How to Create a Lasagna Garden: A No-Dig Gardening Method

If you’re looking for an easy, no-dig gardening method that builds rich, fertile soil, lasagna gardening is the answer. Also known as sheet layering, this method mimics the natural process of composting to create a garden bed without tilling. Here’s how to build your own lasagna garden step by step.

Preparing Your Lasagna Garden

You can start your lasagna garden any time of the year, but begin by ensuring the vegetation at the site is short—either mow it or remove persistent weeds like bindweed, blackberries, or crabgrass. Lay down four to six layers of overlapping newspaper or cardboard to block light and kill weeds. This base layer will compost over time, enriching your soil with humus.

Layering Your Garden

The key to lasagna gardening is alternating layers of nitrogen-rich materials and carbon-rich materials.

• Nitrogen Layer: Use items like chicken manure, food scraps, grass clippings, used coffee grounds, or blood meal.
• Carbon Layer: Add materials like dried leaves, straw, sawdust, or pine needles.

Keep alternating these layers until your garden bed is 18 inches to 3 feet high. Water each layer as you go to promote decomposition.

Maintaining and Planting

Lasagna gardens take 3–6 months (sometimes up to a year) to fully compost. If you want to plant immediately, add three inches of compost on top of the straw layer. For longer-term maintenance, continue adding new layers to your bed.

Benefits of Lasagna Gardening

This no-till gardening method reduces weed growth, improves soil structure, and uses materials readily available from local coffee shops or grocery stores. Build your lasagna garden today and enjoy a sustainable, rewarding gardening experience. Grow organic for life!

Learn the lazy man's (or woman's) way to prepare a great garden bed! No tilling, no digging! All you need is time, table scraps and yard waste. In this video, Tricia will teach you all about Lasagna Gardening! Find more detail in our companion article, and information on all our growing supplies for sale.