Lasagna No-Till Gardening

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw explores the benefits and steps to creating a no-till lasagna garden.

What is lasagna no-till gardening?

• Often called "lasagna" gardening because of the layering involved or no-till gardening because there is no need to dig up and disturb the existing organic matter.

Reasons to consider a lasagna no-till garden:

• You want to create a new or expanded garden area in your yard
• You’re considering planting a vegetable or herb garden next year

When’s the best time?

• October/ November is the best time to do it and in the least back-breaking and simplest way.

Joanne’s experience:

• Joanne did this with her garden in October 2016.
• Check out the Lasagna Gardening section of Joanne’s book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden. You’ll find pictures of Joanne’s garden in 2016 and how she tackled creating a new garden area that she planted in the following June of 2017. Or listen to her talk about it on a previous show.
• Here are some of the basics and her recommendations eight years later.
  • Joanne lives on a corner lot with no sidewalks: her garden is in the front yard, to the right of the front door from the walkway to the curb and wraps around the corner and ends at the driveway.
  • In 2016, she had a garden in the centre of that space surrounded by approximately 3-4 feet of grass (it was actually barren, dry soil that was hard to water because of the slight slope).
  • It received A LOT of sun. She didn’t have time to baby a garden and wasn’t going to baby her lawn.
  • She liked the idea of having more garden and less lawn and was looking for a simple way to make this happen.
  • Her research led her to lasagna gardening where you cover your lawn with layers of material to not only kill your lawn but create a “new” garden or new improved garden area to plant in the following spring.
  • Starting a new garden by digging up an existing lawn or maybe an old one that you inherited that needs some major refreshing seems straightforward. But not only is it hard work, it is often hard for most people to dispose of the old sod, or poor garden material.
• The steps:
  • That is the beauty of this method. It starts with cardboard! Lots of cardboard, more than you think you will need because you want to make sure the boxes overlap.