7/1/08
“Lush” is a good word to describe my lasagna garden. Everything is growing so vigorously that I need to rethink the spacing I used for each plant. This was drawn from Mel Bartholomew’s “Square Foot Gardening” method, which for years I’ve used as a guideline regardless of what type of garden I assemble. The system worked fine until this lasagna garden, now growing out of its britches!
As well, I inadequately planned for mature height of the vegetables, so some are becoming shaded out by others. Oh well, another year of live and learn!
Meanwhile, I’ve already harvested many salads worth of lettuce, and am currently plucking snow peas. Half the broccoli plants are already forming heads. Tomatoes are bushy and have started setting fruit. Celery is burgeoning. Beans, in three different waves, have sprouted faster than ever before, and are doing better than their bretheren planted in different gardens around the yard. Pepper plants are small, but I haven’t grown this variety before so the size could be normal. One is being overwhelmed by a Jerusalem artichoke planted too close.
The only disappointment is carrots, which are always a disappointment. They take so long to germinate that I tend to give up on them and plant something else in the space. If I just turn away and forget about them, they usually produce a crop I can enjoy deep into autumn. This year, those in the lasagna garden are doing better than the ones in a container set on the deck.
Based on these results, I recommend lasagna gardening to anyone!
P.S.: Remember those hay bale tomatoes discussed last week? They’re still scrawny and weak-colored, but they have formed as many baby tomatoes as the lasagna garden plants, both ahead of their equivalents in the Topsy Turvy planter and indoors. Go figure!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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