Sat presentations--Reedsburg--Lasagna Gardens and Compost

I will be presenting twice at the Fermentation Fest this Saturday at Reedsburg, WI.  Each presentation is 2 hours, so I will talk a bit slower and have time for questions.

cost is $5 per session.

http://fermentationfest.com/

Mulch--How Deep? and Oak leaves and evergreen needles

Yes, I always say 18 to 24 inches deep, at installation.  The first year, this will be your growing medium, while the cardboard or newspaper is smothering the weeds below. 

After winter or a few weeks of watering the 18 to 24 inches will settle to less than HALF of the original height.

The goal, before planting, is 8 to 12 inches of moist, settled mulch materials, above the soil surface.

If you have 16 inches, fluffying it does not count.   When I use old hay, I do not fluff up the hay.  It will settle more.  The beginning height is not the point--it is the end height that is the goal.  Fluffed materials  will just settle in on itself as it gets wet.

I don't bother to chop leaves, unless you are picking them up with something that chops them.  We are not mulching the soil with leaves and then planting into the soil.  We are creating a mulch bed, that we will plant into.  Leaves that are matted together are just a place for roots to grow between.  This does not cause an air exchange problem for the lasagna/deep mulch garden.

Oak leaves are fine to use, up to about 25%.  If I you have evergreen needles, I suggest us using them as the very top layer.  They look nice, and are slow to break down.  They will be good as the top layer through next year's growing season.  Then next fall they will be on the bottom of the 12 to 18 inches of materials you add next fall.

How Mulch is Too Mulch?

I am on vacation in northern WI this week, in Door County tonight.  Today, while in Appleton area, a landscaping company had dyed wood mulch out front, near the road.

It was ROYAL BLUE!!!  I am not a huge fan of dyed wood mulch--but much of the red, grey to black are dyed with iron oxide dyes.  These earth tones can look nice in the landscape, and some people really like the dyed mulch.

But for me, Royal Blue is going too far.  I immediately pictured it around a blue swimming pool or Culver's.

But, if Royal Blue mulch gets someone to stop having some lawn and put in some flowers or food plants--then it may be a gain.

Low-Maintenance, Sustainable Gardening with Edibles Workshop

There is a post down a bit about a day long workshop I am offering this winter.  I am starting to get request to schedule this. 

I need local co-sponsors to help me get to different locations with this day of great gardening info.  I suggest a $30 to 50 per attendee price.  With that price for the day--this will be a fundraiser for local gardens or garden clubs. 

Contact me soon to get me scheduled in your area.

Here is the basic roundown.

Thanks,

Roger  InfiltratingLandscapes@gmail.com

Low-Maintenance, Sustainable Gardening Including Edibles

Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mulch! Mulch! Mulch!  Nature’s Weed (Control) and Feed
Nature abhors bare soil!  Learn how plant based mulches suppress weeds, retain moisture, moderate soil temperatures, feed and protect soil life—who feed and protect our plants.  Then learn how to use this info to the best advantage for you and your plants.  Reduce weeding, water and fertilizing.
 

Composting 

You just wet layered Carbon and Nitrogen ingredients and let the microbes Break It Down.

Lasagna Gardening

Lasagna (deep mulch) Gardens recycle cardboard, and leaves or old hay into a deep mulch that you plant directly into.  Come learn how to have a garden that has no tilling, no digging, and little weeding and little watering--all season.  Plus, really healthy/productive plants.

Vegetables 101
Growing some of your own food is a great feeling, great eating and a great use of some of your yard.  How to choose what to grow, basics of planting, spacing, when to plant, mulching, watering, soil preparation and more will be covered.  

Tomato Blight—Prevention Is Worth a Pound A Year, Actually More
Having 8 foot tall tomatoes that have leaves to the ground until frost, starts with the seed starting medium.  And watering, mulching, plant spacing, air flow, available nutrients, plant support, fall clean up and LUCK!!

Lunch Break

Edible Landscaping

Combine edible and non-edible annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees in one landscape design and create a really beautiful yard that will be the envy of the neighborhood, not the scourge.

Organic By Design, Not Neglect
Learn many simple, practical and cost effective ways to have a more Organic garden, vegetables and flowers. Soil Health, Insect Control, Cultural and Physical techniques, Encouraging Natural Controls and more will be covered.

Putting the Lasagna Garden to Bed in Fall

Putting the Lasagna Garden to Bed in Fall

Yes, I just bury all old plant material--tomato blight, powdery mildew and ALL!!!!

