|
Lasagna Gardening
If you are
going to put beds down (this may also work for new sod -- I don't
see why not), you should look at a book called "Lasagna Gardening".
This book is about a organic, no-digging approach to gardening.
Essentially what you do is take very wet newspaper or cardboard (old
boxes) -- make sure they are VERY wet and cover up the grass. On top
of that, you layer various organic components -- peat moss, compost,
manure, leaves, etc. This is why they call it "lasagna gardening" --
it's layers of stuff.
Then you cover the layers with tarps or plastic garbage bags (You
can use the bags the compost and manure came in). This helps the sun
to cook the layers - instant composting!!"
You can plant directly (just remove the plastic)
or let it cook for a number of weeks. Either way, you will end up
with rich, crumbly soil and tons of worms going to town. Exactly
what you want.
Add nothing else to the soil -- just set up sprinklers for regular
watering. Vegetable/herb garden will be amazing! Tomato plants
will be tall and produce more tomatoes than you can use. The plants
will be colossal and hardy - like alien plants.
Don't use pesticides or herbicides. You
will have very few bugs and few weeds. One of the principles of
organic gardening is that good soil is the key to healthy plants. If
you have good soil, you will attract good insects (worms, ladybugs,
grasshoppers - all predators of the bad bugs who kill your good
plants).
Roundup will kill all the worms. Worms (and other good bugs) are
needed for a thriving garden. Worms naturally do the digging for you
to keep the soil aerated.
Great Composter
http://eartheasy.com/compost_tumbler.htm
Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew
Small space gardening for the geeks among us.
These tips are reproduced in part from Garden/Garden 2004
Tips for Saving Water
• Most people water their gardens with
5% the amount of water needed
• The average Gardener applies 20%
more pesticides than a farmer (EPA statistic)
• Most common lawn mowers emit 11
time's the air pollution of a new car (EPA statistic)
• Irrigate before 10 am and after 5 pm
• Don't use water on paved areas
Resources
California Native Plant Society
www.Cnps.org
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
www.rsabg.org
Theodore Payne Foundation
www.theodorepayne.org
Tree of Life Nursery
www.treeoflifenursery.com
Tree People www.TreePeople.com
Rain Chains www.codemo.com
Infiltration Pits
www.atlantiscorp.com.au
Metropolitan Water District
www.bewaterwise.com
The GardeNerd clothing!
http://www.cafepress.com/gardenerd
CalMax
a free service that may help you locate landscaping
items for free or cheap.
The Tree People may have free tree's to offer as well.
http://www.treepeople.org/
InfoMiss News You Can Use
|
