in, the faster they break down. If I put in flower stalks I cut them into small pieces to help speed up the process and make it easier to mix.

You should aim for the wetness of a wet sponge, which I find takes a fair amount of water if you are putting in dry dead plants rather than fresh cuttings. The more you mix, the faster it decomposes. You need the mix of brown and green items so I sometimes save some of the "browns" from fall to cover the greens with in the summer time. If I have too much brown at one time, like when I pull out all the dried tulip stems out, I just bag some of the grass clippings instead of letting them fall on the grass. You do have to be very careful with putting too much grass clippings in your compost bin at one time though since they will form a dense mat that is hard to mix.

Just a word of warning, the first year I had my compost bin I had lots of stuff in it, but it was too dry and I didn't mix it much. Around the middle of August I decided that I better get it working so I went to wet it and stir it and I recieved a big surprise when a family of mice (the mother and 3 or 4 babies) popped out at me! A mouse trap for the mother and a handy shovel for the little ones took care of the problem, but I am very careful now to make sure that I have a moist often stirred compost bin, so I don't have a repeat. Depending on the outside temperature and if your bin is in the sun or not, you may have to wet your compost every week.

In some ways a compost bin is quite a bit of work, but it seems silly to throw good compost material into the landfill and then have to buy compost/manure to work into my Calgary clay flower beds!

Wow! It's been so long since I posted, instead of lurking, I forgot my password! I'm about an hour north of Calgary, so the weather's very similar. I've done some lasagna beds - just killed the grass with Round-Up first. They worked very well, but need lots of extra water the first year - I was using newspaper, straw, and well rotted manure. It takes a while for that fluff to settle down and start holding water. If you have nice lawn grass, I don't think you'd need to kill it first, but a lot of my "lawn" is brome and quack grass that I've reclaimed - we're on a farm. That stuff can split wood with its roots.

Connie

Have you considered vermiposting or worm composting. It can be done indoors over the winter and you get fine compost out of it. You can also put the red wigglers into you outdoor compost for faster composting. Take a look at this web site. http://www.cathyscomposters.com/

Bokashi is another very good alternative during the winter... You can also compost everything with it except bones (well, you can actually compost chicken bones).

Hi!

Sorry I haven't checked back lately. Redpeony's advice is right on for watering and caring for your compost. I generally water the compost when I water the beds once per week - my compost bins are close to my hose bib, so as I am getting ready to put the hose away, I give the composters some water and then a turn with the compost tool from Lee Valley. I compost pretty much everything, including kitchen waste which stays pretty small naturally. I've been known to toss full size shrubs in there because I'm too lazy to cut them up, LOL, although they get cut up in the fall when I'm screening out the good stuff. My composters are on the north side of my house in complete shade, so I think the watering and the turning are the keys to success.

In answer to your question about the sod - yes, I dug down into it to plant. It was mostly dead - amazing what cut roots, no light and tons of moisture does. It was a pretty ratty mix of a bunch of different grasses, Prairierose - the only ones that came back up were the quack grass and some kind of wheatgrass, but our house is 100 years old, who knows how many overseedings it had. The grass was one reason why I decided to convert the whole front yard to garden - it needed to come up anyway.

I would encourage you to try lasagna on one of the beds - because I'm curious as to how it turns out for you. Maybe do the big bed lasagna and then topdress the other bed and see how they compare. I'm a lazy gardener so I pretty much let Mother Nature work for me, but who knows if you can get faster better results with a little work on your part?

You can rent a sodcutter at Rogers Rent-all and I think Home Depot - most of the majors will have one. Don't let DH talk to into running the machine and you turn over the sod - sod is heavy! Once the machine gets going it's easy to push it. Then it's just like laying carpet, making sure that all of the sod is covered with compost and leaves and water in really well.

Shazam: I am curious - what is a Bokashi?

Cheers!

It's a form of composting popular in Japan. When spring comes I dump the contents of the pail into my compost pile. I find that the bokashi compost accelerates the traditional compost pile tremendously.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bokashi

I love this forum! Learn something new everyday. I read up on Bokashi and it sounded perfect. I was going to start a worm bin for vermicomposting. However, it doesn't look like it will be able to handle all the kitchen scrape from out family. I am also uneasy and excited at the same time about having worms in the house. It's like having an unusual pet!

