After neglecting my vegetable garden for a year I revitalized the area using lasagna gardening methods. It is a bit late in the season for summer vegetables (going to be 104 F this week in my area), but I’m going to try a few things before fall vegetable gardening starts.

A couple of weekends ago cleaned the sludge out of the koi pond and placed it on top of the weedy vegetable garden. I added a layer of peat moss and covered it with heavy plastic tarps.

Vegetable Garden, tarped and ready for Lasagna

After a week of stewing, I was pleasantly surprised that most of the weeds were dead. The remainders got weed-wacked.

Peat moss and koi pond dredge over weeds

A thick layer of cardboard and newpaper went down next.

cardboard and newspaper layer

My husband provided me with their accounting department’s bagged shreddings that were destined for the trash. That layer went down next.

Office paper shreadings

I then brought in bags of composted cow manure, composted humus, and a garden bed mix spread. I plan to do an organic vegetable garden, so the garden mix was only different textures of soil (sand, bark, etc) without any added fertilizers. Once I mixed and spread the soil I began to lay down soaker hose. My dachshund, Chloe, is my constant gardening companion loved the fresh dirt.

Chloe loves fresh dirt! Composted cow manure, composted humus, and garden bed mix spread

soaker hose placed on top of soil mix

I planted directly into the top layer of soil: fresh herbs (bee balm, bell pepper flavored basil, and globe basil), 2 types of peppers (green bell, hot yellow gold), dent corn, lemon cucumber, climbing spinach, assorted salad greens, fenugreek, okra, zucchini, and some winter squash. Pie pumpkin seeds will be added this weekend.

freshly planted: hot peppers, okra, bell peppers, herbs, zucchini

Although many of these vegetables aren’t for mid-summer crops in central Texas, I’m anxious to see what may still grow before it is time to plant the fall vegetables starting in late July/Early August. The bed is in partial shade, so some of crops may survive the near record heat and drought (27 days without measurable rain – and counting). The bed was finished off with about 3-4″ of shreaded cypress mulch.

Mulched - Done!

After a full evening of gardening my feet were a little ragged.

I'm a gardening hobbit

It seems gardening in the summer is my second full time job. I have so many things I would like to accomplish with our yarden (yard/garden), but as the primary manual laborer there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce my hours of laboring, and maximize my enjoyment of gardening.

In my area of Texas we have dense clay soils that turn into an impenetrable brick layer once our summer dry spell begins in early June. Raised garden beds with thick organic matter seem to be the best solution for drainage, but installing them the traditional way (removing the sod/weeds, tilling or double digging) takes tons of time and effort. One of my favorite gardening time (and back) savers is lasagna gardening. Lasagna gardening involves piling layers of organic material over a thick base layer of cardboard or newspaper without having to remove or disturb the underlying sod or weeds. This layering, like a pan of lasagna, leaves a ready to plant raised bed with soil that will only improve as the components further break down.

About two years ago I tried my first lasagna garden. I had an approximately 30 foot by 10 foot area of sod that I wanted to turn into an organic butterfly garden. I first laid out the area to get the general shape, and then placed a thick layer of cardboard down to kill the grass.  The following layers consisted of newpaper, peat moss, partially decomposed matter from the compost bins, leaves, and manure.

Laying out the garden shape, right half of garden

Putting the cardboard layer down, left side of garden

Once I placed all the layers I planted. My selection of plants included mostly Texas natives, particularly those that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Maintenance on this garden has been minimal with an approximately 4″ layer of hardwood mulch added every fall and spring. Compared to my beds constructed by conventional methods, this garden seems to get fewer weeds and continues to have excellent soil and drainage.

Left side of Butterfly garden, once planted.

Completed Butterfly Garden, freshly mulched.

Butterfly Garden, Approximately 2 Years After Installation

After neglecting my vegetable garden for a year I’m going to revitalize the area using lasagna gardening methods. Last weekend we cleaned the sludge out of the koi pond and placed it on top of the now weedy vegetable garden. I added a layer of peat moss and covered it with heavy plastic tarps. This weekend I will add a layer of cardboard, paper shredding from our office, material from the compost bins, and a final layer of manure.

Vegetable Garden, tarped and ready for Lasagna

Hopefully the vegetable garden will be reinstated in time for pumpkins and winter squash!