Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding!

I buy a lot of books -just ask my postal carrier. One year my favorite was Biscuit Bliss. Another year it was Morimoto's masterpiece. This year it is Lasagna Gardening. There is so much wonderful information inside. Covers much more than I expected.

There are countless books available on gardening, and many competing methods which all claim to get the best results. Some are highly readable and help the reader become truly successful and effective gardeners. Most, unfortunately, do not. Based on both my personal gardening experience and some 20 plus years of reading books on the subject, Lasagna Gardening is one of those dozen or so books out there I consider worth having. It is most unfortunate that Rodale chose to say "A New Layering System..." on the cover, as it seems to have set off a kneejerk reaction from several reviewers. There is, perhaps, truly nothing new under the sun, and the author herself makes no pretense to inventing something new with this book: "Lasagna gardening is really just another name for sheet composting, a technique where you arrange the same raw compost ingredients in low, broad layers, rather than in higher mounds or containers. The end result is the same; a crumbly, organic rich soil amendment." (pg 14). What the author does do, very well in fact, is to explain this very useful, labor-saving technique, in terms that the every-day reader can understand, and more importantly, put to use immediately. The idea that newspapers, old paper grocery bags and many other items can actually enrich your garden rather than going into the local landfill IS new to millions of Americans, and Patricia Lanza shows the reader how to use them to make a rich, highly productive garden with less work than more traditional methods. This book is not just useful for the inexperienced gardener but also contains a lot of useful, if anecdotal information for the more experienced gardener as well (the tips for growing potatoes alone saved me a LOT of work!).No one book has all of the answers, in gardening or anything else. Personally I combine the techniques of 'lasgana gardening' with the methods taught in Mel Bartholemew's Square Foot Gardening and other books - with wonderful results. That's the real test of any gardening book. Results. I recommend this book for any garderner's reference shelf.

I believe that when it comes to books presenting new ways of doing anything, the only testimony that counts is that which comes from firsthand experience. Well folks, I'm here to tell you after a year of gardening the lasagna way that my firsthand experience shows this book is one of the wisest investments any gardener can make. Let me tell you about my 2003 garden.First, a short outline of lasagna gardening technique: soak b & w newspapers in water, then overlap sections in a single layer directly on top of premarked sod area. This smothers the weeds/grass underneath. Then put a 4 inch layer of moistened peat moss over that, followed by a moist layer of organic shredded green material, followed by another layer of peat moss, followed by a layer of moist compost or yard waste, repeat the peat moss/organic matter pattern until your bed is built up to at least 18 inches high. Finish with compost on top, then either let it break down for a few months for certain crops or plant seeds and transplants directly into the matrix by pushing aside layers and inserting. As the layers break down, the earthworms will be eating the sod and breaking up the newspapers, mixing the layers together for you. The final result is an organic, self-tilled soil that's rich and free of disease and weed seeds. It's so simple. Note: the author did neglect to mention the importance of wetting down each layer as you build the beds. I only figured this out because I had made compost before and I knew you needed moist materials for it to work.In late fall of 2002 I built a 5 foot by 25 foot border bed for perennial flowers the lasagna way after reading Patricia Lanza's book. It sounded almost too good to be true - no digging, no tilling, no weeding? What was the catch, I asked myself. When I was done I planted perennials taken from four inch pots, watered them in, and left them for the winter rains to take care of (we can do that in So. Cal, hee hee). They settled in nicely and grew steadily, but it was cool weather so the roots were doing most of the growth at that time. A few months later as top growth appeared I was encouraged to build more lasagna beds in my vegetable garden - two 5 by 5 raised beds to go with my other two traditionally tilled raised beds (those were a lot of work, double digging, sifting rocks, mixing compost, etc. I wish now that I had known about the lasagna method a few years ago!). After about two hour's work I was done layering my new vegetable beds and watered them down to compost a little. In late May, I transplanted sweet peppers and basil starts to one lasagna bed and planted cantaloupes and flowers in the other.Those two lasagna beds outperformed the traditional beds in every way. That summer I harvested more sweet peppers than ever before. It was my first try growing cantaloupes, so I have no previous crops to compare, but they did well and I harvested quite a few delicious, sun-sweetened cantaloupes from that bed. Meanwh

Usually when reviewing titles we like to keep personal experience out of the review. But for this book, the review would not have been complete without telling the experience of our Founder and Chief Literarian had after using Patricia Lanza's techniques. In fact, it was her running around the office raving about her garden that led us to this book.Before using this book, our leader had a decidedly brown thumb. After using this book she starting throwing homegrown zucchinis and tomatoes about like water. This book was so easy to understand, so engaging and so up and at `em that any reader who does not get up and immediately begin a hearty search for composting materials must be stuck under something heavy or tied to an immovable object.Lanza has found the magic formula for growing a green thumb. Make no mistake, this book is written for the beginner but even so, the advanced gardener would certainly find a trick or two between its pages. And yes, we understand lasagna gardening is just sheet composting in pretty overalls. But since we have yet to read a book about sheet composting that is even remotely as interesting as Lanza's lasagna, we'll continue to sidle up to her supper table for another helping.Grab a helping for yourself, and while you're at it, buy a freezer and a pressure canner. You'll need it.

I borrowed this book from a friend and fell in love with it! I have one on order. My family and I put in 2- 4 foot squares in less then 4 hrs. We even had it planted!! We all worked together and even my kids had fun doing this "work". They can't wait until I put in some more. I have been putting off, putting in a garden for 5 years now. I don't have a tiller, and our yard is nothing but rocks. It would have taken me weeks to get it ready. If you like gardening, but hate the work, this is the way to go!!!