Lasagne Gardening - 1st attempt

Turns out this isn't rocket science. Took me about half an hour to do this space that is about 10 ft long x 4 ft wide. I have a big space to do, and this used almost all of the grass clippings I had saved. However, this will be a summerlong project and I will generate many more bags of clippings to contribute to the project.

I this area I am trying to reclaim my "Myrtle Hill" that is basically wasted space in an upper triangle of my yard by the street. We had intended to just fill it with lovely myrtle that, once filled in, is very low maintenance. Problem is, before the divorce, the sprinkling system started to go, and the ex just sealed off lines and let some areas die. Here in the myrtle patch I have some lush full areas, and other areas that are taken over with wild grasses and weeds. My goal is to pull out all the grasses and weeds, lay down my lasagna mulch, and where needed, fill in empty spots with volunteer myrtle plants of which I have plenty!

Today's Trivia Question: What do you call plants that start on their own from parent plants nearby?

If you said "volunteers", you speak my language. My friend from Brooklyn said she had never heard of plants "volunteering" and she's quite sure it's just a Utah thing. It might be. So, gentle readers, is this a term you use where you live?

Here's where I started. This is a particularly bad area, more weeds than myrtle. The hill is fairly steep here. Spent a little time pulling weeds first.

Here's more of the area I plan to do. I know, pretty ambitious. But it's like eating the elephant -- you do it a bite at a time.

Step 1, put down newspapers. I put them down in whole sheets, tearing where needed to fit around existing plants. I know a guy who shreds his newspaper and tills it into his garden. It's another option. One thing: don't use the shiny coated color ads and these will not break down easily. send those to the recycler. Just use the ordinary newsprint paper (color ink is ok).
I wet the newspaper down as it was a little breezy and it was hard to keep in place..


Step 2. Peat moss. I just tossed shovels full all over the newspaper and then spread it a little by hand. Notice the can of coffee grounds here -- I sprinkled those in at this layer. Wet everything down with the hose.


Step 3. Grass clippings. Now this would have been much easier if I hadn't had these bagged up for a week. But I had, and they were already very wet and fermenting. Hoo boy, it was sort of like going straight to manure but bypassing the steer. Next time I'll use my clippings right away while they are dry and easy to handle. There was no need to water down this layer.

Steps 4,5 and 6 would be peat moss, then chopped leaves, followed by another layer of peat moss, but my leaves all went out with the trash before I had read this article. Next fall I'll have leaves for such a layer. My step 4 was just another layer of peat moss, spread over everything and watered down good.

It already looks like rich black soil where once was a sandy weedy patch. It's not too hard, but it would make more sense not to do it at noon on a hot day. I'll go out again at 4 to do another patch of this size. Over the summer, I'll put up pics of areas as I get them completed.