Melody, How long do you let that concoction sit before it's ready for planting? My sister in Washington uses the newspaper technique successfully.

Hi,
It depends on two things--what is under the newspaper and what you are planting. I put in several large beds this way that had been lawn before. In this case, the grass will hang on for 6 months or more. What I do is carefully dig little planting holes just big enough for the roots of my transplants, such as lantana, sage, or whatever. Then I pull out any grass that is visible and plant the transplant in the hole. Then I tuck the newspaper back around the plant and cover around it with muclch. This works really well. For seeds, I just pull back the mulch, lay down some potting soil or compost (finished), and plant the seeds. This all seems too easy, but I have done it for several years. By the way, the book on this method is Lasagna Gardening which is just wonderful. If you are doing this over just weeds or soil, you can plant in about a month without the extra effort. For vegetables other than seeds, follow the planting method for transplants. I have not tried this for vegetables and would probably just do it a season before planting so everything would break down first.

Yeah, I'm with Melody on this no-till gardening thing. It's just too much work when you don't have to do it. Read the article on Ruth Stout I mentioned above. She takes it to the heights. You can get the same results without breaking your back or breaking the soil up mechanically.

I have used basically the same method as Melody but instead used lots of hay, like 6-8 inches. There's also solarizing with plastic. With bermuda grass it's harder to get it to work but it does work eventually, in my experience. The only problem you ever run into with the newspaper method is sometimes you get an anaerobic pocket and some bacteria growth but that's easy to fix.

So go for it!
Kathe

Hi!

I'm new to this forum and new to gardening as well. I've got to say that I've been getting pretty frustrated by all the rain, and the fact that it has prevented me from tilling my backyard for my very first vegetable/flower garden. While waiting for this nasty clay to dry out enough to till, I've been listening to Howard's radio show, and doing a lot of reading on the internet. I've been rapidly learning about gardening in general, and leaning more and more toward going organic.

A couple of days ago I started reading this forum, and found Melody's and Kathe's no-till discussion. OK! I'm convinced! I've purchased the Lasagna Gardening book and will begin my layered garden very soon. Now I'm happy! No more waiting for the rain to stay away, and no more dreading having to fight an evil tiller!

Thanks to everyone for all the great information. Hopefully I'll soon be a contributor as well.

By the way, the article that Kathe recommended about Ruth Stout can be read here:
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1279/ ... icle.jhtml