Tag Archives: Mulching for Winter

‘Lasagna’ Sheet Mulching

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Here’s how to create a lasagna bed, also called sheet mulching:

  • Start in fall so the bed has all winter to start decomposing.
  • Cut grass as low as possible. Or start a lasagna garden on top of an old planting bed.
  • Loosen soil with a digging fork to increase aeration. Even punching holes in the ground will work.
  • Remove weeds.
  • Build a raised bed frame or just mound up the layers of organic material into an unframed bed.
  • Put a layer of cardboard overlapped an inch or two and water it.
  • Cover with 2-inch layers of green organic material like grass clippings, fresh plant debris, fresh animal manure and food scraps that provide nitrogen and brown materials like dry leaves, wood chips, straw and shredded newspaper that are carbon sources. Repeat layers until the bed is about 18 inches.
  • Top off with a 2- to 6-inch brown layer; thicker if you want to plant right away.
  • Create beds only wide enough to reach into the middle and create paths lined with straw to walk on so soil doesn’t get compacted.
  • Lasagna beds will shrink as materials decompose and may need refreshed layers each year.
  • Using transplants is easier in no-till gardening systems; the mulch layer is easier to transplant directly into rather than direct seeding, especially for small-seeded crops like lettuce and broccoli. To transplant, use a trowel or other tool to make holes large enough to plant into. If directly seeding into the bed, pull back the mulch layer and smooth over the surface layer with a rake before seeding.

Instructions from OSU Extension website https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/no-till-garden

The term “Lasagna Gardening” was coined by Patricia Lanza, who wrote a book on the subject in 1998. The illustration above is from her book.

Mulch on, and don’t fear the aphids

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Mulch on, and don’t fear the aphids  by Rhonda Nowak for the Mail Tribune Published Sunday, November 22nd 2020
( In response to a question posed by AGC member Donna R.)

“Listen
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.”
— Adelaide Crapsey, “November Night” in “Verses,” 1915

American poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914) did not enjoy a long life — she died in New York at the age of 36 from tuberculosis. Although her poetry is not widely remembered today, Crapsey left an important legacy in the form of her unrhymed, five-line, 22-syllable poems, inspired by her love of Japanese haiku.

Her style has become known as the American cinquain, adopted and modified by many poets of the 20th and 21st centuries. In his 1918 collection of poems “Cornhuskers” (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize), Carl Sandburg published a tribute to Adelaide Crapsey in a section of the book called “Persons Half Known.”

Speaking of the “half known,” I received an email from a reader who wanted to know more about using fall leaves for mulch in the garden (the topic of my column Nov. 8). Donna wrote, “I appreciate the benefits of mulching. However, no one seems to include aphids in these discussions, only beneficial insects. What is the life cycle for aphids and does mulching encourage their overwintering?”

I replied to Donna that aphids do, indeed, overwinter in our garden, usually in the egg phase of their development. Although leaf litter provides shelter for aphids, most of the approximately 5,000 known species of aphids lay eggs on the leaves and stems of specific host plants. For example, Donna’s aphid nemesis is the lupine aphid (Macrosiphum albifrons), and my roses are sometimes plagued by a different species called rose aphids (Macrosiphum rosae).

Other aphids prefer vegetable crops for their host plants, such as cabbage aphids (Brevicoryne brassicae) and turnip aphids (Lipaphis erysimi).

In the spring, only female aphids hatch from overwintered eggs, and they begin reproducing one week later. During most of the year, female aphids reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis, whereby they give birth to miniature replicas of themselves rather than laying eggs. During one season, some aphid species can produce up to 41 generations of offspring, each insect living 20 to 40 days and producing between 50 and 100 babies.

Most aphids live out their lives on their host plants. Later in the summer, some adults will develop wings and fly off to visit other plant species, but subsequent generations of females will return to their host plant species in the fall. By then, some aphids have developed into males, so females find a mate and then lay their fertilized eggs on the host plant, or in leaf litter, to start the process all over again.