You need to bring in at least 12" of new mulch and bury everything.  Think about fungi a bit and their life cycle.  Drying and UV light kill spores.  Moist and dark is good storage for fungi spores.  Till them into the ground this fall, for good storage and till them up in the spring for good inoculation--if you want that same fungi disease again!!!

Bury those MILLIONS of spores under 12 inches of mulch never to see the light of day again and in a rich microbial and bug world--they are more likely to get eaten and out competed in the mulch.  Plus, they will not be brought to the surface in the spring.

Read my Tomato Blight Prevention handout for more on Tomato Blight prevention and my ideas.

Yes, my fall clean up is that easy.  Knock it down and bury it all.  In the spring, it will be mostly moist.  Maybe water a few times and you are ready to plant into a weed free garden for the entire growing season.

Indian Summer Tomatoes

If your tomato plants did not get killed by the first few frost, you probably have some green and blushing tomatoes out in the garden.

Before the next hard frost, I pick the blushing tomatoes and green tomatoes with decent size.  Then I put them in cardboard boxes, one layer deep.  Put the boxes in the basement, or some not hot place.  Close the tops or put a few sheets of newspaper on top of the tomatoes.  They do not need light to ripen.  They need their own gas to help them ripen.

Check them every few days. They will ripen over the next month.  They will not taste as good as summer tomatoes--But they will taste better than store tomatoes--and you already have them for free.

Fresh eating, they are ok.  For cooking--they are great!!!

Smother layer over grass--prep for permanent bed

Kris asks:

I heard the show today and the concept for the second time, so am really ready to go!  I did a version of this with my ongoing compost in a tiny raised bed last year and my tomatoes reseeded themselves and are also 7 feet high.  Amazing.

My question, next year, we are planting a privacy break in the corner of a small lot.  If I do the lasagne technique in preparation, can it go right over the existing grass?  I assume so, but just wanted to know. 

Thanks for your work.

Kris,

I agree, it is amazing and great fun to have such healthy plants!!!--with little work.

Yes, lasagna gardens can always go right over the existing vegetation.  That is the purpose of the smother layer, to kill what is below it.

I love to do a lasagna garden as prep for a perennial bed.  It kills all the weeds and enriches the soil.  After a few months of the growing season, when all plants below are dead, you can start to plant perennials and shrubs right into the ground.

With this technique, the lasagna mulch does not have to be as deep.  You can do a smother layer and 6" of wood mulch and after a few months start to plant down into the soil.

Good luck,

Roger

Mulching containers and using wet wood pellets

Dana asks:

What are your thoughts about wood pellets that got wet and are now sawdust, to mulch containers?

I only do container gardening and don't even know if they need to be mulched...I just got some twice crushed wood mulch from a local foundry...so it makes me think wet wood pellets would work also. What do you think?

Loved the Larry Meillor show today..thanks Dana

Dana,

You hit one of my favorite points.  Yes, I believe containers should be mulched!!!  Two big challenges with contains:  watering and high soil temps!

Mulch retains moisture and evens soil temps. 

I have a handout here about mulching.  The smaller the particles of mulch, the deeper the mulch needs to be, to slow the wicking process. 

Yes, sawdust and wood pellets that got wet, will work fine for mulching containers, just needs to be deep enough.   If  it is only 1 to 2" deep it could actually make drying happen faster, as it can work like a wick, then.

You could put the wet pellets down and then 1/2 to inch of shredded mulch on top, that is more course. 

Good thinking to reuse something that got "broken" for the intended purpose.

Happy Gardening,

Roger

Shredded paper in the lasagna garden

Caryl asks:

I really was inspired with your ideas on the Larry Meillor show this morning.  I have a question about shredded paper.  I have a good source for bags and bags of this stuff and I'm wondering what your opinion is for using this as a layer in the lasagne garden.

Caryl,

Shredded paper is a fine ingredient in a lasagna garden.  It comes from trees and would be a carbon ingredient.  It should not be the main ingredient.

Concerns:  glossy paper and print is not recommend.  Staples are fine, they will rust away.  Plastic windows from envelopes could be a mess.

2nd concern:  It takes a lot of work to refine wood to paper.  Paper can be easily recycled, so from a sustainability/resource use standpoint--I prefer to not add lots of paper to the lasagna garden, but to keep the paper being recycled in the already refined paper cycle. 

