Lasagna Mulching/Sheet Mulch Project Group

Description:

No-till gardening method of layering brown and green materials in order to increase organic matter in soil.  A sectioned area is layered with alternating brown materials (newspaper, cardboard, straw, leaves), green materials (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and sometimes manure), finished compost and sometimes mineral amendments.   The pile is watered in layers as you go.   Beds built in spring are finished with a thin layer of garden soil to which new plants are added.  The benefits are that the need for watering is decreased as mulch retains moisture to roots and fewer weeds germinate.

Volunteers built two lasagna beds last November.  They look good, still a little high, but can be planted.  We can start building new beds as soon as we gather up all kinds of green matter, that’s why we have the compost collection action group.  We need all manner of green materials:  food scraps, coffee grinds and florist cuttings to make the beds.  Lasagna beds require a lot of saved up green and brown materials to build.  Because we are building these in spring, they won’t have much time to break down, so we will build lower beds,     ~1foot high, add some garden soil and plant directly into them. 

Optionally, gardeners may cover their bed with black plastic for six weeks to cook ingredients if they want to hasten decomposition, then add garden soil and plant into.  Lasagna beds can be made with fewer materials then ideally recommended.  The soil has been tested, is free of lead and has decent tilth, so some gardeners may want to plant directly into soil, and dispense with the lasagna mulching.

Basic Materials needed:

•      Food scraps
•          Florist cuttings
•          Leaves
•          Straw
•          Newspaper (non-color)
•          Cardboard
•          Finished compost (we have vermicompost)
•          Bonemeal and peat moss (optional)

We will supply the leaves, straw and cardboard.  Please bring newspaper and food scraps on lasagna mulching days.  As soon as we amass a good amount of green materials, we can start mulching.  I will make my first pick-up of Starbucks coffee grinds this Sat, March 26, and member, Ernest Skinner is working on getting green cuttings from Shannon’s Nursery. Campus cafeteria pickups continue on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 Tasks:

• Contact Vegetable markets on Flatbush Avenue and coordinate having them save scraps for us.  We have garbage bags and acceptable materials list
• Pick-up coffee grinds from Starbucks.  They store spend grinds in coffee bean bulk bags called bullets.
• Take a turn at picking up from the Campus Cafeteria. I’ve already notified the chef that new people will start picking up.

Let me know if you can take on any of these and we can speak in more detail.