Gardener Patricia Lanza shows how to create stress-free herb gardens using an organic layering system she calls “lasagna gardening” in her latest book, “Lasagna Gardening With Herbs: Enjoy Fresh Flavor, Fragrance, and Beauty with No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding!”
This is Lanza’s third book about lasagna gardening, an old idea she’s updated for modern gardeners. In the lasagna method, kitchen and garden wastes are turned into fertile soil by layering them lasagna-style on the ground.
The 256-page paperback devotes one chapter to the method, but there’s enough information for a novice gardener to try it.
Several chapters are filled with lists of herbs and edible flowers she recommends planting, including descriptions of plants, how to grow them and their uses.
The best part of the $15.95 book may be the dozens of delectable recipes and creative ideas for what to do with all those herbs. There are instructions for making decorative items, such as herbal wreaths, candle holders and a dream pillow.
She also gives “Herbal Hints” throughout the book, some of which are creative (using a tomato cage as a mini compost bin), while others seem obvious (“Need just a bit more sun? Lop off a tree branch or shape a shrub to admit more light to your garden.”).
One chapter provides practical and detailed information on how to create theme gardens such as an aromatherapy garden, a pizza garden and a butterfly garden. Lanza provides lists of plants and a diagram.
What’s missing is slick, glossy color photos; the illustrations are hand-drawn black and white. But this book is a practical reference for gardeners who like to cook or do crafts, It’s not coffee-table reading.
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