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    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
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    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
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    • Pruning Clematis
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Sheet Mulching - Lasagna Gardening

Amanda's Garden Consulting Co.

Building new beds without digging up the lawn

Sheet Mulching - Lasagna Gardening


I no longer dig up the lawn to make a new bed, instead I make a raised bed right over top. Not only is this method easy, it keeps nutrients, micro-organisms and macro-organisms, including the ever-important earthworms in the soil. Pulling up the lawn removes topsoil, and all kind of goodies within including precious organic matter from the soil. 

Sheet mulching, also referred to lasagna gardening as it builds a garden bed out of layers made out of the lawn, compost, soil, newspapers, cardboard and mulch. And it works. As the grass, cardboard and newspaper break down due to all kinds of organisms, it results into a rich, organic rich loam. 

Pick a calm day with no wind, get the garden hose ready, have lots and lots of newspaper and/or cardboard, plenty of an organic mulch (leaves, straw, wood chips etc.) and having some help is a good thing. 

  1. Use a garden hose laid out on the ground to make an outline where you want the new bed to be.  If you wish, use landscape paint (found at home hardware stores) to mark on the grass the outline of the new bed then remove the hose. 
  2. Optional: place 1/2 to 1 inch of compost or soil on top of the grass.
  3. Water well before going to step 4.
  4. Place ½ inch layer of newspaper or cardboard on top of grass, wet the paper as you go. Don't use shiny paper, magazines and cardboard with plastic tape. Coloured newspaper is not toxic and is safe to use. 
  5. Add at least 6 inches of soil combined with manure, compost and/or SeaSoil on top of the paper and mix everything together. Rake level then water. 
  6. Add three inches of organic mulch on top of the soil. Do not mix it in and water again.
  7. Either slope the sides gently to the lawn then install lawn edging or place cinder blocks, bricks or wood to enclose the bed.
  8. If you wish to plant, wait for a week to plant small rooted plants such as annuals, perennials and veggies.If you want to plant deeper rooted plants asap, then increase the soil depth from 6 inches to a foot.
  9. It will take up to a year for the newspaper to decompose, depending on the weather, the location of the bed and the depth of the soil. After a year, if the newspaper hasn't decomposed, cut through the paper to plant. The grass will not be alive and won't regrow. 
sheet mulching,lasagna gardening,making new beds,garden techniques,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Cover the area with cardboard and/or newspaper. Overlap layers so grass cannot grow through.
sheet mulching,lasagna gardening,making new beds,garden techniques,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Cover the overlapping layers with a good garden loam. Avoid topsoil as it carries weed seeds.
sheet mulching,lasagna gardening,making new beds,garden techniques,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Level the soil then add a 3 inch layer of an organic mulch overtop. Water.
sheet mulching,lasagna gardening,making new beds,garden techniques,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
This finished bed has been mulched with fallen leaves.
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Copyright © 2017
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events