No-dig, no-till gardens are becoming extremely popular, and rightly so! However, did you know that there is a way to create a lasagna garden without cardboard or newspaper as the base layer?
Last summer I found out that your garden is technically not “organic” if you place cardboard and/or newspaper down as the base layer in a lasagna garden. I set out to see if I could still create a lasagna garden without cardboard.
My first garden ever was at our old suburban home in a quiet neighborhood. I read this book on the lasagna method and set it up pretty much exactly as shown the spring before I planted (some call this an instant garden).
It did quite well for neglecting it most of the summer. The following winter we moved to our now homesteading land of 80 acres and I decided to take a year off of gardening to find the perfect location and layout for it.
This was also when I had the idea to try a lasagna garden without cardboard. So in the fall, I began prepping my garden, let it sit over winter, and then planted it this spring.
Let me tell you exactly how I did it and how it is doing…
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Location And Border
For my no-dig, no-till garden – which I won’t go over the benefits in detail of that in this post – I found an area somewhat near the house that was slightly raised with good drainage and received full sun.
At the end of fall, just before winter, I cut the grass nice and short (although you certainly don’t have to do this) and set up a fence around the perimeter of the garden area.
I then began outlining the beds. They are quite large; I would say about 12 feet by 5 feet, and I have four of them. I lined the outside of the beds with rocks, as we had an old rock pile on our property.
Now it was time to start experimenting with my lasagna garden without cardboard!
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Wood Chips
The first layer was extremely thick in wood chips. My husband had to debark at least a hundred logs and he saved all the wood chips for me. It was the perfect base for my garden beds.
The wood chips were thick enough to cover all the grass, and then another layer on top of that. I would say it was about 2 inches thick.
I would say this is a much better alternative to cardboard because it can be much more effective. It can just be hard for many people to source high-quality woodchips that haven’t been sprayed with chemicals they don’t want in their garden.
I suggest finding a local miller and asking them for their scraps. You could even debark wood yourself as my husband did with this tool.
Rabbit Manure
The next layer was rabbit manure. We raise meat rabbits as our main sources of protein on the homestead, so we always have a thick and heavy amount of rabbit manure.
Make the rabbit manure very thick when you initially apply it because it will drown out the weeds until the spring when then it will be rich compost that your garden will thrive on!
Rabbit manure can be expensive and add up quickly when you need a lot of it. I suggest looking on Craiglist or local farmer’s markets for people that raise rabbits. Ask them what they use their manure for, and if they would be willing to give it to you for free or at a bulk discount price. We also sell it from our Etsy shop!
It really is “gardener’s gold” and necessary in a no-till lasagna garden without cardboard!
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Hay/Straw/Grass Clippings
Our rabbits also eat timothy hay and it falls through the cage with their poop. Sometimes we can collect a large pile of this when it sits on top of the poop.
I then added a thin layer of hay on top of the rabbit manure. You could also buy straw, hay, or use grass clipping for this part of the garden.
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Dried Fall Leaves
This is another essential ingredient for me to have the perfect lasagna garden without cardboard.
In the fall, collect as many dried leaves as you possibly can. Ask neighbors or even local businesses for their leaves and then add as many as you can to your garden beds.
Aged Chicken Manure
We also have chickens, so I added a hefty amount of chicken manure to the garden beds. I made sure that it was aged for a long time because unlike rabbit manure, chicken manure can burn your plants and seeds if you apply it directly immediately.
If you don’t have access to other manure, you can make your own compost. Use kitchen scraps, grass clippings, sawdust, and many other natural materials to place on your garden bed. Just make sure they are aged well if you are going to plant them immediately.
Rabbit Manure
Then, I let my garden beds sit over winter, and in the spring right after all the snow melted off of them, I added another heaping of rabbit manure, because it is quite hard to have too much of it in your garden!
How It’s Doing
I am about halfway through my first growing season with my no-dig no-till lasagna garden without cardboard and I have to say, my garden is doing quite well!
I have had some grass pop up and some dandelion weeds, but really not many at all. Plus, the weeds are extremely easy to pull up. The plants seem to enjoy it and the soil stays well hydrated, especially after I mulched under some mature plants.
The one downside would be how much grass grows in between the rock border, but I did expect that. I knew that the cardboard gardens make it easy to keep weeds at bay in the walkways and borders too, but I don’t mind having grass trimmed around the edges. The weed eater works great to keep it all controlled and I weed where it tries it creep into the garden bed.
The plan is to keep adding lots of compost each winter so that the beds stay fully covered and weeds remain easy to pull.
Do you have any questions? What did I miss? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to help you on your gardening journey!
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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