There are lots of books out there on how to do gardening, and I think most of them are pretty helpful. Some of the methods can be combined with others. For example, you can combine lasagna gardening with square foot gardening or raised bed gardening. You can do any of those types of gardening organic style. So, what I am trying to do is a combination of some of those methods (all of the above mentioned).
Raised beds are good because they provide drainage and enough good soil for roots to go down deep. Square foot gardening is good because it provides order to the garden, plus, unless you have really long arms, you can reach into all areas of the garden bed from whatever angle you are standing from because the garden bed is only 4 feet by 4 feet. Lasagna gardening is good because you have to protect the soil from erosion and from drying out on the top, thus losing nutrients. And organic gardening is a must if you want to produce pure food without using chemicals or pesticides around the plants.
What is lasagna gardening all about, though? It has to do with layering different items in the garden bed. For example, you can layer newspapers (black and white print only), then a layer of compost, then a layer of wood chips, maybe a layer of straw, then another layer of newspapers, then more compost or organic plant food, then more wood chips or straw, etc. Another good layering item is leaves. Most suggest grass clippings, which are fine, except if the grass has been sprayed with chemical fertilizers and/or pesticides. I would not want to take a chance of grass seed being in it either, but I think those who recommend grass aren't concerned because supposedly the heat of the compost will kill the seeds.
I finished one of the garden beds in this style. As soon as the strawberry plants that I ordered come in, most will be planted in that bed. Now to figure out what to do about the Squirrels and birds for as soon as the strawberries turn red, birds and squirrels will have a picnic!
The plant food that I use are worm compost, azomite, organic plant food by Jobes or Espoma. Also, bone meal and blood meal are good too.
Here is a web site describing lasagna gardening: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/organicgardening101/fl/Starting-a-Lasagna-Garden.htm
Lasagna gardening is similar to the Back to Eden gardening method by Paul Gautschi? You can find his video on Vimeo somewhere (I tried finding it on Youtube, but failed to find his main one).
The soil is protected in lasagna gardening, and it also helps to keep in moisture so the plant does not dry out. The decomposition breakdown provides the way for nutrients to be developed and grow in the soils. All kinds of good microbes will grow in healthy soil and the plants will take these nutrients in and be healthy as well. Plants will only be as healthy as the soil allows it to be.
