Garden Lasagna

I do not like grass. You have to water it, fertilize it and cut it. A lot of work for a green carpet.

My lawn had a serious trouble spot. It was out by the road, got a lot of sun and was sloped just enough that water tended to run off it instead of soaking in. This area became pretty scraggly after a couple years. The weeds were making serious advances. It was time to reseed the lawn, or rethink the area in general.

Unfortunately the only picture I have from this time is just after we bought the house and I was more interested in the over grown yard. But you can see the lawn getting patchy down at the bottom of the image. It only got worse over the next two years.

I lucked out one day about 18 months ago when I randomly bought a local newspaper. Inside was an article on "Lasagna Composting." It sounded like just the thing to get rid of my nasty lawn spot without spending much energy ripping out grass.

Here is what you need:
1. Cardboard. Lots of it. Go to Costco, just before closing and look for large sheets of flat cardboard. Gather as many as you can. You could ask the employees for cardboard too. Regular boxes work as well, just cut them down so they are flat. You can also use several layers of newspaper, but cardboard will keep the weeds and grass from germinating better.
2. Brown Compost. I used leaves from the yard.
3. Green Compost. I used grass clippings, some leafy plants/weeds that wouldn't seed.
4. Patience. This process will take several months. I started mine in fall and had a bed ready for planting by the following late spring.

This is how its done:
2. Generously soak the area you are trying to redo.
3. Soak the cardboard.
4. Lay the cardboard on top of the grass.

5. Alternate layers of green and brown compost until the whole area is 6-8" deep. It looks like a lot of material at first, but it will settle and decompose over the winter. The thicker the pile the better for killing grass or weeds underneath.

That's it. If you are doing this over warmer months be sure to water the area to keep the compost active. I didn't worry too much about brown/green ratios. I even added material to the area after a few weeks (whenever I was too lazy to drag the lawn clippings to the compost in the backyard).

Now instead of an unsightly patchy spot of grass I have a nice new bed for summer flowers.