Vegetable Lasagna

One of the things we were most excited about when we moved into an actual house with an acutal yard is that we could grow our own vegetables--or at least some tomatoes & peppers (both of which I love). Each summer has been an adventure; we didn't want to tear up a whole section of yard, and till, etc., etc., so we made use of a sunny spot in an existing planting bed (I'd say flowerbed, but there aren't all that many flowers). Our results have been spotty. A couple of years ago it looked okay:



















Last year was a disaster (didn't even try to take pictures).

Enter a book that was recommended to us: Lasagna Gardening. The theory is that you make the soil yourself by layering various kinds of organic material on top of a thick mat of wet newspaper. The newspaper kills the underlying turf, and the layers break down to form a rich, black soil.

It works. It works almost too well. We've got a jungle on our hands, despite our clear lack of knowledge about what we're doing. All we've done is make the planting bed and plant the seedlings, and keep the bugs under control:















We're doing triple this space next spring, assuming we can keep this 'success' going.