How To Make Lasagna Easy' title='How To Make Lasagna Easy' />How to Make a Lasagna Garden No Till, No Dig, OrganicLasagna gardening is a no dig, no till organic gardening method that results in rich, fluffy soil with very little work from the gardener. The name lasagna gardening has nothing to do with what youll be growing in this garden. It refers to the method of building the garden, which is, essentially, adding layers of organic materials that will cook down over time, resulting in rich, fluffy soil that will help your plants thrive. Also known as sheet composting, lasagna gardening is great for the environment, because youre using your yard and kitchen waste and essentially composting it in place to make a new garden. No Digging Required. One of the best things about lasagna gardening is how easy it is. You dont have to remove existing sod and weeds. You dont have to double dig. My son says he has eaten lasagna in so many restaurants, trying to find one as good as mine, but never has. So every time we visit him in Michigan Im sure to make. This easy lasagna recipe has turned lasagnahaters into fans. It is a simple meat lasagna recipe with simple ingredients. Youll want to make a double batchIn fact, you dont have to work the soil at all. The first layer of your lasagna garden consists of either brown corrugated cardboard or three layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the grass or weeds in the area youve selected for your garden. Wet this layer down to keep everything in place and start the decomposition process. The grass or weeds will break down fairly quickly because they will be smothered by the newspaper or cardboard, as well as by the materials youre going to layer on top of them. This layer also provides a dark, moist area to attract earthworms that will loosen up the soil as they tunnel through it. Ingredients For A Lasagna Garden. Anything youd put in a compost pile, you can put into a lasagna garden. The materials you put into the garden will break down, providing nutrient rich, crumbly soil in which to plant. The following materials are all perfect for lasagna gardens Grass Clippings. Leaves Fruit and Vegetable Scraps. Coffee Grounds Tea leaves and tea bags. Weeds if they havent gone to seed Manure Compost. Seaweed. Shredded newspaper or junk mail. Minute-One-Pot-Lasagna-Skillet-7-681x1024.jpg' alt='How To Make Lasagna Easy' title='How To Make Lasagna Easy' />Pine needles. Spent blooms, trimmings from the garden. Peat moss. Just as with an edible lasagna, there is some importance to the methods you use to build your lasagna garden. Youll want to alternate layers of browns such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of greens such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings. In general, you want your brown layers to be about twice as deep as your green layers, but theres no need to get finicky about this. Just layer browns and greens, and a lasagna garden will result. What you want at the end of your layering process is a two foot tall layered bed. Youll be amazed at how much this will shrink down in a few short weeks. When To Make A Lasagna Garden. You can make a lasagna garden at any time of year. Fall is an optimum time for many gardeners because of the amount of organic materials you can get for free thanks to fallen leaves and general yard waste from cleaning up the rest of the yard and garden. You can let the lasagna garden sit and break down all winter. By spring, it will be ready to plant in with a minimum of effort. Also, fall rains and winter snow will keep the materials in your lasagna garden moist, which will help them break down faster. If you choose to make a lasagna garden in spring or summer, you will need to consider adding more soil like amendments to the bed, such as peat or topsoil, so that you can plant in the garden right away. If you make the bed in spring, layer as many greens and browns as you can, with layers of finished compost, peat, or topsoil interspersed in them. Finish off the entire bed with three or four inches of finished compost or topsoil, and plant. The bed will settle some over the season as the layers underneath decompose. Planting and Maintaining a Lasagna Garden. When its time to plant, just dig down into the bed as you would with any other garden. If you used newspaper as your bottom layer, the shovel will most likely go right through, exposing nice, loose soil underneath. If you used cardboard, you may have to cut a hole in it at each spot where you want to plant something. To maintain the garden, simply add mulch to the top of the bed in the form of straw, grass clippings, bark mulch, or chopped leaves. Once its established, you will care for a lasagna garden just as you would any other weed and water when necessary, and plant to your hearts content. Advantages Of A Lasagna Garden. While you will be maintaining a lasagna garden the same way you would care for any other garden, you will find that caring for a lasagna garden is less work intensive. You can expect Few weeds, thanks to the newspaper suppressing them from below and the mulch covering the soil from above. Better water retention, due to the fact that compost which is what you made by layering all of those materials holds water better than regular garden soil, especially if your native soil is sandy or deficient in organic matter. Less need for fertilizer, because you planted your garden in almost pure compost, which is very nutrient rich. Soil that is easy to work crumbly, loose, and fluffy. Lasagna gardening is fun, easy, and allows you to make new gardens at a much faster rate than the old double digging method. Now your only problem will be finding plants to fill all of those new gardensRecipe Easy Crock pot Zucchini Lasagna. Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this article. SIGN UP FOR FREE UPDATES, OFFERS, TIPS. Plus Ill send you a free copy of Your Simply Healthy Handbook. Its your 1 resource to make healthy living easy. Who doesnt love lasagna Its cheesy goodness is the essence of comfort food in my book. But I dont really like the work involved in making lasagna and thats why I love this recipe. Delicious, full of good for you fats, delicious zucchini, and its super easy to boot. Thats my kind of recipe. As far as the lasagna noodles, choose the kind that best fit your food philosophy. Sprouted lasagna noodles are a great option if you can make or find them. And if youre gluten free you could use rice noodles like these. Of course if you are dairy intolerant, this may not be your kind of recipe which is too bad. You may be able to make some good substitutions, but dont ask me what those are because Id hate to feel like a traitor to my yummy cheesy friend. Smoothie Recipe. Okay A note on the ingredients. You could not so easily make many of these ingredients your self. Homemade pasta sauce, homemade ricotta cheese, homemade cream cheese, homemade lasagna noodles. And if you click on any of the previous links it will take you to some of my favorite recipes. But doing it all yourself does take out some of the ease in this easy crock pot zucchini lasagna. Id rather spend that time with my family, but I do make sure to buy the highest quality ingredients which means READING LABELS. Dont buy it if you cant pronounce whats in it, okay Okay. Easy Crock pot Zucchini Lasagna. Prep time 2. 0 mins. Cook time  4 hours. Total time 4 hours 2. Coarse sea salt and ground pepper. In a small bowl mix the cream cheese and the ricotta cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. If your cream cheese isnt room temperature, you can always put these ingredients in a small sauce pan and stir over low heat until its easy to combine. Mix sliced zucchini with garlic and oregano in a separate small bowl. Pour half of the pasta sauce evenly over the bottom surface of your slow cooker. Place a single layer of lasagna noodles on top of the sauce, carefully breaking pieces as needed to make it fit in your slow cooker. Layer half of the creamricotta spread over the lasagna noodles followed by a layer of half of the seasoned zucchini. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create another layer. Finish with a final layer of lasagna noodles. Top that with the remaining pasta sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top. Cook on low heat for 4 hours. Looking for more delicious real food recipesIve got your back Ive put together 8. From main dishes to desserts and everything in between youll have some fun new eats that I know youll love. Best part The ebook is only 2 bucks. Its a total no brainer, right Right. Click here to check it out.