Hey, Ken, is this last fall's project or is it a work-in-progress now? If it's "old" we'd love to see the finished beds!

Good advice! And it gives us something to do with all those leaves!

Do you own a park?!!

Thanks for the encouragement, Ken, and for the pictures. It sounds like a great idea. One quick question - would you have to kill the grass first? Wouldn't all that mulch or leaves or whatever just smother it? What about first putting down a thick layer of newspaper? Just trying to save myself a step (-:

This gave me an idea that I hope works. I planted an area on the edge of the woods near a road with hosta. I dug and dug the saplings out. I pulled weeds all summer. I know eventually the hosta and I will win but I worry about the woods behind them creeping up on my hosta. This year I will make sure all the oak leaves from our lawn are dumped behind my hosta. It will be about a foot deep when we are done. I hope this keeps the creepers at bay. As I thought about it this is what I do along all my beds and I have a nice empty place between the woods and my gardens.

Ken - great timing! I actually did this with my 4 year old yesterday. Had already sprayed with roundup several weeks ago, and finally got around to doing the rest. I am going to try the lasagna bed thing, but I don't know if I will get multiple layers done or not. I put down a layer of newspaper, then peat, then grass clippings. One of my neighbors took down a tree, and has a bunch of wood chips piled up, so I think I may put them on top and call it good!! Will mulch and plant in the spring.

i rely heavily on generic roundup ... aka credit extra ...

i do NOT use newsprint ... simply because of the scale i work on ... same for lasagna ... how many tons of layers would i need ....

free woodchips are the best mulch in the whole world ... FREE being the key word ...

in a perfect world.. on a small suburban lot.. i would still use the round up ... lay down all the spare newspaper..great recycling.. returning the paper to mother earth ... and pile a nice layer of that famous Michigan peat ... then all my chewed up leaves from that season.. and be done ...

also on 5 acres.... i don't collect anything from the lawn.. it gets chewed up by the 24 horsepower mower .. and returned to the grass for further use.. and what i don't get.. blows across the prairie to the neighbors.. right past them.. into the hedgerow ....

ken

Ken...thanks for your answer. I think I am going to try it. If I can find the time....

trill .. ANYTHING you get accomplished.. is less to do next season .. so find the time .... anytime ... between now and thxgvg in zone 5 ..

ken

I'll try, but if you would know me...you would know that I always do things the hard way. If I do manage to get it done, I'll have you to thank (-:

Peat is not necessary or important in a lasagna bed, if it is cheap then use it but Ken is absolutely right mixed tree trimmings are the best and you don't need anything else.

no need beds for me this year :~(

no new hostas next year either ;~( ..................well maybe one.........or two

Well Ken I decided to take your advice. I already had planned to make a new bed using newspaper and layers of organic matter. But after reading your post I decided to use round-up also. I hate using the stuff, but in this situation I thought it a good idea considering there is creeping charlie infesting the lawn in that area.

So armed with my sprayer full of round-up I began. I started to pump the compression sprayer only to notice the wand was spewing poison on to a very lovely bush! In panic I ran to get the watering can to dump on the bush. When I returned I noticed the wand was still spewing round-up! Good grief. Who knows what I've killed in the process. And that's why I hate using round-up. :(

I hope you all don't mind if I make a comment. I read here all the time, but sedlom post. But after reading how North53 had a mishap with Roundup, I just wanted to tell you how I use it. I never spray it on, I only use brushes. It seems when I have the time to use it, there's always a breeze. On large areas I 'paint' on Roundup with a paint roller with a long handle. I pour the mix in a paint pan and roll it on the grass I want dead. I use paint brushes of different sizes to work in and around my gardens. This way has always worked well for me. I get the concentrated kind and mix it stronger than what it calls for. The grass really dies fast.
Hope this helps.

Kat

Great idea, Kat!

Another roundup application trick, put on rubber gloves then cotton gloves over the rubber gloves. Now saturate the cotton gloves and rub the weeds, easier than pulling.

For large areas, you can get the big rolls of brown paper that is used to protect flooring when painting and spread out a couple of layers, then apply the mulch.
A neighbor of mine dilutes roundup more than called for and it kills everything off. She has a mix of grasses and various weeds.

If you have access to any farms, you can get various manures you can mix with the leaves too.

I've also tried "painting" on round up with a small paint brush and it does work great. My nephew had poision ivy growing in his spreaders, and I used a small brush and just put it sparingly on those leaves, the ivy died, the spreaders are still spreading. I really like the idea of using the roller for areas of grass.

Ken, thanks for posting the fall advice.

Remind everyone: TAKE PHOTOS NOW and label them in your paint or graphics program, right on the photo!!! because whatever labels you have will get pushed around, blown around, raked up, buried under... they'll be misplaced or missing by spring.

Haven't posted here in a while, but often browse everyone's great ideas!

Ken, thanks for your pep talk, especially this part:
ANYTHING you get accomplished.. is less to do next season .. so find the time .... anytime ... between now and thxgvg in zone 5 ..

Kat,
Thanks for the "painting" idea for Round-Up! I too, have too much wind to safely spray w/o killing prized plants nearby.

Julie

Hi Ken, I followed most of your advice for my lasagna bed except I started it early this spring and it is finally done. I was showing some of my pictures to a few of my Round Robin friends and they were hoping for some very good directions to go with it and I came back to find this post and your pictures are all gone!

Your pictures were so much better than mine so I was wondering if you could repost them?

I sprayed on roundup in an area that was about 40 by 10, followed by a layer of straw that I got on freecycle, next was my compost layer of all my wonderfully decomposed grass clippings, leaves and other organic material from the last several years, then my topsoil/humus layer that we got from the city, finally the top layer of mulch which also came from the city. This was a very cheap project for us to do since most of the materials were on hand or came from the city services department. Almost all of the plants I used are divisions from my yard, plants received in trades and seedlings that I grew in winter sowing containers.

I took pictures of my progress but didn't take them for the first few steps. Only from the compost layer and after.

Your pictures were an inspiration to me from the laying out the design pictures to the finished product. Thanks for being such a great influence!

Tracy

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Bed Slide Show

ta daaaaa

thanks for the kind words....

ken

Thanks for reposting the pix! You're the best!

Tracy