Lasagna Gardening Is the Low-Maintenance Secret to Healthier Plants—Here's How to Do It in Your Yard

Hearty layers of dead leaves, twigs, and fertilizer may not sound appetizing to you, but it is appetizing for your plants. This mixture creates nitrogen and carbon, which provide your plant babies with all their essential nutrients—and the deliberate layering of these organic materials is called "lasagna gardening"—which, if you haven't guessed by now, has nothing to do with the beloved Italian dish.

It does, however, have everything to do with gardening sustainably. The best part is that you technically don't even need to go to the store to incorporate this method into your garden! Here, an expert breaks down what lasagna gardening is and how you can start doing it.

What is Lasagna Gardening?

“Lasagna gardening is an organic form of sheet mulching that focuses on stacking both carbon and nitrogen layers in soil layers in the soil,” says Rosy Soil’s soil science advisor Niamke Shropshire-Boykin. The process usually entails placing a layer of cardboard or newspaper on your soil or grass and then topping that with mulch. It's a considered no-till gardening technique, so it's incredibly easy and low maintenance.

How to Create a Lasagna Garden

The most appealing aspect of lasagna gardening is that everyone has access to the ingredients. “Commonly, any dead tree parts (leaves, bark, twigs, stems or roots), newspaper, and cardboard are great carbon sources. Any food scraps like coffee grounds, animal manure, or fresh grass or tree clippings are great nitrogen sources,” says Niamke. By giving these materials a second life, you’re helping the environment do what it does best: recycle.

The key is putting the layers together properly. Niamke warns that if they are not layered correctly, your lasagna garden could attract pests. What this means is that the carbon and nitrogen need to be balanced. “Make sure to add more carbon than nitrogen at a 4:1 ratio,” Niamke says. “Cover with carbon on top of the nitrogen. Do not make the carbon layers too thick or it will slow down the breakdown process. Imagine lasagna gardening like baking a cake; you need the correct balance of carbon to nitrogen to ensure degradation.”

And, of course, don’t add any non-organic material, which includes laminated newspaper and treated wood.

How Long Does Lasagna Gardening Take?

Though the process is fairly easy, lasagna gardening takes time—at least six months before it's ready for planting anything, according to Oregon State University's Extension Service.

Niamke advises, “Do not wait until the growing season to start preparing your soil. In the wise words of George Washington Carver, ‘Begin your compost heap now; do not delay. Let every spare moment be put in the woods raking up leaves or in the swamp pilling up muck.’” This is because the organic material in each layer needs time to degrade, he explains. This process is far from immediate, but you can help it along by ripping up the leaves, breaking the twigs, and chopping up the food leftovers, as smaller material sizes will break down faster.