The cardboard from food is great o compost or bury in a lasagna garden, as it is not supposed to be put in the recyclables in most places.

There are lots of carbon materials around, that are raw, from nature and not already refined.  Read my handout on Composting for some more carbon ingredient ideas.

Final answer: shredded paper is fine, but there are other options that I prefer.

Low-Maintenance, Sustainable Gardening Including Edibles Workshop

I am looking for local host/partners to work with me in presenting

Low-Maintenance, Sustainable Gardening Including Edibles Workshops

The program is designed to be a full day workshop with options for Sat evening and Sunday fun workshops.  If your garden club, botanical gardens or other group would like to work with me, please get in touch.  This will be a fundraiser for your group.

Here is the main program, which would run from Sat 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mulch! Mulch! Mulch!  Nature’s Weed (Control) and Feed
 

Composting 

Lasagna Gardening

Vegetables 101
 

Tomato Blight—Prevention Is Worth a Pound A Year, Actually More
 

Lunch Break

Edible Landscaping

Organic By Design, Not Neglect

Here are possible workshops to be added to fill out the weekend:

Saturday Evening Workshop:

Edible Landscaping Workshop  (2 -3 hours)

Preserving the Harvest--Frozen Meals (1 hour)

Sunday Workshops (options):

Preserving the Harvest--Frozen Meals (1 hour)

Get Started Gardening--Low Cost, Small Space, Easy Startup--Weed Free (1 hour)

Leaf Printing Workshop  (3 hours)

Sprouting Sprouts and Growing Micro-Greens Workshop

Build a Worm Bin Workshop (2- 3 hours)

  

Seed Starting Workshop (2 to 3 hours)

Energy Efficient Landscaping Discussion  (1 to 2 hours)

Garden Talk on Larry Meiller Show on WI Public Radio--Friday Sept 23, 2011

I will be the guest on WI Public Radio's Larry Meiller Show's Garden Talk on Sept 23 from 11 to 12:30.

WPR.ORG

The Ideas Network

Hope you can tune in--feel free to call in with you lasagna/deep mulch garden questions or mulching or composting or edible landscaping--any sustainable gardening questions.

Fermentation Fest, Reedsburg, WI Oct 15 presentations

Oct 15, I will be presenting at the Sauk County Fermentation Fest in Reedsburg, WI.

I will present Lasagna Gardening and Composting.  Each presentation is 2 hours--so I will not have to speak so fast and there will be time for questions.

http://fermentationfest.com/

Southwest WI School and Community Gardens

Infiltrating Landscapes is thrilled to partern with Southwest Badger RC&D to offer this community garden project.

http://www.swbadger.com/garden.html

About 20 demonstration public gardens have been installed from Shullsburg/Benton to La Crosse/Onalaska, in 7 counties in Southwest WI.

Thanks to grants from NRCS and Organic Valley.

The locations are:

Onalaska--YMCA (new building)
Onalaska School--behind elementary school
La Crosse--Kane Street Community Gardens
La Crosse--Aquinas pre-school
Coon Valley--2 blocks behind Kwik Trip, near Fairbanks and Lein intersection
Westby--Bethel Butikk, Hwy 27, Food Pantry and Thrift Store
Viroqua--Maplewood Terrace--assisted living center
Boscobel--Boscobel Elem School--at school forest, Irish Ridge Road
Reedsburg--Reedsburg High School, near greenhouse
Reedsburg--Sacred Heart School--south side of gym
Sauk City, Park Hall
Highland--Highland School
Dodgeville--Dodgeville School, near water tower
Mineral Point--Mineral Point Elementary School
Belmont--Belmont School--behind school building
Platteville--Platteville School-Neal Wilkins--behind school
Platteville--Planteville High School--north east of bus parking lot
Benton--Benton Business Incubator--west of town, near landscaping business
Shullsburg--Shullsburg School, in front of stone gym

Go take a look at these gardens, if you are in the area.

Upcoming free workshops--April 30, LaCrosse/Onalaska

Free--deep mulch garden installation workshops.

Sat morning--La Crosse YMCA, Onalaska site, 10 to 12:30 p.m.

Sat afternoon--La Crosse Kane Street Community Garden site, 2 to 4 p.m.
  At this site, we will be installing a few different demonstration deep mulch gardens, including a 4 x 8 raised bed, great for the home landscape.