By layering garden beds with leaf mulch, it seems like gardeners are practically ensuring aphids will not only survive but remain comfortable all winter. However, scientists have found that 70% to 80% of overwintering aphids die before spring due to predation or cell damage. (Keep in mind that leaf mulch also provides shelter to aphid predators.)

Aphids that do survive the winter are an excellent source of nutrition for hungry birds, as well as many kinds of beneficial insects: parasitic wasps, ladybugs, lacewings, hover flies and soldier beetles.

In fact, aphids are not just sap-sucking, disease-spreading garden pests; they’re also an important part of the food chain in a balanced ecosystem. In order to attract our pollinator friends to the garden, we must provide food for them, and aphids and other insects we consider pests fit that bill quite nicely.

Aphid infestations occur when the garden doesn’t have enough aphid predators or when weakened plants are unable to ward off insect pests; thus, aphid invasions tell us that the garden ecosystem is off-balance in some way. We might say aphids are “food for thought” for gardeners just as they are food for wildlife.

Leaf mulch is an efficient use of fall leaves to provide habitat for overwintering wildlife, including aphids. When we see overwintering birds foraging in the garden, we may even be thankful the aphids are there!

Rhonda Nowak is a Rogue Valley gardener, teacher and writer. For more about gardening, check out her podcasts at https://mailtribune.com/podcasts/the-literary-gardener and her website at www.literarygardener.com.

Just say NO to Fall Clean Up

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While diseased plants and leaves should be removed from your flowerbeds,  leaving plant debris, seed heads, plant stalks, and leaf litter provides much needed winter shelters and food for beneficial insects and birds. 

Forging urban birds like juncos, sparrows and chickadees need your plant’s seeds for food, and beneficial insects, like butterflies and moths, winter over on flower and ornamental grass stalks. So, by cutting and cleaning out flowerbed debris you are doing more harm than good by disrupting your garden’s natural habitat.

Rethink fall clean up, resist the urge to remove all the debris, keep it until spring because the wildlife depends on it! It also provides mulch to protect plants during cold weather. 

Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member  

Photo by: Carlotta Lucas – Caterpillar on Salvia Stalk (10/22/2020)

Gardening: Prepare for Winter

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In the Rogue Valley, fall is a good time to plant perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs. Just bulbs.jpgremember to keep new plants well watered until winter rains begin.

Plant Spring Bulbs: Plant daffodils, tulips, crocuses in October and into November until the ground freezes.

Watering: Cut back watering established perennials, shrubs and trees to prepare them for winter. (Remember to continue watering new plants until rains begin.)

Deadheading & Clean up:  To provide food and habitat for pollinators & birds throughout the winter, Do Not cut or remove perennial stems and flower heads until the spring.   NOTE:  If you must have a prim garden, then cut back perennials stems to 6-8 inches on plants that have finished blooming for the season.

Leaves: Rake and remove leaves from the lawn, use leaves as mulch in your flowerbeds, or compost them to make leaf mold.  Shredded leaves break down faster and are easier for worms to turn into compost. Placing shredded leaves in flowerbeds over the winter helps protect plants, suppresses weeds, and will provide nutrients by late spring.

Dig Bulbs.  Tender bulbs such as dahlias and gladiolus should be dug up in cold winter areas.  When foliage begins to yellow and die, cut back foliage, dig up bulbs, and store them in a cool, but freeze-free, area like in an insulated garage, under your house or in an spare refrigerator.   When digging be careful not to damage the bulb.  In lower elevation areas of the Rogue Valley you can cover tender bulbs with 6-8 inches of mulch for winter protection.  

Mulching with leaves, hay, or even evergreen boughs can provide an extra layer of protection for tender perennials. These mulches will catch and hold snow which helps insulate them.

Feed Plants. Fall is a good time to feed perennials by working in a 4 to 6 inch thick layer of compost in your beds. This compost slowly breaks down over winter providing nutrients to the plants and improves soil structure.

Article by: Carlotta Lucas