Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4505 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This intriguingly titled book?which has nothing to do with pasta and everything to do with layering?serves up a time-saving approach to gardening that will come as welcome news to the overworked and the horticulturally challenged. Lanza exhorts readers to build soil up, "instead of digging down," by simply layering organic materials onto a prospective garden site and close-planting directly into it. Together with generous mulching, she contends, this process eliminates some of gardening's more labor-intensive chores?tilling, double-digging, weeding and frequent watering. After outlining her basic premise, Lanza zeroes in on the specific areas of interest, including vegetables, herbs, berries and flowers, providing an abundance of detail on a wide selection of planting materials. Although this method of creating instant raised beds is not new, Lanza has refined it into a step-by-step procedure that she conveys with simplicity and clarity, and her chatty, first-person narrative makes the text a pleasure to read. Of particular interest to fledgling gardeners, this title will also appeal to those looking for new ways to streamline the demands of their favorite pastime.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Pat Lanza is a genius! It's a pleasure to find a garden writer like Pat who speaks from experience and who shares practical information in clear, understandable language. Her no-till, no-dig method will save many aching backs, and the tips and time-savers she sprinkles throughout Lasagna Gardening are sure to please gardeners of all skill levels."--Walter Chandoha, garden photographer and author of The Literary Gardener

"I absolutely recommend Lasagna Gardening for every gardener."--Ralph Snodsmith, host of Garden Hotline, WOR radio network

From the Back Cover
Lasagna Gardening

"Pat Lanza is a genius! It's a pleasure to find a garden writer like Pat who speaks from experience and who shares practical information in clear, understandable language. Her no-till, no-dig method will save many aching backs, and the tips and time-savers she sprinkles throughout Lasagna Gardening are sure to please gardeners of all skill levels."--Walter Chandoha, garden photographer and author of The Literary Gardener

"I absolutely recommend Lasagna Gardening for every gardener."--Ralph Snodsmith, host of Garden Hotline, WOR radio network

A gardening system that works-- so you don't have to!

Turn in your tiller for a stack of old newspapers! Replace your shovel with a layer of grass clippings! Let Pat Lanza show you how you can create lush, successful, easy-care gardens in practically any location without hours of backbreaking digging or noisy tilling.

* Practical, first-person advice from an experienced gardener
* Great ideas to let you spend more time enjoying your gardens and less time working in them
* Specific "lasagna" techniques for the most popular vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruits, and more

About the Author

Born in Crossville, Tennessee, Patricia Lanza learned to garden at her grandmother's side. Years later, the seeds sown in her childhood blossomed as she created her first "lasagna" garden. Pat built that first garden out of necessity-- she needed a source of fresh herbs for her country inn, and she needed a way to garden without the laborious digging and tilling of traditional gardening methods.

In Lasagna Gardening, Pat describes that first layered garden and the more than 30 that followed it. Through her story she shares the lessons she's learned in her nearly 50 years of gardening experience. Pat now hosts a weekly call-in radio show on gardening and is the proprietor of The Potager, a home and garden center and café in Wurtsboro, New York.

Customer Reviews

Just like Mother Nature
It's amazingly easy. That's what is so great about this concept. If you're looking for a gardening method that won't break your back...or your pocketbook, this is the one!

Lasagna Gardening
This opened my eyes of gardening.Be green and you will benefit from all the waste that is thrown away. MY NEW GREEN THUMB

Peat moss from Canada renewable and abundant...
I feel compelled to address the peat moss concern in the most critical review of this book. It is a shame that the ancient peat bogs in Britain were devastated :( but this is not the case in North America. Most peat in the U.S. comes from Canada which harvests a fraction, .006, of their peat supplies. Moreover, those supplies renew themselves at 70 times the rate of harvest. This, and more reassuring information is provided by the The Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association: http://www.peatmoss.com/concern.php

With that bit of cheery news aside...I too share a few benefits I received from this marvelous book, trying not to duplicate comments of other reviewers.

E-Z Paths!: Tired of the dusty, dirty, noisy job of weed beating my garden's paths, I decided to use wetted newspaper covered with a few inches of wood bark mulch. The bark mulch was free from county road crews and a local tree business who were happy to dump it in my yard when they were in the area. When I ran out of newspaper I found a small business pleased to give me piles of discarded cardboard boxes. After one year the paths are still weed-free and the transformation puts a smile on my face each time I walk in the garden.

Modified bag idea: I loved the idea of bagging leaves and setting the bags over grass to kill it, but alas, we have few deciduous trees and I did not want to bag mulch. Inspired by Lansa's ingenuity, I purchased 10 EarthBoxes, set them over a grassy area, then planted winter crops in the boxes. This method has helped me reclaim my large garden bit-by-bit. EarthBox RB-EB-GRN-PBB Garden Kit Dark Green I have also used just four EarthBoxes to anchor four corners of heavy plastic with success.

Well written: Ms. Lansa's writing voice is much like having a conversation with a neighborly garden mentor.

Eco-friendly: The no-till methods help soil retain carbon as well as saving on fuel.

Conclusion: The book is as priceless as good heirloom seed and just as share worthy.