Hope to see you there,

Roger Reynolds

Upcoming free workshops--April 16, Viroqua/Westby/Coon Valley

Hi All,

These are some public, free lasagna/deep mulch garden installation workshops coming up.  More details in the next few days.  Each workshop will be 90 min to 2 hours.

April 16, a marathon day!!!  This day is planned, but final times have to be set

Viroqua,  Bethel Home/Maplewood Terrace--start 9 to 10

Westby, Bethel Boutique/Food Pantry--start 1 to 1:30

Coon Valley, Bee Co-op building--start  4 to 5 p.m.

This is very exciting!!!

Roger

DeKalb, ILL--House Cafe, Noon to 3, Edible Landscaping Talk

Hi All,

I will be talking at the House Cafe, Sunday, April 10, at Noon, in DeKalb, IL. 

I will be focusing on edible landscaping using deep mulch gardens and a bit on tomato blight prevention.

If you are in the area, please come.

Less Work--More Produce,

Roger

La Valle, WI Library

April 7, I spoke at the La Valle Library in rural Sauk County.  The town has a population of 326.  There were 80 people at this talk on tomato blight prevention, lasagna/deep mulch gardening and edible landscaping.

What a great evening!!!  I warms my heart to see so many people interested in sustainable, low-work gardening.

Thanks to all who help make that great evening happen and who came.

Happy Day,

Roger

Where is Roger?

Hi All,

I will return soon.  I was hit by a bad cold that lasted 3 weeks.  Plus, the Southwest WI School and Community Demonstration Garden project exploded in a great way.

We were looking for 10 to 15 participating sites for this growing season.  There are a few still seeking admin approvals.  We will have between 25 to 30 participating sites. 

I have been really busy working to get them all up to speed to understand the project and get admin approvals.

I will be back to your questions and posting here by next Wednesday.

Oh yeah, another huge item that I should mention.  A marketing entrepreneur has approached me to work with him in the DeKalb, Ill and great Chicago area to start a landscaping business installing deep mulch food gardens in the area.  This is very exciting and was not in my to do list until early March.  We are looking to do installations and planted gardens for this growing season.  A pretty fast business start-up!!!

That's the news and where I have been.  I will be back mid-week. 

I have lots of questions to answer and some exciting events and gardens to tell you about.

Compost Happens,

Roger

Frank Lloyd Wright Inspired Garden Design for Wyoming Valley School

I know vegetable gardens can be taken to a new level of design.  In a deep mulch garden no tilling is needed for weed control, so rows are no longer needed.

I like to to think outside the row and move into new and creative vegetable garden designs.

Here is a design inspired by a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass pieces. 

This design will be installed at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wymoing Valley School near Spring Green.  There will be two class/workshops for installation and planting.

In this garden, flower color, leaf color and leaf texture are used to create the color blocks.

Think outside the row!!!

Roger

Pictures of gardens

Hi All,

I will be getting gardening pictures here soon.  I am working on it.  In the mean time, there are a number of pictures at www.myspace.com/ourfarmwi.

Check out seed catalogs now.

Roger

Washburn Gardening Expo March 19, LaCrosse, WI--tomato blight

Hi All,

I will open this presentation with about 10 minutes on "Tomato Blight" an explanation of why the conventional recommendations don't really break the blight lifecycle.  Then I will move into discussing how to build a Lasagna Garden/deep mulch garden.  I will end with explaining how a deep mulch/Lasagan Garden is a great way to prevent tomato blight.

See you all in a few weeks.

Roger

Up and coming--Starting to GROW

My seeds are starting to take root.  I have been working to become an educator in sustainable gardening for a few years.  If you have heard me talk, you know I am passionate and have a philosophy of "LESS WORK--MORE PRODUCE!!!''  and I know now to do it.   The pictures are real.

If you have heard me talk, you know I throw a lot of info at you in as much time as I have and I talk fast to get as much in as possible. 

Good News, in the next few months the following will be added to this site or a new website that you will be directed to from here.

Coming:
more speaking engagements
audio recordings of my presentations, downloadable
slide shows to go with the audio recording, downloadable
Workshops where we will be doing installations and plantings

Then:
20 to 30 page booklets to go with each presentations.

If all that goes well--in about a year---A BOOK!!!

Happy day to all of you,

Roger

Winter Gardening in an unheated greenhouse

A spinach and a few other crops can be grown in an unheated greenhouse, in Wisconsin and into Canada, through the winter.

The spinach will freeze at night.  During the day, when the greenhouse warms up, you can pick the fresh spinach.  Just don't try to pick it when the plant is frozen.