With Bokashi, I can keep the scrape under the kitchen sink. When the bin is full, just dump the content into the temporary rubbermaid bin outside of our patio door (since it's in the middle of the winter). It's even available from the Green Calgary EcoStore! I am picking up a bag of the Bokashi compost tomorrow! Thanks for the suggestion!

Got the Bokashi mix. The lady at the EcoStore recommends first freezing the food scrape before adding to the bin to discourage fruit fly. Shazam, what's your experience?

I have a self-made double bin Bokashi system - basically two identical plastic bin stacked. The inner bin has drain holds to drain the liquid. I wonder if I need to shell out the money for a Bokashi composter, which is supposed to have a special EM ceramics manufactured in. Any idea?

I've never frozen anything before putting it in. I just throw it in, sometimes I cut stuff up smaller. Never had a problem with fruit flies. I just put a paper plate on top and squish the stuff. Make sure to keep that lid tightly closed.

I have the plastic bokashi bin. Works fine. I'm sure your bins will work just fine. Just throw in some expired yogurt if you want more EMs.

Hello, we have had great luck with lasagna gardens in N.W.Ontario. Most of mine are in a meadow on our property, and doing them over lawn is even easier.
I layered newspapers where I wanted the garden to be and soaked them with water, and then put cardboard over that and soaked it. You should be able to use thin cardboard if you are only stifling lawn underneath. (I used big thick sheets leftover from local furniture stores where we are building our beds over ferns, small shrubby things, thick heavy grasses, etc.)
Next we built the garden frames on the paper/carboard bed, we used untreated landscaping ties stacked 3 high and nailed together. Then we did the layering inside the frame: alternating materials like peat moss, composted manure, black earth, untreated saw dust, etc. and made sure to dampen each layer. For one garden I made the first (bottom) layer fruit and veggie scraps I had been saving for a compost pile. I think it's best to let the completed bed of layers sit and settle for a while keeping them damp, but I was in a hurry and planted right away in most cases. For perennials you can dig a hole in the 'lasagna', and make a mound of 3-in-1 (I mixed peat, black dirt & compost in a wheelbarrow) and stick the plant in the mound. I was worried if I placed it right in the lasagna layers some compost would be too concentrated and burn the roots. Or sometimes I just stir the area where the plant will go with a pitchfork to make sure the compost gets diluted. The other reason I made mounds where the plants would go is that the lasagna layers will continue to settle around the plants and if they are mounded you can just continue to build up the layers around them. For veggies I made either round mounds (for gourds, tomatoes) or raised rows of 3-in-one for carrots, beans, etc. I left one bed alone in its layered state and the perennials grew wonderfully. In another bed I worked on stirring its contents amongst the plants with a pitchfork, and when I would first turn the soil, esp. after some rainfall, a decomposing smell was noticeable. The plants seemed to grow equally well in the stirred soil. I was digging in the ground nearby and would pick worms and put them in the lasagna gardens, maybe 100 worms in a 8x16'garden. I figured they would stay in there and multiply and do their composting/aeration work since few will escape in the initial years before the thick paper & cardboard base breaks down. Almost everything has grown exceptionally well in these gardens although I think the soils is too rich for a few of the perennials. Sorry this is so long, I hope any of it helps!
Andrea

I had the lasagna gardening book, but gave it to a friend and...

What I ending up doing was the "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. It uses a raised garden system, with no existing soil. Does use and recommend doing your own compost. My hubby built a raised garden out of a double course of concrete blocks so I could sit on the edges (about 3' x 11'). I am very impressed with the method and the results. My snap peas were over 10' tall! The broccoli was enormous and delicious. Lots of Swiss chard, carrots and tomatoes.

I would recommend this method to any Northern Gardeners and those who want to grow a great garden with minimal space and effort.

The method is available in a book or his website

Here is a link that might be useful: Square Foot Gardening

Here's an update: we have started our first lasagna garden! We did it a few days ago: wet newspaper, a thin layer of peat moss, about 3 inches of cut up leaves. I misted in between layers and then poured water over the whole thing before covering it up with a tarp to prevent it from drying out too quickly. We will add compost on top this weekend. The plan is to keep it wet for two months and then start planting vegetables end of May. Hope this will work!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of my future garden on Flickr