Here’s how to create a lasagna garden in a container:
Making homemade marinara sauce for your lasagna from fresh herbs and vegetables right out of the garden is a must in authentic Italian cuisine. Making a red sauce that is amazing comes from growing herbs and vegetables in your own backyard so you may pick them at their absolute ripest. Growing a Lasagna Garden in a Container is a great use of space and allows you to grow a themed garden even if you don’t have that huge backyard garden.
The tomato which is the star of the show is the Roma tomato and it grows amazingly well in a container garden. Romas are known for their thick pulp and hearty tomato flavor and they cook down very easily into a sauce. The main herbs found in traditional marinara sauce include basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, and garlic.
Use a large container
Plant the tomato plant into the center of a large container – the bigger the better for this container garden. No smaller than 18 inches around or less than 10 gallons. Both tomatoes and basil can get to be big plants and are heavy nutrient feeders. Thyme and oregano are great to plant on the edges of the container as they will trail over and their root balls don’t spread out too much. Parsley can also grow larger if it has room to grow and it is best to plant between the oregano and thyme.
Use quality potting soil
The key to a successful lasagna garden is in the quality of the potting soil and the amendments you add to it. Amend the potting soil with a fertilizer like Miracle Grow so that your plants get their much needed nutrients. Add this fertilizer every 3 weeks or so to your watering can and water away. When you first plant your lasagna garden, give your plants a long drink of water or until you see water coming out the bottom of the container. After you have watered the plants, grab a stick and stick it into the soil to see how far down the water went. You need the stick to be wet at least 6 inches deep, if not, keep watering!
Plant garlic chives
Growing garlic is more on the difficult side of gardening. If it won’t grow in your area, then grow garlic chives instead. They have a great garlic flavor and their bright green stems give a pop of color in your sauce. The best part is that they can grow on the edge of the container very easily.
Find sunlight
Make sure your lasagna garden is receiving at least six hours of sunlight a day. If needed, pull your container into the shade if you have overly hot summers. I will often put my container gardens on planter wheels so I can roll them around the garden based on where the sun is at that part of the year.
Enjoy your lasagna garden and happy container gardening!
not a particularly well thought-out post, since you are merely providing suggestions for container planting, and make no mention of how deep the layered materials below should be, nor how deep the soil/refined compost layer should be for healthy development of your plant choices. for example, how much soil depth does that tomato need? will it be able to take advantage of nutrients in the material composting below, or will that burn the roots? (i once tried planting into raw compost/soil, and apparently burned my plants). as a newly moved to an apartment without a shred of green in my surroundimgs, any real information on this technique would be most helpful.
Thank you for sharing . I was not aware that you could do lasagna gardening in pots . What a great idea!
What a wonderful idea! Thank you for the idea! Also thank you for giving details on planting and the amendments!