From more on this see Eliot Coleman's "Four Season Harvest" book at 

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/

Good luck,

Roger

Landscape fabric instead of cardboard

Roger,

  

If you couldn't get enough large sheets of cardboard for the bottom layer, couldn't you also use a permeable landscape cloth material?

What do you think?

Thanks, Lee

Answer:

Lee,

  

Getting cardboard is not hard.  The store where you would buy the landscape fabric, ask them for cardboard, instead.

Lasagna gardening is a sustainable long term plan.  You only need the cardboard or newspaper layer the first year.  Then your microbes, insects and plants are back to some access to the soil.  The insects are constantly moving between the soil and mulch of a Lasagna Garden.  All Earthworms migrate deep to survive winter freezing.  I imaging insects cannot get through the holes in the landscape fabric.

Grocery stores, applaince stores, mattress stores and any store has cardboard boxes they send out for recycling.  You can usually get them for the asking. 

To install a non-biodegradable membrane below a Lasagna Garden, you are going against the philosophy, principles and long term plan of the system.  I don't think in the long run you will have as good as success as with cardboard or newspaper.

Just my opinion.  Good luck,

Roger

Vining crops, keeping mulch in place and tomato blight/varieties

Hello Roger,

I very much appreciated your tomato blight seminar last Sat. at the Garden Expo. I am now well on my way to planning for this Summer and hope to eliminate or nearly eliminate the blight we’ve had for the past two years.

I’ve checked out your blog and printed all the handouts from your seminars – thanks – lots of great information. I am going to try the mulch technique, however our garden is rather large (we love vine fruits and vegetables) and it gets very windy in April around here. I may need to start with mulching only a few areas of the garden (where the tomatoes will go this year and where they were last year). Any suggestion on keeping the mulch in place?

Also, could you recommend a variety? I’ve gone into all three of the seed sources you recommended and although there is one disease resistant variety listed, it is not a plum and I really wonder about the taste

Sandy

Answer:

Sandy,

For vining crops, you just need about a 4 ft wide row to plant the seeds/plants in and then let the vines go out over unmulched area--and they will do just fine.  I have had squash vines planted like that go 35 to 40 feet long.  I did not have any of that area mulched, except where the seed was planted.

Highest priority is to mulch where the tomatoes will go this year!!  Second, where the tomatoes were last year--great plan.  If you can get at least 2 to 4 inches of mulch on the rest of the garden, you should be in much better shape for this growing season and start planning for fall mulch harvesting.

To keep mulch in place.  Once hay or straw is wet--it stays in place pretty good.  If you put down cardboard, make sure to have all the edges covered a good depth.  If the wind catches cardboard--look out. 

As soon as you install the mulch--WET IT!!  an hour a day for 3 to 7 days, until it is all wet.

If you have leaves, a bit trickier.  There is light weight bird/deer netting, black fine plastic netting.  You can place that over leaves to help hold them in place, while they are getting wetted.  Just weight it down with some wood, rocks or something.

You can top dress leaves with some old hay, straw or wood mulch to also help hold them in place.

I agree--hybrid disease resistant varieties usually don't have the richest flavor.  I plant heirloom tomatoes and keep a clean mulched garden and clean seed starting--and have good success.

May the Blight--not be with you!!

Roger

Spot smothering and success story!!

Roger,

Thanks for doing the Lasagna Garden talk.  I only wish we had heard of it a year before we ripped up 25% of our yard with a sod cutter!

I was wondering if you have done any 'spot smothering' in an existing bed?  We now have some very large mulched beds that get weedy and grassy pretty quickly.  The shredded wood mulch keeps some of it down but not all.

Wanted to let you know after we saw you talk last year, we put in a small (50sqft) lasagne garden, I think in August and were able to get several nice, large yellow squash from about 8 plants that went in

very sickly looking and perked up nicely until the frost finally killed them off.

Now we want to lasagne the rest of the yard.  NO MORE DIGGING!!

Our recipe was just cardboard, 4 bales of hay, and all the grass clippings from the back yard, wet, tarp for two weeks and plant!  It went beautifully.  When the rain pooled on the tarp, I just punched a hole or two in the middle and let it drain straight into the bed.

Thanks!

--Steve

Answer:

Steve,

Music to my ears!!!--the sound of no sod cutter!!!   and smaller turf grass lawn--they have their place, but they have too much place, right now in the USA. Conserve and use that water--right on!!

