what the googly moogly is a lasagna bed?

Pat Lanza of New York wrote a book called Lasagna Gardening which , I believe, is simply layering compost, soil, leaves, grass then compost, soil, leaves, grass again till you sort of have a raised (but flat) bed. I haven't read the book but I think that's the guist of it. Pat is a friend of mine that I see once a year at the Garden Writer's coonference. She's a hoot but then, so am I. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bittersweet Gardens

The soil forum usually has something going about lasagna beds. Eddie has the gist of it. You start with a thick layer of newspapers as the base (to kill grass or weeds), then top it with 2 inch layers of peat moss, grass clippings, composted manure, shredded leaves - I forget what else - would have to look it up in the book. When the bed is about 12 to 18 inches high, you cover it with plastic or whatever - I used a shower curtain liner - and let it cook for at least 6 weeks. I actually let mine cook over the fall and winter. Eventually it turns into really friable soil. Then you plant into it. If you need to you can cut through the newspaper at the bottom and dig into the soil to have enough room for the roots. I never had to do that. Supposedly the soil under the paper becomes more friable too as the paper breaks down and little worms and critters work on the organic material. I don't know if that has happened to the nasty clay underneath my bed or not. I just know I need to move the temporary plants out so I can have room for the stuff I wanted to plant in that bed.

I do wonder about this bed over the long term, because clay has so many nutrients in it. But it is so nice to see the plants doing so well and to have soil I can dig in with my hands. Eddie, when you see your friend this year, tell her I said WooHooooo!

wow...i could do that! it sounds relatively simple. and i can see the benfit for sure! thank you for bringing this up!

If you want to cook the bed in about 6 weeks and then plant, you need to use 4 times as much brown material (shredded leaves, peat moss, hay, straw) as you do green material (grass clippings, manure) and you need to add a little bit of bonemeal and lime or sulpher). You don't have to keep to those proportions if you are willing to let it set over the winter or wait for a few months. I ended up letting mine set for several months before I put anything in it. And I notice that the soil is much better this spring than it was last fall when I planted in it. So time helps.

Here are the basic layers I used. I did not make it 18 to 24" tall. I stopped at about 15 inches. The layers in the order I did them were:
newpaper on top of sod
1" of peat moss over the newspaper
3" of grass clippings mixed with shredded leaves
1" of peat moss
2" of compost (store bought soil conditioner - I use the homemade compost for other things)
1" of peat moss
3" of grass clippings
1" of peat moss
2" of shredded leaves
1" of peat moss
2" of coomposted manure

I think that's it. A lot of people say Patricia Lanza calls for too much peat moss. That could well be true - and my soil was a little too crumbly when the bed was new. It seems good now. Now that companies sell peat from renewable sources I didn't worry about it. Of course you can use many more sources of organic matter than I used. It depends on what you have. It is not cheap if you have to buy the organic matter, but I figured the cost came out the same as buying fewer organics and having to rent a tiller. I think I broke even.

I tried a modified lasagna bed under some trees to plant ajuga. I took material left over from making the lasagna bed and made little lasagna piles just big enough to plant the ajuga. I figured the little hills wouldn't smother tree roots. I thought I had lost the ajuga, but it came back this spring and is flourishing. The little ajuga piles were enough to get it started and let is spread on its own.