I very much want to eat food I grow myself. In addition to the huge list of good reasons to grow your own food (community resilience, carbon footprint, cost, health, flavor), I also find it magical that food will grow from the ground. From a seed. From dirt and sun and water and time. That is just so cool to me. Which is how I once again found myself standing and surveying my yard thinking, “How am I going to turn this mess into a garden that actually produces something I’d be willing to eat?” (Other than dandelions. I’m not going to eat them people, I’m just not. I tried. I didn’t like them. I’m sorry, but I am just not that green.)
I have spent hours pulling weeds. But you know what? They just come back. And my soil was still looking crummy and nothing looked like a happy place for growing things. Yes, I did have this impression that I would somehow pull weeds in the fall and be all ready to plant in the spring. I am a garden noob, is what I’m saying. Finally, I decided to take a word of advice from Hyperlocavore’s Liz McLellan and go the lazy person’s route. No-till. Lasagna garden. A gorgeous, wormy, happy plant home for spring. And the best part? No weeds!
So here we go – how to build a lasagna garden the easy way. The frugal way. The broke way. The lazy way. Lasagna Gardens for Dummies, Part One.
(When I told my husband I was going to make a lasagna garden, he asked if that was where all the nutritious lasagna comes from. I said yes, but I’m pretty sure lasagna grows on trees…)
What You Need
- Newspaper, packing paper or cardboard. If you use newspaper, don’t include the glossy pages. Same with cardboard. No weird, glossy cardboard.
- Green layers. This could include vegetable scraps, compost, grass clippings, weeds, manure, seaweed… you know, green stuff. Compost isn’t green, which makes it the exception that proves the rule.
- Brown layers. Dead leaves, peat moss, straw. Even more newspaper is also an option for your brown layers.
Now, here’s my little thing. We rent our house. For a variety of reasons that I won’t go into here, I’m pretty cranky with the owner right now. I don’t have a lot of incentive to invest money in this house. Not to mention that with the hubby deployed and me underemployed, I am trying not to spend too much money on my “pet” projects. Therefore, I decided that I would build my lasagna garden – in fact, do everything – as cheaply as possible. So I set out to get everything for free. I honestly didn’t think I’d pull it off.
But, guess what? I did! Total garden cost so far: $0 (No seeds purchased yet.)
Where To Get It – Free!
Below is a list of the components of my garden and where I got them. To be honest, it was way easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought for sure that I would end up buying something – some bags of compost or a bale or two of straw. But I didn’t need to. However, I didn’t use all of the potential browns and greens from the list above. But I would imagine there are ways to get them for free as well.
Newspaper: While I don’t get a daily or weekly newspaper, I was able to collect a pretty decent stack over several months. Weekly grocery circulars, co-op newsletters, community college brochures, and used community papers accumulated in my garage. Several grocery stores in my community have recycling drop boxes in the parking lots, and I went dumpster diving for recycled paper. I also asked around at local coffee houses. The employees were more than happy to save any extra community and advertorial papers for me.
Cardboard: We just moved. Enough said. If you’ve ever moved, you know where to get boxes for free.
Packing Paper: Like I said, we just moved. But the kind folks at the Olympia Food Co-op also offered me their packing paper from produce boxes when I inquired about newspapers. So nice!
Compost: I got my compost from someone on Freecycle. If you don’t belong to a local Freecycle group, you should definitely go check it out. When we moved here, most of our boxes and packing paper went via Freecycle to someone who was moving. And when I lived in DC, much of my furniture was acquired (and then rehomed before I moved to WA) through Freecycle. And I got my compost from a nice lady on Freecycle. All I had to do was drive down and pick it up. I got compost and she got the giant pile of compost out of her yard. Win-win.
Grass Clippings: I mowed my lawn. I saved the clippings. I let them sit in a giant pile in my driveway and get rained on for days. I’m sure my neighbors really appreciated that.
Dead Leaves: These came from the huge tree in my backyard. And I saw someone offering leaves on Freecycle, so there you go. Also, I have a feeling my neighbors would have let me rake and take their leaves for free.
Rocks: Notice how there is no garden border in the picture above. I’m a girl who likes her boundaries and I wanted my garden to have boundaries too. The answer was a horse-owning friend. An hour with a wheelbarrow and I had enough rocks to edge my garden, and my friend was glad to have them out of her pasture.
So there you go! You’re all set to build your lazy lasagna garden. Next week: What do I do with all of this craziness in my driveway?