 "Less work--More Produce!!"

I love laying down cardboard and knowing all the grass is dead--instead of digging out sod, WORKING SO HARD, and knowing quack grass roots are probably still there.

Sickly plants perked up--that is great to hear.   Pretty amazing to see what plants can do when given the growing environment they evolved with, huh.  Next time, with sickly summer squash plants, you may do just as well to soak seeds a few hours and plant fresh seeds.  Sickly plants, sometimes are disease infected and cannot recover.

"Spot smothering"  You have a couple of choices.  It depends on what you have growing there.  Of course, if you cover desirable plants, they will die also--except spring bulbs.  Once spring bulbs go dormant, you could smother where they are and kill existing weeds in that area.  Next spring, the cardboard will be decomposed and the bulbs will come up--maybe don't mulch really deep on the cardboard in that area or make sure it is not deep in the fall.

"Spot smothering"--it can work.  In mulch, it might be helpful to pull what parts of the weed, you can, at first.  Then make sure to smother at least a foot beyond the edge of the weeds.  Quack grass and creeping charlie will probably get out the sides of just a foot over their edges.  If they do, pull, cut or cover those parts too.

You need to be diligent to make sure no weed parts get up above the smother layer--that is what they want to do--and spreading plants are designed to do that.  Success depends on your diligence.

Another method for raspberries, asparagus or other plants like that is to apply 2 to 6" of mulch (not wood) once or twice a month and let it keep building up at their base, as they are growing above it.  You must work to pull any weed parts coming up in the mulch.

If weeds are growing in your mulch--make the mulch thicker.  "Mulch!Mulch!Mulch" handout has some on this.

Good luck,

Roger

When to plant...?

Hi Roger,

I really enjoyed your vegetable gardening 101 class, and learning all about lasagna gardening (I am starting my first garden this spring at a community space!).  However, I missed your class on tomato blight because it was full, and lost the scrap of paper with direction to the information covered.   Is there anyway you could send me that?

Also, any advice on what to plant if I am forced to plant later in May due to travel plans?

Thanks again,

Mike

Answer:

Hi Mike

I am glad you enjoyed my presentations.  I hope the information is helpful. 

You can find all the handouts at infiltratinglandscapes.blogspot.com  Help yourself.  All the handouts are there and working, as far as I can tell.

I don't know where you are, but I don't plant tomatoes and other summer crops until late May or even early June.  I think early to mid May is too cool for tomatoes.

Check the seed packet, days to harvest and your earliest frost date and do some math.

Good luck with your garden.  If your fellow community gardeners think you are crazy--just remember the pictures I showed.  By mid-summer--they will be asking you for advice.

Roger

Lasgana Garden--what to do after growing season and to expand....

Hi Roger,

I just wanted to say thanks for the directions you sent last year.

I tried just a small area of about 8 x 8. It worked fabulously and I want to expand more this year.

I just wanted to check about what to do the second year. If I'm reading the directions correctly I should skip the cardboard and just mulch on top of whatever is left from last year up to 24 ".

Is that correct???

Thanks again for the great tip.

Ann

Answer:  

Hi Ann,

Thanks for the feedback.  That is great to hear.  Yes, it is simple, if you just do it by the directions. Congratulations on yoru success.

The smother/cardboard layer is to kill the existing vegetation.  If you have not let perennials weeds grow in the lasagna mulch, like quack grass or creeping charlie, no smother layer is needed for the established area.

If you plan to expand that area, you need to do a smother layer on the new area, and try to get some smother layer under the edge of the existing lasagna garden so quack  grass and creeping charlie don't come through there.

Good luck,

Roger

Your Pictures--please

Hi

Many of you told me this weekend you have had successful Lasagna Gardens, please send me your pics and I will post them.

Thanks,

Roger

infiltratinglandscapes@gmail.com

Thanks--up and coming

Hello,

Thanks to all who attended the talks I gave at the Garden Expo.  I hope you had as much fun as I did.  As you can tell, this is a passion of mine. 

I have one last handout to get up here--Mulch, Mulch, Mulch.  I will also be adding my handouts for composting and worm composting.

Then I will be reworking the layout of this blog, and start to answer your questions.  I will be adding most of the pictures I used in my presentations.

Happy gardening,

Roger

Hello and welcome

I am at the WHA-TV Garden Expo in Madison, WI this weekend presenting a number of talks on natural, clean, organic gardening.

http://www.wigardenexpo.com/

Roger