The lasagna method will work to kill weeds and improve soil in shade as well as it works in sun.... but you will have to plant shade loving plants, not sun loving veggies once the bed is made.

Thank you for the information!

Last year, I made a lasagna bed in almost full shade - the site gets about an hour of hot afternoon sun, but the rest of the time is in shade.

It turned out to be one of my best, quickest lasagna beds. I think it stayed moist more easily, which led to a quicker break-down of materials. This, of course, is not scientific fact, but only my guess, lol!

I planted into it about a month or two after starting it, and every single plant in there is doing great. It's turned out to be one of my favorite gardens.

Dee

Dee, do you remember what you made your layers out of?

How do you compensate for the shrinkage due to decomposition in creating a permanent bed?

Adding more materials yes, but that would do nothing to lift the plants that are now lower than the rest or drop the height of those that are higher than the rest. I have never done this, so I don't know if I am making a mountain out of a mole hill.

If you try to make the layers as uniform as possible throughout the bed does that make the shrinkage some what uniform as well so that the shrinkage no longer is a problem?

I have only tried this with vegetables so how much it shrinks this year won't matter as the plants will come out after the frost. I would be able to compensate next year. You can't really do that in a permanent bed without digging and replanting them can you?

Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

never-give-up, if I remember correctly, my layers consisted of, in this order:

Newspaper, about 6 sheets thick, well watered

Half-composted compost (stuff from my bins that hadn't composted yet - lots of whole kitchen scraps but this is the bottom layer so I thought it would be okay, critter-wise - and it was for me) (green)

Shredded paper (brown)

Coffee grounds (green)

Shredded leaves (brown)

Composted bagged cow manure (green)

More shredded leaves to cover, with a sprinkling of finished compost over the top.

I'd say the whole thing was about 8 to 10 inches high, when it was all done and watered well. I have made some higher than this, but those are usually where I know I don't have a lot of existing soil (I have a lot of rock ledge in my yard). This shade bed went where I knew I had deeper soil so I did not make it as high. Now, as a finished bed, it is slightly raised, maybe 3 to 4 inches higher than ground level.

I did make my layers uniform, if by uniform you mean the same level over the entire bed. I did not bother to try to make each level the same thickness as the previous one, if that's what you mean.

When I planted into it, I poked through the newspaper to plant into the existing soil. To be honest, I never thought much about the settling, and everything seems to have settled evenly - no plants popping out or sinking in the bed. I do try to add a layer of compost in the spring, and a layer of shredded leaves in the fall, but for the most part I've found that I do not have to adjust any plants for height.

Sorry I can't give more "technical" info. I guess I didn't think that much about it when I did it, lol.

Hope this helps!
:)
Dee

Thank you Dee for the information and the thought that went into it. The green/brown part helped too as I am still trying to get a handle on that as well.

Sorry that it took so long to thank you. I really think that my computer would be more useful if it was used for fill down back than it is trying to use it for the purpose it was designed for. lol

I hear ya, never-give-up. I just had my computer fixed because it had a bad memory chip or something like that and was slowing down, and now it's even worse than before! I can't scroll properly because the computer doesn't fully recognize my monitor, I can't download anything without restarting the computer, it won't recognize my floppy drive, and I can't upload photos. Sheesh, it worked better when it was broken, lol!

Anyway, good luck with the lasagna bed. These are really great, and I don't think I will ever dig a bed again!

:)
Dee