Lasagna Gardening - Grumpy Gardeners Say - "Tain't New!"

Lasagna is so much more intriguing than sheet mulching,
which is - of course - sheet composting.

 Shewell-Cooper is my favorite British gardening guru:
he showed that compost left on top of the soil
will be pulled down by worms.

I kept getting emails about Lasagna Gardening, originating from the Rodale Organic Gardening people.

One person responded to someone who complained - this was not new but old - from Ruth Stout of mulching fame -

3/7/2009 4:50:37 PM

This article was reprinted, largely without change (including graphics) and absolutely without attribution at: http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

bill in detroit
3/7/2009 4:46:42 PM
And Ruth Stout was preceded by the Irish who were preceded by ... who were preceded by ... your point is? This information isn't, obviously, passed down through some sort of 'cosmic consciousness'. Many who have never heard of Ruth Stout will learn about this technique from Patricia Lanza ... and whoever follows her. @Stacey ... read the article again. The process uses several layers and is based on decomposition, not soil, for its success. But be encouraged, you only need to continue the process for it to be effective. The higher the stack is in the fall, the better the garden is in the summer.

Here is another Lasagna Gardening article from The Spruce.

Feeling like I discovered the Lost Dutchman's Goldmine, I wanted to lay a claim too - for Creation Gardening.

 Creation Gardening: By Him Were All Things Made

But as calmer gardeners will admit - using organic matter to improve the soil is as old as the ancient Egyptians, who made harming an earthworm a capital offense. They realized what pulled organic matter into their soil.

I am glad they are promoting Lasagna Gardening, because it is another way to describe no-till methods based purely on building up the soil instead of whirling it around like a tossed salad.

Our entire front yard was developed this way. The first layers were cardboard and newspapers, topped by shredded cyprus mulch. The rich clay soil was improved with leaves, the roots of all the new plants, and Uncle Jim's red wiggler earthworms.

I discovered, as one Lasagna gardener did, that good plants left alone and swarmed by weeds would still produce. I had roses that bloomed well when surrounded by weeds. However, that was not my favorite setting for them.

I also discovered that divided forces do not work well. I planted a second rose garden, and that divided my efforts all the time.

Lessons that developed from experience, reading, and YouTube are:

• Compost is good, but heavy, so why not compost on the spot?
• Sod makes the best compost, so why not plant in it and mulch the surrounding grass into compost?
• A large rose garden mulched with shredded wood will produce great roses and incredible grassy weeds - thus groundcovers are needed.
• Fungus and bacteria are really the foundations of great soil, so all life above them depend on those perfectly created, engineered, and managed life forms. If you make a point not to kick out the computer network plug, how much careful should you be to keep the fungus network in place?
• The Carbon Cowboys/Covercrop farmers taught me how valuable deep roots are for improving the soil
• Jessica Walliser wrote the classic on beneficial bugs, a concept my mother taught all of us kids long ago in Moline. 
• Birds and bugs go well together, but birds should be fed near the most used windows. Squirrels add to the entertainment.
• The Jackson EZ Bird Swing is easily assembled and great fun for birds and squirrels.
• There is no such thing as a squirrel-proof bird-feeder, so just get over it. Given enough feeding stations, everyone will be happy.
• Generous amounts of water are good for birds and also encourage such pest-predators as toads. 
• Never haul organics out of the yard. Carry them into the yard and recycle garden trash after the winter is over.

 Those Days on the Farm

Creation Gardening - Many Shares and Likes on Facebook

 A great time for bird-watching is the winter,
when they scramble for food in the garden
and on the bird-feeders.
Graphic by Norma Boeckler

When I made a Facebook page for Creation Gardening, I thought that the name would surely have been taken. But no, nothing like that came up until recently.

I double-post blog essays, so most readers read them from my main page and while others favor the Creation Gardening page, which only has gardening posts.

I am almost in the dream season, when no work can be done outside, but rose catalogues arrive faster than Medicare plan mailings.

At the moment, we are enjoying warm, sunny days and 40 degree nights. Roses are blooming but other plants have finished the season. I am protecting each rose with a collar, some peat humus, and leaves on top when they become available.

 Most bugs are beneficial - I learned as a child.
This is a Big-Eyed Bug.

Consider the Beneficial Bugs and Hungry Birds
Some gardeners want to clean up their gardens now, but Creation gardeners not only leave it trashy - but add to the trash.

1. Weeds or necessary cuttings are piled up as mulch in the back.
2. Plants are left standing, even when done for the season and fading away.
3. Autumn leaves are added everywhere and never raked up for disposal.

 Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Many insects over-winter in the garden trash - by God's design. Some insects will be useful as food for the birds in the winter. Others will remain or hatch in the spring, when they provide food for the baby birds and strike out against insect pests.

I never thought of spiders-without-nests (cursorial) and rove beetles going out on patrol through the yard, but they are active and hungry. They enjoy the protection of organic trash that is never removed and placed on the curb for pick-up.

Leaving leaves alone has shown that I can be knee-deep in them until early spring - yet never rake them up later. Leaves cannot blow away easily in a backyard surrounded by fence. Instead, earthworms and mites reduce them to soil ingredients.

Some leaves become squirrel nests for the winter and birds use a few of them in the spring. One robin had leaves in its mouth when I came up close. It hopped away without letting go of the cargo, destined for a new nest. So I drape twine over the branches of the Mother of All Crepe Myrtles in the front. When a robin took one string up high in the maple tree and dropped it, the bird dive bombed to the ground to pick it up again.

 Mountain Mint is still blooming in mid-October.

Ultimately - For the Soil
Whatever we do for the birds and insects will benefit the soil, because the Creating Word fashioned everything to work together and on schedule - for mutual benefits.

Whether we aim at more beneficial insects or greater numbers of bacteria and fungus, the increasing biomass (all organic matter) will make the soil more productive by activating the composition of the soil. Everything helps - as designed -

• Movement aerates the soil.
• Death and decomposition move elements from one creature to another.
• Fungus connects the plant roots so it can grow from their carbon while feeding them water and the nutrition they demand.

 Because you want Tachinid Flies,

you also want mounds of Daisies,
which are fun and easy to grow.

I do not believe in Creation because of the infinite number of dependencies around me, but because of the Word. Creation by the Word begins the Bible and permeates the lessons of the Bible.

Modern man's silence on Creation - especially among the apostate mainline denominations - shows how this is a mystery revealed by the Spirit. Many see the Biblical revelation, and even while surrounded by the evidence, deny and avoid the implications of what God has done. They harden their hearts against it. The more they deal with Creation, the blinder they become.

There is even a field of study about the way everything happens right on time for thousands of plants and animals. I still have fresh blooms on the Mountain Mint, a prodigal provider of pollen and nectar, and butterflies still work the garden. In the spring, the flowers blooming right through the snow will feed various insects and bees, the insects and bees providing for the early hatching of birds.

Here is a little birds and blooms trivia. We think of birds feeding their young insects and worms to help them grow fast. But Mourning Doves, the ultimate seed-eaters, feed their young partially digested seeds. The dove family nests later, when seeds have formed. That is just one example of timing.

Jesus argued from the lesser to the greater. If God can do so much for the least of His creatures, how much more does He care for each and every one of the souls in His care?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly teaches about His will and Word being in perfect harmony with the Father's. When we hear the Good Shepherd speaking, that is also the voice of the gracious, loving Father.





Jesus the Creating Word of Genesis 1, as John 1:3 clearly teaches.